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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of The Missions Of The American
+Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I., by Rufus Anderson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I.
+
+Author: Rufus Anderson
+
+Release Date: July 28, 2006 [EBook #18930]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE MISSIONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bechard (JaBBechard@aol.com)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY
+OF
+THE MISSIONS
+OF THE
+AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS
+TO THE
+ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
+
+BY RUFUS ANDERSON, D.D., LL.D.,
+LATE FOREIGN SECRETARY OF THE BOARD.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+VOL. I.
+
+BOSTON:
+CONGREGATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY.
+1872.
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
+THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS,
+in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
+
+RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
+STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Missions to the Oriental Churches occupy a large space in the
+forty-nine volumes of the Missionary Herald, and in as many Annual
+Reports of the Board; and in view of the multitude of facts, from
+which selections must be made to do justice to the several missions,
+it will readily be seen, that their history cannot be compressed
+into a single volume. The Missions may be regarded as seven or eight
+in number; considering the Palestine and Syria missions as really
+but one, and the several Armenian missions as also one. The history
+of the Syria mission, in its connection with the American Board,
+covers a period of fifty-one years; that of the Nestorian,
+thirty-seven; that of the Greek mission, forty-three; of the
+Assyrian (as a separate mission), ten; of the Armenian mission, to
+the present time, forty; and of the Bulgarian, twelve. The mission
+to the Jews, extending through thirty years, was so intimately
+connected with these, as to demand a place in the series; and the
+facts scattered through half a century, illustrating the influence
+exerted on the Mohammedans, are such as to require a separate
+embodiment.
+
+In writing the history, one of three methods was to be adopted;
+either to embrace all the missions in one continuous narrative; or
+to carry forward the narrative of each mission, separately and
+continuously, through its entire period; or, rejecting both these
+plans, to keep the narratives of the several missions distinct, but,
+by suitable alternations from one to another, to secure for the
+whole the substantial advantages of a contemporaneous history. The
+first could not be done satisfactorily, so long as the several
+missions have a separate existence in the minds of so many readers,
+and while so many feel a strong personal interest in what is said or
+omitted. Even on the plan adopted, so much must necessarily be
+omitted, or stated very briefly, as to endanger a feeling, that
+injustice has been done to some excellent missionaries. As for the
+second, the author had not the courage to undertake consecutive
+journeys through so many long periods; and he believed not a few of
+his readers would sympathize with him. If, however, any desire to
+read the history of any one mission through in course, the table of
+contents will make that easy. Each of the histories is complete, so
+far as it goes.
+
+No attempt has been made to write a philosophical history of
+missions. The book of the Acts of the Apostles is not such a
+history, nor has one yet been written. The time has not come for
+that. There are not the necessary materials. The directors of
+missions, and missionaries themselves, have not yet come to a full
+practical agreement as to the principles that underlie the working
+of missions, nor as to the results to be accomplished by them; and
+it must be left to competent writers in the future,--when the whole
+subject shall be more generally and better understood,--after
+patiently examining the proceedings of missionary societies in
+America, England, Scotland, and Germany, to state and apply the
+principles that may be thus evolved. The most that can now be done,
+is to record the facts in their natural connections, together with
+the more obvious teachings of experience. If the author has been
+successful in doing this, his end is gained.
+
+In the present state of religious opinion respecting divine
+Providence among a portion of the reading community, it may be
+proper to state the author's strong conviction, that the promise of
+the Lord Jesus, to be with his missionaries, pledges the divine
+interposition in their behalf; and that "whoso is wise, and will
+observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness
+of the Lord." In the work of missions, "God is our refuge and
+strength, a very present help in trouble." The history before us
+often presents cases, in which there is no more reason to doubt the
+divine agency, than the human; and no intelligent missionary would
+labor hopefully and cheerfully, after becoming a disbeliever in a
+particular providence.
+
+Nearly all the early laborers in the fields here presented, have
+finished their work on earth. Parsons and Fisk were the only ones,
+with whom the writer had not a personal acquaintance. Of not a few
+others,--and of some who, like himself, still linger here,--he has
+many pleasant personal recollections that sweeten anticipations of
+the heavenly world. He is thankful in being allowed to commemorate
+their labors and virtues, and only regrets the want of space and
+ability to do it better. His constant endeavor has been to present
+the missions to the reader as their imprint is left on his own mind.
+More biographical notices would have been gladly inserted, had there
+been room. The details of persecution are sufficient to furnish
+glimpses of the severe ordeal, through which it has pleased the Head
+of the Church to bring the infant churches of those fields.
+
+The Syria and Nestorian missions passed under the direction of the
+Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in the year 1870, and our
+history of them closes at that time. Up to that date, the
+Congregational and New School Presbyterian Churches (the Old School
+Presbyterians also up to the year 1837, and the Reformed Dutch
+Church for many years) sustained an equal relation to all these
+missions. The mission to the Jews in Turkey was relinquished in
+1856, out of regard to Scotch and English brethren, who had
+undertaken to cultivate that field. The communities in Turkey among
+whom our missionaries now labor, are the Armenians, Greeks,
+Bulgarians, Mohammedans, and the Arabic-speaking Christians of
+Eastern Turkey.
+
+The Board has ever acted on the belief, that its labors should not
+be restricted to pagan nations.1 The word "heathen" in the preamble
+of its charter, is descriptive and not restrictive. It is not in the
+Constitution of the Board, which was adopted at its first meeting
+only a few weeks after its organization. The second article of the
+Constitution declares it to be the object of the Board, "to devise,
+adopt, and prosecute ways and means for propagating the Gospel among
+those who are destitute of the knowledge of Christianity." This of
+course includes Mohammedans and Jews; and those who carefully
+consider the statements embodied in the Introduction to the History,
+will see that it embraces, also, the Oriental Churches, as they were
+fifty years ago.
+
+1 These remarks were suggested by a speech at the Annual Meeting of
+the Board in Salem, by the Rev. S. B. Treat, Home Secretary of the
+Board.
+
+In November, 1812, the year in which the first missionaries sailed
+for Calcutta, a committee, appointed by the Board to appeal to its
+constituency, used this emphatic language: "It is worthy of
+consideration, that the Board is not confined in its operations to
+any part of the world, but may direct its attention to Africa, North
+or South America, or the Isles of the Sea, as well as to Asia." At
+the Annual Meeting in 1813, it was voted: "That the Prudential
+Committee be directed to make inquiry respecting the settlement of a
+mission at San Salvador, in Brazil, at Port Louis, in the Isle of
+France, or on the island of Madagascar." In the latter part of 1818,
+it was resolved to commence a mission in Western Asia. The
+Prudential Committee said, in their Report for 1819: "In Palestine,
+Syria, the provinces of Asia Minor, Armenia, Georgia, and Persia,
+though Mohammedan countries, there are many thousands of Jews, and
+many thousands of Christians, at least in name. But the whole
+mingled population is in a state of deplorable ignorance and
+degradation,--destitute of the means of divine knowledge, and
+bewildered with vain imaginations and strong delusions." In that
+year Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons embarked for this field.
+
+This historical review makes it clear, that those who organized the
+Board and directed its early labors, regarded not only Pagans, but
+Mohammedans, Jews, and nominal Christians, as within the sphere of
+its labors; and such has been the practical construction for nearly
+sixty years.
+
+The reader is referred to the close of the second volume for an
+Index; also, for a detailed statement of the Publications issued by
+the several missions, which must impress any one with the amount,
+value, and influence of the intellectual labor there embodied. Had
+these statements been given at length in the History, they would
+have embarrassed its progress. A list is also appended of the
+Missionaries, male and female, giving the time during which they
+were severally connected with the missions.
+
+Thankful acknowledgments are due to the Rev. Thomas Laurie, D.D.,
+the writer of a number of valuable and popular works, and to the
+Rev. Isaac R. Worcester, well known as the Editor of the Missionary
+Herald, for their kind and careful revision of the work.
+
+This History of the Missions of the Board to the Oriental Churches,
+is respectfully dedicated to the friends of those missions; and the
+author, who has no pecuniary interest in the work, will be amply
+rewarded, should he be regarded as having given a true and faithful
+account of the agency of the Board in the Republication of the
+Gospel in Bible Lands.
+
+Boston, 1872.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+MISSIONS TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+CHAPTER I. PALESTINE.--1819-1824.
+
+The First Missionaries.--Their Instructions.--Reception by other
+Missionaries.--The Seven Churches.--Temporary Separation.--Mr.
+Parsons at Jerusalem.--Disturbing Influence from the Greek
+Revolution.--Returns to Smyrna.--Their Voyage to Alexandria.--Death
+and Character of Mr. Parsons.--Mr. Fisk goes to Malta.--Printing
+Establishment.--Rev. Jonas King becomes Mr. Fisk's Associate.--Rev.
+Joseph Wolff.--The Missionaries in Egypt.--Crossing the Desert.--At
+Jerusalem.--Beirūt and Lebanon.--The Emir Beshir.--An interesting
+Convocation.--Journals and Labors.--Jerusalem revisited.--Arrest of
+Messrs. Fisk and Bird.--Visit to Hebron.--Sale of Scriptures.
+--Return to Beirūt.--Communion of Saints.--Journey to Damascus and
+Aleppo.
+
+CHAPTER II. PALESTINE.--1824-1843.
+
+Proclamation of the Grand Seignior.--Jerusalem again visited.
+--Absurd Reports.--Disturbed State of the Country.--Mr. King's
+Farewell Letter.--He visits Smyrna and Constantinople.
+--Contributions in France and England.--Agency among the Churches.
+--Sickness and Death of Mr. Fisk.--His Character.--Jerusalem
+reoccupied.--Danger to the Mission Families.--Death of Mrs.
+Thomson.--New Missionaries.--Death of Dr. Dodge.--The Cholera.
+--Station at Jerusalem suspended.--Opinion of Dr. Hawes.--Burying
+Ground on Mount Zion.
+
+CHAPTER III. SYRIA.--1823-1828.
+
+Origin of the Mission to Syria.--Beirūt.--Studies of the
+Missionaries.--Native Helpers.--Papal Opposition.--Hopeful View.
+--Education.--First Acquaintance with Asaad Shidiak.--Greek
+Invasion.--Providential Interposition.--Pious Natives.--Dionysius at
+Jerusalem.--A Prayer-meeting.--The Mission Church.--Works in the
+Native Languages.--Persecution of Mr. Bird.--Apprehension of War.
+--Suspension of the Mission.--Parting Scene.
+
+CHAPTER IV. SYRIA.--THE MARTYR OF LEBANON.--1826-1830.
+
+Significance of the Narrative.--Early History of Asaad.--Becomes
+known to the Missionaries.--Employed by Mr. King.--Prepares an
+Answer to Mr. King's "Farewell Letter."--His Conversion.--Employed
+by the Mission.--Stands on Protestant Ground.--His Constitutional
+Weakness.--Puts Himself in the Patriarch's Power.--His Boldness.
+--His Escape.--His Account of his Experiences.--First Effort to
+Recapture him.--Second and successful Effort.--Is taken to the
+Patriarch.--Imprisoned and in Chains.--The Family relent.--Barbarous
+Treatment.--Increased Cruelty.--Time and Manner of his Death.--A
+Martyr.--Exploration by an English Merchant.--Remarks on the
+Narrative.
+
+CHAPTER V. THE PRESS AT MALTA.--1822-1833.
+
+Why at Malta.--Successful Publications.--Publication of the
+Armeno-Turkish New Testament.--Extent of the Publications.--Singular
+Use of Alphabets and Languages.--Preaching at Malta.--Missionary
+Fellowship.--The Press removed to Smyrna.
+
+CHAPTER VI. PRELIMINARY EXPLORATIONS.--1828-1831.
+
+Need of Information.--The Author's Visit to the Mediterranean.
+--Results of Malta Conferences.--Explorers of Armenia.--Preparations
+for the Tour.--The Route.--Sojourn at Shoosha.--German Colonies.
+--Sufferings from Illness.--Kindness of the English Embassy in
+Persia.--The Nestorians of Former Ages.--How Attention was first
+drawn to the Nestorians.--A Week among the Nestorians.--The
+Published Researches.--Religious Condition of the Armenians.
+
+CHAPTER VII. THE ARMENIANS.--1827-1835.
+
+Effect of Mr. King's "Farewell Letter."--School of Peshtimaljian.
+--Its Influence on the Priesthood.--The Erasmus of the Armenians.--A
+Preparedness for Reformation.--Commencement of the Mission.
+--Splendid Scenery.--Destructive Conflagration.--Schools for the
+Greeks.--The Armenian Patriarch.--Accessions to the Mission.--Outset
+of the Mission characterized.--Unexpected Obstacles.--Remarkable
+Converts.--Removal of the Press.--Supply of School-books.--High
+School.--New Missionaries.--New Stations.
+
+CHAPTER VIII. THE ARMENIANS.--1836-1840.
+
+Trebizond.--Favoring Circumstances.--Improvement in the Publishing
+Department.--Progressive Civilization among the Turks.--Papal
+Opposition.--Signs of Progress.--Education of Women.--Active
+Usefulness of Der Kevoork.--Death of Peshtimaljian.--Deaths by the
+Plague.--Missionary Convocation.--Remarkable Occurrence.--Serope at
+Broosa.--Vertanes and Haritūn.--Year of Persecution.--Causes of the
+Persecution.--The Sultan enlisted.--Deposition of the Patriarch
+Stepan.--Banishment of Hohannes.--Zeal of the Persecutors.
+--Coöperation of the Greek Synod.--An Imperial Firman.--Efforts to
+Expel the Missionaries.--Divine Providence effectually interposes.
+--The Power of the Persecution broken.--Hohannes recalled.--The
+Persecutors brought low.--Stepan restored to Office.
+
+CHAPTER IX. THE ARMENIANS.--1840-1844.
+
+Pledges of the New Sultan.--Boarding School at Bebek.--Station
+commenced at Erzroom.--Interest at Nicomedia.--The Gospel introduced
+into Adabazar.--Danger from the Papacy.--Favorable Reaction.--New
+Missionaries.--Publications.--Scripture Translations.--Education.
+--Signs of Progress.--Visit of Vertanes to Nicomedia.--Awakening at
+Adabazar.--New Missionaries.--An Anxious Sinner seeking Rest.
+--Unexpected Opposition.--Hohannes goes to the United States.--A
+Native Mission.--Prayer Meetings.--Publications.--Preaching to
+Women.--A Turkish Execution.--Efforts of Sir Stratford Canning.--A
+Second Execution.--The Ambassador's Demand on the Sultan.--The Death
+Penalty no more to be Inflicted.--Importance of the Pledge.
+--Sufferings from Persecution.--Changes in the Mission.--Case of Mr.
+Temple.--Death of Mrs. Van Lennep.
+
+CHAPTER X. GREECE AND THE GREEKS.--1824-1844.
+
+The Greek Mind as affected by Circumstances.--Death of Mr. Gridley.
+--Education of Greek Youth.--Result of Experience.--Marriage of Mr.
+King.--His School in Poros.--He removes to Athens.--Change in the
+Government.--A New Missionary.--High Schools.--Station at Argos.
+--Power of the Hierarchy.--Free Circulation of the New Testament.
+--Opposition to the Old Testament.--Intrigues against the Mission.
+--Success notwithstanding.--Station on Scio.--Argos relinquished.
+--Removal from Scio to Ariopolis.--Serious Embarrassments.--Death of
+Mrs. Houston.--Religious Toleration and Political Parties.--Growth
+of Intolerance.--The Station abandoned.--The Retiring Missionaries.
+--Station among the Greeks of Cyprus.--Explorations.--Ignorance of
+the People.--Insalubrious Climate.--Friendly Disposition of the
+People.--Death of Mr. Pease.--Relinquishment of the Station.--Athens
+the only Station retained in Greece.--Preaching and the Press.
+--Labors among the Greeks of Turkey.--Why in great measure
+Discontinued.--Valuable Results.
+
+CHAPTER XI. THE NESTORIANS.--1833-1836.
+
+Commencement of the Mission.--Instructions to the Missionary.--Rise
+of the Nestorians.--Their Missions.--Destroyed by the Mohammedans.
+--The Overland Journey of Mr. and Mrs. Perkins.--Hardships endured
+in Russia.--Kindness of the British Embassy in Persia.--Remarkable
+Escape.--Friends in Need.--The Field to be Occupied.--Preliminary
+Measures.--Additional Laborers.--The Province of Oroomiah.--Dr.
+Grant's Medical Practice.--Recollections of Dr. Grant.--When a
+Missionary Physician is most valuable.--A Nestorian Wedding.
+--Reducing the Language to Writing.--Rise of the Seminary for
+Males.--School for Moslem Youths.--Sickness in the Mission.
+
+CHAPTER XII. THE NESTORIANS.--1836-1840.
+
+Escape from Assassination.--New Missionaries.--First Impressions.
+--Too much Pecuniary Aid given to the People.--Native Helpers.
+--Eminent Qualities of Mrs. Grant.--She commences the Female
+Seminary.--Her Death.--Priest Dunka.--Robert Glen.--Schools.
+--Scarcity of Scriptures in Ancient Syriac.--Dr. Grant's Desire to
+enter Koordistan from the East.--Authorized to enter from the West.
+--An Arduous Journey.--Battle of Nizib.--Consequent Anarchy at
+Diarbekir.--Mr. Homes.--Dr. Grant goes to Mosul.--Starts for
+Koordistan.--Is challenged from the Rocks.--Welcomed by the
+Mountaineers.--Boldly enters Tiary.--Pleasing Meditations.--His
+Reception there.--A Learned Priest.--How Received by Mar Shimon.
+--The Patriarch described.--Old Parchment Copy of the New
+Testament.--Visits Nūrūllah Bey.--His return to Oroomiah.--New
+Missionaries.--Arrival of Press and Type.--Bold Inroad of Jesuits.
+--Counteractive Influences.--Demand for Preaching.--What was the
+Calamity of the Nestorians.
+
+CHAPTER XIII. THE MOUNTAIN NESTORIANS.--1840-1844.
+
+Invitations from the Patriarch.--Dr. Grant resolves to return Home
+through the Mountains.--Ten Days at Julamerk.--Womanly Forethought.
+--Arrival at Boston.--Work on the Ten Tribes of Israel.
+--Missionaries for Koordistan.--Dr. Grant returns through Van.
+--Again with the Patriarch.--Painful Tidings.--Hastens to Mosul.
+--Journey of the New Missionaries.--Death of Mr. Mitchell.
+--Sufferings and Death of Mrs. Mitchell.--Seasonable Arrival of Dr.
+Grant.--Reflections.--Reception by the Jacobites.--A Syrian Priest
+from India.--The Koords making War on the Nestorians.--Bishop
+Athanasius.--Dr. Grant again visits Oroomiah.--A Third Time enters
+the Mountains.--Guest of Mar Shimon.--The Patriarch's Coöperation.
+--Mr. Hinsdale.--Papal Missionaries.--Dr. Grant visits Nūrūllah
+Bey.--Returns to Mosul.--Death of Mr. Hinsdale.--Influence of Mr.
+Ainsworth and Mr. Badger on the Patriarch.--Letter from Mar Shimon
+to English Bishops.--Dr. Grant's Last Visit with Mr. Laurie to the
+Patriarch.--Visits Bader Khan Bey.--Subjugation of the Mountain
+Nestorians.--Escape of Dr. Grant.--Destruction of Tiary.--The
+Patriarch flees to Mosul.--Destruction of Life.--Death of Mrs.
+Laurie.--Arrival of Dr. Azariah Smith.--Death of Dr. Grant.
+--Reflections on his Life and Character.--Tiary again explored.
+--Discontinuance of the Western Branch of the Mission.--Disposal of
+the Missionaries.
+
+CHAPTER XIV. SYRIA.--1830-1838.
+
+The Station at Beirūt resumed.--Gregory Wortabet.--His Conversion.
+--Accompanies the Missionaries to Malta.--Returns to Syria.--Active
+in the Christian Life.--Respected by all Classes.--His Death.
+--Disturbing Influences.--Conquest of Syria by Ibrahim Pasha.--Mr.
+Bird's Letters in the Arabic Language.--Arabic Press at Beirūt.
+--Explorations in the Hauran.--Journal of the Tour lost in a
+Shipwreck.--Presses in Syria.--Influence of the Mission.--National
+Protection.--Schools.--Retirement of Mr. and Mrs. Bird.--Accessions
+to the Mission.--Improvements in the High School.--Great
+Improvements in Arabic Type.--Death of Mrs. Smith.--Biblical
+Researches.
+
+CHAPTER XV. THE DRUZES, AND THE WARS OF LEBANON.--1835-1842.
+
+The Druzes.--Hope of introducing the Gospel among them.--Disposition
+to Hear.--Their Leading Motive.--Subdued by Ibrahim Pasha.
+--Increased Tendency towards a Nominal Christianity.--A Hopeful
+Druze Convert.--His Firmness under Persecution.--Admitted to the
+Church.--Striking Illustration of an Apparent Religious Interest.
+--Papal Opposition and its Effect.--Treatment of Papal Druzes.
+--Causes of Declining Interest.--Changes in the Mission.--Evidence
+of Progress.--Connection between Religious and Political Events.
+--Consequent Warlike Proceedings.--Remarkable Preservation of
+Mission Property.--The persecuting Emir Beshir deposed.--Changes in
+the Seminary.--The Mission Reassembled.--Inroad of French Jesuits.
+--Mistaken Policy of English Officials.--The Patriarch's Effort to
+expel the Americans.--English Officers better informed.--Mistake of
+the American Minister.--Renewed Interest among the Druzes.--Proffer
+of Friendly Aid.--An Unfortunate Interposition.--The Patriarch makes
+War to his own Ruin.--Deliverance of the Mission.--Its Favorable
+Prospects.--The Success of the Mission proportioned to its Efforts.
+--Value of the Results.--A Sudden and Disastrous Revolution.
+
+CHAPTER XVI. SYRIA.--1842-1846.
+
+Experiences of the Mission.--Missionary Convention.--The People all
+of one Race.--The most Hopeful Districts.--When to form Churches.
+--Qualifications for Church membership not to be relaxed.--Practical
+Errors.--Counteracting Agencies.--Call for Preaching at Hasbeiya.--A
+Secession from the Greek Church.--Attention given to the Gospel.
+--Needed Explanations.--Affecting Scene.--Arrival of Persecutors.
+--Seasonable Intervention.--The Protestants obliged to flee.--Their
+Return.--Interference of the Russian Consul General.--Partial
+Success of the Enemy.--The Jerusalem Station suspended.--The
+Seminary revived.--Death of Yakob Agha.--Another War between Druzes
+and Maronites.--Its Results.--Friendly Services of the
+Missionaries.--Reflections on the Patriarch's Death.--After the War.
+
+CHAPTER XVII. DR. JONAS KING AND THE GREEK HIERARCHY.--1845-1847.
+
+Importance of this Struggle.--The Accusations against Dr. King.--His
+Response.--Increased Violence of the Opposition.--His Examination by
+a Judge.--His Book denounced at Constantinople.--The Courts against
+him.--Goes to the Criminal Court at Syra.--A Dangerous Gathering.
+--Returns to Athens.--Is offered British Protection.--Again cited
+for Trial at Syra.--The Citation recalled.--Alleviations.--Renewal
+of the Storm.--Extraordinary Accusations.--Call from the Governor of
+Attica.--A Guard of Soldiers.--Advice from the King.--Offer of Sir
+Edmund Lyons.--Retires to Geneva.--More Slanderous Accusations.--His
+House protected.--Subsequent Proceedings of the Government.--Goes to
+Malta.--Editions of his "Farewell Letter."
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. DR. JONAS KING AND THE GREEK HIERARCHY.--1847-1869.
+
+Returns to Athens.--His Reasons.--The Reception.--Resumes his
+Labors.--His Chief Accuser discredited.--Cheering Incident.--The
+Greek Synod demands his Prosecution.--An Outbreak.--Quelled by
+raising the United States Flag.--Answers to a Judge.--Effect of a
+New Publication.--Allegations for a New Trial.--The Trial at
+Athens.--Decides to go to the Court-room openly and on foot.
+--Extraordinary Sources of Proof.--His Condemnation.--Ground of the
+Condemnation.--Is imprisoned.--Appeals to the Areopagus.--Which
+confirms the Sentence.--Greek Lawyers dissent from the Courts.
+--Appeal to the United States Government.--The Rights of
+Missionaries.--The Appeal responded to.--Opinion of the President.
+--Justice partially rendered.--Sentence of Banishment revoked.
+--Opinion of the American Minister.--Favorable Change in the Popular
+Sentiment.--Temporary Outbreak of the Old Enmity.--Unexpected
+Citation.--The Judges decide not to proceed.--Coöperation of other
+Missionaries.--A Revolution in the Government.--Disgrace of Old
+Persecutors.--New King and Constitution.--Association of Editors.
+--An Act of Public Justice.--Visit to the United States.--Return to
+Greece.--Zealous Native Labors.--Conference with the President of
+the Synod.--Death of Dr. King.--General Reflections.
+
+CHAPTER XIX. THE NESTORIANS.--1841-1848.
+
+Visit of Dr. and Mrs. Perkins to the United States.--Accompanied by
+Mar Yohannan.--Schools and the Press.--Improved Type.--Health
+Station.--New Missionaries.--Dr. Perkins's History of the Mission.
+--His Return.--Version of the Scriptures.--Religious Influences.
+--The Jesuits and French Government.--Counteracting Influences.--The
+Patriarchal Family.--Hostility of the Patriarch.--Dismission of the
+Schools.--Female Seminary revived.--Boys' Seminary reorganized.--On
+employing the Higher Clergy.--Mr. Merrick's Connection with the
+Mission.--Ordinations.--Protection for Native Christians.--The First
+Revival.--Its First Fruits.--Brother of the Patriarch.--Interest at
+Geog Tapa.--Interest in the Boys' Seminary.--Estimated Number of
+Converts.--Modern Syriac New Testament.--Translation of the Old
+Testament.--Nestorian Hymn Book.--New Missionaries.--Devastation by
+the Cholera.--Dr. Wright's Visit to Bader Khan Bey.--Wonderful
+Change in the Mountains.--Homeward Route.--Mar Shimon invited to
+Constantinople.--Flees to Oroomiah.--Conflicting Influences upon
+him.--His Apparent Friendship.--Throws off the Mask.--His Power
+circumscribed.--His Unfriendly Acts.--The Government interposes.
+--His Combination with the Jesuits.--Prejudicial to Both.--Death of
+the King.--Providential Interpositions.--Persecution of Deacon
+Tamo.--Deposition of the Great Koordish Chieftains.
+
+CHAPTER XX. THE NESTORIANS.--1848-1852.
+
+Mr. Stoddard Visits the United States.--Death of Mrs. Stoddard.
+--State of the Schools.--Mar Shimon returns to the Mountains.--A
+Visit to Mosul.--A Second Revival.--Deacon Guwergis.--Third
+Revival.--Deacon John.--Deacon Jeremiah.--Various Tours.--The
+Mission Enlarged.--Advance in Female Education.--Village Schools.
+--Sabbath-schools.--The Monthly Concert.--Preaching Tours.--Deacon
+Isaac.--Station at Gawar.--A Remarkable Youth.--Adverse Influences.
+--Persecution of Deacon Tamo.--Intervention of Lieut.-Col.
+Williams.--Powerful Friends.--Release of Tamo.--Favorable Results.
+--Modern Syriac Bible.
+
+CHAPTER XXI. SYRIA.--1845-1856.
+
+Good News from the North.--Mr. Thomson Visits Aleppo.--The People
+characterized.--Greek Catholic Archbishop.--Visit to Hasbeiya.--Mr.
+Laurie's Return Home.--Unsuccessful Appeal for Laborers.--Relation
+of the Druzes to Mohammedanism.--Successful Appeal of the Hasbeiyans
+to the Turkish Government.--Desperate Resort of the Greek
+Patriarch.--Formation of a Purely Native Church.--Translation of the
+Scriptures into the Arabic.--Station of Aleppo.--Visit to Northern
+Lebanon.--Death of Bedros.--Intelligent Men affected by the Truth.
+--Another Visit to Hasbeiya.--English Protection.--Seminary at
+Abeih.--Improved Arabic Type.--The Native Church.--Outrages at
+Aleppo.--Effect of the Proceedings.--Pupils in the Seminary.--The
+Church at Hasbeiya.--John Wortabet.--Drs. Bacon and Robinson.
+--Female Boarding School.--Native Church at Abeih.--Experience in
+Different Localities.--An Interesting Conversion.--Hopeful
+Developments.--Opposition and its Effect.--A Church built at
+Hasbeiya.--Progress of the Arabic Translation of the Scriptures.
+--The Gospel at Ain Zehalty.--Northern Syria transferred to the
+Armenian Mission.--Accessions and Bereavements.--General View.
+
+CHAPTER XXII. THE ARMENIANS.--1845-1846.
+
+The Grand Crisis.--The Persecuting Patriarch.--Mention of Bishop
+Southgate.--The Patriarch's Mode of Proceeding.--His Treatment of
+Bedros Vartabed.--Priest Vertanes.--The Chief Persecutors.
+--Persecution at Erzroom.--Its Effect.--Central Position of
+Erzroom.--Progress at Trebizond.--Persecutions.--The Patriarch
+resorts to Excommunication.--Temporal Penalties enforced.--The
+Patriarch and the First Protestant Pastor.--Appeals of the
+Persecuted.--Charitable Aid.--Good Resulting from Evil.
+--Intervention of the Government.--The Patriarch's Subterfuge.--Case
+of Priest Haritūn.--A Temporary Triumph.--Cruelties at Adabazar and
+Trebizond.--A British Consul interposes.--Effect of the
+Persecutions.--Barbarities at Erzroom.
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. THE ARMENIANS.--1846-1848.
+
+Continued Persecutions.--Interposition of the English Ambassador.
+--Designation of "Protestants."--A Vizierial Letter.--The
+Patriarch's Hostility to the Seminary.--Its Effect.--Seminary for
+Young Ladies.--Perpetual Excommunication of the Protestants.
+--Consequent Organization of an Evangelical Church at
+Constantinople.--Choice of Officers.--Ordination of a Pastor.
+--Public Declaration of Faith.--Other Churches formed.--Early Death
+of the Pastor.--The Pastor's Wife.--Der Haritūn.--Reformation at
+Aintab.--Visit of Mr. Van Lennep.--Visit of Mr. Johnston.--Arrival
+of Dr. Azariah Smith.--Mr. Schneider's Visit.--Trying Situation of
+the Protestants.--Power of the Patriarch reduced.--Number of the
+Protestants.--The Churches.--Additional Native Pastors.--Revivals of
+Religion.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+We may not hope for the conversion of the Mohammedans, unless true
+Christianity be exemplified before them by the Oriental Churches. To
+them the native Christians represent the Christian religion, and
+they see that these are no better than themselves. They think them
+worse; and therefore the Moslem believes the Koran to be more
+excellent than the Bible.
+
+It is vain to say, that the native Christians have so far departed
+from the truth that they do not feel the power of the Gospel, and
+that therefore the immorality of their lives is not to be attributed
+to its influence. The Mohammedan has seen no other effect of it, and
+he cannot be persuaded to read the Bible to correct the evidence of
+his observation, and perhaps also of his own painful experience.
+
+Hence a wise plan for the conversion of the Mohammedans of Western
+Asia necessarily involved, first, a mission to the Oriental
+Churches. It was needful that the lights of the Gospel should once
+more burn on those candlesticks, that everywhere there should be
+living examples of the religion of Jesus Christ, that Christianity
+should no longer be associated in the Moslem mind with all that is
+sordid and base.
+
+The continued existence of large bodies of nominal Christians among
+these Mohammedans, is a remarkable fact. They constitute more than a
+third part of the population of Constantinople, and are found in all
+the provinces of the empire, as, also, in Persia, and are supposed
+to number at least twelve millions. Being so numerous and so widely
+dispersed, should spiritual life be revived among them a flood of
+light would illumine the Turkish empire, and shine far up into
+Central Asia. The followers of Mohammed would look on with wonder,
+and perhaps, at first, with hatred and persecution; but new views of
+the Gospel would thus be forced upon them, and no longer would they
+be able to boast of the superiority of their own religion.
+
+It is true of the Oriental Churches, that they have lost nearly all
+the essential principles of the Gospel; at least that those
+principles have, in great measure, ceased to have a practical
+influence.1 Their views of the Trinity, and of the divine and human
+natures of Christ, are not unscriptural; but their views of the way
+of salvation through the Son, and of the work of the Holy Spirit,
+are sadly perverted. The efficacy of Christ's death for the pardon
+of sin, is secured to the sinner, they suppose, by baptism and
+penance. The belief is universal, that baptism cancels guilt, and is
+regeneration. They also believe baptism to be the instrumental cause
+of justification. Hence faith is practically regarded as no more
+than a general assent of the understanding to the creeds of their
+churches. Of the doctrine of a justifying faith of the heart,--the
+distinguishing doctrine of the Gospel,--the people of the Oriental
+Churches are believed to have been wholly ignorant, before the
+arrival of Protestant missionaries among them.
+
+1 This brief description of the religion of the Oriental Churches,
+is condensed from a statement by that eminent missionary, Dr. Eli
+Smith, in a sermon published in 1833, but now accessible to very
+few. I often use his words, as best adapted to convey the true idea.
+Subsequent observations, so far as I know, have never called for any
+modification in his statement.
+
+Being thus freed from the condemning power of original sin, and
+regenerated by baptism, men were expected to work their way to
+heaven by observing the laws of God and the rites of the church.
+These rites were fasting, masses, saying of prayers, pilgrimages,
+and the like, and in practice crowded the moral law out of mind. The
+race of merit was hindered by daily sins, but not stopped, provided
+the sins were of a class denominated venial. These could be canceled
+by the rites of the church, the most important of which was the
+mass, or the consecration and oblation of the elements of the Lord's
+Supper. That ordinance is to be observed in remembrance of Christ,
+but the people of the Oriental Churches are taught to look upon it
+as a renewal of his death. On the priest's pronouncing the words,
+"This is my body," the elements are believed to be changed from
+bread and wine, and thenceforth to contain the body and blood, the
+soul and divinity, of Christ; so that He is crucified afresh, and
+made an expiatory sacrifice for sin, every time the consecration is
+performed; which, in most churches, is almost every morning in the
+year. Its merit attaches not only to the offerer and the partaker,
+but to all the faithful, living and dead; especially to those who,
+by paying the priest, or by some other service, have their names
+mentioned in the prayers that form a part of the ceremony.
+
+Thus a ministry to offer sacrifices is substituted for a ministry to
+feed the flock of God with sound doctrine, and the spiritual worship
+of God is converted into the formal adoration of a wafer. Preaching
+is nowhere regarded as the leading duty of the clergy, but to say
+mass. By exalting the eucharist into an expiatory sacrifice, the
+partaking of the elements by the people came to be considered quite
+unessential, and is generally neglected. They need not understand,
+nor even hear the language of the officiating priest. It is enough,
+if they see and adore. A bell warns them when to make the needful
+genuflections and crosses. Nor can there be a reasonable doubt, that
+the adoration of the host (which is required on pain of
+excommunication in the Romish Church) is the grossest species of
+idolatry.
+
+But there are deadly, as well as venial, sins; and these expose the
+soul to eternal punishment. When these are committed after baptism,
+they can be remitted only by auricular confession, or the sacrifice
+of penance, of which confession forms an essential part. To the
+efficacy of this ceremony, contrition of heart is supposed, in
+theory, to be essential; but its necessity is rarely taught, and the
+great mass of the community go away from the confessional fully
+satisfied that their sins are canceled by the mere external form.
+
+Pardon by the priest is not, however, absolute. Grace is restored,
+and eternal punishment remitted, but there must be a temporary
+punishment,--certain penances, such as fasting, alms-giving, saying
+prayers, and the like. The fasts are merely the substituting of a
+less for a more palatable and nutritious diet. Alms are more for the
+spiritual benefit of the giver, than for the relief of the receiver.
+The supposed efficacy of prayer has no connection with the sincerity
+of the offerer. For in none of the Oriental Churches, excepting the
+Arabic branch of the Greek Church, are the prayers in a language
+understood by the people.
+
+They believe that all who die before baptism, or after baptism with
+deadly sins unconfessed, are lost forever; but if one die after
+confession, and while his penance is incomplete, he cannot be sent
+to hell, neither is he prepared for heaven. He must first complete
+his penance in a temporary state of misery. This state the papists
+call purgatory; and though the other churches reject the name, they
+cleave tenaciously to the thing. As all believe that the sufferings
+of the departed may be shortened by the merit of good works
+performed by surviving relatives and imputed to them, prayers for
+the dead are frequent in churches and over graves, and masses are
+celebrated in their name.
+
+Though the Nestorians renounced auricular confession, they no more
+looked to the redemption of Christ for pardon, than did their
+neighbors, and they knew of no other regeneration than baptism.
+
+There is no need of entering here on the practical influence of such
+a religion on the lives of the people. That will appear in the
+progress of our history. Enough has been said to justify the
+American churches in laboring to restore to the degenerate churches
+of the East the Gospel they had lost, especially as an indispensable
+means of Christianizing the Moslems of Turkey and Persia.
+
+The Oriental communities within the range of this history, are the
+following:--
+
+The GREEKS;
+The ARMENIANS;
+The NESTORIANS;
+The JACOBITES;
+The BULGARIANS;
+The ROMAN CATHOLICS OF TURKEY;
+The JEWS OF TURKEY; and
+The MOHAMMEDANS.
+
+The Missions are as follows:--
+
+The PALESTINE Mission;
+The SYRIA Mission;
+The GREEK Mission;
+The ARMENIAN Mission;
+The NESTORIAN Mission;
+The ASSYRIAN Mission;
+The MISSION TO THE JEWS; and that to
+The MOHAMMEDANS.
+
+
+MISSIONS TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+PALESTINE.
+
+1819--1824.
+
+
+American missions in Bible lands, like their apostolic predecessors,
+had a beginning at Jerusalem. The first missionaries from this
+country to the Oriental Churches were Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons.
+On the 23d of September, 1818, they were appointed to labor in
+Palestine. But as, at that early period, there was special need of
+making the churches acquainted with the work, and foreign
+missionaries were less common than now, they were detained to labor
+at home until November of the following year, when they embarked at
+Boston for Smyrna, in the ship _Sally Ann_, Captain Edes. They were
+both interesting men, and the impressive public services connected
+with their departure were long remembered in Boston. A single
+extract from the official instructions of Dr. Worcester, the
+Corresponding Secretary of the Board, will give at once a glimpse of
+that remarkable man, and a view of the object of the mission.
+
+"From the heights of the Holy Land, and from Zion, you will take an
+extended view of the wide-spread desolations and variegated scenes
+presenting themselves on every side to Christian sensibility; and
+will survey with earnest attention the various tribes and classes
+who dwell in that land, and in the surrounding countries. The two
+grand inquiries ever present to your minds will be, WHAT GOOD CAN BE
+DONE? and BY WHAT MEANS? What can be done for Jews? What for Pagans?
+What for Mohammedans? What for Christians? What for the people in
+Palestine? What for those in Egypt, in Syria, in Persia, in Armenia,
+in other countries to which your inquiries may be extended?"
+
+The vessel touched at Malta, thus giving opportunity, so far as the
+quarantines of those times would allow, for personal intercourse
+with the Rev. William Jowett, of the Church Missionary Society, and
+afterwards one of its secretaries. He received his American brethren
+in that catholic spirit, which has ever characterized that society
+and its agents, and gave them all the aid in his power. They also
+received kindness from the Rev. Mr. Wilson, of the London Missionary
+Society, then resident in Malta, and from Dr. Naudi, a native of the
+island and interested in Protestant missions, though then a Roman
+Catholic.
+
+The brethren reached Smyrna at the opening of the year 1820, and
+took lodgings in a Swiss family, where French, Italian, Modern
+Greek, and some Turkish were spoken, but no English. American and
+English residents treated them kindly, and they were specially
+indebted to the Messrs. Van Lennep, Dutch merchants, to whom they
+were introduced by Captain Edes.
+
+In May they repaired to the Greek College in Scio, for the purpose
+of studying the Modern Hellenic, and there they made the
+acquaintance of Professor Bambas, a Greek gentleman of talent and
+learning, who entered into their plans with an intelligent and
+heartfelt interest.
+
+It was my privilege, eight years after this, to make the
+acquaintance of Professor Bambas at Corfu, in the Ionian Islands,
+where he was connected with the University, instructing in logic,
+metaphysics, and practical theology, and presiding over the
+theological seminary connected with the University. An intelligent
+and judicious friend, well acquainted with him, expressed a decided
+opinion in favor of his piety and preaching. Bambas appeared then to
+be about fifty years old; and his sweet countenance enlivened by a
+quick eye, and the deliberation, judgment, and kindness, with which
+he replied to inquiries, made a most favorable impression, which
+subsequent intercourse fully sustained.
+
+With such a specimen of a Greek before them, we cannot wonder that
+Messrs. Fisk and Parsons cherished strong hopes as to the future of
+the nation. They remained in Scio five months, and availed
+themselves of every opportunity to revive among the Greeks a
+knowledge of the Gospel. In November, they made a tour of about
+three hundred miles, visiting the places where once stood the Seven
+Churches of Asia, everywhere acquiring and imparting information.
+
+After mature deliberation they decided, that the object of their
+mission would be most effectually promoted by their temporary
+separation; and that Mr. Parsons should proceed at once to
+Jerusalem, preliminary to its permanent occupation, while Mr. Fisk
+should prosecute his studies at Smyrna, under the hospitable roof of
+Mr. Van Lennep. The war of the Greek revolution began in the
+following spring, and Mr. Fisk's journal makes frequent mention of
+cruel atrocities committed by the Turks on their opponents in the
+streets of Smyrna. Prudence required him to live much in retirement.
+In a few short excursions, however, he distributed Bibles,
+Testaments, and tracts; and, during a part of the year, he supplied
+the place of British chaplain.
+
+Mr. Parsons arrived at Jerusalem on the 17th of February, 1821, and
+was the first Protestant missionary ever resident there, with the
+intention of making it a permanent field of labor. His first object
+was to reach the multitude of pilgrims then about to congregate in
+the Holy City. He took with him the Scriptures in nine languages,
+and four or five thousand religious tracts. He had letters to
+Procopius, an assistant of the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem,
+president of the Greek monasteries, and agent of the British and
+Foreign Bible Society. Convenient rooms were assigned him near the
+so-called holy sepulchre. During the spring he visited the principal
+places of interest in Jerusalem and its vicinity, including the
+Jordan and Dead Sea, and had reason to believe that his labors were
+not fruitless. As he supposed it not safe to pass the hot months of
+the year at Jerusalem, he resolved to spend the summer on Mount
+Lebanon, but civil commotions obliged him to relinquish the idea. He
+then turned his attention to Bethlehem, but the influence of the
+Greek revolt had reached Palestine, and was putting the Greeks in
+constant fear of their lives. His only resort was to return to
+Smyrna. On the voyage he first saw the new Greek flag, and was
+informed, by the captain of a Greek vessel of war, that the college
+at Scio was closed, and that Professor Bambas had saved his life
+only by flight. He found a temporary home at Syra, under the
+protection of the British consul. There he had an attack of fever,
+from which he recovered so far as to reach Smyrna in December.
+
+As Mr. Parsons did not regain his health at Smyrna, the two brethren
+proceeded to Alexandria in Egypt, hoping much from a change of
+climate, and trusting that they should be able to reach Jerusalem in
+the spring. But such was not the will of their Heavenly Father. Mr.
+Parsons' disease assumed a dangerous form soon after their arrival
+at Alexandria, and he died early in the morning of February 10,
+1822. His last words, when parting with his beloved associate, late
+in the evening, were, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about
+them that fear him."
+
+The character of Mr. Parsons was transparent and lovely. Few of
+those distinguished for piety leave a name so spotless. Though
+scarcely thirty years of age, such was the impression he had made on
+the Christian community at home, that his death was widely lamented;
+the more, doubtless, because of the intimate association of his name
+with Jerusalem, Zion, Gethsemane, and the scenes of the crucifixion.
+His disposition, demeanor, and general intelligence inspired
+confidence, and gave him access to the most cultivated society. He
+united uncommon zeal with the meekness of wisdom. His powers were
+happily balanced, and his consecration to the service of his Divine
+Master was entire. Mr. Fisk's account of the closing scene was
+beautiful and touching in its simplicity.1
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_ for 1822, p. 218.
+
+Mr. Fisk went to Cairo soon after the death of his associate,
+intending to proceed to Jerusalem through the desert. But
+hearing that the Rev. Daniel Temple had arrived at Malta as a
+fellow-laborer, he deemed it prudent to confer with him, before
+venturing upon the then very disturbed state of Palestine. He
+arrived at Malta on the 13th of April. How natural, after the
+privations of his journeys by land and sea, the seclusion from
+Christian society, the scenes of plague and massacre he had
+witnessed, and especially after the sickness and death of his
+beloved colleague, that he should feel the need of Christian
+friends, with whom to renew his strength.
+
+Mr. Temple and his wife had embarked at Boston on the 2d of January,
+1822. He had brought with him a printing-press, designed for the
+mission at Malta, types had been ordered at Paris, and his
+connection with this establishment prevented his accompanying Mr.
+Fisk.
+
+An associate was provided, however, in an unexpected quarter. The
+Rev. Jonas King had been elected Professor of Oriental Languages in
+Amherst College, and was then pursuing the study of Arabic in Paris,
+under the celebrated orientalist De Sacy. Mr. Fisk lost no time in
+requesting him to become his associate. On receiving the letter, Mr.
+King wrote at once to the American Board, tendering his services for
+three years, and they were accepted. There were then neither
+steamers nor telegraphs, and the response of the Prudential
+Committee could not be received until after the favorable season for
+oriental traveling would have passed. Mr. King's friends in Paris
+and in some other European cities, therefore, advanced the needful
+funds to enable him to start at once, and he landed at Malta early
+in November. A few days later, the celebrated Joseph Wolff also
+arrived, for the purpose of going with Mr. Fisk to Jerusalem. The
+three started January 3, 1823, to go by way of Alexandria, Cairo,
+and the desert. During the three weeks spent in Egypt they ascended
+the Nile as far as Thebes, distributing Bibles and tracts at most of
+the villages along the river. They were able to communicate
+religious truths in several languages, and sold more than six
+hundred copies of the Bible, or parts of it. The whole number of
+copies distributed was eight hundred, in twelve languages, besides
+more than two thousand tracts.
+
+They left Cairo without waiting for a caravan, but were joined by
+Turks, Arabs, Greeks, and Armenians, before entering the desert,
+until they numbered seventy-four persons, with forty-four camels,
+and fifty-seven asses.
+
+This being their first visit to Jerusalem, it was full of interest.
+Here God had been pleased to dwell visibly in his temple. For many
+ages it was the earthly home of the Church. Here the chosen tribes
+came to worship. Here David tuned his harp to praise Jehovah, and
+Isaiah obtained enraptured visions of the future Church. Above all,
+here the Lord of the world became incarnate, and wrought out
+redemption for man. During the two months of their sojourn, they
+visited many places of interest to the Christian and to the Biblical
+student.1 For greater usefulness, they occupied separate rooms in
+the Greek Convent, where they received all who came unto them,
+preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which
+concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man
+forbidding them. Mr. Wolff had a room on the side of Mount Zion,
+near the residence of the Jews, with whom he labored almost
+incessantly. Impressions as to the unhealthiness of Jerusalem in
+summer were stronger, at that time, than subsequent experience
+justified, and the brethren decided, like Mr. Parsons, to pass the
+hot months on the heights of Lebanon. Accordingly they left the Holy
+City on the 27th of June, going by way of Jaffa and the coast to
+Beirūt, where they arrived on the 10th of July. The southern portion
+of Lebanon, largely occupied by Druses, was then governed by the
+Emir Beshīr, who was called Prince of the Druses, though himself a
+Maronite. Not long before, having offended the Sultan, he had fled
+into Egypt, and there became acquainted with the missionaries.
+Having made his peace with the Sultan and returned to Deir el-Kamr,
+his capital, the brethren visited him there, and were hospitably
+entertained, and furnished with a firmān for travelling in all parts
+of his dominions.
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_, 1824, pp. 65-71, 97-101.
+
+Mr. King took up his residence there in order to study the Arabic
+language. Mr. Fisk spent the summer with Mr. Way, of the London
+Jews' Society, in a building erected for a Jesuits' College at
+Aintūra, which that gentleman had hired for the use of missionaries
+in Palestine. In August, Mr. Wolff arrived from Jerusalem. Early in
+the autumn, Messrs. Fisk, Lewis of the Jews' Society, Wolff, Jowett
+and King, all met at Aintūra, for the friendly discussion of some
+practical questions relating to missions, which were soon arranged
+to mutual satisfaction. How many dark and troubled ages had passed,
+since there was such a company of Christian ministers assembled on
+that goodly mountain! The journals of Mr. King, here and elsewhere,
+have a singularly dramatic interest, and were eagerly read, as they
+appeared in the "Missionary Herald." Those of Mr. Fisk are also rich
+in the information they contain. He was able to preach in both the
+Italian and Modern Greek. Mr. King's labors were chiefly in the
+Arabic language, in which he preached the Gospel with the utmost
+plainness. Yet he appears to have secured in a remarkable degree the
+good-will of the people. He thus describes the scene connected with
+his departure from Deir el-Kamr, on the 22d of September:--
+
+"A little before I left, the family appeared very sorrowful, and
+some of them wept. The mother wept much, and a priest with whom I
+had often conversed came in and wept like a child. I improved this
+occasion by telling him of his duty as a shepherd, and spoke to him
+of the great day of account, and the responsibility that rested upon
+him, and his duty to search the Scriptures. The family I exhorted to
+love the Lord Jesus Christ, to read the Word of God, and to be
+careful to keep all his commandments.
+
+"It was truly an interesting scene; and I was surprised to see the
+feeling exhibited by the Arabs on my departure. As I left the house,
+they loaded me with blessings, and, as I passed through the street,
+many commended me to the care and protection of the Lord."1
+
+1 Report for 1824, p. 121.
+
+In October, Messrs. Fisk and King rode to Tripoli, supposed then to
+contain fifteen thousand inhabitants. From thence they proceeded to
+the Maronite Convent of Mār Antonius Khoshiah, situated on the brow
+of an almost perpendicular mountain, where was a printing-press.
+Nearly all the inhabitants of that part of Lebanon are Maronites,
+acknowledging allegiance to the Pope. Thence they visited the Cedars
+of Lebanon; and then crossed the rich plain of Coelo-Syria to
+Baalbek, at the foot of Anti-Lebanon. Several of the places visited
+in this tour will come more properly into notice in the subsequent
+history.
+
+Mr. Fisk returned to Jerusalem in the autumn with Mr. Jowett. Just
+before leaving Beirūt, they had the joy of welcoming the Rev.
+Messrs. William Goodell and Isaac Bird, and their wives, who arrived
+on the 16th of October. In January, Messrs. King and Bird also went
+to Jerusalem.
+
+The year 1824 was one of much activity. In February, Messrs. Fisk
+and Bird were the only missionaries at Jerusalem, Mr. King having
+gone to Jaffa. While successfully employed in selling the Scriptures
+to Armenian pilgrims in the city, they were apprehended, at the
+instigation of the Latins, and brought before Moslem judges on the
+strange charge of distributing books that were neither Mohammedan,
+Jewish, nor Christian. Holding up a copy of Genesis, the judge
+declared it to be among the unchristian books denounced by the
+Latins. Meanwhile their rooms were searched, and a crier was sent
+out into the city, forbidding all persons to receive their books,
+and ordering all that had been received to be delivered up. Their
+papers were examined, and some of them retained by the government.
+In a few days, however, through the prompt interference of the
+English Consul at Jaffa, their papers were all restored, and they
+were set at liberty. These proceedings becoming widely known, the
+result was, on the whole, favorable. Mr. Abbott, English Consul at
+Beirūt, learning of the occurrence, wrote to the Pasha at Damascus,
+and the governor and judge at Jerusalem received an official order
+to restore to the missionaries whatever had been taken from them,
+and to secure for them protection and respectful treatment. The
+governor was shortly after superseded, for what cause was not
+certainly known; but many people, both Mussulmans and Christians,
+believed it was in consequence of his ill treatment of Messrs. Fisk
+and Bird.
+
+Mr. Damiani, son of the English Consul at Jaffa, had come to
+Jerusalem on their behalf, with a letter from his father to the
+governor. In company with this young gentleman, the missionaries
+visited Hebron in February, going by way of Bethlehem. About three
+miles south of Bethlehem, they came to what are called the Cisterns
+of Solomon, three in number, of large dimensions, on the side of a
+hill. Mr. Fisk was informed, that Jerusalem was supplied in part by
+an aqueduct, which carried its waters from those fountains.1
+
+1 Dr. Robinson says that the modern aqueduct was mostly laid with
+tubes of pottery; but, northeast of Rachel's tomb, he saw "the
+traces of an ancient aqueduct which was carried _up the slope of the
+hill_ by means of tubes, or perforated blocks of stone, fitted
+together with sockets and tenons, and originally cemented." This was
+in 1842. Dr. Eli Smith drew my attention in 1845 to the same thing.
+Such stones are said to be seen nowhere else in that region.
+
+The visit to Hebron had no important results. During the five months
+spent at Jerusalem, seven hundred copies of Scripture were sold. In
+the last six weeks, Mr. Fisk suffered from an attack of fever, with
+headache, restlessness, and tendency to delirium, and had no medical
+adviser. On the 22d of April, the two brethren went to Jaffa, from
+whence they proceeded, with Mr. King, to Beirūt, where they arrived
+on the 4th of May. With Messrs. King, Bird, and Goodell around him,
+Mr. Fisk thus gives expression to his feelings: "These days of busy,
+friendly, joyous intercourse have greatly served to revive the
+spirits that drooped, to refresh the body that was weary, and to
+invigorate the mind that began to flag. I came here tired of study,
+and tired of journeying, but I begin to feel already desirous to
+reopen my books, or resume my journeys. We have united in praising
+God for bringing us to this land. I suppose we are as cheerful,
+contented, and happy, as any little circle of friends in our favored
+country. Dear brother Parsons! how would his affectionate heart have
+rejoiced to welcome such a company of fellow laborers to this land!
+But he is happier in union with the blessed above."
+
+On the 22d of June, 1824, Messrs. Fisk and King set out for
+Damascus, where they expected to find peculiar facilities for Arabic
+studies. Aleppo being still more advantageous for them, they
+proceeded to that city in July, with a caravan, notwithstanding the
+intense heat of midsummer. On the 19th, they suffered much from
+exposure to the heated air, filled with sand and dust. On the 25th,
+they encamped at Sheikhoon, a dirty Mussulman village of a thousand
+inhabitants. There was neither tree nor rock to shade them. The
+strong wind was almost as hot as if it came from a furnace, and they
+had nothing to eat but curdled milk, called _leben_, and bread that
+had been dried and hardened by the heat of eight or ten days. Yet it
+was the Sabbath, and they declared themselves to be happy. In the
+last day of their journey, which was July 28, they were joined by a
+large caravan from Latakia, much to their satisfaction, as that
+day's journey was considered the most dangerous.
+
+On the 25th of October the brethren started on their return to
+Beirūt, going by way of Antioch, Latakia, and Tripoli, a journey of
+nineteen days. While traveling across the mountains, often in sight
+of the ruined old Roman road to Antioch, they were repeatedly
+drenched by the great rains of that season. No wonder the brethren
+of Mr. Fisk at Beirūt were not a little anxious about him, amid such
+exposures, but his usual health seems to have returned with the cold
+season.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+PALESTINE.
+
+1824-1843.
+
+
+In February, 1824, the Grand Seignior, influenced, as it would
+appear, by Rome, issued a proclamation to the Pashas throughout
+Western Asia, forbidding the distribution of the Christian
+Scriptures, and commanding those who had received copies to deliver
+them to the public authorities to be burnt. The copies remaining in
+the hands of the distributors were to be sealed up till they could
+be sent back to Europe. But few copies were obtained from the
+people, and the Turks seemed to take very little interest in the
+matter.
+
+Messrs. Fisk and King made their third and last visit to Jerusalem
+in the spring of 1825, arriving there on the 29th of March. On their
+way, they had stopped a few weeks in Jaffa, where their labors gave
+rise to some very absurd reports, which yet appeared credible to the
+superstitious people. Some said, that the missionaries bought people
+with money; that the price for common people was ten piastres, and
+that those ten piastres always remained with the man who received
+them, however much he might spend from them. Others said, that the
+picture of professed converts was taken in a book, and that the
+missionaries would shoot the picture, should the man go back to his
+former religion, and he would of course die. A Moslem, having heard
+that men were hired to worship the devil, asked if it were true,
+saying that he would come, and bring a hundred others with him.
+"What," said his friend, "would you worship the devil?" "Yes," said
+he, "if I was paid for it."
+
+The brethren were cordially received by their acquaintances at
+Jerusalem. Two days afterwards, the pasha of Damascus sat down
+before the city, with three thousand soldiers, to collect his annual
+tribute. The amount to be paid by each community was determined
+solely by his own caprice, and what he could not be induced to remit
+was extorted by arrest, imprisonment, and the bastinado. Many of the
+inhabitants fled, and the rest lived in constant terror and
+distress. So great was the confusion and insecurity within and
+around the city, that the brethren decided to return to Beirūt,
+where they arrived on the 18th of May. From 1822 to 1825 they and
+their associates had distributed nearly four thousand copies of the
+Scriptures, and parts thereof, in different languages, and about
+twenty thousand tracts. After staying a month at Beirūt, Mr. King
+passed six weeks at Deir el-Kamr in the study of Syriac, with Asaad
+el-Shidiak for his teacher, a remarkable young Maronite, who will
+have a prominent place in this history. On returning to Beirūt, Mr.
+King wrote a farewell letter to his friends in Palestine and Syria,
+which Asaad translated into excellent Arabic, and afterwards
+multiplied copies for distribution. It was a tract destined to exert
+an important influence.
+
+Mr. King's term of service had now expired; and on the 26th of
+August, 1825, after three years of active and very useful missionary
+labors, he left Syria homeward bound. He went first to Tarsus by
+ship, and thence, by what proved a tedious land journey, to Smyrna.
+His clothes, books, papers, and several valuable manuscripts were
+sent by a vessel, that was taken by a Greek cruiser, and only a part
+of them were returned. On his arrival at Smyrna, December 4, he
+received the painful intelligence of the death of his beloved
+associate at Beirūt.
+
+Mr. King remained several months at Smyrna, waiting the recovery of
+his effects, making good progress, meanwhile, in the modern Greek
+language, and doing much service for the Greeks. He then visited
+Constantinople with the Rev. Mr. Hartley, of the Church Missionary
+Society, where he was received by several high Greek ecclesiastics
+with a kindness similar to that he had received from the Greeks of
+Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor. It was after his departure,
+that a copy of his Farewell Letter found its way into the hands of
+Armenians, who brought it before a council convened for the purpose,
+as will be related hereafter. He returned to France just four years
+from the time of his departure to enter upon his mission. Pious
+people were everywhere exceedingly eager to hear his statements.
+Enough was contributed by friends in Paris, to purchase a font of
+Armenian type for the press at Malta, which he ordered before
+leaving the metropolis. When in England he obtained funds for Arabic
+types, and left orders for a font in London. Mrs. Hannah More, then
+at an advanced age, was among the contributors. He returned home at
+the close of the summer of 1827, and soon after the annual meeting
+of the Board made a tour as agent through the Southern and Middle
+States, which occupied him till April of the following year. The
+Rev. Edward N. Kirk (now Dr. Kirk of Boston) was associated with him
+in this agency.
+
+Mr. Fisk had a good constitution, and would probably have endured
+the climate of Syria for many years, with no more strain upon it in
+the way of travel, than subsequent experience warranted. The reader
+of the preceding pages will be prepared to apprehend special danger
+from his return to Beirūt in a season, that was sickly beyond the
+recollection of the oldest of the Franks. He first spoke of being
+ill on Tuesday, October 11, having had a restless night. His
+experience was similar on several succeeding nights, but during the
+day he seemed tolerably comfortable, enjoyed conversation, and
+frequently desired the Scriptures to be read, remarking on the
+importance of the subjects, and the preciousness of the promises.
+His devotional feelings were awakened and his spirits revived by the
+reading or singing of hymns, such as he suggested. On the 19th his
+mind was somewhat affected, and he fainted while preparations were
+being made for removing him to his bed. The next day, according to a
+request he had made some time before, he was informed of the
+probable issue of his sickness. He heard it with composure;
+remarking that he believed the commanding object of his life, for
+the seventeen years past, had been the glory of Christ and the good
+of the Church. During the day he dictated letters to his father, and
+to his missionary brethren King and Temple. On Thursday he asked for
+the reading of that portion of Mrs. Graham's "Provision for Passing
+over Jordan," where it is said, "To be where Thou art, to see Thee
+as Thou art, to be made like Thee, the last sinful motion forever
+past,"--he anticipated the conclusion, and said, with an expressive
+emphasis, "That's Heaven." As the evening approached, he was very
+peaceful, and in the midst he spoke out, saying: "I know not what
+this is, but it seems to me like the silence that precedes the
+dissolution of nature." Becoming conscious that the fever was
+returning, he said, "What the Lord intends to do with me, I cannot
+tell, but my impression is, that this is my last night." The fever,
+however, was lighter than usual, and the next forenoon there was
+some hope that it might be overcome. Yet it returned in the
+afternoon, with all its alarming symptoms. At six o'clock he had
+greatly altered, and the hand of death seemed really upon him. At
+eight a physician, who had been sent for, arrived from Sidon, but
+Mr. Fisk was insensible. Though the physician expressed little hope
+of saving him, he ordered appliances which arrested the paroxysm of
+fever, and restored him temporarily to consciousness. He was quiet
+during Saturday, the 22d, and there were no alarming appearances at
+sunset. But before midnight all hope had fled. "We hastened to his
+bedside," say his brethren, "found him panting for breath, and
+evidently sinking into the arms of death. The physician immediately
+left him, and retired to rest. We sat down, conversed, prayed, wept,
+and watched the progress of his dissolution, until, at precisely
+three o'clock on the Lord's day morning, October 23, 1825, the soul,
+which had been so long waiting for deliverance, was quietly
+released. It rose, like its great Deliverer, very early on the first
+day of the week, triumphant over death, and entered, as we believe,
+on that Sabbath, of eternal rest, which remaineth for the people of
+God."
+
+His age was thirty-three. As soon as the fact of his death became
+known, all the flags of the different consuls were seen at
+half-mast. The funeral was attended at four P. M., in the presence
+of a more numerous and orderly concourse of people, than had been
+witnessed there on a similar occasion.
+
+Mr. Fisk had a strong affinity, in the constitution of his mind and
+the character of his piety, to the late Miss Fidelia Fiske, of the
+Nestorian mission, who was his cousin, and whose praise is in all
+the churches. He was an uncommon man. With a vigorous constitution,
+and great capacity for labor, he possessed a discriminating
+judgment, an ardent spirit of enterprise, intrepidity, decision,
+perseverance, entire devotion to the service of his Master, facility
+in the acquisition of languages, and an equipoise of his faculties,
+which made it easy to accommodate himself to times, places, and
+companies. He was highly esteemed as a preacher before leaving home.
+"And who," said a weeping Arab, on hearing of his death, smiting on
+his breast, "who will now present the Gospel to us? I have heard no
+one explain God's word like him!" Aptness to teach was the prominent
+trait in his ministerial character, and in a land of strangers, he
+was esteemed, reverenced, and lamented.
+
+The following tribute to his memory is from the pen of Mr. Bird:--
+
+"The breach his death has made in the mission, is one which years
+will not probably repair. The length of time which our dear brother
+had spent in the missionary field, the extensive tours he had taken,
+the acquaintances and connections he had formed, and the knowledge
+he had acquired of the state of men and things in all the Levant,
+had well qualified him to act as our counselor and guide; while his
+personal endowments gave him a weight of character, sensibly felt by
+the natives. His knowledge of languages, considering his well-known
+active habits, has often been to us a subject of surprise and
+thanksgiving. All men who could comprehend French, Italian, or
+Greek, were accessible by his powerful admonitions. In the
+first-mentioned language he conversed with ease, and in the last
+two, performed with perfect fluency the common public services of a
+preacher of the Gospel. Even the Arabic he had so far mastered, as
+to commence in it a regular Sabbath service with a few of the
+natives. At the time of his death, besides preaching weekly in
+Arabic, and also in English in his turn, and besides his grammatical
+studies under an Arabic master, he had just commenced a work, to
+which, with the advice of us all, he was directing, for the time,
+his main attention. Having in a manner completed the tour of
+Palestine and Syria, and having become quite at home in Arabic
+grammar, he felt more than ever the need of a dictionary to
+introduce the missionary to the spoken language of the country. The
+ponderous folios of Richardson are for Persia; Golius, and the
+smaller work of Willmet, explain only the written language. We were
+therefore of the unanimous opinion, that a lexicon like the one in
+contemplation by Mr. Fisk, was needed, not only by ourselves, but by
+the missionaries who should succeed us. Our dear brother had written
+the catalogue of English words according to Johnson, and had just
+finished the catalogue (incomplete of course) of the corresponding
+Arabic, when disease arrested him. Had he lived, he hoped to visit
+his native country, and probably publish some account of his
+Christian researches in the Levant.
+
+"Such were some of the plans and employments of our brother and
+companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus
+Christ, when he was called off from all his labors of love among
+men. He is gone, but his memory lives. Never till called to sleep by
+his side, shall we forget the noble example of patience, faith, and
+zeal, which he has set us; and the churches at home will not forget
+him, till they shall have forgotten their duty to spread the
+Gospel."1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_ for 1827, pp. 101, 102.
+
+The station at Jerusalem was suspended for nearly nine years, when
+unsuccessful efforts were made to revive it. The Rev. William M.
+Thomson, and Asa Dodge, M. D., were sent for that purpose. Mr.
+Thomson was the first to remove his family to Jerusalem, which he
+did in April, 1834. Mr. and Mrs. Nicholayson, of the London Jews
+Society, went with them to commence a mission among the Jews.
+Everything looked promising for a few weeks, and Mr. Thomson went
+down to Jaffa to bring up his furniture. During his absence, the
+Fellāhīn, roused by an order to draft every fifth man into the army,
+rose against Mohammed Ali, the then ruler of Syria. Jerusalem was
+the centre of this sudden rebellion; and Mr. Thomson, for nearly two
+months, found it impossible even to communicate with his family, so
+closely was the city besieged by the rebels. The first sense of
+personal danger to the mission families, arose from an earthquake of
+unusual severity, which extended to the coast and shook their old
+stone habitation so roughly that they were compelled to flee into
+the garden, and sleep there. Here they were exposed to the balls
+from the muskets of the Fellāhīn outside the walls. At length the
+rebels within the city somehow let in their friends outside, and it
+was an hour of terror when they took possession of the mission
+house, which was near the castle, dug loopholes through its walls,
+and began to fire on the soldiers of the fortress. The fire was of
+course returned, and the building, already shattered by the
+earthquake, was torn by the Egyptian cannon; while both it and the
+garden were filled with a multitude of lawless and angry rebels. The
+families found refuge in a lower room of the house, where the walls
+were thick, and there listened to the cannon balls as they whistled
+above them. The arrival of Ibrahim Pasha at length quieted the city.
+
+Able to return to his family on the 11th of July, Mr. Thomson found
+his wife suffering from ophthalmia, with high inflammatory fever.
+Two days afterwards, Mr. Nicholayson was attacked with a fever, and
+the children were all sick. The case of Mrs. Thomson baffled all
+their skill. Convinced herself that she would not recover, the
+thought did not alarm her. For many weeks, she had been in the
+clearer regions of faith, enjoying greater nearness to God in prayer
+than ever before, with greater assurance of her interest in the
+covenant of grace through the Redeemer. She had indeed cherished the
+hope of laboring longer to bring some of the degraded daughters of
+Jerusalem to the Saviour; but the Lord knew best, and to His will
+she cheerfully submitted. She died peacefully on the 22d of July,
+1834. The bereaved husband was apprehensive of difficulty in
+obtaining a suitable place for her burial; but the Greek bishop gave
+permission, and took the whole charge of preparing the grave.
+
+Mr. Thomson now visited Beirūt to confer with his brethren, and was
+advised to remove to that place. The Rev. George B. Whiting and wife
+and Dr. and Mrs. Dodge, were to occupy the station thus vacated,
+aided by Miss Betsey Tilden. Dr. Dodge accompanied Mr. Thomson on
+his return, and assisted him in removing his babe and his effects to
+Beirūt; and on the 22d of October he and Mr. Whiting were on their
+way with their families to Jerusalem.
+
+Early in the winter, Dr. Dodge was called to Beirūt to prescribe for
+Mrs. Bird, who was dangerously sick. Mr. Nicholayson returned with
+him to Jerusalem, arriving there on the 3d of January, 1835, cold,
+wet, and exhausted with fatigue, having traveled on horseback nearly
+seventeen hours the last day. The peril of such an exposure in that
+climate was not realized at the time. Both were soon taken sick, and
+Dr. Dodge rapidly sunk, though a physician from one of the western
+States of America arrived at the critical moment, and remained with
+him to the last. He died on the 28th of January, and Mrs. Dodge
+removed to Beirūt. The arrival of Rev. John F. Lanneau in the spring
+of 1836, furnished an associate for Mr. Whiting. A school was
+opened, and numerous books were sold to the pilgrims. Early in the
+next year, Tannūs Kerem of Safet was engaged as a native assistant.
+He was born and educated in the Latin Church, but in thought and
+feeling was with the mission, and enlarged their personal
+acquaintance and influence. In the summer the cholera appeared, and
+swept off four hundred victims in a month. Mr. Homes, of the mission
+to Turkey, was there at the time, and all devoted themselves to the
+gratuitous service of the sick, a thing unknown before in that
+region. They gave medical aid to many, nearly all of whom recovered,
+and thus gained many friends. Preaching was commenced in September
+to a small but attentive congregation. Mrs. Whiting and Miss Tilden
+had an interesting school, composed chiefly of Mohammedan girls.
+There was also a school for boys under a Greek teacher, with
+twenty-four pupils. In 1838, Mr. Whiting was obliged, by the
+protracted sickness of his wife, to visit the United States, and Mr.
+Lanneau was alone at Jerusalem, with Tannūs Kerem, and suffering
+from extreme weakness of the eyes; but was encouraged by the arrival
+of Rev. Charles S. Sherman and wife in the autumn of 1839. The new
+missionary expressed his surprise at finding the different classes
+so little affected by the prejudices of sect in their intercourse
+with members of the mission. The illness of Mr. Lanneau became at
+length so distressing, as to require his absence from the field for
+nearly two years. Before his return to the East, which was early in
+1843, the Committee had expressed an opinion, that it was expedient
+to suspend further efforts at Jerusalem. Mr. Lanneau, however,
+resumed his abode there until the visit of the writer, with Dr.
+Hawes, in the spring of 1844, This was after there had been a
+protracted conference with the mission at Beirūt, at which nothing
+appeared to affect the decision of the Prudential Committee, and Mr.
+Lanneau removed with his family to Beirūt. Writing of Jerusalem to
+the Committee, Dr. Hawes says: "In regard to this city, viewed as a
+field for missionary labor, I saw nothing which should give it a
+special claim on our attention. It has indeed a considerable
+population, amounting perhaps to seventeen or eighteen thousand. But
+it is such a population as seemed to me to bear a near resemblance
+to the contents of the sheet which Peter saw let down from heaven by
+the four corners. It is composed of well-nigh all nations and of all
+religions, who are distinguished for nothing so much as for jealousy
+and hatred of each other. As to the crowds of pilgrims who annually
+visit the Holy City,--a gross misnomer, by the way, as it now
+is,--they are certainly no very hopeful subjects of missionary
+effort; drawn thither, as they are, chiefly by the spirit of
+superstition; and during the brief time they remain there, kept
+continually under the excitement of lying vanities, which without
+number are addressed to their eyes, and poured in at their ears."
+
+The burying-ground belonging to the Board, on a central part of
+Mount Zion, near the so-called "Tomb of David," and not far from the
+city, inclosed by a stone wall, was reserved for a Protestant
+burying-place, to be for the use of all sects of Protestant
+Christians.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1823-1828.
+
+
+The civil and social condition of Jerusalem and Palestine was such,
+on the arrival of Messrs. Bird and Goodell in 1823, that their
+brethren advised them to make Beirūt the centre of their operations.
+The advice was followed; and this was the commencement of what took
+the name of the Syria Mission.
+
+The ancient name of Beirūt was Berytus. The city is pleasantly
+situated on the western side of a large bay, and has a fertile soil,
+with a supply of good water, sufficient in ordinary seasons, from
+springs flowing out of the adjacent hills. Its population and wealth
+have greatly increased of late. The anchorage for ships is at the
+eastern extremity of the bay, two miles from the city. Lebanon rises
+at no great distance on the east, stretches far toward the north and
+the south, and is a healthful and pleasant resort for Franks in
+summer. There is a large and beautiful plain on the south, abounding
+in olive, palm, orange, lemon, pine, and mulberry trees. Damascus
+was then distant three days, but less time is required now, by
+reason of the new macadamized road. Sidon might be reached in one
+day, Tyre in two, and Tripoli in three. An additional motive, in
+those troublous times, for making Beirūt a central station, was the
+protection afforded by Mr. Abbott, a friendly English Consul.
+
+The two brethren landed, with their wives, October 16th. During the
+nine mouths of their sojourn at Malta, they had made considerable
+progress in the Italian language, which was spoken extensively in
+the Levant; and now, without wholly neglecting the Italian, they
+applied themselves to the languages of Syria.
+
+Mr. Bird made the Arabic--spoken by the Maronites and Syrian Roman
+Catholics--his chief study; and Mr. Goodell the Armeno-Turkish,
+--Turkish written with the Armenian alphabet,--which was the
+language of the Armenians.
+
+Going to Sidon for aid in his linguistic studies, Mr. Goodell formed
+the acquaintance of Yakob Agha, an Armenian ecclesiastic, who had
+dared to marry, a privilege not allowed to him as a bishop. That he
+might be able to defend his course, he began the study of the New
+Testament, and thus became impressed with the wickedness around him.
+He was at that time acting British agent at Sidon. Mr. Goodell also
+became acquainted with Dionysius, another Armenian bishop, who had
+committed a similar offense, and engaged him as a teacher; giving
+him the name of Carabet, the "Forerunner." He was a native of
+Constantinople, and had lived thirty-six years in the Armenian
+convent at Jerusalem. During the last nine of these years, he was a
+bishop. On account of his age, his services and acquirements, he was
+regarded as having the standing of an archbishop. Though in darkness
+on many points, and giving no satisfactory evidence of piety, he
+made himself useful as a teacher and interpreter, and in his
+intercourse with the people.
+
+Several English missionaries were added to the Protestant force at
+that time, and the Papal Church became thoroughly alarmed. Letters
+were addressed from Rome to the Patriarchal Vicar of Mount Lebanon,
+the Maronite Patriarch, and the Vicar of Syria and Palestine, urging
+them to render ineffectual, in every possible manner, the impious
+undertaking of those missionaries. These letters were dated in the
+first month of 1824, and the firman against the circulation of the
+Scriptures was issued by the Grand Seignior very soon after. Though
+feebly enforced by the Turkish authorities this gave weight and
+influence, for a time, to the "anathemas," of the Maronite and
+Syrian Patriarchs against the "Bible men." Peter Ignatius Giarve,
+the Syrian Patriarch, some years before, while Archbishop of
+Jerusalem, had visited England, and there obtained, under false
+pretenses, a considerable sum of money from Protestant Christians,
+to print the Holy Scriptures according to the text of his own
+Church. He now issued a manifesto, first defending himself from the
+charge of deception, and then warning his flock "not to receive the
+Holy Scriptures, nor any other books printed and circulated by the
+Bible-men, even though given gratis, and according to the edition
+printed by the Propaganda under ecclesiastical authority."
+Notwithstanding all this, the brethren took a hopeful view of their
+prospects. "To get a firm footing," they say, "among a people of a
+strange speech and a hard language; to inspire confidence in some,
+and weaken prejudice in others; to ascertain who are our avowed
+enemies, and who are such in disguise; to become acquainted with the
+mode of thinking and feeling, with the springs of action, and with
+the way of access to the heart; to begin publicly to discuss
+controversial subjects with the dignitaries of the Church, and to
+commence giving religious instruction to the common people; to be
+allowed to have a hand in directing the studies and in controlling
+the education of the young; and to begin to exert an influence,
+however circumscribed at first, yet constantly extending and
+increasingly salutary,--all this, though it be not 'life from the
+dead,' nor the song of salvation, yet is to be regarded as truly
+important in the work of missions."
+
+In the year 1824, the schools were commenced at Beirūt, which have
+since grown into an influential system. The first was a mere class
+of six Arab children, taught daily by the wives of the missionaries.
+Soon an Arab teacher was engaged, and before the end of the year the
+pupils had increased to fifty. In 1826 the average attendance in the
+free schools of Beirūt and vicinity, was more than three hundred; in
+the following year it was six hundred in thirteen schools, and more
+than one hundred of these pupils were girls. The Arabs were thought
+to have less quickness than the Greeks, to be less studious and
+ambitious, and more trifling, inconstant, and proud of little
+things; but many of them were lively and promising, and did
+themselves honor by their punctuality and application. The Romish
+ecclesiastics were very hostile to all these schools.
+
+It was in the summer of 1825, that Asaad el-Shidiak became first
+personally known to the mission, as the instructor of Mr. King in
+the Syriac language. His case soon acquired an extraordinary
+interest, and will occupy a separate chapter.
+
+In March, 1826, several Greek vessels entered the port of Beirūt,
+and landed five hundred men. They were unable to scale the walls,
+but plundered the houses of natives on the outside. The wild
+Bedawīn, whom the Pasha of Acre sent to drive them away, were worse
+than the Greeks. They plundered without making any distinctions, and
+among other houses the one occupied by Mr. Goodell, but Consul
+Abbott obliged the Pasha to pay for what they took from the
+missionaries. It was afterwards ascertained, that the Maronite
+bishop, having learned that the leases of the missionaries would
+soon expire, came to Beirūt just before this invasion, with an
+excommunication for every Maronite who should permit his house to be
+hired by a missionary; and prepared by bribery and intrigue to bring
+also the Greek bishop and the Moslem rulers to act in concert with
+himself, in driving Protestant missionaries from the country. The
+sudden landing of the Greeks obliged him to flee in the night,
+leaving his wicked devices unaccomplished, while the Maronites were
+glad to place their best houses in the hands of the missionaries.
+
+In 1827, the missionaries hoped that about twenty of those among
+whom they labored, had been created anew in Christ Jesus. Among them
+were Asaad and Phares Shidiak, from the Maronite Church; a lady from
+the Latin Church; Dionysius, Gregory Wortabet, Jacob, and the wife
+of Dionysius, of the Armenian Church; the wife of Wortabet and
+Yooseph Leflufy, of the Greek Catholic Church; and Asaad Jacob and
+Tannūs el-Haddad, of the Greek Church. Leflufy was described as a
+youth of great boldness and decision, and as thoroughly convinced of
+the errors of his Church. In April of this year, Dionysius revisited
+Jerusalem, as the interpreter of German missionaries. The Armenian
+Convent owed him a sum of money, which it refused to pay, and
+forbade any Armenian in the city to speak to him. The Greeks, on the
+other hand, treated him with attention, and so did the Moslem
+governor. He returned to Beirūt in company with three hundred of the
+Armenian pilgrims, who were no sooner out of Jerusalem than they
+began to treat him with kindness and respect, while they were full
+of inquiries as to what he and the Protestants believed, what
+ordinances they had, and how they observed them, with many more such
+questions. He was engaged in conversation with them day and night,
+and had full opportunity to explain his religious views, and to show
+them the difference between the Christianity of the New Testament,
+and that of the Oriental Churches; and they expressed much
+astonishment at his statements. Some of them were persons of
+respectability and influence, and declared their indignation at the
+treatment he had received from the convent. It is probable that
+these conversations had some connection with the spirit of
+reform among the Armenians, which not long after appeared at
+Constantinople.
+
+The Rev. Eli Smith reached Beirūt early in 1827. At the monthly
+concert in March, kept as a day of fasting and prayer, and closed
+with the Lord's Supper, sixteen persons were present, who were all
+regarded as hopefully pious. They were from America, Europe, Asia,
+and Africa, and were members of nine churches,--Congregational,
+Episcopal, Lutheran, Reformed Lutheran, Moravian, Latin, Armenian,
+Greek Catholic, and Abyssinian. Dionysius Carabet, Gregory Wortabet,
+and their wives were then received into the mission church, as was
+also the wife of Mr. Abbott, the English Consul, a native of Italy.
+This admission of converts into a church, without regard to their
+previous ecclesiastical relations, was a practical ignoring of the
+old church organizations in that region. It was so understood, and
+the spirit of opposition and persecution was roused to the utmost.
+In the Maronite and Greek Catholic churches, severe denunciations
+were uttered against the missionaries, and all who should render
+them any service.
+
+Messrs. Goodell and Bird gave more or less time, with the help of
+their native assistants, to preparing useful works in the native
+languages. These, with Mr. King's "Farewell Letter," were copied by
+the pen, and were eagerly sought and gladly transcribed, and the
+need of a printing-press on the ground began to be felt.
+
+Beirūt was visited by the plague in the spring of 1827, but the
+deaths were not numerous. In August Mr. Bird, finding it needful to
+take his family to the mountains, ascended to Ehden by way of
+Tripoli, from which Ehden was distant seven hours. He went by
+special permission of the Emir Beshir, and was received in the most
+friendly manner by the Sheikh Latoof, and his son Naanui. The
+"Patriarch of Antioch and all the East," who resided at Cannobeen,
+hearing of this, proceeded at once to excommunicate the sheikh and
+his family, who had dared to associate "with that deceived man, and
+deceiver of men, Bird, the Bible-man." An infernal spirit appears in
+the excommunications of the Romish Church. This of Latoof and family
+ran thus: "They are accursed, cut off from all the Christian
+communion; and let the curse envelope them as a robe, and spread
+through all their members like oil, and break them in pieces like a
+potter's vessel, and wither them like the fig tree cursed by the
+mouth of the Lord himself; and let the evil angel reign over them,
+to torment them by day and night, asleep and awake, and in whatever
+circumstances they may be found. We permit no one to visit them, or
+employ them, or do them a favor, or give them a salutation, or
+converse with them in any form; but let them be avoided as a putrid
+member, and as hellish dragons. Beware, yea, beware of the wrath of
+God." With regard to Mr. Bird and his family, the Patriarch said:
+"We grant no permission to any one to receive them; but, on the
+contrary, we, by the word of the Lord of almighty authority, require
+and command all, in the firmest manner, that not one visit them, nor
+do them any sort of service, or furnish them any sort of assistance
+whatever, to protract their stay in these parts or any other. Let no
+one receive them into his house, or into any place whatever that
+belongs to him, but let all avoid them, in every way, in all things
+temporal as well as spiritual. And whoever, in his stubbornness,
+shall dare to act in opposition to this our order with regard to
+Bird, and his children, and his whole family, shall fall, _ipso
+facto_, under the great excommunication, whose absolution is
+reserved to ourself alone."
+
+A copy of this document was furnished to Mr. Bird, by the Bishop of
+Ehden; who, though feeble in health, was second to no prelate of his
+sect in knowledge, prudence, and evangelical sentiment. On hearing
+the Patriarch's proclamation read in church, he is said to have
+fainted, and did not recover his health for weeks afterwards. As a
+consequence of this proclamation of the Patriarch, a rival sheikh
+was encouraged to make a violent assault upon Latoof, in which the
+latter received a severe contusion on the head, and his wife's
+mother had her wrist broken. Being warned of a still more determined
+effort to drive the missionary away, Mr. Bird thought it due to his
+friend to leave the place; which he did, accompanied by Naanui,
+leaving his wife and children, and descending to the Greek convent
+of Hantūra, and from thence to Tripoli. Thither the Patriarch
+followed him with his maledictions. He however obtained a quiet
+residence at Bawhyta, under Moslem protection, where he was rejoined
+by his family, and afterwards in the convent of Belmont. Naanui was
+his faithful companion through all his wanderings and sojourning on
+the mountains.
+
+Mr. Bird returned to Beirūt on the 22d of December, and was received
+by his Maronite acquaintances with unwonted cordiality.
+
+The battle of Navarino was not the immediate cause of the suspension
+of the mission; but, in all the ensuing five months, there was
+constant apprehension of war between Turkey and the allies engaged
+in that battle, which was so destructive to the naval power of the
+Turks. The British Consulate was closed, and Mr. Abbott, their
+friend and protector, was obliged to withdraw privately. No reliance
+could be placed on the Pasha; and the Prince of the mountains had
+sent word, that no Frank refugees would be received in his
+dominions, in case of war. In the utter stagnation of trade, the
+missionaries could obtain no money for their bills, and no European
+or American vessels of war visited the port. Messrs. Goodell, Bird
+and Smith, in view of all these facts, thought it their duty to
+avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by an Austrian vessel
+to remove, for a season, to Malta.
+
+They accordingly embarked on the 2d of May, 1828, taking with them
+Carabet, Wortabet, and their wives, and arrived at Malta on the
+29th. No opposition was made. "The parting scene at our leaving, was
+more tender and affecting than we could have expected, and afforded
+a comforting evidence that, whatever may be the impression we have
+left on the general population, there are _some_ hearts in Syria,
+which are sincerely attached to us. Many, as we passed them, prayed
+that God would protect us on our voyage. And others, notwithstanding
+the plague, came to our houses to bid us farewell. One thoughtful
+youth, who was with us daily, belonging to one of the first Greek
+families, was full of grief, and earnestly begged us to take him
+with us, though contrary to the will of his parents."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+THE MARTYR OF LEBANON.
+
+1826-1830.
+
+
+The conversion, life, and martyrdom of Asaad Shidiak,1 so very early
+in the history of this mission, is a significant and encouraging
+fact. He not only belonged to the Arab race, but to a portion of it
+that had long been held in slavish subjection to Rome. His fine mind
+and heart opened to the truths of the Gospel almost as soon as they
+were presented; and when once embraced, they were held through years
+of suffering, which terminated in a martyr's death. With freedom to
+act, he would have gone forth an apostle to his countrymen. The
+Arab-speaking race is estimated at sixty millions, and they must
+receive the gospel mainly from those to whom the language is
+vernacular. It will tend greatly to strengthen the faith of
+Christians as to this result, to contemplate the grace of God as
+seen in the case of this early convert. Space cannot be afforded to
+do full justice to the facts, which were chiefly recorded by the
+Rev. Isaac Bird, but the reader is referred in the margin to more
+ample sources of information.2
+
+1 Written also Asaad el-Shidiak, and Asaad esh-Shidiak.
+
+2 See _Missionary Herald_ for 1827, pp. 68, 71-76, 97-101, 129-136,
+169-177, 268-271, 369-372; for 1828, pp. 16-19, 115-119, 165, 373,
+375; for 1829, pp. 15, 47, 111, 115; and _The Martyr of Lebanon_, by
+Rev. Isaac Bird, Boston, 1864, pp. 208.
+
+Asaad Shidiak was the fourth son of a respectable Maronite, and was
+born about the year 1797, at Hadet, a small village a few miles from
+Beirūt. His early training was among the Maronites. Such was his
+ability and fondness for learning, that his family aided him in
+preparing for the Maronite college at Ain Warka, the most noted
+seminary on the mountains. He entered the college at the age of
+sixteen, and remained nearly three years, applying himself
+diligently to rhetoric, and to natural and theological science, all
+of which were taught in the Arabic and Syriac languages.
+
+Having completed his college course with the highest honor, he
+became a teacher, first of a common village school, and then of
+theology and general science in a convent. Occasionally he was
+permitted to deliver public lectures. His text-book in the
+instruction of the monks, was the theological treatise of St.
+Anthony of Padua, translated into Arabic; of which he made an
+abridgment, that is still used among the Maronites.
+
+From about the year 1820 to 1824, Asaad was successively in the
+employ of the Maronite bishop of Beirūt, and of several Arab chiefs.
+These frequent changes were apparently not for his advantage.
+
+He next made application in person to his old college instructor,
+who had been elevated to the Patriarchal chair. His holiness gave
+him a cool reception, and reproached him for having preferred the
+service of sheikhs and princes to that of his bishop. Yet so
+valuable were his services, that he remained a while with the
+Patriarch, copying, illustrating, and arranging certain important
+documents of the Patriarchate, and making out from them a convenient
+code of church-laws for the Maronite nation, which has since been
+adopted for general use. But for some reason Asaad felt himself
+unwelcome, and returned home dissatisfied.
+
+At this time the Maronite priesthood began to be alarmed by the
+distribution of the Scriptures, and the spread of Protestantism. The
+Patriarch issued a proclamation against the missionaries, and they
+replied. Asaad set himself to answer their reply. It was in this
+connection that his name first became known to the missionaries, to
+whom he was reported as a man of talent and high education. The
+dignitaries of the church did not see fit to allow his essay to be
+published.
+
+In March, 1825, a well-dressed young man, of easy manners and sedate
+countenance, came to Beirūt and asked to be employed by the mission
+as a teacher of Arabic. As soon as he gave his name, he was
+recognized as the man who was to have answered their reply to the
+Patriarch. He took no pains to conceal his agency in the matter, and
+even frankly begged the liberty of examining the original book,
+containing one of the most important quotations in the reply by the
+mission.
+
+There was then no special need of another teacher; and though his
+very gentlemanly appearance and apparent frankness, and his good
+sense pleaded in his favor, it was thought prudent to decline his
+proposal. Little did those excellent brethren think, as this young
+man turned to go away, how soon they would welcome him to their
+hearts and homes, and how many thousands of Christian people, even
+across the ocean, would thrill in sympathy with his sufferings as a
+martyr for Christ.
+
+Providence so ordered it, that Mr. King arrived from Jerusalem just
+in time to secure the services of Asaad before he went elsewhere. He
+was for several weeks Mr. King's instructor in Syriac. The two were
+well met, and in their frequent discussions, on the differences
+between the doctrines of the Gospel and those of the Papacy, Mr.
+King found him one of the most intelligent and skillful reasoners in
+all the mountains. He was shrewd, sensible, and inquisitive, candid
+and self-possessed, and was always as ready to hear as to speak. His
+age was then twenty-nine. There is no good reason to believe that
+Asaad was actuated, at this time, by higher than worldly motives.
+
+At the close of his connection with Mr. King, he made another effort
+to secure employment from his Patriarch. Not succeeding, he became
+Arabic teacher to Mr. Fisk; at the same time assisting Mr. King,
+then about leaving the country, in preparing his celebrated
+"Farewell Letter" to his Arab friends. After having put this into
+neat Arabic style, he made a large number of copies, to be sent to
+different parts of the country.
+
+On the day of Mr. King's departure from Beirūt, Asaad, at the
+request of the mission, commenced an Arabic grammar-school for
+native boys. His leisure hours were devoted to composing a
+refutation of the doctrines contained in Mr. King's "Farewell
+Letter." This is his own account: "When I was copying the first
+rough draught of my reply, and had arrived at the last of the
+reasons, which, he said, prevented his becoming a member of the
+Roman Catholic Church; namely, their teaching it to be wrong for the
+commom people to possess or to read the Word of God, I observed that
+the writer brought a proof against the doctrine from the prophet
+Isaiah; namely, that if they spoke not according to the law and to
+the testimony, it was because there was no light in them.
+
+"While I was endeavoring to explain this passage according to the
+views of the Roman Catholic Church, with no other object than the
+praise of men and other worldly motives, I chanced to read the
+twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah from the fifteenth verse to the end.
+I read and was afraid. I meditated upon the chapter a long while,
+and feared that I was doing what I did with a motive far different
+from the only proper one,--the glory and pleasure of God. I
+therefore threw my paper by without finishing the copy, and applied
+myself to the reading of Isaiah.
+
+"I had wished to find in the prophet some plain and incontrovertible
+proofs of the Messiahship of Christ, to use against Moslems and
+Jews. While thus searching, I found various passages that would
+_bear_ an explanation according to my views, and read on till I came
+to the fifty-second chapter, and fourteenth verse, and onward to the
+end of the next chapter.
+
+"On finding this testimony, my heart rejoiced and was exceeding
+glad, for it removed many dark doubts from my own mind. From that
+time, my desire to read the New Testament was greatly increased,
+that I might discover the best means of acting according to the
+doctrines of Jesus. I endeavored to divest myself of all selfish
+bias, and loved more and more to inquire into religious subjects. I
+saw, as I still see, many doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church,
+that I could not believe, and which I found opposed to the truths of
+the Gospel, and I wished much to find some of her best teachers to
+explain them to me, that I might see how they proved them from the
+Holy Scriptures. As I was reading an appendix to a Bible printed at
+Rome by the Propaganda, and searching out the passages referred to
+for proving the duty of worshipping saints, and the like, I found
+that these proofs failed altogether of establishing these doctrines,
+and that to infer them from such Scripture texts was even
+ridiculous. Among other things, I found in this appendix the very
+horrible Neronian doctrine, 'that it is our duty to destroy
+heretics.' Now every one knows, that whoever does not believe that
+the Pope is infallible, is, in the Pope's estimation, a heretic. And
+this doctrine is not merely that it is allowable to kill heretics,
+but that we are in duty bound to do it.
+
+"From this I was the more established in my convictions against the
+doctrines of the Papacy, and saw that they were the doctrines of the
+ravenous beast, and not of the gentle lamb. After I had read this, I
+asked one of the priests in Beirūt about this doctrine, and he
+assured me that it was even as I had read. I then wished to go even
+to some distant country, that I might find a Roman Catholic
+sufficiently learned to prove the doctrine above alluded to."
+
+Receiving two letters from the Patriarch, requiring him to leave the
+missionaries on pain of the greater excommunication, and promising
+to provide him a situation, he went to his friends at Hadet. But his
+thoughts were drawn to the subject of religion, and finding nothing
+in which he could take delight, he returned to Beirūt, and engaged
+himself to Mr. Bird for a year. This was in December, 1825. For
+greater security, a consular protection was now obtained for him
+from Mr. Abbott, which ensured him, while in the employ of the
+mission, all the liberty and safety of an English resident. There
+was no American Consul in the country at that time. He now applied
+himself to searching the Scriptures, and discussing religious
+doctrines. Discarding all unwritten traditions, the Apocryphal
+books, and all implied dependence on the fathers and councils, he
+found himself standing, in respect to his rule of faith, on
+Protestant ground.
+
+With all his strong points of character, Asaad had the
+constitutional weakness of being artless and confiding. In January,
+1826, the Patriarch sent his own brother, as a special messenger,
+inviting Asaad to an interview, and making him flattering promises.
+The consultation with the priest was private, but it soon appeared,
+that Asaad was disposed to comply with the patriarchal invitation.
+It was suggested to him, that the Patriarch was meditating evil
+against him; but his reply was that he had little fear of it, that
+the Maronites were not accustomed to take life, or to imprison men,
+on account of religion. So confident was he that good would result
+from the visit, that the brethren in the mission ceased to urge
+their objections. On reaching the Patriarch's convent, he thus
+wrote:--
+
+"I am now at the convent of Alma, and God be thanked, I arrived in
+good health. As yet, however, I have not seen his blessedness.
+
+"I pray God, the Father, and his only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
+that He will establish me in his love, and that I may never exchange
+it for any created thing; that neither death, nor life, nor things
+present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor riches, nor
+honor, nor dignity, nor office, nor anything in creation, shall
+separate me from this love. I beg you to pray to God for me, which
+request I make, also, to all the believers."
+
+Several weeks brought no farther direct intelligence, and there were
+conflicting reports, which awakened apprehension as to his safety.
+In the latter part of February, a messenger was sent to obtain
+accurate knowledge of his situation. The man saw him at the convent
+of Alma, and had a short private interview. Asaad said, that three
+things were before him; either to be regarded as mad, or to commit
+sin, or to offer up his life; but he was ready, he said, to go to
+prison, or to death. He was engaged in daily controversy with the
+Patriarch, the Bishop, and others. The main topics on which he
+insisted, were the necessity of a spiritual religion in distinction
+from mere forms, the sufficiency of Scripture, and the absurdity of
+holding the Pope to be infallible. The Patriarch was highly
+displeased with these bold sentiments, and gave utterance to cruel
+threats, though at other times offering promotion and money.
+
+Asaad objected to the plan of rescuing him by consular authority, as
+it might endanger his life. He thought it best to await some
+providential opening for his escape. One soon occurred. After a
+week, he left the convent at midnight. The mountain paths were
+narrow, stony, and crooked, and he often found himself astray,
+stumbling over rocks and hedges, wading in brooks, or miring in mud.
+Reaching the sea-shore, he found a shelter under which he rested for
+a while, and then walked on to Beirūt, where he was received most
+joyfully. The Patriarch and his train were engaged in morning
+prayers when Asaad's escape was announced. There was great
+excitement. One man among them, who had sympathized with Asaad,
+ventured to speak out in his justification. "You had reason," he
+said, "to expect nothing else. Why should he stay with you here?
+What had he here to do? What had he to enjoy? Books he had none;
+friendly society none; conversation against religion abundant;
+insults upon his opinions and feelings abundant. Why should he not
+leave you?" Messengers were sent in quest of him in every direction,
+but in vain.
+
+Asaad's written account of his experiences during his absence on the
+mountains, is very interesting, but there is not room for even an
+abridgment of it.1 A few of the incidents may be noted. The chief
+object of the Patriarch was to induce him to say, that his faith was
+like that of the Romish Church. This he declined doing, as it would
+be a falsehood. The Patriarch offered to absolve him from the sin of
+falsehood, to which Asaad replied, "What the law of nature condemns,
+no man can make lawful." Accompanied by a priest, he visited his own
+college of Ain Warka, but gained no light; and the same was true of
+his visit to the superior of the convent of Bzummįr, who desired to
+see him. It is a suggestive fact, that the infallibility of the
+Pope, even then, was everywhere a controverted point between him and
+the priesthood. The weakness of the reasoning on the papal side was
+everywhere so apparent to him, as greatly to strengthen his
+evangelical faith. In one of his interviews with the Patriarch he
+said: "I would ask of you the favor to send from your priests two
+faithful men to preach the Gospel through the country; and I am
+ready, if necessary, to sell all I possess and give it towards their
+wages." He afterwards offered to go himself and preach the Gospel.
+But neither of these proposals was accepted.
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_ for 1827, pp. 71-76, 97-101.
+
+He was at length deprived of his books, and severely threatened by
+the Patriarch. "Fearing," he says, "that I should be found among the
+fearful (Rev. xxi. 8), I turned, and said to him, 'I will hold fast
+the religion of Jesus Christ, and I am ready, for the sake of it, to
+shed my blood; and though you should all become infidels, yet will
+not I;' and so left the room."
+
+Asaad says, in his narrative: "A friend told me, that the Patriarch
+wondered how I should pretend that I held to the Christian religion,
+and still converse in such abusive terms against it. And I also
+wondered, after he saw this, that he should not be willing so much
+as to ask me, in mildness and forbearance, for what reasons I was
+unwilling to receive the doctrines of the Pope, or to say, that I
+believed as he did. But, so far from this, he laid every person, and
+even his own brother under excommunication, should they presume to
+dispute or converse with me on the subject of religion. Entirely
+bereft of books, and shut out from all persons who might instruct
+me, from what quarter could I get the evidence necessary to persuade
+me to accept the Patriarch's opinions?
+
+"Another cause I had of wonder was, that not one of all with whom I
+conversed, when he thought me heretical, advised me to use the only
+means of becoming strong in the faith, namely, prayer to God Most
+High, and searching his Holy Word, which a child may understand. I
+wondered, too, that they should ridicule and report me abroad as
+insane, and after all this, be afraid to engage in a dispute with
+the madman, lest he should turn them away from the truth."
+
+As the Patriarch, and the Bishop of Beirūt, whose diocese included
+Hadet, were determined to shut him out from the people, and even
+threatened his life, Asaad resolved on escaping to Beirūt, which he
+accomplished, as already stated, on the morning of Thursday, March
+2, 1826.
+
+Asaad's statement was forthwith copied and sent in various
+directions through the mountains, and afterwards it had a much wider
+circulation in a printed form.
+
+The Patriarch's first effort to recapture the fugitive, was by means
+of a Turkish sheriff, and it failed. On the following Monday, an
+uncle and the two elder brothers of Asaad came to see what they
+could do; and they were followed by another brother, and then by the
+mother and her youngest son. The older brothers were loud and
+violent in their denunciations. All these the persecuted young
+Christian met with a calm firmness, but he was at one time almost
+overcome by the distress of his mother. She was at length pacified
+by the declarations, that he was not a follower of the English, that
+he derived not his creed from them, that he believed in the Trinity,
+that Jesus was God, and that Mary was his mother. Phares, the
+youngest brother, consented to receive a New Testament, and was
+evidently affected and softened by the interview.
+
+On the 16th of March, Asaad received a kind and fatherly epistle
+from the Patriarch, begging him to return home, and relieve the
+anxieties of his mother and family, and giving him full assurance,
+that he need not fear being interfered with in his freedom. He was
+thus approached on his weak side. Too confiding, he really believed
+this insidious letter, and that he might now go home and live there
+with his religion unshackled. He wrote a favorable reply. The family
+was doubtless urged to make sure of the victim before anything
+occurred to change his mind, and the very next day four of his
+relations, including Phares, came to escort him to Hadet. The
+missionaries all believed it perilous, and so he thought himself,
+but he believed, also, that there was now a door opened for him
+prudently to preach the Gospel. At Beirūt, he said, he could only
+use his pen, "but who is there in this country," he asked, "that
+reads?" One of the sisters of the mission said, as she took him by
+the hand, that she expected never to see him again in this world. He
+smiled at what he regarded her extravagant apprehension, returned
+some quiet answer, and proceeded on his way, never to return.
+
+Asaad was treated harshly by his older brothers, and had reason to
+regard his life as imperiled: "I am in a sort of imprisonment," he
+said, "enemies within, and enemies without," Towards the last of
+March, twenty or more of his relations assembled, to take him to the
+Patriarch by force. He expostulated with Tannūs, the eldest of the
+family except one, as the chief manager in the affair, and besought
+him to desist from a step so inconsistent with their fraternal
+relations. The unnatural brother turned from him in cold
+indifference, which so affected Asaad that he went aside, and prayed
+and wept.
+
+In the evening, he at one time addressed the whole assembled company
+in this manner: "If I had not read the Gospel, I should have been
+astonished at this movement of yours; but now I see through it all.
+It is just what the Gospel has told me to expect; 'The brother shall
+deliver up the brother to death, and a man's foes shall be they of
+his own household.' Here you see it is just so. You have assembled
+together here to fulfill this prophecy of the Gospel. What have I
+done against you? What is my crime, that it should have called
+together such an assemblage? Be it that I take the blessed Bible as
+my only guide to heaven, does that injure you? Is it a crime that
+renders me worthy of being taken as a malefactor, and sent into
+confinement?"
+
+Surrounded, as he was, by men insensible to pity, the mother's heart
+was deeply moved seeing him arrested and borne away as if he had
+been a murderer. She wept, and Asaad sympathized with her, and
+turned his back on the home of his childhood, weeping and praying
+aloud.
+
+He was first taken to the convent of Alma, and then to Canobeen.
+That convent, where he was destined to wear out the miserable
+remainder of his life, was in one of the wildest and least
+accessible recesses of Lebanon.
+
+More than a mouth passed without intelligence, when the Mission
+received reliable information, that Asaad was in prison, and in
+chains, and that he was beaten a certain number of stripes daily. A
+cousin was afterwards permitted to visit him, and reported that he
+found him sitting on the bare floor, his bed having been taken from
+him, with a heavy chain around his neck, the other end of which was
+fastened to the wall. He had also been deprived of all his books and
+writing utensils. Fruitless efforts were made to effect his
+deliverance, and his family at last relented, and joined in the
+efforts. The mother accompanied one of the older sons to Canobeen,
+and found him in chains, which she had not been willing to believe
+till she saw it for herself. So decided were the two younger
+brothers in their movements on his behalf, that they had to consult
+their own safety in flight. Once they almost succeeded. Asaad
+himself, under the pressure of his sufferings, made several attempts
+to flee, but not knowing the way, he was easily apprehended, and the
+only effect was an aggravation of his misery. A priest gives the
+following account of his treatment, after one of these failures. "On
+his arrival at the convent, the Patriarch gave immediate orders for
+his punishment; and they fell upon him with reproaches, caning him,
+and smiting him with their hands; yet as often as they struck him on
+one cheek, he turned to them the other. 'This,' said he, 'is a
+joyful day to me. My blessed Lord and Master has said, Bless them
+that curse you; and if they strike you on the right cheek, turn to
+them the other also. This I have been enabled to do; and I am ready
+to suffer even more than this for Him who was beaten, and spit upon,
+and led as a sheep to the slaughter on our account.' When they heard
+this, they fell to beating him anew, saying, 'Have we need of your
+preaching, you deceiver? Of what avail are such pretensions as
+yours, who are in the broad road to perdition?' He replied, 'He that
+believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, hath eternal life.'
+'Ah,' said they, 'this is the way you are blinded. Your salvation is
+by faith alone in Christ; thus you cast contempt on his mother, and
+on his saints. You believe not in the presence of his holy body on
+the earth.' And they threw him on the ground, and overwhelmed him
+with the multitude of their blows."
+
+For three successive days he was subjected to the bastinado, by
+order of the Patriarch. Remaining firm to his belief, he was again
+put in chains, the door barred upon him, and his food given him in
+short allowance. Compassionate persons interceded, and his condition
+was alleviated for a time, but no one was allowed to converse with
+him. After some days, aided, it is supposed, by relatives, he again
+fled from the convent, but was arrested by soldiers sent out in
+search of him by the Emeer Abdallah, and delivered to the Patriarch.
+"On his arrival," says a priest who was with him at Canobeen, "he
+was loaded with chains, cast into a dark, filthy room, and
+bastinadoed every day for eight days, sometimes fainting under the
+operation, until he was near death. He was then left in his misery,
+his bed a thin flag mat, his covering his common clothes. The door
+of his prison was filled up with stones and mortar, and his food was
+six thin cakes of bread a day, and a cup of water."
+
+To this dungeon there was no access or outlet whatever except a
+small loop-hole, through which they passed him his food. Here he lay
+several days, and its ever-increasing loathsomeness need not be
+described. No wonder he cried: "Love ye the Lord Jesus Christ
+according as He hath loved us, and given himself to die for us.
+Think of me, O ye that pass by; have pity upon me, and deliver me
+from these sufferings."
+
+A certain priest, who had been a former friend of Asaad, was touched
+with compassion, and by perseverance succeeded in once more opening
+his prison doors, and taking off his chains. But he also became
+suspected in consequence of his kindness to Asaad, and it is not
+known how long the sufferer was allowed this partial freedom. One of
+his brothers visited him in 1828, and found him inclosed within four
+solid stone walls, as in a sepulchre "full of all uncleanness." In
+1829, there appears not to have been any mitigation of his
+sufferings. For three years or more, the priestly despot had him
+under his heel, and inflicted upon him the greatest amount of
+suffering compatible with the continuance of life.
+
+His death is supposed to have occurred in October, 1830. Public
+opinion was divided as to the cause and manner of it. The Patriarch
+said it was by fever. There is the same uncertainty as to the manner
+of his burial. But though thrown down into the ravine and covered
+with stones, as was alleged, his dust will ever be precious in the
+eyes of the Lord.
+
+Asaad maintained his Christian profession to the last, and he must
+ever have an honorable place among the Christian martyrs of modern
+times.
+
+Soon after the capture of Acre by Ibrahim Pasha, in 1832, Mr. Tod,
+an English merchant, accompanied by Wortabet, obtained an audience
+with him, and made known the case of Asaad. The Pasha directed the
+Emir Beshir to furnish ten soldiers to Mr. Tod, with authority to
+search the convent of Canobeen by force, if necessary. He was
+received by the Patriarch and priests of the convent with dismay.
+They asserted that Asaad had died two years before, pointed out his
+grave, and offered to open it. The convent was thoroughly searched,
+but he was not found, and Mr. Tod was convinced that he was really
+dead.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_ for 1833, pp. 51-57.
+
+When it is considered how severely and in how many ways Asaad was
+tried, his faith and constancy appear admirable. His pride of
+intellect and authorship, and his reputation for consistency, were
+opposed, at the outset, to any change in his religious opinions.
+Then all his reverence for his ecclesiastical superiors and his
+former tutors, some of whom were naturally mild in their tempers,
+and his previous habits of thought, withstood his yielding to the
+convictions of conscience and the authority of Scripture. Next, the
+anathemas of the Church, the tears of a mother appalled by the
+infamy of having an apostate son, the furious menaces of brothers,
+and the bitter hatred of masses stirred up by an influential
+priesthood, combined to hold him back from the truth. All these
+things were preparatory to being seized by indignant relatives,
+chained to his prison walls, deprived of the New Testament and other
+books, and of every means of recreation, refused even those bodily
+comforts which nature renders indispensable; in such a forlorn
+condition, exposed to the insults of a bigoted populace and the
+revilings of a tyrannical priesthood, beaten till his body became a
+mass of disease, and held in this variety of grief for years,
+without one ray of hope, save through the portals of the tomb, who
+expected that he would endure steadfastly to the end?
+
+On the other hand, if he would only recant, promotion awaited him,
+and wealth, indeed everything that could be offered to prevent a
+dreaded defection. How many are there, with all our knowledge and
+strength of religious principle, who, in his situation, would like
+him be faithful unto death?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE PRESS AT MALTA.
+
+1822-1833.
+
+
+The location of the press at Malta, was not the result of design,
+but because printing could not be done safely, if at all, either at
+Smyrna or at Beirūt. Its operations were begun under the impression
+of a more extended taste for reading and reflection in the several
+communities of the Levant, than really existed; and it is doubtful
+whether the larger part of the earlier publications were well suited
+to the apprehension of the Oriental mind. However this may be, it
+was decided, in the year 1829, to make it a leading object, for a
+time, to furnish books for elementary schools; making them, as far
+as possible, the vehicles of moral and religious truth. The wisdom
+of this course was seen among the Greeks. A first book for schools
+of sixty pages, called the Alphabetarion, went into extensive use.
+Twenty-seven thousand copies were called for in Greece before the
+year 1831.
+
+There had been more or less of printing since 1822; but it was not
+until the close of 1826, that the arrival of Mr. Homan Hallock
+furnished a regular and competent printer. In the year following,
+Mr. Temple was bereaved of his excellent wife and of two children,
+and at the invitation of the Prudential Committee he visited the
+United States. Meanwhile the presence of Messrs. Bird, Goodell,
+Smith, and Hallock kept the press in operation. Mr. Temple returned
+in 1830.
+
+The establishment consisted of three presses, with fonts of type in
+English, Italian, Modern Greek, Greco-Turkish, Armenian,
+Armeno-Turkish, and Arabic, but the greater part of the printing was
+in the Italian, the Modern Greek, and Armeno-Turkish. The most
+important work was the translation of the New Testament in the
+Armeno-Turkish, which was printed at the expense of the British and
+Foreign Bible Society. It was prepared from two translations, one by
+Mr. Goodell, with the efficient aid of Bishop Carabet, the other by
+an Armenian priest at Constantinople, in the employ of Mr. Leeves,
+agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Mr. Goodell's
+version was made conformable to the original Greek, and the last
+sheet was printed in January, 1831. During that year, there were
+printed seventy-eight thousand copies of fourteen works, amounting
+to nearly five millions of pages, all in modern Greek. The whole
+amount of printing at Malta, from the establishment of the press in
+July, 1822, to December, 1833, the time of its removal to Smyrna,
+was about three hundred and fifty thousand volumes, containing
+twenty-one millions of pages. Nearly the whole were put in
+circulation, and additional supplies of some of the books were
+urgently demanded. The Roman Catholics opposed this work from the
+first, and anathematized the books issued.
+
+The labor and expense were increased by the singular use of
+alphabets in the Levantine regions. The Maronites and Syrians spoke
+the Arabic language, but employed the Syriac alphabet in writing.
+The Armenians, to a large extent, spoke the Turkish language, but
+wrote it with the Armenian alphabet. The Greeks in Asia generally
+spoke the Turkish language, but used the Greek alphabet. The Grecian
+Jews spoke the Grecian language, the Spanish Jews the Spanish, the
+Barbary Jews the Arabic, but all three used the Hebrew alphabet.
+Then, too, the worship of the Syrians, Greeks, and Armenians was in
+the ancient languages of those nations, which were for the most part
+unintelligible to the common people.
+
+Mr. Temple began preaching in Italian early in 1826, and during his
+whole residence on the island he preached every Sabbath, either in
+Italian or English. The rule he prescribed for himself, whether
+preaching to Gentiles or Jews, was to preach the great truths of the
+Bible plainly and faithfully, appealing as little as possible to
+Fathers, Councils, or Rabbins. Contemporary with him were Mr.
+Jowett, of the Church Missionary Society, Mr. Wilson, of the London
+Missionary Society, and Mr. Keeling, of the English Wesleyan
+Society, and all were on the best terms of Christian fellowship.
+
+In December, 1833, Messrs. Temple and Hallock removed to Smyrna,
+with the printing establishment, and Dionysius Carabet accompanied
+them as a translator. Wortabet had previously returned to Syria.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+PRELIMINARY EXPLORATIONS.
+
+1828-1831.
+
+
+Enough was known, in the year 1828, to encourage the belief, that
+Greece and Western Asia would soon demand a more extensive
+prosecution of the missionary work; but more specific information
+was indispensable to an intelligent enlargement. The temporary
+suspension of the Syrian mission had brought the whole of the
+missionary force of the Board in that part of the world to Malta
+(except that Mr. Temple was on a visit to the United States), thus
+making consultation easy. Other reasons called for a more free and
+extended official intercourse than could be held by letter.
+Accordingly the author, then Assistant Secretary of the Board, was
+sent to Malta at the close of 1828, with instructions to confer with
+the brethren, and afterwards to visit Greece and other parts of the
+Levant. The conferences at Malta occupied two months, and aided much
+in determining subsequent measures. When these were over, the
+author, in company with the Rev. Eli Smith, afterward so favorably
+and widely known in the Christian world, visited the Ionian Islands,
+the Morea, and the Grecian Archipelago. Count John A. Capodistrias
+was then President of Greece, and had his residence on the island of
+Ęgina. Athens was still held by the Turks. It was made incumbent on
+the author to propose inquiries to the President on certain points,
+and this was rendered easy by his urbanity and his frank and
+explicit answers. The inquiries were mainly for gaining the needed
+information; and they elicited some facts which deterred the
+Committee from a class of expenditures, that would have been in
+accordance with the popular feeling at that time, but might have
+proved a fruitful source of disappointment. Mr. King was then in
+Greece as a philhellene, in charge of supplies sent by ladies in New
+York to be distributed among the impoverished people. Perhaps the
+most important result of this negotiation with the Greek government,
+besides facilitating Mr. King's protracted and useful connection
+with the Greek mission, was a written assurance by the chief ruler
+of the nation, that among the books to be used in the schools of
+Greece should be the Bible, the New Testament, and the Psalms, all
+translated and printed in modern Greek.
+
+Among the results of the consultations at Malta, was Mr. Bird's
+visit to Tripoli and Tunis on the African coast, for which he was
+specially qualified by his free use of the Arabic language. He had
+opportunities at Tripoli for conversing with Jews, Moslems, Papists,
+and persons of no religion. His books and tracts were chiefly in the
+Hebrew and Arabic languages. At Tunis, he distributed copies of the
+Scriptures, but in neither place did there seem to be a sufficient
+opening for instituting a mission.
+
+Another result of the Malta conferences was the distribution of the
+mission forces; Mr. Bird to Syria, Mr. Goodell to Constantinople,
+and Mr. Smith for an exploring tour among the Armenians of Turkey.
+Soon after the return of the Assistant Secretary, the Rev. H. G. O.
+Dwight was designated to accompany Mr. Smith in his proposed tour of
+exploration, and the Rev. George B. Whiting as the companion of Mr.
+Bird on his return to Syria. Mrs. Dwight was to remain at Malta
+during her husband's absence.
+
+The two explorers sailed for Smyrna in March, 1830, in the same
+vessel which had brought Mr. Dwight from Boston. After some days at
+Smyrna, in the family of Mr. Brewer, who had returned to that place
+in connection with a society of ladies in New Haven, they went
+overland to Constantinople. This was a journey of eight days, and
+was made necessary by the long detention, to which sailing vessels
+were liable from north winds at the mouth of the Dardanelles. The
+time for steamers had not yet come in these regions.
+
+The departure from Constantinople was near the close of May, in the
+most charming season of the year. As in the journey from Smyrna,
+they put themselves under a Tartar, who, for their greater security,
+had set his seal to a written contract in presence of the Tartar
+aghasy. The government became thus responsible for their persons and
+property. Instead of trunks, they had two large bags, two
+saddle-bags, and two valises, all of thick Russian leather, fastened
+with padlocks, and impermeable to water. Instead of mattresses, each
+had a carpet and coverlet rolled in painted canvas, that served as a
+floor at night, when it was their lot to lie on the ground. Each had
+an ample Turkish pelisse, lined with the fur of the Caucasian fox.
+Four copper pans, a mill for grinding coffee, a pot, cups, and a
+knife, fork, and spoon for each, were their utensils for cooking and
+eating. A circular piece of leather served for a table when spread
+upon the ground, and when drawn together like a lady's reticule, and
+suspended from the saddle, it formed a bag to carry their bread and
+cheese. The whole was so compact as to require, on ordinary
+occasions, but a single extra horse. As the Turkish post furnished
+only horses, they were obliged to add saddles and bridles to their
+other accoutrements; and to their saddles, as was usual, were
+attached holsters, to deter from hostile attacks upon them. To avoid
+unnecessary notice, expense, and trouble, if not insult, they wore
+loose Turkish robes, the Oriental turban, and the enormous Tartar
+stockings and boots. Of course they had also the needful firmans,
+passports, and letters of introduction.
+
+Their route lay along what at that time might be called, for the
+most part, the high road to Tabriz, and passed through Tokat,
+Erzroom, Kars, Tiflis, Shoosha, Nakhchevan, Echmiadzin, and Khoy, a
+distance of more than fifteen hundred miles. At Tokat, the
+travellers visited the grave of Henry Martyn, who died there in
+1812. On the 13th of June, they entered Erzroom, then in possession
+of an invading army of Russians; which soon retired, and was
+accompanied by a large portion of the Armenian population in that
+district. The Turks of Erzroom found it hard to comprehend from what
+country the travellers came. Kars, Tiflis, Shoosha, and Echmiadzin
+had been subjected to Russian rule. Tiflis was the capital of
+Georgia. Shoosha, where they arrived about the middle of August,
+worn down by fatigue in descending the insalubrious valley of the
+Koor, or Cyrus, was then the seat of a German mission, which gave a
+cordial reception to their American brethren. The cholera prevailed
+in all that region, and it was estimated that as many as seventy
+thousand people died of it, during the two months and a half our
+travellers spent in Shoosha. They gave an interesting account of the
+German colonies in Georgia, which had their origin in extravagant
+views concerning the millennium. "Previous to 1817, several popular
+and ardent ministers in the kingdom of Würtemberg maintained, in
+commentaries on the Apocalypse and other publications, that the
+wished-for period would commence in 1836, and would be preceded by a
+dreadful apostasy and great persecutions. These views, in addition
+to the fascinating interest always connected with prophetical
+theories, being enforced with much pious feeling, acquired so great
+credit as to be adopted by nearly all the religious people in the
+kingdom, and by many others. At the same time, the advocates of the
+neological system, being the predominant party in the clergy,
+succeeded in effecting some alterations in the prayers and hymns of
+the Church in accommodation to their errors. This grieved
+exceedingly all who were attached to evangelical principles, and was
+taken to be the apostasy they expected. Their prophetical teachers
+had intimated that, as in the destruction of Jerusalem the
+Christians found a place of refuge, so would there be one now, and
+that, somewhere in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea. Many, therefore,
+of the common people determined to seek the wished-for asylum, that
+they and their children (for whom the better sort were particularly
+anxious) might escape the impending storm, and also be able to form
+an independent ecclesiastical establishment according to their own
+notions. To these were joined others desirous of change, or in
+straitened circumstances, who though not at heart pious, professed
+for the time to be influenced by the same principles and motives. In
+fact the latter became the most numerous. The company, when it left
+Würtemberg, consisted of fifteen hundred families. But no adequate
+arrangement having been made for the journey, and the sinister
+motives of the majority contributing to create disorder, they
+suffered exceedingly on the way, and before they reached Odessa, two
+thirds had died."1 The number of the colonists, in 1832, was about
+two thousand, but their enterprise had not been successful.
+
+1 _Missionary Researches in Armenia_, vol. i. p. 264.
+
+On the way from Echmiadzin to Tabriz, a distance of nearly two
+hundred and fifty miles, Mr. Smith suffered greatly from illness.
+When seventy miles from that city, his strength gave out entirely,
+so that he could go no farther with the conveyances then at command.
+His life was probably saved by Mr. Dwight's sending a messenger to
+the gentlemen of the English embassy at Tabriz, requesting the aid
+of a takhtirewįn, the only native carriage known to the Persians. It
+resembles a sedan-chair, except in being borne by two mules or
+horses, and closed from the external air, and in requiring a lying
+posture. The vehicle soon arrived; but was preceded by Dr. McNeill,
+the physician and first assistant of the embassy, who then commenced
+those acts of kindness which ever endeared him to the Nestorian
+mission. Colonel McDonald, the ambassador, had lately died, and Dr.
+McNeill was soon obliged to leave for Teherįn. Dr. Cormick, who had
+healed Henry Martyn of a similar disease, then took the medical
+charge of Mr. Smith. After their long experience of filthy stables,
+the comfortable, well-furnished apartments provided for them at
+Tabriz, through the generous hospitality of Major Willock, former
+commander of the English forces in Persia, and Captain Campbell, the
+acting Envoy, were more grateful to the weary travellers than can
+well be conceived. Mr. Nisbit, an officer in the commissariat
+department, together with his wife, entered fully into their
+feelings as missionaries, and sympathized with them in their views
+of the spiritual wants of the country.
+
+Messrs. Smith and Dwight were required by their instructions, to
+investigate and report on the condition of the Nestorians inhabiting
+the northwestern province of Persia. In former ages, this people had
+been distinguished beyond any other Christian people--except
+perhaps, their contemporaries in Ireland--for missionary zeal and
+enterprise. From the seventh to the thirteenth centuries, they had
+missions both in central and eastern Asia. Previous to the overthrow
+of the Califate, A. D. 1258, their churches were scattered over the
+region forming modern Persia, and were numerous in Armenia,
+Mesopotamia, and Arabia. They had churches in Syria; on the island
+of Cyprus; among the mountains of Malabar; and in the extended
+regions of Tartary, from the Caspian Sea to Mount Imaus, and beyond
+through the greater part of what is now known as Chinese Tartary,
+and even in China itself. The names of twenty-five metropolitan sees
+are on record, embracing of course a far greater number of
+bishoprics, and still more numerous congregations.
+
+These facts, though known to learned historians, had fallen out of
+the popular mind. Indeed, they were not in the recollection of the
+executive officers of the American Board, when the author drew up
+the instructions to Messrs. Smith and Dwight. But while preparing
+them, his attention was incidentally drawn to a brief article in a
+Virginia publication, from the pen of Dr. Walsh, British chaplain at
+Constantinople, entitled "Chaldees in Persia;" and it was the
+impression made by that article, which led to a positive direction
+to visit that people, should it be found practicable, and see
+whether the churches in this western world had any duty to perform
+to them. The English at Tabriz confessed to an almost entire
+ignorance of the religious doctrines and character of the
+Nestorians. The only important fact our brethren could learn there
+was, that a considerable body of them were accessible in the
+provinces of Oroomiah and Salmas, at the distance of somewhat more
+than a hundred miles.
+
+Our travellers remained at Tabriz from the 18th of December to
+March, 1831, when restored health and the opening season permitted
+them to resume their journey. In Salmas, they first came in contact
+with the Chaldeans, as those Nestorians were called who had been won
+over by Roman Catholic missionaries since the year 1681. The name
+means no more than papal Syrians, or papal Armenians. Some of their
+bishops and priests had been educated in the college of the
+Propaganda at Rome, and spoke Italian fluently. The Chaldeans were
+reported, at that time, as a neglected and declining sect.
+
+Passing from Salmas into the province of Oroomiah, the travellers
+were received by the Nestorians in the most friendly and
+confidential manner, and the week passed among them was intensely
+interesting. While showing very clearly the need the people were in
+of religious instruction, they gave as additional considerations in
+favor of sending missionaries to them, their extreme liberality
+towards other sects, their ideas of open communion, and their entire
+rejection of auricular confession.
+
+The return of Messrs. Smith and Dwight was by way of Erzroom and
+Trebizond, thence by sea to Constantinople and Malta, at which last
+place they arrived on the 2d of July, 1831, after an absence of
+fifteen months and a half. In this time, their land travel exceeded
+two thousand and five hundred miles.
+
+The results of their inquiries were embodied by Mr. Smith, during a
+visit to his native land, under the title of "Researches in Armenia,
+including a Journey through Asia Minor and into Georgia and Persia,
+with a Visit to the Nestorian and Chaldean Christians," and were
+published in two volumes in Boston, and republished in London.
+Though nearly forty years have since elapsed, there is still a
+freshness of interest in the entire work, which makes it matter of
+regret that it is now out of print. The religious condition of the
+Armenians at that time, is comprehensively stated in the following
+paragraphs:--
+
+"The slightest acquaintance with ecclesiastical history may convince
+one, that before the commencement of the fourth century,
+Christianity had extensively degenerated from its original purity as
+a religion of the heart, into a mere profession of theoretical
+dogmas, and the observance of external rites. Such, it is natural to
+suspect, was the form of it to which the Armenians were at that
+period converted; and the circumstances of the event, if national
+tradition has correctly preserved them, confirm the suspicion, that
+they have from the beginning known extremely little of true
+conversion. We are told that immediately upon King Durtįd's
+embracing the faith, the nation followed his example in a body, and
+were baptized. To say nothing of the doubtfulness of all national
+conversions, the very hastiness of this proceeding, by allowing no
+time for competent instruction, shows that the Armenians could not
+have been enlightened converts; the fact that the Scriptures were
+not translated into their language until a century afterward, is an
+additional indication of the scantiness of their religious
+knowledge; and the confessed backsliding of many of the nobility
+into the most scandalous immoralities and the blackest crimes, even
+during the lifetime of Durtįd, proves how superficial was their
+conversion.
+
+"Thus the Armenian Church was a soil well adapted to the rapid
+growth of all the corruptions, which from that time sprang up, in
+such speedy succession, in different parts of the Christian world.
+Even those which then existed were, it would seem, not sparingly
+introduced by St. Gregory. For, by the immediate consecration of
+four hundred bishops, and a countless number of priests, he betrayed
+a disposition to multiply an idle and unqualified priesthood; and by
+the construction of convents and nunneries, and spending the last of
+his days in a solitary cave, he showed that he was ready to foster
+the monastic spirit of his age. So deeply, indeed, was the taste for
+monkhood implanted, that his fifth successor is said to have built
+two thousand convents.
+
+"Of the rites and dogmas subsequently adopted by other bodies of
+Christians, there was a free importation for the two centuries that
+the Armenians formed a regular branch of the General Church. A
+special messenger was sent to Jerusalem for the ceremonies observed
+in that church, and brought thence eight canons regulating the
+sacraments and other rites. For a similar object, a correspondence
+was carried on with the Bishop of Nisibis. One Catholicos, who had
+been educated at Constantinople in the influence of all the secular
+ideas and regulations introduced into the Church under the patronage
+of Constantine and his successors, brought from thence 'various
+observances, which, like precious stones, he inlaid into the old.'
+And several who followed him distinguished themselves by their
+_improvements_ in the services and laws of the Church. So that when,
+by rejecting the Council of Chalcedon, A. D. 491, the Armenians cut
+themselves off from the communion of the great body of Christians,
+they were doubtless in possession of all the legendary dogmas and
+observances which had then been adopted by the Christian world."1
+
+1 _Researches in Armenia_, Amer. Edition, vol. ii. pp. 290-292.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1827-1835.
+
+
+Mr. King's "Farewell Letter to his Friends in Syria and Palestine"
+was translated into the Armenian language by Bishop Dionysius, and a
+manuscript copy was sent by him, in the year 1827, to some of the
+more influential Armenians in Constantinople. Its effect was
+extraordinary. A meeting was called in the Armenian patriarchal
+church, at which the letter was read, and the marginal references to
+Scripture were verified. It was then agreed, by common consent, that
+the Church needed reform. The famous school of Peshtimaljian grew
+out of this meeting, at which it was decided, that no person should
+be ordained in the capital to the priest's office, who had not
+completed a regular course of study at this school. In the year
+1833, the missionaries were invited to be present at the ordination
+of fifteen Armenian priests in the patriarchal church; and they were
+then informed, that no one had received ordination in the metropolis
+since the adoption of the rule above stated, and that only such as
+had received a regular education at that school were regarded as
+eligible for ordination. As the result of this, nearly all the
+candidates were comparatively well-educated men, and one of them,
+hereafter to be more specially noted, had a high reputation for
+learning.
+
+Peshtimaljian, the head of the school, was an uncommon man. His
+inquisitive mind was ever gaining knowledge, and what he acquired
+his memory retained. He was a critical and accurate scholar in the
+language and literature of his nation, and made himself familiar
+with the theology and history of the Eastern and Romish Churches,
+and with the general history of the Church from the earliest ages.
+He was able to quote from the Scriptures with wonderful facility and
+accuracy. His confidence in the Bible, as the true Word of God and
+the only standard of faith, had indeed been shaken for a while by
+his disgust with the superstitions of his Church, and by the low
+character of many of its clergy, but he had recovered from this.
+Though timid and cautious to a fault, like Erasmus, and sometimes
+open to the charge of time-serving, he gradually led his pupils into
+new paths of inquiry, until they came to believe that the Church not
+only may err, but that it had actually erred in many of its
+teachings.
+
+Peshtimaljian became convinced at length, that his pupils were
+consistently carrying out the principles they had learned from him,
+and he strongly, though still privately, encouraged them in their
+labors for the spiritual good of their countrymen. Until his death,
+which occurred in 1837, he was the friend of the missionaries, and
+had much intercourse with them; though he never acquired the courage
+distinctly to avow himself an evangelical man. Up to that time,
+however, there had been no open persecution of the followers of
+Christ, and consequently no formal separation of the evangelical
+brethren from the Armenian community. All the first converts in
+Constantinople, and many of the later ones, were from his school.
+
+There can be no doubt that, owing to these and other less apparent
+causes, there was a preparation in the Armenian mind of Turkey for
+the reception of divine truth, before the arrival of the American
+missionaries. Though more evident at the capital than in the
+provinces, there seems to have been some degree of this preparation
+wherever Armenians were found. In this respect, there was a marked
+difference among that people, as compared with Jews and Greeks. The
+common people, where not intimidated by the clergy, almost
+everywhere heard the Word with gladness; and it was so with many of
+the parochial priests, when not dreading the wrath of their
+superiors. In all this we should gratefully acknowledge an
+overruling Providence in the ordering of events, and the divine
+agency of the Holy Spirit, making it apparent that the "fullness of
+time" had come for the entering in of evangelical missionaries.
+
+Messrs. Smith and Dwight, before leaving Constantinople on their
+eastern tour, earnestly recommended the forming of a station at the
+metropolis, with special reference to the Armenians. In April, 1831,
+Mr. Goodell, then at Malta, received instructions from the
+Prudential Committee to remove to that city. This he did, after
+having carried the Armeno-Turkish New Testament through the press.
+
+The splendid scene which opened to Mr. Goodell as he drew near the
+city on the 9th of June, he thus describes: "As we approached
+Constantinople, the most enchanting prospect opened to view. In the
+country, on our left, were fields rich in cultivation and
+fruitfulness. On our right, were the little isles of the Sea of
+Marmora; and beyond, the high lands of Broosa, with Olympus rearing
+its head above the clouds and covered with eternal snow. In the
+city, mosques, domes, and hundreds of lofty minarets, were starting
+up amidst the more humble abodes of men, all embosomed in groves of
+dark cypresses, which in some instances seemed almost like a forest;
+while before, behind, and around us, were (besides many boats of the
+country) more than twenty square-rigged vessels, bearing the flags
+of different nations, all under full sail, with a light but
+favorable breeze,--all converging to one point, and that
+CONSTANTINOPLE. When we first caught a glimpse of Top-Hana, Galata,
+and Pera, stretching from the water's edge to the summit of the
+hill, and began to sweep round Seraglio Point, the view became most
+beautiful and sublime. It greatly surpassed all that I had ever
+conceived of it. We had been sailing along what I should call the
+south side of the city for four or five miles, and were now entering
+the Bosphorus, with the city on our left, and Scutari on our right.
+The mosque of St. Sophia, with the palaces and gardens of the Sultan
+Mahmoud, were before us in all their majesty and loveliness.
+Numerous boats were shooting rapidly by us in all directions, giving
+to the scene the appearance of life and business. The vessels before
+us had been retarded, and those behind had been speeded, and we were
+sweeping round the Golden Horn in almost as rapid succession as was
+possible,--every captain apparently using all his skill to prevent
+coming in contact with his neighbor, or being carried away by the
+current; and every passenger apparently, like ourselves, gazing with
+admiration on the numerous objects of wonder on every hand."
+
+Mr. Goodell took a house in Pera, one of the suburbs of
+Constantinople, where the European ambassadors and most of the
+foreign Christians resided. Scarcely two months elapsed, before that
+populous section of the metropolis was almost wholly destroyed by
+fire. The missionary lost house, furniture, library, papers, and
+nearly all the clothing of himself and family; and was obliged to
+remove fifteen miles up the Bosphorus, to Buyuk-Dereh, and to remain
+there the rest of the year.
+
+The fire had separated the missionary almost entirely from the
+Armenians, and being thrown into the midst of the Greeks, he
+established several Greek Lancasterian schools, with the New
+Testament for a class-book. In most instances the copies were
+purchased by the parents. To furnish himself with competent
+instructors, he made arrangements for a normal school among the
+Greeks of Galata, a central place in which many children were
+begging for instruction, and he was evidently encouraged by the
+smiles of heaven upon his labors.
+
+Not long after, he called upon the Armenian Patriarch, a man of
+dignified manners and venerable appearance, and asked his
+coöperation in establishing schools among his people on an improved
+plan. The Patriarch declared, with even more than Oriental
+politeness, that he loved Mr. Goodell and his country so much, that
+if Mr. G. had not come to visit him, he must needs have gone to
+America. After numerous inquiries, he assented to the introduction
+of the new system of instruction, and promised to furnish suitable
+persons to learn it; which promise, however, he failed to remember.
+
+Mr. Dwight joined Mr. Goodell, with his family, on the 5th of June,
+1832, intending to devote himself wholly to the Armenians, and to
+labor for them chiefly through the Armenian language, though he
+afterwards acquired also the Turkish. The Rev. William G. Schauffler
+arrived in the following month, as a missionary to the Jews.
+
+The Armenians at Constantinople were estimated at one hundred
+thousand. As a body, they were intelligent, ingenuous, and frank;
+and many were found who regarded the ritual of their Church as
+encumbered with burdensome ceremonies, unsustained by the
+Scriptures, and of no practical advantage. The outset of the
+Armenian mission was in some respects unlike that to the Maronites
+of Syria, among whom the converts were at once excommunicated, and
+treated as outlaws. The object of the missionaries was not to break
+down the Armenian Church, but, if possible, by reviving the
+knowledge and spirit of the Gospel, to reform it. They were content
+that the ecclesiastical organization remain, provided the spirit of
+the Gospel could be revived under it. They regarded the ceremonies
+of the Church as mere outworks, not necessarily removed before
+reaching the citadel; and believed that assaults upon these would
+awaken more general opposition, than if made upon the citadel
+itself, and that, the citadel once taken, the outworks would fall of
+course. They felt, therefore, that as foreigners their main business
+was to set forth the fundamental doctrines and duties of the Gospel,
+derived directly from the Holy Scriptures.
+
+This early position of the mission is stated merely as historical
+truth. When their converts were excommunicated, after some years,
+the case became changed, and of course their methods of proceeding
+were greatly modified, so far as the hierarchy was concerned.
+
+Obstacles soon arose that had not been anticipated. First, the
+plague, with terrific violence, then, the cholera; and lastly, the
+Egyptian civil war, which shook the capital, and endangered the
+throne. There could be little intercourse with the people in these
+circumstances; and during the latter part of 1832, the missionaries
+were employed chiefly in their own houses, studying the languages,
+and preparing elementary cards and books for the schools.
+
+It would seem from the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, that his
+affections were early drawn to certain favored individuals among
+those first awakened by the Holy Spirit. It was so with the brethren
+at Constantinople. Among the earliest students of Peshtimaljian, was
+Hohannes Sahakian, who had been fond of books from childhood, and
+for some time had longed to see his countrymen better furnished with
+the means of education. Before entering the school, which he did in
+1829, he had commenced reading the New Testament, a cheap copy of
+which his father had purchased, and he was delighted to find his
+preceptor so ready to sympathize with his views, and to aid him in
+his investigations. In 1830, he began to converse on religious
+subjects with his friend Senekerim, the teacher of a school in the
+Patriarch's palace. Senekerim was startled on hearing sentiments
+avowed, that were not taught in their churches; but his mind became
+gradually enlightened, and they both painfully saw how much their
+nation needed to be brought to a knowledge of the Gospel. They had
+no funds for establishing schools and publishing tracts and books.
+As their zeal and fervor increased, they made a formal consecration
+of everything pertaining to them to the Lord Jesus Christ, declaring
+their purpose to execute his will. One day Senekerim made a
+discovery of the words, "If two of you shall agree on earth, as
+touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of
+my Father which is in heaven." Rejoicing over this, they both
+prayed: "O God, we agree to ask, that our nation may awake, may know
+the Gospel, and may understand that it is the blood of Jesus Christ
+alone which purgeth away sin." Yet neither of them was at this time
+fully aware of the great doctrine of salvation by grace, nor did
+they know of the existence of any nation having a knowledge of the
+pure Gospel. In this isolation they continued their prayerful study
+of God's Word, making gradual progress in knowledge of the Gospel.
+
+At length it became noised abroad, that two Americans were residing
+in a village on the Bosphorus, ostensibly for a good purpose, but
+really to spread infidelity. The young men heard the report, and
+their curiosity was awakened. Hohannes visited them alone at first,
+and afterwards with his friend, to find out what kind of persons
+they were. They soon perceived, that the great object of their
+pursuit was attained, and earnestly requested to be taken under the
+care and instruction of the mission. As a means of support,
+Senekerim was to open an Armenian school at Pera, to which place the
+missionaries intended to remove, and Hohannes was to translate the
+Psalms from ancient into modern Armenian. These were labors for only
+part of each day, and the remainder was devoted to the study of the
+English language and of the Bible. As they gained an insight into
+the nature of true religion, they had fears lest they were building
+on a wrong foundation; but by the grace of God they were soon
+brought into the clear light of the Gospel, and led joyfully to
+trust in Jesus Christ as the all-sufficient Saviour.
+
+An Armenian jeweler of wealth and influence was wrought up to a
+state of great alarm in reference to the course of these two young
+men, by the secret insinuations of a Romish priest. Having persuaded
+Peshtimaljian to summon the delinquents, he severely charged them
+with violating their obligations to the Church, and dishonoring God.
+They were about to vindicate themselves, when Peshtimaljian took the
+business wholly out of their hands, and poured a flood of light from
+Scripture and history upon the astonished jeweler; and when the
+young men afterwards spoke for themselves, Peshtimaljian aided them
+in their references to the Scriptures. The result was, that the
+jeweler became himself an open and strong advocate of the
+evangelical doctrines.
+
+The conversion of Sarkis Vartabed, teacher of grammar in the school
+of Peshtimaljian, may be dated from this period. He was in high
+repute as a scholar in the ancient language of the Armenians, had
+many amiable and valuable qualities, and became highly useful as a
+translator in connection with the mission.
+
+Among the fifteen alumni from the school of Peshtimaljian, who were
+ordained as priests in the autumn of 1833, was one highly respected
+for learning. His appearance was peculiarly devout, and when the
+missionary brethren called upon him, some days afterwards, in one of
+the cloisters of the patriarchate, he was deeply impressed by what
+they said to him as to the responsibilities of office-bearing in the
+Church of Christ. This was Der Kevork,1 whose subsequent influence
+in promoting the reformation was by no means unimportant.
+
+1 _Der_ means Priest.
+
+The removal of the press from Malta to Smyrna, at the close of 1833,
+was eminently seasonable. The importance of the measure was well
+understood by the enemy, and a combination of Roman and Armenian
+influences induced the Pasha to order Mr. Temple's departure from
+Smyrna, with only ten days' notice. The Romanists opposed, because
+of their settled hostility to Protestantism, and a free Protestant
+press. The Armenians were specially scandalized by the presence of
+Bishop Dionysius as a Protestant, after he had broken the rules of
+the Church by taking a wife. The opposition was increased by an
+ex-patriarch of the Armenians then residing at Smyrna, who was a
+personal enemy of Dionysius, and took part in these proceedings. The
+Pasha had acted under misapprehension, and revoked his order, on
+hearing the explanations of the American consul; but it was thought
+best for the bishop to return to his former home at Beirūt.
+
+The Armenians were found to be well supplied with spelling-books,
+reading-books, arithmetics, and grammars in the modern language,
+also with works on geometry and trigonometry. There was, therefore,
+much less preparatory work to be done for them in the way of
+education, than was supposed. A geography was needed, and the part
+relating to ancient Armenia was prepared by Peshtimaljian. A high
+school for the Armenians was opened at Pera in October, 1834, under
+the superintendence of Mr. Paspati, a native of Scio, who had been
+educated in America, and was regarded as well fitted for the post.
+The next year, however, he went to Paris to study medicine, and
+Hohannes was appointed his successor. The school had its full number
+of scholars, which was thirty. There were classes in the English,
+French, Italian, Armenian, Turkish, Ancient Greek, and Hebrew
+languages, and lectures on various branches of natural science,
+illustrated by apparatus.
+
+In 1834, the Rev. Messrs. John B. Adger, Benjamin Schneider, and
+Thomas P. Johnston, and their wives, joined the mission; the first
+taking up his abode at Smyrna, the second at Broosa, and the third
+at Trebizond. In the following year the Rev. Philander O. Powers
+joined Mr. Schneider, and the Rev. Henry A. Homes arrived at
+Constantinople. Such was the beginning of missionary efforts among
+the Armenians of Asia Minor. Broosa is situated in Bithyniā, at the
+western base of Mount Olympus, and was the capital of the Turkish
+empire for one hundred and thirty years previous to the taking of
+Constantinople. Trebizond is situated on the southeastern shore of
+the Black Sea, and competes with Constantinople on the score of
+natural scenery. The author retains a vivid impression of it, as
+seen in the winter of 1844. The city, half surrounded by verdant
+trees, had cultivated fields rising gently behind it, and beyond
+were forest-clad hills, looking green as in midsummer. And back of
+all, far in the distance, rose a lofty range of snow-clad mountains,
+as if to guard this earthly paradise, stretching from sea to sea,
+and forming a magnificent amphitheatre.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1836-1840.
+
+
+The first visit of Mr. Johnston to Trebizond was in 1834. Through
+priestly interference, he failed in three successive attempts to
+procure a house, and at last secured a contract for one only on
+condition of obtaining a firman from Constantinople. The United
+States Minister at the Porte procured a vizierial letter, directing
+that Mr. Johnston suffer no further molestation, and he removed his
+family thither in the spring of 1835. The breaking out of the plague
+prevented him for a time from having much intercourse with the
+people. In August of the next year, he had the pleasure of welcoming
+the Rev. William C. Jackson and wife as associates.
+
+The Patriarch of the Armenian Church at this time was Stepan, who
+was averse to severe measures; and Boghos, his vicar, though
+inclined to oppose the spreading reformation, thought it prudent to
+do nothing openly. Several high ecclesiastics were on terms of
+intimacy with the missionaries, and some of them seemed on the point
+of yielding to the influence of the truth. But generally they were
+without fixed religious principles, and were ready to follow the
+lead of the men most able to favor their own advancement in office
+or emolument. Matteos, the newly appointed bishop of Broosa, was one
+of these. While residing on the Bosphorus, he was a professed friend
+of the mission; and after his removal to Broosa, he expressed by
+letter the most friendly sentiments, and assured Mr. Schneider of
+his approbation of the school then recently established in that
+city. But this school, after a few months, was entirely broken up
+through the agency of this same prelate, who also sought in other
+ways to weaken and destroy the influence of the missionaries.
+Somewhat later, having been elevated to the Patriarchate, he became
+a reckless persecutor of the Protestants of Turkey, as will appear
+in its proper place.
+
+The beautiful type used by the Catholic-Armenians at Venice, made it
+necessary for the mission to procure new fonts of type adapted to
+the taste of the Armenians. The monks of Venice refusing to sell to
+the mission, Mr. Hallock, the printer, visited the United States,
+and superintended the cutting of the needful punches. The Prudential
+Committee, appreciating the new demands, authorized an expenditure
+of five thousand dollars for punches and types in the Armenian,
+Greek, and Hebrew languages, and for foundries of types and
+stereotype plates. After Mr. Hallock's departure, the mission
+succeeded in procuring two Armenian fonts of great beauty from
+Vienna.
+
+Meanwhile the Turks were making some advance in civilization.
+Lancasterian schools were established by them in the barracks of
+Dolma Baktche and Scutari, which were carried on with remarkable
+success. The missionaries being present by invitation at a public
+examination, Azim Bey publicly declared, that the Turks were
+indebted to them for everything of the kind. Travellers were no
+longer obliged to depend on slow sailing vessels, since steamers ran
+every week from Constantinople to Smyrna and Trebizond, and every
+fortnight to Galatz on the Danube. A road for carriages was
+constructed from Scutari to Nicomedia, a distance of sixty miles;
+and as a means of arresting the ravages of the plague, the European
+style of quarantine was extensively introduced.
+
+The most determined opposers of the mission at this time were the
+Papists, who spared no pains in exciting prejudice among the
+Armenians. The Papal Armenians were estimated at from fifteen to
+twenty thousand, and according to usage in Turkey they had a
+Patriarch of their own. This functionary came out with a public
+denunciation of all Protestant books, including the New Testament.
+He even forbade the receiving of copies of the Armenian Scriptures
+in the ancient language, which had been printed at their own press
+in Venice, and were purchased, several years before, by the British
+and Foreign Bible Society for sale at a reduced price or gratuitous
+circulation.
+
+There was so much desire for religious instruction among the
+Armenians, that two weekly meetings, in the Turkish language, were
+established in Constantinople, one conducted by Mr. Goodell, the
+other by Mr. Schauffler. Their houses were frequented by
+ecclesiastics as well as by laymen, and some of the former seemed to
+be sincere inquirers after the truth. One of them, attached to the
+patriarchal church, proposed that they publish a revised edition of
+the modern Armenian New Testament; and offered to subscribe five
+hundred piastres, or somewhat more than twenty dollars, towards the
+object, and also to procure aid from others. It was a favorable
+sign, that bishops and vartabeds began now to give instructions from
+the sacred Scriptures, instead of the legends of the saints. It
+subsequently appeared, indeed, that most of them were influenced in
+this more by public opinion, than by personal interest in the
+subject. They probably had exaggerated notions as to the actual
+prevalence of evangelical sentiments.
+
+Female education, which had been almost entirely neglected, began
+now to receive attention, both at Constantinople and at Smyrna. No
+regular school, indeed, had as yet been opened for females in the
+former place, but a few parents were providing means for the
+instruction of their daughters, and one of the evangelical brethren
+had a class of twelve Armenian girls. In Smyrna, a school for
+Armenian girls was opened by the mission in a commodious room, with
+desks, benches, and cards, and was commenced with the express
+approval of influential men in the community. More than forty girls
+attended it the first week. But an influential Armenian made such an
+appeal to the national pride of his countrymen, that the community
+assumed the charge of the school, and refunded what the mission had
+expended on it.
+
+At Constantinople, Der Kevork, the most learned of the fifteen
+priests ordained in 1833, was at the head of a school of four
+hundred boys, supported by his countrymen and having no connection
+with the mission. Kevork boldly introduced the custom of daily
+reading and explaining the Scriptures. He also selected twenty of
+his most promising scholars for the critical study of the New
+Testament.
+
+The learned and amiable Peshtimaljian died in the year 1837. In the
+same year, Mrs. Dwight and one of her children became victims of the
+plague. Her husband escaped the contagion, though of course greatly
+exposed. This terrible disease had been almost an annual visitation
+at Constantinople, and was believed to be imported from Egypt. As
+soon as it made its appearance, schools must be closed, public
+worship suspended, and the giving and receiving of visits in great
+measure interrupted. The quarantine appears to have been an
+effectual preventive.
+
+In the course of this year, the missionaries had a meeting at
+Smyrna, at which Messrs. King, Temple, Goodell, Bird, Adger, and
+Houston were present. Its results were important and interesting.
+During the sessions, Mr. King preached two sermons to a Greek
+audience in the chapel of the Dutch Consulate. This was seven years
+after the commencement of his mission in Greece. Mr. Bird was there,
+on his way from Syria to his native land, and wrote, on hearing Mr.
+King preach and seeing the apparent effect, that he became quite
+reconciled to his laboring among the Greeks, rather than the Arabs.
+
+In the same year Boghos, vicar of the Patriarch, encouraged by
+certain bankers, resolved to break up the mission High School for
+Armenians in Pera, of which Hohannes was the principal. In
+preparation for this, a College had been built at Scutari, some
+months before, on an extended scale; and the public school in Has
+Keuy, superintended by Kevork, had been committed to the general
+supervision of one of the great bankers residing there, that it
+might be remodeled according to his own wishes, and made a
+first-rate school. This was deemed a needful preliminary to shutting
+up the mission High School. Early in the year, the parents were
+summoned before the vicar, and ordered to withdraw their sons from
+that school. The plan of the opposing party was, in this case, after
+breaking up the school, to procure from the Turkish government the
+banishment of Hohannes. But they had misapprehended the banker, and
+great was their astonishment when they heard that Hohannes was no
+sooner released, by their own act, from his connection with the
+mission school, than he was engaged by the banker of Has Keuy to
+take the superintendence of the national school they had placed in
+his hands. In vain they remonstrated. To their assertion, that it
+was the American system he had adopted he replied, that he knew
+nothing of the Americans, but had adopted the system because it was
+good. To their objection, that the principal was evangelical, he
+responded, "So am I." He at length declared, that unless they
+permitted him to manage the school in his own way, he would withdraw
+from the Armenian community. They could not afford to lose one of
+the leading bankers; and one of the principal opposers, finding it
+necessary, in a business transaction, to throw himself on his
+clemency, opposition ceased for a time, and a school of six hundred
+scholars went into successful operation, with Hohannes for its
+superintendent, and Der Kevork, the active priest, for one of its
+principal teachers.
+
+It is worthy of special note, that up to this time, the banker was
+wholly unknown to the missionaries, and to the evangelical brethren
+generally. He was evidently raised up by divine Providence for the
+occasion. Not only did the Has Keuy school greatly exceed the
+mission school at Pera in the number of its pupils, but it was
+formally adopted as the school of the nation, and Hohannes was
+appointed its principal by the Armenian Synod. Having liberty of
+action, he devoted an hour each day to giving special religious
+instruction to a select class of sixty of the more advanced pupils,
+besides his more general teaching, and the daily good influence
+exerted by Der Kevork and himself. The course of study was liberal,
+the philosophical apparatus of the mission was purchased by the
+directors, lectures were given on the natural sciences, and the
+school obtained a temporary popularity.
+
+Yet there were secret opposing influences too powerful to allow this
+state of things long to continue. In the middle of the year 1838,
+the distinguished patron understood, not only that there was a
+growing dissatisfaction among the leading Armenians with the school,
+and especially with its principal, but that his munificence was
+attracting the attention of the Turks; and he deemed it prudent to
+withdraw his patronage. Before the close of the year, the teachers
+were dismissed, and the school was reduced to its former footing.
+The leading men of Has Keuy sent a delegation to the Patriarch
+deprecating the disaster, but obtained only fair promises. Hohannes
+now renewed his connection with the mission, and was placed in
+charge of the book distribution. Der Kevork spent much time in going
+from house to house, reading the Scriptures to the people, and
+exhorting them to obey the Gospel.
+
+At Broosa, the number of visitors at the house of the missionaries
+was increasing, and among them were two young teachers in the
+Armenian public school, who were specially interested in the subject
+of personal religion. They were among the first to make the
+acquaintance of Mr. Powers, on his coming to take up his residence
+in their quarter of the city. One of these young men, named Serope,
+had the sole charge of about fifty of the most advanced scholars,
+whom he instructed daily in the Word of God. The principal men in
+the Armenian community at Broosa soon decided to place a select
+class of boys under his instruction, to be trained for the priest's
+office, and eight were thus set apart. Before the end of the year
+both of these teachers gave hopeful evidence of piety.
+
+Very interesting cases of conversion occurred at Nicodemia, at the
+head of the gulf bearing that name. Mr. Goodell, when passing
+through this place in 1832, gave several tracts to some Armenian
+boys. One of these, a translation of the "Dairyman's Daughter," came
+into the hands of a priest, whom Mr. Goodell did not see. This led
+him to study the Word of God. A brother priest, on intimate terms
+with him, was induced to join in the study, and the result was the
+hopeful conversion of both. Their united efforts were now directed
+to the conversion of their flock, and a spirit of inquiry was
+awakened. In the spring of 1838, Mr. Dwight found sixteen at
+Nicomedia, who appeared to be truly converted men. He was surprised
+at the seriousness and intelligence with which they conversed on the
+great truths of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit had evidently been their
+teacher, and the doctrine of justification by grace through faith
+alone, was the foundation of their hopes. The joy with which they
+greeted the missionary of the cross for the first time, was most
+gratifying to him, as was the earnest attention they gave to his
+instructions. Compared with their countrymen in the same place, they
+might be called intelligent men, and some of them were in very easy
+circumstances. The two converted priests, Der Vertanes and Der
+Haritūn, became afterwards well known in the mission. Of their own
+accord they removed to Constantinople, and were placed together in
+charge of a village church on the Bosphorus; and the Patriarch
+Stepan, being an old acquaintance, spent several weeks with them,
+and generally assented to the views advanced by them in their free
+conversations.
+
+We now enter the year 1839, which was a year of severe persecution.
+Of this persecution, in which the Porte itself became a party, I am
+now to give a brief account.
+
+The missionary force at Constantinople had become unusually small.
+Mr. Dwight was absent until September, on a visit to the United
+States. Mr. Schauffler left in May for Vienna, to superintend the
+printing of the Hebrew Spanish Old Testament. He went by way of
+Odessa, and both there, and among the German churches in that part
+of Russia, he did much to sustain a religious revival that had been
+long in progress. Mr. Homes left in the spring to join Dr. Grant in
+exploring Kurdistan. Mr. Hamlin arrived early in the year, but was
+occupied in the study of the language. Mr. Goodell was, therefore,
+almost alone in this trying season.
+
+The extent and violence of the persecution were convincing proof of
+the progress of the reformation. A corrupt priesthood dreaded its
+tendency to deprive them of their sinful gains. Certain persons no
+longer enjoyed a monopoly of Armenian printing. Education ceased to
+be exclusively in the hands of a few bankers. And the popularity of
+Hohannes and Boghos Fizika was thought to operate against the great
+Armenian college at Scutari. Nor were the members of the Romish
+Church idle.
+
+The patriarchs were elected by the primates, who were chiefly
+bankers, and were in an important sense their creatures. The bankers
+were divested of much of their power in 1839, by the rise of three
+men of the artisan class, who suddenly stood before the nation as
+its guides and dictators, and more especially as extirpators of
+heresy. These were the two chief architects of the Sultan, and the
+superintendent of the government powder works. The two first, being
+employed in erecting the most splendid of all the imperial palaces,
+were often in contact with the Sultan. The expulsion of
+Protestantism lay near their hearts, and they resolved to make use
+of the strong arm of Mahmood to effect it. What were the
+representations made to him is not known; but it is known that the
+three favorites were authorized to call on the civil power to aid
+them in extirpating the dangerous heresy.
+
+The first thing was to get the tolerant Patriarch out of the way.
+For some reason they did not at once remove him from office, but
+procured from the interior a man named Hagopos, notorious for his
+bigotry and sternness, whom they appointed Assistant Patriarch. A
+month later, Stepan was deposed, and permitted to retire to his
+convent near Nicomedia, and Hagopos was installed in his place.
+Before this, Hohannes had been thrown into the patriarchal prison,
+without even the form of an accusation; but every one knew that his
+crime consisted in following the Bible, rather than the Church.
+Boghos Fizika was arrested, and cast into the same prison; and four
+days after, they were both banished by an imperial firman. Their
+place of exile was a convent near Cesarea, four hundred miles
+distant. Stepan took leave of them with tears, well knowing the deep
+injustice of the act. This was in the month of February, and the
+Turkish police-officer sent back word from Scutari, that Boghos,
+being an invalid, was too feeble to bear the fatigues and exposures
+of such a journey in that inclement season; but positive orders were
+returned to carry him to Cesarea, either dead or alive. Nicomedia
+lay on their route; and the brethren of that place hastened in a
+body to the post-house, and had a season of prayer with the exiles,
+which greatly comforted them. This intercourse was kept up during a
+delay of several days authorized by the Nicomedia primate. When the
+Armenians of Cesarea were told, on their arrival at that place, that
+their banishment was for receiving the Bible as the only infallible
+guide in religious matters, they said the Patriarch might as well
+banish them all, for they were all of that opinion.
+
+It was reported in Constantinople, that the Patriarch had a list of
+five hundred persons suspected of heresy, and that among them were
+bishops, priests, and bankers, some of whom were to be banished
+immediately. Few dared to visit the missionaries, and those only
+under cover of the night. A proclamation was issued by Hagopos,
+forbidding the reading of books printed or circulated by the
+missionaries, and all who had such books were required to deliver
+them up without delay. On the 14th of March, Der Kevork was arrested
+and thrown into prison; and when respectable Armenians of Has Keuy
+made application for his release, they were rudely told to mind
+their own business. After lying in prison for more than a month, he
+and several others were banished into the interior. A rich banker,
+who had long been on friendly terms with the missionaries, was
+arrested and imprisoned in a hospital as an insane person,--a method
+of persecution not unfrequently resorted to in Turkey. He was
+released after a week's confinement, on paying a large sum for the
+college at Scutari.
+
+Nor were the Greek ecclesiastics behind the Armenian in hostility to
+the reformation. The Greek Synod and Patriarch issued a decree,
+excommunicating all who should buy, sell, or read the books of the
+"Luthero-Calvinists;" and condemning in like manner the writings of
+Korai, the illustrious restorer of learning among the Greeks, and of
+the learned Bambas, the friend of Fisk and Parsons. An imperial
+firman was also published, authorizing, and even requiring, the
+several Patriarchs to look well to their several communions, and to
+guard them from infidelity and foreign influence; thus connecting
+the Porte itself with the persecution.
+
+A strong effort was made to procure the expulsion of the
+missionaries. Multitudes were active, from diverse motives, to
+secure this end. One of the most conspicuous of these was a renegade
+Jew, once baptized by an English missionary, but now an infidel who
+seemed to have satanic aid in the invention of slanders against
+Protestants and Protestantism. Another was a disappointed infidel
+teacher, whose malice and bitterness made him a fit ally for the
+Jew. The enemy seemed to be having everything in his own way, and
+strong was his confidence of success.
+
+At this crisis, Divine Providence interposed. The army of the
+Egyptians was on the march towards Constantinople, and the Sultan
+deemed it necessary to call upon all the Patriarchs and the chief
+Rabbi of the Jews, each to furnish several thousand men for his
+army. It was an unprecedented demand, and occasioned great
+consternation, but must be obeyed. The army was raised, and was
+estimated at eighty thousand. It encountered an Egyptian army of
+about the same number on the plains of Nezib near Aleppo, on the
+24th of June, and the Turkish troops were scattered in all
+directions. The tidings of this disaster never reached Mahmood, as
+he died in his palace on the first day of July. A few days after,
+the Capudan Pasha surrendered the Turkish fleet to Mohammed Ali; and
+on the 11th of July, Abdūl Medjid, a boy of seventeen, was placed
+upon the throne. The news of the entire loss of his army and navy
+arrived in a few days, and the empire seemed on the verge of
+dissolution. It was saved by the intervention of the great powers of
+Europe. The apostate Jew, to avoid punishment for various crimes,
+professed himself a Mohammedan; and for crimes subsequently
+committed, he was strangled by the Turks, and thrown into the
+Bosphorus. On the 12th of August, between three and four thousand
+houses in Pera were consumed by fire, with the loss of several lives
+and an immense amount of property.
+
+The persecution had extended to Broosa and Trebizond; and at
+Erzroom, in ancient Armenia, where Mr. Jackson had commenced a new
+station, a letter was read from the patriarchate, warning the people
+against the Americans, and their schools and books.
+
+The Egyptian war and its consequences broke the power of the
+persecution. The Armenian Synod voted to recall all the exiles,
+except Hohannes, whom they adjudged to perpetual banishment as the
+ringleader of the "Evangelicals." At length an English physician, of
+humane feelings, being informed as to the facts in the case, stated
+them to one of the sisters of the late Sultan. The result was that,
+on the fourteenth of November, an imperial _request_ for Hohannes's
+release was sent to the Patriarch. He resorted to various devices,
+first to procure the reversal, and then to delay the execution of
+the order, which was addressed by the Turkish minister of foreign
+affairs to the governor of Cesarea, and had on it the Sultan's
+sign-manual, and the seals of several high offices of state. Not
+daring to delay longer, on the tenth of February, 1840, he placed
+the imperial requisition in the hands of the father of Hohannes, by
+whom it was immediately forwarded to Cesarea, and Hohannes arrived
+at Constantinople on the twenty-fourth of May.
+
+The persecutors, one after another, were brought low. A change was
+made, about this time, in the mode of collecting the revenue of the
+empire, rendering the board of Armenian government bankers useless,
+and they were directed to settle up their accounts and close their
+offices. This reduced some of them to poverty, and stripped them all
+of a great part of their power. The Greek Patriarch was deposed, on
+complaint by the British Ambassador of his interference with matters
+in the Ionian Islands; and the Armenian Patriarch found himself in
+trouble with his own people. He was too overbearing, and was
+obliged, in November, 1840, to resign his office, to avoid a
+forcible deposition; and it was a significant sign of the times,
+that Stepan, who had been ejected from office on account of his
+forbearance towards the Protestants, was now re-elected; first, by
+the vote of the principal bankers, and afterwards by acclamation in
+an immense popular assembly convened for the purpose. He was
+immediately recognized by the Turkish government.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1840-1844.
+
+
+The young Sultan, soon after coming to the throne, pledged himself;
+in the presence of all the foreign ambassadors, to guard the
+liberty, property, and honor of his subjects equally, whatever their
+religious creed. No one was to be condemned without trial, and none
+were to suffer the penalty of death without the sanction of the
+Sultan himself. No person at all conversant with Turkey, would
+expect such a change in the administration of the government to be
+effected at once, nor indeed for a long course of years. Yet this
+was the beginning of changes, which were momentous in their
+influence on the Christian and Jewish population of Turkey.
+
+There was now such a number of Armenian boys and young men around
+the mission thirsting for knowledge, both religious and secular,
+that a boarding-school for such could no longer be properly delayed.
+Mr. Hamlin accordingly opened such a school at Bebek, on the
+European side of the Bosphorus, six miles above Constantinople.
+
+Mr. Jackson commenced a station at Erzroom in 1840. At first he was
+almost disheartened when he saw how confidently the people rested
+their hopes of heaven on saint-worship, and the rigor of their
+fasts; but he soon saw reason to expect a better state of things.
+
+Messrs. Dwight and Hamlin made a visit, about this time, to
+Nicomedia. Their intercourse with the native brethren there was
+generally private because of persecutors, but it was in the highest
+degree satisfactory. The first meeting was on the Sabbath, in a
+retired garden, where they sat four successive hours, in the middle
+of a circle of hungry souls, expounding to them the Gospel. After
+partaking of some refreshment, they sat three hours more in an
+adjacent house. Later in the day, they spent three hours in the same
+manner, in another garden; making in all ten hours of preaching and
+conversation in the course of one Sabbath; besides an hour more in
+their own room, with transient visitors from abroad. Many of the
+questions asked were of a highly practical nature. During this
+visit, a stranger called upon them, whose curiosity had been excited
+by the Patriarch's letter of warning against the American
+missionaries. He, in common with many of his brethren, was anxious
+to know more about this new way. Considerable time was spent with
+him in needful explanations, and with these, and a copy of the New
+Testament in modern Armenian and several tracts, he departed highly
+delighted. It was thus that a knowledge of the Gospel was first
+carried to Adabazar where this man resided, twenty-seven miles east
+of Nicomedia.
+
+The papists took advantage of the religious interest awakened in the
+Armenian Church; and there was reason to apprehend, that dark,
+dissatisfied minds, if not made acquainted with the Gospel, were in
+danger of falling into the iron embrace of the Romish Church. The
+papal missions had been roused to activity in all the Levant, and
+their numerous adherents enabled them to come extensively into
+contact with the native mind. Nor were they scrupulous as to their
+manner of exciting the jealousies of the people against Protestant
+missionaries. There is evidence also, that, after the Greek
+revolution, they took advantage of the fact that nearly all the
+dragomen of foreign ministers at the Turkish court were Roman
+Catholics.
+
+The obstacles in the way of preaching the Gospel at Broosa, became
+so great as to make it a question whether the preachers ought not to
+go elsewhere. Just then there began to be indications of the
+presence of the Holy Spirit. Individuals came to Mr. Schneider,
+almost every Sabbath, deeply affected by the truth, and there were
+several hopeful conversions. Not only there, but elsewhere and
+especially at Constantinople, during the year commencing May, 1840,
+there was a manifest reaction, caused by the persecutions of 1839,
+which became more and more decided during the year. Minds were
+awakened, which, but for the banishments, anathemas, burning of
+books, and shutting up of schools, might have been aroused only by
+the angel of death. Some of these became hopeful converts, and one a
+preacher of the faith he had endeavored to destroy. The spirit of
+freedom and Christian boldness was increased. Priest Kevork and
+Priest Vertanes were more active than ever. Attempts to break up the
+mission seminary failed, because neither scholars nor parents would
+obey the mandate of the vakeel to withdraw from connection with the
+missionaries.
+
+The Rev. Henry J. Van Lennep and wife joined the mission in April,
+1840, and were stationed at Smyrna. Mrs. Van Lennep lived only till
+the following September. The Rev. Josiah Peabody and wife became the
+associates of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, at Erzroom, in the following
+year; and in that year Mr. Ladd was transferred from Cyprus to
+Broosa. Mr. Hallock, the missionary printer at Smyrna, returned to
+the United States, but continued to manufacture Arabic and Syriac
+types for the printing establishments in the Syrian and Nestorian
+missions. The printing at Smyrna, during this year, was equivalent
+to 10,843,704 pages duodecimo; and the pages printed at that
+establishment from the beginning, had been 51,910,260. Two
+printing-presses and seven fonts of native type were in use. An
+"Armenian Magazine" was edited by Mr. Adger; and a Greek "Monthly
+Magazine" by Mr. Temple, with the efficient aid of Mr. Petrokokino.
+In November, Mr. Goodell completed the translation of the Old
+Testament into Armeno-Turkish, and immediately commenced revising
+the New Testament, which he finished in a few months. The Old
+Testament had now been translated into Armeno-Turkish from the
+Hebrew, and the New Testament from the Greek. The Armenians had,
+also, Zohrab's popular translation of the New Testament in their
+modern tongue, revised by Mr. Adger, and published under his
+superintendence, at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible
+Society. The ancient Armenian translation, which is said to be a
+good one, and to be much valued by the people, was made about
+fourteen hundred years ago.
+
+Mr. Dwight began a course of lectures on systematic theology,
+commencing with a class of three Armenians, one of them a priest.
+The Armenian college at Scutari was closed by the bankers in
+October, after having been in operation three years, at great
+expense to the community. But the seminary at Bebek was so full of
+promise, that grants were made to place it on a broader and firmer
+basis.
+
+The change in the Armenian community, in the course of five or six
+years, had been very encouraging. At the beginning of that time,
+some were truly interested in the things of religion, and the
+missionaries had religious conversation with many. But by far the
+greater part then came for the purpose of general inquiry, or to see
+the philosophical apparatus, or hear a lecture on the sciences; and
+it was matter of joy, if mere human knowledge could be made the
+entering wedge to their minds for the knowledge which is divine. How
+marked the change! They now came in large numbers, drawn by the
+power of the truth of God alone, not to inquire about electricity,
+or galvanism, as before, but about the eternal destiny of the soul,
+and the way by which it might be saved. There had been, also, a
+favorable change in the general style of preaching at the capital;
+and among the people there was a growing disposition to compare
+every doctrine and practice with the Scriptures. This the vartabeds,
+or preachers, could not disregard. It was not an uncommon thing to
+hear of sermons on Repentance, the Sabbath, the Judgment-day, etc.;
+and sometimes the preachers were largely indebted for their
+materials to the publications of the mission. Indeed, one of the
+most respectable vartabeds in Constantinople made repeated
+applications to the missionaries to furnish mutter for his sermons.
+Instances of pungent convictions of sin became more common. Some who
+had been drunkards, gamblers, adulterers, and downright infidels,
+were thoroughly converted, and exhibited that humility, purity,
+spirituality, and Christian zeal, which are the fruits of the Spirit
+alone. The older converts, also, appeared to grow in the knowledge
+of Christ, and one striking characteristic was an active zeal for
+the salvation of others.
+
+Vertanes was full of hope and activity. It is mentioned by Mr.
+Dwight, in his excellent "History of Christianity in Turkey," that a
+report reached Constantinople, in the spring of 1841, that a
+considerable number of Armenians in Nicomedia, members of the old
+Church, had become disaffected, and were about going over to the
+Jesuits; and that the Patriarch commissioned this same Vertanes to
+go thither with all speed, and endeavor to bring them back to their
+Mother Church. He was successful in the object of his visit; and
+while he heartily and faithfully obeyed the Patriarch, and
+endeavored to persuade men not to suffer themselves to fall into the
+snares of Rome, he also labored zealously to bring them to a sense
+of their sins against God, and to a hearty reception of Christ alone
+as the Saviour of their souls. His visit was very comforting and
+useful to the brethren in Nicomedia.
+
+The intelligence received from Adabazar early in this year, was most
+cheering. An attempt had been made to raise a storm of persecution,
+and one of the brethren was thrown into prison, but he was soon
+liberated by a powerful friend, and afterwards the truth spread more
+rapidly. Meetings for prayer and reading the Scriptures were held
+every Sabbath, at which from twenty-five to fifty were present, and
+one of the priests seemed to have become obedient to the faith. No
+missionary had yet been among these brethren, and the issues from
+the press were almost the only instrumentality employed among them
+by the Holy Spirit. One year previously, it is believed, not a
+single soul could have been found among the four thousand
+inhabitants of Adabazar, who was not groping in the deepest
+spiritual darkness. Now, some forty or more were convinced of the
+errors of their Church, and ready to take the Bible as their only
+religious guide, of whom several appeared to be truly converted men,
+and even willing to lay down their lives for Christ. It was not
+until the autumn of 1841, that a missionary was able to visit them.
+Mr. Schneider, of Broosa, was then hailed with joy by all the
+evangelical brethren, and returned with the most delightful and
+cheering impressions. A spirit of inquiry had extended into many of
+the neighboring villages.
+
+The Rev. George W. Wood1 was transferred to this mission from
+Singapore in 1842, and was associated with Mr. Hamlin in the
+Seminary. The Rev. Simeon H. Calhoun, for some time resident at
+Smyrna as agent of the American Bible Society, received now an
+appointment as a missionary of the Board; the Rev. Edwin E. Bliss,
+designated to the mountain Nestorians, having been refused a firman
+to go thither by the Turkish government, was associated with Mr.
+Johnston at Trebizond; and Mr. Schauffler devoted himself to the
+Jews. Mr. Homes had the special charge of the book distribution at
+Constantinople.
+
+1 Afterwards one of the Corresponding Secretaries of the Board.
+
+There being so little to impart peace to a really awakened
+conscience in either the Roman or the Oriental Churches, individuals
+were often found wandering to and fro, as in pagan India, vainly
+seeking for rest. One of the most noted cases of this kind was that
+of an Armenian. To pacify the clamors of conscience, he became an
+inmate of a monastery far in the interior, where he undertook to
+perform the most menial services for the monks. Failing to find
+peace in this, he penetrated into the depths of a wilderness,
+clothed himself in sackcloth, and lived on the coarsest fare, away
+from the abodes of man. Here also he was disappointed. Returning to
+Constantinople, he united himself to the papal Armenians, hoping in
+their communion to find the relief he sought. He became chief singer
+in one of the churches near the capital, and endeavored to derive
+comfort, but found nothing to impart peace in the strictest forms of
+papal worship. A friend now advised him to visit the American
+missionaries. He had heard of them only as heretics and enemies of
+the Christian faith, but was at length persuaded to accompany some
+friends to Mr. Hamlin's house. Taking a seat as near the door as
+possible, he listened in silence; then proposed some objections; but
+gradually became interested, and drew his chair nearer and nearer to
+his newly found teacher; until at length he seated himself on the
+floor, literally at the very feet of Mr. Hamlin, and there drank in,
+with mute astonishment, those divine truths which he had never heard
+before, but which revealed to him the only sure foundation for peace
+of mind. There was an instantaneous change in his whole character;
+and we hear of him twelve years afterwards, as a living witness of
+the truth, and a faithful laborer in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.1
+
+1 Dwight's _Christianity Revived in the East_, p.118.
+
+In October of this year, it was deemed advisable to suspend the
+preaching service at Constantinople for a few Sabbaths, in
+consequence of violent opposition on the part of some Armenians,
+formerly reckoned as brethren. This unexpected and painful change
+was owing to their forming an acquaintance with individuals who had
+imbibed the errors, which threaten the unity of the Episcopal
+Churches of England and America. Just before the outbreaking of this
+opposition, Mr. Dwight thus gives utterance to his feelings: "How
+wonderful are the ways of Providence in regard to the Armenians! In
+one way or another, men are continually brought from distant places
+to the capital, and here they become acquainted for the first time
+with the Gospel; and returning to their homes, they spread abroad
+that which they have seen and heard. There is something quite
+wonderful in the state of the Armenian mind at the present time."
+The persecuting spirit above noted was directed more especially
+towards Hohannes, and this induced him to go to the United States to
+prepare himself for preaching the Gospel.
+
+In the early part of this year, the Armenian brethren met in a
+retired part of the hills adjacent to the capital, and there, after
+united prayer, agreed to send one of their own number, at their own
+expense, on a missionary tour among their countrymen in the interior
+of Asia Minor. Of their own accord they also agreed to set apart the
+first Tuesday in each month, for special prayer to God in behalf of
+their nation, and for his blessing on the means used for their
+spiritual illumination. Not unfrequently they remained after Mr.
+Dwight's preaching, to have a prayer meeting by themselves for the
+outpouring of the Holy Spirit; and if there was any one present at
+the meeting who was particularly anxious about his soul, they kept
+him with them, and talked and prayed with him. It is recorded also,
+that at one time as many as thirty Armenian men were present at the
+monthly concert for prayer, which was necessarily held in the middle
+of the day, and that some of them prayed as if they felt true
+longings of heart for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
+
+About forty different works, and more than forty-four thousand
+volumes and tracts, were issued from the Smyrna depōt during the
+year 1842. Eight or ten booksellers at the capital were kept
+constantly supplied, and the products of the press were sent into
+almost every part of the interior.
+
+It is worthy of note that Mr. Dwight's first formal sermon to
+Armenian women, was in May, 1843. It was in Pera, and four of them
+had walked not less than three miles to attend the service. One was
+forty-five or fifty years old, and her sentiments were decidedly
+evangelical. The religion of the Gospel shone beautifully in some of
+the Armenian families. Mr. Hamlin had an interesting experience at
+Bebek. On the 13th of August, on returning from Constantinople, he
+found nine women and one man waiting his return to preach to them
+the Gospel. On the 21st, sixteen listened with breathless attention
+to a sermon on the unsearchable riches of Christ, and nine of these
+were women. On the 25th, another company of men and women called.
+Mr. Hamlin was at work upon some philosophical apparatus, when one
+of the men put his head through the door, and said, "Good-morning,
+reverend sir, come here, and preach to us the Gospel." September
+22d, a company of Armenian men and women, four of them from
+Nicomedia, came and asked him "to teach them out of the Gospel." On
+the 24th eight, besides the students, were present at the services,
+forenoon and afternoon; two from Galata, one from Constantinople,
+three from Nicomedia, and two from Adabazar. On the day following,
+thirteen were present, most of whom had heard the maledictions of
+the Armenian Patriarch pronounced, the day before, on all who should
+visit the missionaries. On a day in December devoted to family
+visitations, Mr. Dwight preached the Gospel to more than thirty
+women.
+
+It was not the missionaries alone, who labored in word and doctrine.
+Several priests were "obedient to the faith," and preached it more
+or less formally; and intelligent lay brethren,--scattered abroad,
+some by persecution, some in the prosecution of their worldly
+business,--like the primitive disciples, preached the Word; that is,
+they took such opportunities as they could get, to make known the
+truth to those of their countrymen who were disposed to hear it.
+Vertanes, who had suffered imprisonment and banishment for the sake
+of Christ, made an extensive missionary tour through Armenia.
+
+In the summer of 1843, a body of Turkish police was seen conducting
+a young man, under twenty years of age, in the European dress,
+through the streets of Constantinople. His face was pale, and his
+arms were pinioned behind him. Arriving at a place of public
+concourse, they suddenly halted, the prisoner kneeled, and a blow of
+the yatagan severed his head from the body. His crime was apostasy
+from the Mohammedan faith. He was an obscure Armenian, and while
+under the influence of alcohol had abjured the faith of his fathers,
+and declared himself a Mohammedan. He had not submitted, however, to
+the rite of circumcision before he repented of his rashness. The
+penalty of apostasy being death, he fled to Greece. In about a year,
+impatient to see his widowed mother, he returned in a Frank dress,
+but was soon recognized, imprisoned, tortured to induce him to
+reabandon his original belief, and even paraded through the streets
+with his hands tied behind his back, as if for execution; but upon
+his proclaiming aloud his firm belief in Christianity, he was
+sentenced to decapitation. The British ambassador, Sir Stratford
+Canning, impelled by motives of humanity, made an earnest effort to
+procure his release, and the Grand Vizier promised that the young
+man should not be beheaded. On learning that he had been, the
+ambassador declared it to be an insult to the Established Religion
+of England, as well as to all Europe, and insisted that no similar
+act of fanaticism should ever again occur. In this he was said to be
+warmly seconded both by the French and Prussian ministers. The Grand
+Vizier, as before, was ready to give a verbal pledge; but soon a
+second act of treachery was discovered. A Greek, in the interior of
+Asia Minor, had declared himself it Mohammedan, and afterwards
+refused to perform the rites of that religion, and the Turkish
+minister was preparing the death-warrant for him, at the very time
+when he was making these promises to the ambassador. Sir Stratford
+now very peremptorily demanded, that a written pledge be given by
+the Sultan himself (as his ministers could no longer be trusted),
+that no person embracing the Moslem religion and afterwards
+returning to Christianity, should on that account be put to death;
+and the Earl of Aberdeen, on the part of the home government,
+instructed him in a noble letter not to recede from the demand. The
+Prussian and French governments were equally decided; and after some
+hesitancy, even Russia threw the weight of her influence into the
+scale. After a struggle of some weeks the required pledge was given,
+signed by the Sultan himself, that henceforth NO PERSON SHOULD BE
+PERSECUTED FOR HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS IN TURKEY. The British
+ambassador distinctly acknowledged the finger of God in this
+transaction, which he said seemed little less than a miracle.
+
+It will hereafter appear, that the pledge had a wider range, than
+was thought of at the time by the governments of Europe, by their
+representatives, or even by the Turks. God was setting up a
+spiritual kingdom, and his people must have freedom to worship Him
+in his appointed way. The battle for religious freedom in Turkey was
+fought over the mutilated remains of the Armenian renegade, and the
+Sultan's pledge secured to the Protestant native Christians the full
+enjoyment of their civil rites, while openly practicing their own
+religion.1
+
+1 This brief statement is compiled from the _Correspondence relating
+to Executions in Turkey for Apostasy from Islamism_, published by
+the British Parliament in 1844, occupying forty folio pages. The
+correspondence is highly honorable to the great men who were then
+controlling the political affairs of Europe, and to a large extent
+also of Western Asia.
+
+But before this comprehensive meaning of the pledge could be
+understood, and the benefit of it actually enjoyed by the people of
+God, they were subjected to more grievous sufferings for their faith
+than any yet endured. From 1843 to 1846, there was no long respite
+from persecution; yet in all this time the spirit of inquiry
+wonderfully spread, and believers were the more added to the Lord.
+
+In 1843, Priest Vertanes was rudely deposed from office, and thrown
+into prison. Finding he could not be induced to sign a paper of
+recantation, drawn up for him by the Patriarch, he was hurried by
+the Patriarch's beadles, with great violence, into an open
+sail-boat, without opportunity to obtain even an outer garment from
+his house, although it was midwinter, and sent across the sea of
+Marmora to the monastery of Ahmah, near Nicomedia.
+
+The Foreign Secretary of the Board spent eleven weeks in this
+mission, in the winter of 1843-44, accompanied by Dr. Joel Hawes, of
+Hartford. At that time it was arranged by the mission, in full
+accordance with the views of their visiting brethren, to discontinue
+the Greek department, to give distinct names as missions to the
+Jewish department and to the work among the Armenians, to open a
+female high school at Constantinople, and to associate Mr. Wood with
+Mr. Hamlin in the seminary at Bebek. It was also decided, that
+Messrs. Riggs and Ladd, turning from the Greeks to the Armenians,
+should acquire the use of the languages spoken by the latter people;
+that Mr. Calhoun should be authorized to visit Syria, with a view to
+an opening for him in connection with the projected seminary on
+Mount Lebanon; that Mr. Temple, then too old to learn either the
+Armenian or Turkish languages, ought to be authorized, in view of
+the discontinuance of the Greek department, to return to the
+churches whose faithful messenger he had been so long; and that the
+native Armenian agency should be put upon a footing on which it
+would be more likely to be sustained ultimately by the people.
+
+There was reason afterwards to believe, that it would have been
+better for Mr. Temple to remain in Turkey, in the exercise of his
+eminently apostolic influence upon his brother missionaries and the
+native Protestant community, Greek and Armenian. Yet his own opinion
+was in favor of the course he pursued. "I am too old," he said, "to
+think for a moment of learning a new language, and no opening
+invites me here in any language I can command." After a farewell
+visit to his brethren in Constantinople, he set his face homeward,
+and arrived in Boston in the summer of 1844. He was usefully
+employed as an agent of the Board, or in the pastoral relation,
+until his health broke down. In January, 1851, through the kindness
+of a friend, he made a voyage to Chagres, and another to Liverpool.
+But he returned from the last of these voyages enfeebled by the
+roughness of the passage; and his strength gradually declined, until
+the 9th of August, 1851, seven years after his return to America,
+when he died at Reading, Massachusetts, his native place, in the
+sixty-second year of his age. It may be truly said, that few men
+have borne more distinctively than he, the impress of the Saviour's
+image.1
+
+1 See _Life and Letters of Rev. Daniel Temple_, for twenty-three
+years a Missionary in Western Asia. By his son, Rev. Daniel H.
+Temple, Boston, 1855.
+
+A daughter of Dr. Hawes accompanied him on his voyage to Smyrna as
+the wife of Mr. Van Lennep, but was permitted only to enter upon the
+work to which she had devoted herself in Asia. She died at
+Constantinople of fever, within less than a year from the time of
+her embarkation. The health of Mrs. Benjamin was such as to oblige
+her and her husband to return home. A similar cause occasioned also
+the return of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+GREECE AND THE GREEKS.
+
+1824-1844.
+
+
+When the missions to the Oriental Churches were commenced, Greece
+was suffering under the oppression of the Turks, and the people were
+glad of sympathy from any quarter. In the department of education,
+they seemed even to welcome Protestant missionaries. They compared
+favorably with the Roman Catholics, in their reception of the
+Scriptures, and in the matter of religious toleration. But an
+unfavorable change came over them after they had achieved their
+national independence.
+
+Mr. Gridley was the first missionary to labor among the Greeks of
+Turkey, though he was not sent with special reference to them. He
+arrived at Smyrna in December, 1826. After acquiring the modern
+Greek, he visited Cesarea, four hundred miles to the eastward,
+hoping for better advantages in acquiring the Greco-Turkish
+language, and also to learn the condition of the Greeks in the
+interior. He was accompanied by Abraham, his teacher, a
+well-informed native of Cappadocia, and for two months applied
+himself to his studies, until admonished of danger by the frequent
+recurrence of headaches. Finding that these yielded to exercise, he
+deemed it prudent to execute a purpose he had long cherished of
+ascending Mount Argeus, from the top of which, according to Strabo,
+the Black and Mediterranean Seas might both be discerned in a clear
+day. Outstripping his attendants, Mr. Gridley mounted with great
+agility till he reached an elevation within three or four hundred
+feet of the highest summit, when he was prevented from advancing
+farther by the steepness of the ascent. There, in the region of
+perpetual snow, he remained a quarter of an hour, but could not
+discover the objects he had specially in view. The height of the
+mountain he estimated at thirteen thousand feet. Descending rapidly,
+he was overpowered with fatigue when he reached his companions, and
+they were soon after exposed to a violent storm of hail and rain.
+The headache soon returned with increasing violence, and was
+followed by fever, so insidious in its progress as at no time to
+suggest to him his danger. His death occurred on the 27th of
+September, fifteen days after the ascent, and a year after leaving
+his native land.
+
+Thus he fell at the age of thirty-one, and at the very commencement
+of his career. The predominant characteristics of Mr. Gridley were
+resolution, promptness, and generosity. In all the duties of a
+Christian missionary, he was indefatigable in no ordinary degree,
+and his early removal was very trying.
+
+The cause of education naturally became prominent at the outset of a
+mission among the Greeks. Scio was the seat of their most favored
+college, and when the people of that ill-fated island fled from the
+murderous sword of the Turks, some of the families sought refuge in
+Malta. There were bright youths among them, and six of these, and
+two from other Greek islands, so interested Messrs. Fisk and Temple,
+that they obtained permission to send them home, to be educated
+chiefly at the expense of the Board. This was before the results of
+the Foreign Mission School at Cornwall had become manifest. Three
+others arrived in 1826, and one in 1828; and nearly all received a
+liberal education, either at Amherst or Yale. Evangelinos Sophocles,
+from Thessaly, who came last, has long held the honorable position
+of a Professor in Harvard University. Four others,--Anastatius
+Karavelles, Nicholas Petrokokino, Alexander G. Paspati, and Gregory
+Perdicaris, were useful to the mission at different times after
+their return to the East. Several young men from the Armenian nation
+were likewise educated in the United States, and one of these,
+Hohannes, was until his death, a useful minister of the gospel among
+his countrymen. But the conclusion on the whole, to which the Board
+came, both in respect to Greeks and Armenians, was that a native
+agency must be trained in the country where it is to be employed.
+
+The return of Mr. King to Greece, in 1829, has been mentioned.
+During the visit of Mr. Smith and myself to the island of Poros, in
+July of that year, he was united in marriage to a young Smyrniote
+lady, whose acquaintance he had formed some years before, while
+detained there on his return from Syria. Though Tenos was one of the
+more bigoted of the Greek islands, nearly every person of standing
+in the place called upon the newly married couple. A Greek priest
+sent a pair of doves, and soon followed with his blessing. It was
+this marriage which, in the providence of God, kept Mr. King in
+Greece until the close of his long and useful life.
+
+Mr. King opened a school for girls in Poros, and the chief men sent
+their daughters to it. The town was noted for a modern church,
+called the Evangelistria, which, though built during the revolution,
+was the most showy edifice in Greece. It was the annual resort of
+hundreds of pilgrims, chiefly the lame, sick, and lunatic, who were
+brought there to be cured. It was the centre of modern Grecian
+superstition; as Delos, in full view of the church, had been in
+ancient times.
+
+After some months, the trustees of the church became alarmed for
+their craft, and made vigorous efforts to destroy the school. Some
+of the scholars were withdrawn, one of the teachers was compelled to
+leave, and the school-books were denounced as heretical. Through the
+whole commotion Mr. King held on his way with characteristic
+calmness, teaching and praying in the school as aforetime, and
+freely expounding the Scriptures, every Lord's day, to more than
+fifty of his pupils and a number of their friends. Two of the most
+prominent inhabitants espoused his cause; and, just in the crisis of
+the difficulty, he received a box of ancient Greek books from the
+government, as a present to the school. Soon after, there appeared
+in the government gazette a commendation of the school and of its
+course of instruction. From that time, opposition from members of
+the Greek Church seems to have ceased. A handsome donation of
+school-books, slates, and pencils was made by the Greek School
+Committee in New York, and forwarded to the President of Greece,
+through the American Board. It was gratefully acknowledged by the
+government.
+
+In the autumn of 1830, Mr. King, anticipating the evacuation of
+Athens by the Turks, made a visit to that city, then a ruin, and
+arranged for his future residence. In April of the next year, having
+resumed his connection with the American Board, he made a second
+visit, and opened a Lancasterian school for both sexes; placing a
+Greek, named Nikotoplos, at the head of it, who was author of an
+epitome of the Gospels. The school was soon filled. He purchased
+from a Turk, with private funds and at a nominal cost, the ruins of
+a stone edifice with a garden, and there built himself a home, to
+which he removed his family. He also purchased for a few hundred
+dollars, while the city was still in Turkish hands, about an acre of
+land delightfully situated, on which he subsequently erected a
+building for a young ladies' school of a high order.
+
+Capodistrias, the President, was assassinated about this time by two
+men belonging to one of the first families in Greece. The protecting
+powers required that his successor be a king, and a Bavarian prince
+named Otho was put upon the throne of the new kingdom in 1833. The
+Acropolis of Athens was soon after delivered up to its rightful
+owners, and that event consummated the emancipation of Greece from
+Turkish rule. A cabinet was formed, of which Tricoupis, a Greek
+gentleman of patriotic and enlightened views, was the president.
+Athens became the seat of government in 1834.
+
+The Rev. Elias Riggs arrived as a missionary, with his wife, in
+January, 1833, and was cordially welcomed not only by his associate,
+but also by the brethren of the American Episcopal mission. Mr.
+Riggs had paid much attention to the modern Greek, and was pleased
+with Dr. King's manner of preaching on the Sabbath, and with his
+familiar exposition of the Scriptures in his flourishing Hellenic
+school.1 There were now two schools, called the "Elementary School"
+and the "Gymnasium;" the latter having a well-arranged course of
+study for four years, corresponding, as far as circumstances would
+permit, with the studies of a New England college. The subsequent
+removal of the government gymnasium from Ęgina to Athens,
+necessarily interfered with this, but until that removal it was a
+popular institution, with sixty scholars. An examination was held in
+1834 for three days in Ancient Greek, Geography, History, Geometry,
+Algebra, the Philosophy of Language, and the Holy Scriptures; the
+King and the bishop of the city being among the persons present.
+
+1 Nassau College, in Princeton, N. J., had conferred the degree of
+D. D. on Mr. King.
+
+Mr. Riggs, after visiting the more important places in the
+Peloponnesus, decided upon commencing a station at Argos, which he
+did in 1834. The great body of the Greek people at that time, were
+kindly disposed toward the missionaries and their efforts; but it
+was becoming evident, that the jealousy of the clergy was on the
+increase, and that the hierarchy had great facilities for exerting
+an adverse influence. The Church in Greece, no longer subject to the
+Greek Patriarch at Constantinople, was under the government of the
+"Holy Council of the kingdom of Greece;" which was required to guard
+the clergy and schools against heresy, and report to the government
+any attempt at proselyting. No school could be established without
+permission from the government, nor without such permission could
+any teacher instruct, even in private families. No books could be
+sold or given away in any place, without obtaining a license for
+that place, and strong guards were thrown around the press. But
+whatever the restrictions on schools and the press, the way was open
+for circulating the Scriptures, and for enforcing repentance towards
+God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. In the three years from 1834
+to 1836, Dr. King sold and gratuitously distributed nearly nine
+thousand New Testaments in modern Greek, and eighty-seven thousand
+school-books and religious tracts.
+
+The "Holy Council" now took decided ground against the version of
+the Old Testament from the Hebrew, declaring that the Septuagint
+alone was to be regarded as the canonical translation, to be read in
+the churches and used for religious instruction. This did not forbid
+nor prevent the free circulation of the Old Testament in modern
+Greek among individuals for their private use.
+
+Dark intrigues were employed to arouse the popular feeling. A letter
+against "the Americans," as all missionaries were called, purporting
+to have been written from Syra, was printed in pamphlet form at
+Paris and sent to Greece, where it attracted much attention. This
+was followed by repeated attacks from a newspaper edited by one
+Germanos. Pretended revelations and miracles at Naxos inflamed the
+zeal of the ignorant and superstitious. Professed eye-witnesses
+circulated absurd stories, of girls in the school at Syra being made
+"Americans" by sealing them on the arm; that one of them refused to
+be sealed, and two horns grew out of her head; and of a boy taken
+into a dark room to catechize him, where he saw the devil, and was
+frightened out of his senses. It was said, moreover, that the object
+of the missionaries was to change the religion of the country, while
+they hypocritically professed the contrary; though neither word nor
+deed of any missionary of the Board was made the pretext for any of
+these accusations. By such means mobs were raised, and the schools
+of Syra were, for a time, broken up. Yet the local authorities were
+generally prompt in putting down riots, and Germanos was arrested,
+and sent to a distant monastery. Dr. King's congregation on the
+Sabbath, gradually increased, and there was never a time when he
+disposed of more New Testaments, school-books, and tracts.
+
+In 1835, a station was commenced by the Rev. Samuel R. Houston on
+the island of Scio. He found the people friendly, and the island
+slowly recovering from its ruins. Professor Bambas subsequently
+expressed the opinion to Dr. King, that Samos was a more desirable
+place, since the better class of Sciotes would never return to Scio
+to live under Turkish rule. The station was not continued. In 1837,
+Mr. Houston, with the Rev. George W. Leyburn, who had been sent out
+to join him, made a tour of observation in Mįne, the ancient Sparta,
+to see if a station ought not to be formed there, in compliance with
+repeated solicitations from Petron Bey, the hereditary chief in that
+region. Indeed, in view of causes beyond the control of missionary
+societies, the Prudential Committee began to feel themselves
+compelled to pass by the Grecian Islands in great measure, and
+concentrate their efforts on the main lands.
+
+The station at Argos was strengthened in 1836, by the arrival of
+Rev. Nathan Benjamin and wife. The two girls' schools in that place
+contained from seventy to one hundred pupils. In the following year,
+as Argos was declining in population and intelligence in consequence
+of the removal of the seat of government from Napoli, it was decided
+that Mr. Benjamin should remove to Athens, and Mr. Riggs to Smyrna.
+
+The district, which the brethren from Scio had specially in view,
+was exceedingly uninviting to an observer from the sea; where it
+seemed to be only a mass of rocky cliffs and mountains, gradually
+rising from the sea to St. Elias, the highest peak of Taygetus. Yet
+among these rocks were upwards of a hundred villages, containing
+from thirty to forty thousand souls. Many of these were probably of
+true Spartan descent, and they had always maintained a degree of
+independence. The old Bey of Mįne had prepared the way for the two
+brethren by letters from Athens, where he then resided, and they
+were gladly received, and soon decided on removing their families to
+Ariopolis; situated on the western slope of the mountain ridge, and
+the chief town of the province of Laconia. The two families arrived
+in May, 1837, and were soon joined by Dr. Gallatti, who had been a
+faithful friend and helper at Scio. A large house was immediately
+erected for a Lancasterian school; but no teacher for such a school
+could be found, since no one was allowed to teach in Greece, except
+in Ancient Greek, without a diploma from the government; and all was
+under the superintendent of public schools, who would allow no one
+to serve the mission. Yet there were hundreds of boys playing about
+in the streets, who at a moment's notice would have rushed in for
+instruction, and whose parents would have rejoiced to see them
+there. A teacher was not obtained until October, 1839, and then only
+with the aid of Mr. Perdicaris, the American consul; but before the
+end of the year, the pupils numbered one hundred and seventy,
+filling the house. Among them was a youth named Kalopothakes, a
+native of the place, who afterwards became the bold friend and
+efficient helper of Dr. King. A school for teaching ancient Greek
+with thirty scholars, had been in operation a year or more. King
+Otho visited the place early in 1838, and commended the school. The
+descendants of the ancient Spartans boasted that he was the first
+monarch they had ever permitted to tread their soil.
+
+Mrs. Houston being threatened with consumption, her husband took her
+to Alexandria, and afterwards to Cairo, where she died peacefully,
+on the 24th of November, 1839. After depositing her remains in the
+Protestant burying-ground at Alexandria, the bereaved husband and
+father returned, with his child, to his station in Greece, and in
+the following year visited his native land.
+
+The Greek mission was always affected more or less by the changes of
+political parties. The missionaries carefully refrained from
+intermeddling with politics, but every political party had more or
+less of a religious basis, having something to do with the question,
+whether a religious reform should be permitted. Early in 1840 the
+government discovered the existence of a secret association, called
+the "Philorthodox," one object of which was to preserve unchanged
+all the formality and superstition which had crept into the Greek
+Church. It had both a civil and a military head, and was believed to
+be hostile to the existing government, and on the eve of attempting
+a religious revolution, by which all reform should be excluded.
+Several of the leaders were arrested; and the Russian Ambassador and
+Russian Secretary of Legation were both recalled, because of their
+connection with it. The leaders were brought to trial, but the
+society had influence enough to procure their acquittal. Its civil
+head was banished, and its military head was sent to Ęgina for a
+military trial. The king then changed most of the members of the
+Synod, and more liberal ideas seemed to be gaining the ascendency.1
+
+1 Tracy's _History_, p. 414.
+
+This reform was only partial and temporary. An order was issued by
+the government in the next year, requiring the Catechism of the
+Greek Church to be taught in all the Hellenic schools, and Mr.
+Leyburn was informed that this order applied to his school. The
+catechism inculcates the worship of pictures and similar practices,
+and the missionary decided, that he could not teach it himself, nor
+allow others to teach it in his school. A long negotiation followed,
+principally conducted by Dr. King. It was proposed that the
+government employ catechists to teach the catechism to the pupils in
+the church. The government assented on condition, that no religious
+instruction should be given in the school, meaning thereby to
+exclude even the reading of the New Testament; but the missionaries
+would neither consent to teach what they did not believe, nor to
+maintain a school from which religious instruction must be excluded.
+The school was therefore closed, and the station abandoned. It
+should be noted, that the school was not supported by the
+government, but by the friends of Greece in the United States, and
+that no impropriety was alleged on the part of the resident
+missionary.
+
+As Mr. Leyburn must now leave Greece, and had not health to learn
+one of the languages of Western Asia, he returned home, with the
+consent of the Prudential Committee. His former associate, Mr.
+Houston, was then preparing to join the mission to the Nestorians in
+Persia, but the sudden failure of his wife's health prevented, and
+the two brethren afterwards became successful ministers of the
+Gospel in the Southern States, from which they had gone forth.
+
+A station was commenced among the Greeks on the island of Cyprus in
+1834, a year earlier than that on Scio. The Greek population of the
+island was reckoned at sixty thousand, and the pioneer missionary
+was the Rev. Lorenzo W. Pease, who arrived, with his wife, in the
+last month of the year. As it was proposed to make this a branch of
+the Syrian mission, Mr. Thomson came over from Beirūt, and with Mr.
+Pease explored the island. They found no serious obstacles in the
+way of distributing the Scriptures and diffusing a knowledge of the
+Gospel, except in the unhealthiness of the climate. The most
+healthful location seemed to be Lapithos, a large village on the
+northwestern shore, two days' journey from Larnica. The village had
+a charming location, rising from the base of the mountain, and
+ascending the steep declivity a thousand feet. From thence
+perpendicular precipices arose, which sheltered it from the hot
+south winds. The coast of Caramania was in full view on the north,
+and refreshing breezes crossed the narrow channel which separated
+Cyprus from the main land. A magnificent fountain burst from the
+precipices above, the stream from which foamed through the village,
+and found its way across the narrow but fertile plain to the sea.
+This stream turned a number of mills in its descent, and a portion
+of it was distributed through the gardens, and there, tumbling from
+terrace to terrace, formed numerous beautiful and refreshing
+cascades.1
+
+1 For the extended journal of Messrs. Thomson and Pease, see
+_Missionary Herald_ for 1835, pp. 398-408, 446-452.
+
+The Archbishop of Cyprus being independent of the Patriarch of
+Constantinople, the encyclical letter against Protestant missions
+known to have been received from the metropolis, produced no decided
+hostility. The mission was reinforced in 1836 by the arrival of Rev.
+Daniel Ladd and wife, and Rev. James L. Thompson. A Lancasterian
+school had been opened at Larnica with seventy pupils, and a school
+for educating teachers with fourteen. There was very great need of
+schools, it being ascertained that, in thirty-six villages between
+Larnica and Limasol, containing more than a thousand families and a
+population of more than five thousand, only sixty-seven, besides the
+priests, could read at all, and the priests not fluently. Among the
+reasons assigned for this were the burdensome taxes imposed upon the
+people, and especially on boys at the early age of twelve years, and
+the general poverty of the parents, constraining them to employ
+their sons on their farms, or in their oil-mills or wine-presses.
+Considering that not a place had yet been found, which was
+salubrious all the year round, and that the people were scattered in
+eight or nine villages, the missionaries began to despair of a
+vigorous concentration of their labors, and came to the conclusion,
+in the year 1837, that it was expedient to go to some more
+manageable field. The opposition from Constantinople made it
+expedient to disconnect the schools from the mission. There was,
+however, from the beginning, a friendly intercourse between the
+people, including the ecclesiastics, and the missionaries and books
+and tracts were received without hesitation. This with other
+considerations induced the missionaries to delay their departure.
+The funeral of a child of Mr. Pease was attended in one of the Greek
+churches, and the Greek priests led the way in the procession,
+chanting the funeral dirge, in which there was nothing exceptionable;
+leaving at home, out of deference to the father, the cross, the
+cherubim, and the incense.
+
+In August, 1839, in consequence of remaining too long at Larnica,
+Mr. Pease was suddenly prostrated by fever, and soon closed his
+earthly career, at the early age of twenty-nine. He had made great
+proficiency in the modern Greek language, and looked forward with
+delight to its use in proclaiming the Gospel to the Greek people.
+Every month had raised him in the estimation of his brethren, and
+given new promise of his usefulness. Mrs. Pease returned to the
+United States, with her two children, in the spring of 1841. Mr.
+Thompson also returned at the close of the same year. Mr. and Mrs.
+Ladd were transferred to Broosa, in Turkey, where a large number of
+people spoke the Greek language.
+
+Dr. King and Mr. Benjamin were the only remaining members of the
+mission in Greece in 1842, and they were residing at Athens. Though
+for some time without schools, the missionaries were usefully
+employed. The former preached regularly to a congregation of from
+thirty to one hundred attentive hearers, with a ready command of the
+Greek language, and in the manner of the most effective preaching in
+this country. He preached, also, by the wayside, at the same time
+distributing books and tracts. Writing in 1843, after stating that
+fifteen hundred young men, from all parts of Greece and Turkey, were
+in the schools and university of Athens, Dr. King adds: "And yet
+God, in his wonderful providence, has permitted me to stand here,
+and preach in the plainest manner, even to the present hour, without
+let or hindrance, and that, too, in the midst of a dreadful strife
+of tongues. I have heard it remarked by Greeks, how truly wonderful
+it is that my preaching should never have been attacked. I see many
+students and others, and converse with the greatest plainness, and I
+think some are persuaded of the truth." Mr. Benjamin was also doing
+much good in the department of Christian literature. The books
+prepared by himself and Dr. King were printed at Athens, and were
+more acceptable and influential for that reason, than if printed
+elsewhere and by mission presses. The number of copies printed
+previous to 1843, was 118,465, and of pages, 6,525,500.
+
+The relinquishment of the station at Ariopolis was regarded by the
+Greeks as a public testimony against the errors of the Greek Church,
+and as an honest and consistent movement. Mr. Benjamin took the
+place of Dr. King in his absence, as a preacher, and found
+unexpected facility in so doing. It was a tribute to the Greek mind,
+that Mr. Benjamin commenced translating Butler's "Analogy" into the
+modern language.
+
+In Turkey, Mr. Temple, Mr. Schneider, Mr. Riggs, and Mr. Ladd
+continued to labor mainly in the modern Greek language. Mr. Temple
+had charge of the press, with the efficient aid of Mr. Riggs in the
+Greek and Greco-Turkish. Mr. Van Lennep divided his time between the
+Greek and the Turkish. Mr. Temple edited the Greek "Monthly
+Magazine," aided by Mr. Petrokokino, one of the young men educated
+by the Board, to whose taste, talent, and zeal much of its
+popularity and usefulness were to be attributed. The periodical
+nearly paid for itself. The amount of printing in modern Greek will
+be fully stated at the close of these histories. In 1843, it was one
+million five hundred and fifty-six thousand pages. Several of the
+schools in Western Turkey were more or less open to Greek youth of
+both sexes. Mr. Schneider was able to preach with great facility and
+propriety in the modern language.
+
+In the year 1844, the author made an official visit to Athens,
+accompanied by Dr. Joel Hawes, and a week was spent by them in free
+conference with Messrs. King and Benjamin. The conclusion was
+reached, that Mr. Benjamin should seek a wider sphere of usefulness
+among the Armenians of Turkey.
+
+As the result of subsequent discussions with the missionaries
+residing at Smyrna, Broosa, and Constantinople, it was decided to
+cease in great measure from labor among the Greeks; but that Dr.
+King ought to remain at Athens, his position and relations being
+peculiar, as will appear in the subsequent history. From that time,
+Dr. King was the only missionary of the Board in Greece, until his
+lamented death in the year 1869.1 Messrs. Temple, Riggs, and Calhoun
+at Smyrna, and Messrs. Schneider and Ladd at Broosa, had made the
+Greek language their principal medium of intercourse with the
+people. Mr. Riggs having a rare aptitude for acquiring languages,
+had begun to edit works in the Bulgarian, Armenian, and Turkish
+languages.
+
+1 During nearly the whole of Dr. King's life in Athens, Dr. Hill, an
+American Episcopal missionary, was resident there.
+
+The American Baptist Missionary Union placed two missionaries at
+Patras, on the Gulf of Corinth, in 1838. That station was
+discontinued in 1845, when Mr. Buel removed to the Piręus, the port
+of Athens, where he labored, in the most friendly relations with Dr.
+King, until 1855 or 1856, when the unsatisfactory results of the
+mission led to its discontinuance.
+
+A like result had been practically reached by both the London and
+Church Missionary Societies of England. A deplorable change had come
+over the Greeks, both in Greece and Turkey, since the freedom of
+Greece from Turkish rule; and money, time, and labor could be more
+profitably expended on other equally needy populations in that part
+of the world. The old ambition for the recovery of Constantinople
+and the restoration of the Eastern Empire, had been quickened into
+life; and the unity of the Greek Church as a means to this end, was
+craftily kept before the minds of the people by Russian agency, and
+had a wonderful influence, especially among the higher classes. The
+national pride of the Greeks had also created an aversion to
+foreigners, and made it difficult for such to gain their confidence,
+or awaken their gratitude by acts of benevolence. Then there were
+the arrogant assumptions of the Greek Church, more exclusive than
+the Roman, claiming for her clergy the only apostolical succession,
+and that her trine immersion, performed by her clergy, was the only
+baptism, while all not thus baptized were beyond the hope of
+salvation. Of course all Protestant preachers, whether episcopal or
+non-episcopal, were regarded by the Greeks as unbaptized heretics.
+The Greek Church held the worst errors of Popery, such as
+transubstantiation, worshipping the Virgin Mary, praying to saints,
+baptismal regeneration, and the inherent efficacy of ordinances to
+save the soul. The power of excommunication in the hands of the
+priests, was regarded by the people with extreme dread, as sealing
+the soul over to perdition; and believing, as they did, that
+salvation is certain in the Church, and nowhere else, they regarded
+every attempt at innovation as an attack upon their dearest
+interests, and resisted it with persecution, or turned away with
+disgust and scorn. There were persons both among the ecclesiastics
+and laymen, to whom this would not apply; but the inflexible
+opposition of the hierarchy, as a body, to all efforts for
+propagating the evangelical religion, was matter for profound
+lamentation.
+
+Yet labors in Greece had not been expended in vain. There had been
+very few hopeful conversions; but as many as two hundred thousand
+copies of the New Testament and parts of the Old had been put in
+circulation in the modern Greek language; a million copies of books
+and tracts had been scattered, by different missionary societies,
+broad-cast over the Greek community; perhaps a score of Greek young
+men had been liberally educated by benevolent societies and
+individuals in America and England; and more than ten thousand Greek
+youths had received instruction in Greece and Turkey, at the schools
+of various missions. Of the good seed thus sown, though not often on
+good ground, there may yet be a harvest to gladden future
+generations. The labor had not been fruitless. The Greek government
+was not what it would have been, and the same may be said of the
+social state. Nor were the same old ideas prevalent among the people
+as to the authority of councils and of the ancient fathers, and the
+authority of God's Word stood higher than before. The same low
+estimate was no longer put upon knowledge and education, nor upon
+religious tolerance, nor were there the same impressions concerning
+Protestantism, and Protestant nations, and the Christian world at
+large. In all these respects, there had been progress. Infidelity
+had received a check, and so had its influence on surrounding
+peoples. The Word of God, printed in the spoken language, was in
+very many habitations of the people; and the elements of their
+intellectual, moral, and social being were not, and can never again
+be, as if missionaries had not been among them.
+
+The efforts made by Dr. King in Greece, for nearly a quarter of a
+century after this time, to secure freedom in the worship of God and
+in the preaching of the Gospel, will form the subject of future
+chapters. And in the histories of the Syrian and Armenian missions,
+the reader will occasionally notice hopeful outbreaks of the spirit
+of religious inquiry among the people bearing the Grecian name.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1833-1836.
+
+
+The facts brought to light by Messrs. Smith and Dwight respecting
+the Nestorians, made it the duty of the American Board to commence a
+mission among them. Accordingly in January, 1833, the Rev. Justin
+Perkins, then a tutor in Amherst College, was appointed the first
+missionary to that people; and Mr. Smith, being ready to return to
+the Mediterranean, having published his "Researches in Armenia and
+Persia," it was decided that Mr. Perkins should accompany him as far
+as Malta. They received their official instructions together, in the
+chapel of the Theological Seminary at Andover, on a Sabbath evening
+in September, and the two brethren embarked, with their wives, on
+the 21st of that month. Mr. Perkins, in the interval, had been
+prostrated by a fever, but it was deemed safe for him to proceed,
+and his recovery was so rapid that he was soon able to administer to
+the comfort of his associates at sea.
+
+"Your first duty among the Nestorians," said the Prudential
+Committee in their instructions to Mr. Perkins, "will be to
+cultivate an intimate acquaintance with the religious opinions and
+sentiments of the Nestorians. You are aware that, excepting the
+information collected by Messrs. Smith and Dwight, during the few
+days they were at Oroomiah, almost all we know concerning that sect
+in modern times, is derived from papal writers. The learned
+investigations of some of these entitle them to high honor, and may
+be of great use to you, in the way of furnishing topics for inquiry,
+but the Committee wish the information which you communicate
+concerning the present state of the Nestorian Church, to be the
+result of your own personal investigations; at least to be thus
+corroborated. The churches of this country ought to be accurately
+informed as to the number of the Nestorians, their places of
+residence, their doctrines, rites, morals, education, etc. Whether
+you will be able at present, with a due regard for personal safety,
+to penetrate the Koordish mountains, and visit the Nestorian
+Patriarch, is very doubtful. But the journey should be performed as
+soon as may be, lest interested and perverse men should prejudice
+his mind against you."
+
+After stating that they should take pains to show the Nestorians,
+that they had no intention of subjecting them to any foreign
+ecclesiastial power; and showing that the acknowledgment of the New
+Testament, as the only authoritative standard of religious truth,
+made them stand on common ground with the people to whom they were
+sent; it was stated, that their main object would be to enable the
+Nestorian Church, through the grace of God, to exert a commanding
+influence in the regeneration of Asia.
+
+"Concentrated effort," it was added, "is effective effort. There is
+such a thing as attempting too much. Many a missionary has attempted
+such great things, and so many, in a new field, that he has
+accomplished little, and perhaps nothing as he ought. Your surveys
+may extend over a great surface; but a richer and speedier harvest
+will crown your labors, if your cultivation is applied to a single
+field."
+
+The Nestorians are a branch of the ancient Christian Church, and
+derive their name from Nestorius, a native of Syria and Bishop of
+Constantinople, who was excommunicated by the third General Council
+at Ephesus, in the year 431. The cause of his condemnation was
+probably the desire to humble the occupant of the see of
+Constantinople, which had begun to eclipse its sister patriarchates,
+rather than any real doctrinal errors. He was banished to Arabia
+Petręa, then to Libya, and finally died in Upper Egypt. But his
+cause was the cause of his countrymen, and he had influential
+friends in the patriarchate of Antioch, who denied the fairness of
+his trial and the justice of his condemnation. His case was ardently
+espoused by many young men from Persia in the famous school of
+Edessa (now Oorfa), and though these were expelled, and the school
+itself was destroyed in the year 489, by order of the Emperor Zeno,
+the banished youths carried home with them a warm sympathy for
+Nestorius, and various causes combined to extend it among the
+Persian ecclesiastics. In the year 498, the sect had so multiplied,
+as to have the appointment of the Archbishop of Seleucia and
+Ctesiphon, who then declared himself Patriarch of the East.
+
+"This sect continued to flourish, though occasionally persecuted,
+under the Persians, the Saracens, and the Tartars. They had
+celebrated schools for theology and general education. For centuries
+they maintained missions in Tartary, China, and other eastern
+regions. Their churches were scattered from Syria and Cyprus to
+Pekin, and from the coast of Malabar and Ceylon to the borders of
+Siberia. Early in the eleventh century, Unkh Khan, a Tartar prince
+on the northern borders of China, invited Nestorian missionaries
+among his people, and himself became the famous Prester John. Gengis
+Khan and several of his sons and grandsons, who conquered China and
+almost all Asia and a part of Europe, were connected with Prester
+John by marriage. Several of them had Christian wives, and one of
+them at least professed himself a Christian. Under some of this
+dynasty, Central Asia was comparatively a civilized country; and
+Christian travellers passed with safety from the banks of the
+Euphrates to Samarcand and Pekin. Some of the Chinese emperors
+favored Christianity, and ordered the erection of numerous churches.
+Meanwhile the sword of Moslem fanaticism was advancing eastward.
+Bagdad fell before it, and all the country on the Euphrates; then
+Persia, then Cabul, and the regions of the north. The Nestorian
+Church being thus crushed at home, its missions languished. And
+finally, about the year 1400, Tamerlane, who has been called 'the
+greatest of conquerors,' swept like a whirlwind over the remains of
+Nestorian Christianity, prostrating everything in his course."1
+
+1 Tracey's _History_, p. 312. See also _Missionary Herald_ for 1838,
+pp. 289-298. Narses on being expelled from Edessa, opened a school
+at Nisibis, A. D. 490, which became celebrated. About the same time,
+Acacius, also from Edessa, established a school at Seleucia. It was
+revived in 530, and was in existence as late as 605. A school was
+established at Dorkena, A. D. 585. At Bagdad were two schools in
+832, and two others were in its neighborhood. Schools existed at
+Terhana, Mahuza, Maraga, and Adiabene, in Assyria, and at Maraga, in
+Aderbijan. There were also schools in Elam, Persia, Korassan, and
+Arabia. The school at Nisibis had a three years' course of study.
+The studies to a great extent were theological; but to the study of
+the Bible, they added, in the schools generally, the study of
+grammar, rhetoric, poetry, dialetics, arithmetic, geometry, music,
+astronomy, medicine, etc.
+
+From Malta, Mr. and Mrs. Perkins proceeded to Constantinople, where
+they were cordially welcomed by Messrs. Goodell and Dwight, near the
+close of the year. After a sojourn of five months, awaiting the
+proper season for travelling, they took passage, in an English
+vessel, for Trebizond; and there they commenced their long land
+travel of seven hundred miles to Oroomiah.
+
+Mrs. Perkins was the first American lady to visit Trebizond, and the
+inhabitants thronged the streets to gaze upon her as she passed
+through the city. On the day of their entrance into Erzroom, they
+crossed the Euphrates, which is there only a few rods wide, and
+easily forded on horseback. The city is on an elevated plain,
+cultivated through almost its whole extent, with numerous villages
+everywhere in sight.
+
+They were now in one of the oldest cities in the world, founded, as
+tradition says, by a grandson of Noah, and had gone over a third of
+the distance to Tabriz, and the most difficult part of the journey.
+Here they were detained nearly a month by the incursions of Koordish
+robbers along the direct road to Tabriz. The Pasha having gone with
+his troops to drive back the marauders, Mr. Perkins resumed his
+journey on the 15th of July. Next day he overtook the Pasha, who
+assured him that he could not safely go in advance of his army. The
+only alternative was to return to Erzroom for several weeks, or take
+a circuitous route through the Russian provinces. He thought it best
+to choose the latter course, and the Pasha kindly furnished him with
+a guard of horsemen as far as the frontier. On the 22d they crossed
+into Georgia, and soon found themselves subjected to a most annoying
+quarantine of fourteen days. The laws of the empire in that province
+were very oppressive, particularly in their operation upon
+travellers. The ukase of the Emperor Alexander, favoring the
+introduction of foreign goods for ten years subsequent to 1822, had
+expired. Consequently Mr. Perkins was not allowed to take any of his
+baggage with him, except wearing apparel, not even medicines; he was
+required to send all back into Turkey. Resuming his journey on the
+7th of August, Mr. Perkins passed on rapidly to the Arras, which
+divides Georgia from Persia. Here he was needlessly and wantonly
+detained six days, for his passports. The hardships resulting from
+such treatment, with other causes, had now brought Mrs. Perkins into
+a very critical state of health. As a last resort, Mr. Perkins
+addressed a letter to Sir John Campbell, British ambassador at
+Tabriz, describing their situation, and enclosing his letters of
+introduction to that gentleman. Scarcely had he crossed into Persia,
+three days after, although his distance from Tabriz was not less
+than a hundred miles, when he was met by a courier from the
+ambassador, with a letter written in the kindest terms, and the
+duplicate of another which he had procured from the Russian
+ambassador to the officials on the frontier, with a view to put an
+immediate stop to Mr. Perkins' detention. The kindness of the same
+gentleman led him to send a takhtrawan for Mrs. Perkins, together
+with delicacies for her comfort on the way.
+
+A providential escape occurred during the first night after crossing
+the Arras. Their road led up a high mountain. As they were ascending
+it, the forward mule of the takhtrawan became obstinate, and
+suddenly ran back, forcing the one behind upon the very brink of the
+precipice, along which the road ran; and had not divine mercy stayed
+them just there, takhtrawan, bearers, and occupant would have been
+dashed down the precipice together.
+
+The following day, they had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Riach,
+physician of the embassy, whom they had seen at Constantinople, and
+who had come, with a Russian travelling passport, determined to
+cross the frontier, if necessary, and remain with them until their
+liberation. The medical skill of Dr. Riach did much to aid Mrs.
+Perkins in completing the journey to Tabriz, where they arrived on
+the 23d of August, seventy-four days after their departure from
+Trebizond. Three days after, Mrs. Perkins became the mother of a
+daughter, of whose existence she was unconscious for several days.
+Her life was probably saved, under God, through the combined skill
+and kind attentions of three English physicians, who were then
+providentially at Tabriz. The Ambassador was exceedingly kind; so
+were Mr. and Mrs. Nesbit, who have been already introduced to the
+reader. Dr. Riach, afterwards at the head of the embassy, stayed
+five days and nights with Mrs. Perkins, not retiring from the house
+till he saw some hope of her recovery. "The treatment we received
+from them on our first arrival," writes the missionary nine years
+after, "is but a specimen of their kindness to us from that period
+to the present."
+
+
+The field about to be occupied was of limited extent. The Nestorians
+numbered not more than one hundred and fifty thousand souls. Their
+territory extended from Lake Oroomiah three hundred miles westward
+to the Tigris, and two hundred miles from north to south, embracing
+some most rugged mountain ranges, and several very beautiful and
+fertile plains, the largest of which formed the district of
+Oroomiah. Education was then at the lowest ebb among the people,
+hardly a score of men being intelligent readers, while only one
+woman, the sister of Mar. Shimon, was able to read at all. They had
+no printed books, and but very few manuscripts of even portions of
+the Bible, and these were in the ancient Syriac, which was an
+unknown tongue to almost all of them. Their spoken language was an
+unwritten dialect of the Syriac. Still deeper was their moral
+degradation, almost every command of the decalogue being
+transgressed without compunction, or even shame when detected. Yet
+they were entirely accessible to the Protestant missionary, and were
+more Scriptural in their doctrines and ritual, with far less of
+bigotry, than any other Oriental sect; so much so, indeed, that the
+Nestorians were sometimes called the "Protestants of Asia."
+
+Mr. Perkins wisely determined upon acquiring a knowledge of the
+Syriac before going to reside among them. To obtain a teacher, he
+visited Oroomiah in October, accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Haas, of
+the Basle Missionary Society, then residing at Tabriz. The manner in
+which he was everywhere received by the Nestorians was exceedingly
+encouraging, and he obtained the services of Mar Yohannan, one of
+their most intelligent bishops, as a teacher, who brought with him a
+young priest, scarcely less promising than the bishop himself.
+
+Asahel Grant, M. D., and wife, left Trebizond for Persia September
+17, 1835, accompanied by Rev. James L. Merrick, who was to commence
+a mission to the Mohammedans of Persia. Mr. Perkins met them at
+Erzroom, to assist on their journey through the inhospitable region
+of the Koords.
+
+The province called Oroomiah is situated in the northwestern part of
+modern Persia. It is the northwestern part of ancient Media. A
+beautiful lake, eighty miles long and thirty broad, and four
+thousand feet above the level of the sea, is its boundary on the
+east, and a chain of snow-covered mountains bounds it on the west.
+The water of the lake is so salt and bituminous that fish cannot
+live in it, while its shores are enlivened by numerous water-fowl,
+of which the beautiful flamingo is most conspicuous.1 The plain
+contains about three hundred villages and hamlets, and is covered
+with fields, gardens, and vineyards, which are irrigated by streams
+from the mountains. The landscape is one of the most lovely in the
+East, and its effect is heightened by its contrast with the adjacent
+heights, on which not a solitary tree is to be seen. Along the
+water-courses are willows, poplars, and sycamores; and the peach,
+apricot, pear, plum, and other fruits impart to large sections the
+appearance of a forest. Near the centre of the plain, four hundred
+feet above the lake, stands the city of Oroomiah. It dates from a
+remote antiquity, and claims to be the birthplace of Zoroaster. It
+is built chiefly of unburnt brick, is surrounded by a high mud wall
+and a ditch, and has a population of twenty-five thousand, of whom
+the larger part are Mohammedans. The Nestorians of the plain were
+estimated at twenty thousand.
+
+1 An analysis of the water of the lake is said to have proved it to
+be highly charged with sulphureted hydrogen.
+
+Dr. Grant left Tabriz six days in advance of his associates, to
+prepare for their coming. But so tardy had been the carpenters, that
+Mr. Perkins and the ladies found things in a very sorry condition.
+It was late in November, and after facing a driving rain all day,
+they had to content themselves with unfinished and unfurnished
+rooms; and as the muleteers did not arrive with their baggage, they
+had neither bedding, nor a change of clothing. But they had a
+blazing fire, and provisions from the market, with a sharpened
+appetite, and slept comfortably on piles of shavings, covered with
+the clothes they had dried by the fire.
+
+Dr. Grant awakened great interest as a physician. He was continually
+thronged with patients sick with all manner of diseases, real and
+imaginary. Moslems and Nestorians came together. Children brought
+their aged parents, and mothers their little ones. Those blinded by
+ophthalmia were led by the hand. Those relieved from suffering were
+ready to kiss his feet, or even his shoes at the door. But it was a
+laborious and trying position. A thousand silly questions must be
+answered. Nor was there any certainty that the prescriptions would
+be followed, even if understood; and every Nestorian, though
+suffering under the most alarming disease, would sooner die than
+touch a spoonful of chicken-broth during a fast. Dr. Grant gained
+great repute by the removal of cataracts, and the consequent
+restoration of sight. There were patients from great distances.
+Nestorians came from the mountains, Koordish chiefs from the regions
+beyond, and some from the distant borders of Georgia. Among the
+multitudes, were the governor of the province, two princes of the
+royal family, and many of the Persian nobles. His services were
+gratuitous, he made no show to attract customers, and being ready to
+aid the native physicians with both medicine and instruction he gave
+them no offense.
+
+Dr. Grant possessed a rare fitness for the position. I have a vivid
+recollection of him at the time of the annual meeting of the Board
+at Utica in 1834, when he presented himself, one stormy evening, to
+offer his services as a physician for the mission to the Nestorians.
+What specially impressed me was his commanding form and mien, joined
+with calm decision and courage, qualities eminently fitting him for
+a life in Koordistan. The impressions made by that brief personal
+interview, were sustained and strengthened through a most intimate
+correspondence till his death.
+
+It is in the early stage of a mission, that the value of a pious
+physician is most apparent. With the exaggerated conceptions usually
+entertained of the temporal blessings he is able to confer, he is
+welcomed by all classes from the first. Every door is opened, every
+man and woman is accessible. The good-will thus awakened is more or
+less shared by his fellow missionaries, and is thus likely to be all
+the sooner confirmed by a spiritual appreciation of the Gospel.
+
+Soon after their arrival, the missionaries were invited to attend a
+wedding at Geog-tapa, a large Nestorian village five miles distant.
+As they approached, a multitude came out to meet them, with trumpets
+and drums, and shouts of "welcome, welcome." The pupils of an
+English school, which priest Abraham had opened, saluted them with
+"good morning." They found a fat buffalo just knocked down before
+the bridegroom's house, and the bride was standing, like a veiled
+statue, in the farther corner of a large room, which was soon filled
+by the rushing multitude. It was customary to have the marriage
+ceremony in the church, commencing at least an hour before day
+because of its length, and because all parties, even the officiating
+priests, were obliged to fast till it was over; but out of regard to
+the strangers, it was deferred till their arrival, and was in the
+dwelling of the bridegroom's family. Priest Abraham officiated,
+assisted by two other priests and by several deacons, in reading the
+prayers and Scripture selections, all in the ancient Syriac. After
+an hour's reading, the time came for joining hands. Several women
+caught hold of the veiled bride, and pulled her by main force half
+across the room toward her intended husband. Several men at the same
+time seized the bridegroom, who, after a modest resistance, yielded
+and advanced towards the bride. He was not able to secure her hand,
+however, without a struggle, but at length succeeded; and then both
+took a submissive stand near the officiating clergy. After reading
+another hour or more, the bishops, priests, and missionaries, with
+the multitude, advanced and kissed the married pair.
+
+Mr. Perkins engaged Mar Gabriel, a bishop, fair in form, but of a
+restless spirit, to reside with him as his teacher in Syriac; and
+the year did not close before this indefatigable missionary
+commenced reducing the modern Syriac to writing, with the aid of
+priest Abraham, who wrote a beautiful hand. His first translation
+was the Lord's Prayer. The Nestorians were much interested, having
+never heard reading in their spoken language. Even the sober priest
+could not refrain from immoderate laughter, as he repeated line
+after line of his own writing.
+
+What soon became a seminary for males was commenced on the 18th of
+January, 1836, with seven boys from the city, and the number was
+soon increased to fifty by accessions from the surrounding region,
+among whom were three deacons and one priest. Manuscript cards
+prepared by Mr. Perkins supplied the place of books. They read in
+the ancient Syriac, and the cards in the modern dialect, and in
+English, and also wrote with their fingers in sand-boxes, and made
+some progress in arithmetic. There were several free schools, but
+only a very small proportion of the hundred pupils were females.
+Several of the clergy resided with the mission, and conducted
+worship once on each Sabbath in their own language. At this service
+a portion of Scripture was read, which they had previously studied
+with Mr. Perkins, and its meaning was explained and enforced. It is
+a singular fact, that Dr. Grant was obliged to teach a Mohammedan
+school during a small part of each day, to quiet the Mussulmans, who
+were jealous of these favors to their despised Christian subjects,
+and resentfully inquired, "Are we to be passed by?"
+
+Experience showed that the families had been removed to Oroomiah too
+soon; for it took place during cold weather, and the new mud used in
+repairing the walls of their chambers had not been sufficiently
+dried. This predisposed them to disease during the hot, malarious
+summer, when all were more or less affected with illness. A bilious
+fever brought Mr. Perkins to the borders of the grave; and while he
+lay thus sick, and at one time insensible, Dr. and Mrs. Grant were
+seized with fever and ague. Missionary labors were of course
+suspended. The Nestorians sympathized deeply, and rendered all the
+aid in their power, and Mohammedans also manifested much concern.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1836-1840.
+
+
+The two missionaries and priest Abraham narrowly escaped
+assassination by ruffians of a class called Lootee, while on a visit
+to the village of Mar Joseph. Walking quietly through the village
+they encountered three of these fellows, in a narrow path lined by a
+hedge, with a horse placed across to obstruct their progress. Priest
+Abraham stepped forward, and was mildly requesting them to allow his
+party to pass, when one raised his dagger to strike him. Seeing the
+defenseless priest in peril, Mr. Perkins instinctively sprang
+forward, and the assassin turned upon him. Nothing but his fall at
+the moment the weapon struck him, saved him from instant death. As
+it was, the dagger cut through his clothes, and punctured his side.
+Seeing his associates thus hard beset, Dr. Grant, who was behind,
+ran up and brought his riding whip with such force across the
+villain's eyes, as to confuse him for the moment, and in the
+confusion the party ran into a house and barred the doors. The
+priest received a cut in the head, but Mr. Perkins was not seriously
+wounded. Through the efforts of the British ambassador, the Lootee
+received so severe a chastisement from the Persian authorities, as
+made them careful, ever after, how they injured any member of the
+mission.
+
+A printing establishment was much needed; and a press was sent with
+the Rev. Albert L. Holliday and Mr. William R. Stocking, who sailed
+from Boston in January, 1837. At Trebizond, the press was found too
+unwieldy to be carried overland, and was accordingly sent back to
+Constantinople and sold to the Armenians, for their high-school at
+Scutari. The new missionaries were met at Erzroom by Mr. Perkins and
+Mar Yohannan, and reached their destination in June. Mr. Holliday
+found the encouragement to labor quite as great as had been
+represented by the brethren first in the field.
+
+The extreme poverty of the Nestorians had the same effect on the
+first missionaries, that like causes have had in some other portions
+of the unevangelized world. It caused the whole expense of schools
+and of the agency employed to be thrown upon the Christian public at
+home. The board of the fifty scholars in the seminary was paid by
+the mission, and people in the villages thought they could not
+afford to send their children to the village schools, unless each of
+them was paid two or three cents a day to buy their bread. They said
+their children could earn as much by weeding the cotton, or driving
+the oxen; and the brethren naturally rejoiced in being able to
+afford this aid. Among the students of the seminary at this time,
+were two bishops, three priests, and four deacons, who of course
+were adults. Pupils in the first rudiments of their own language
+received twelve and a half cents a week for their support, and the
+more advanced received twenty-five cents. Experience was as needful
+to discover the best methods of missionary labor, as of any other
+untried undertaking.
+
+The mission now had eight native helpers, among whom were three
+bishops and two priests, all, except one, residing with the mission.
+That one was the venerable Mar Elias, the oldest bishop in the
+province, who superintended one of the schools. He had adopted the
+practice of translating portions of the Epistles, which he read
+statedly in his church. Some of the people were much delighted with
+the innovation; but others, and a profligate priest among them,
+complained that he annoyed them with the precepts of "Paul, Paul,
+Paul," of whom they had scarcely ever heard before. But the good
+bishop did not regard the opposition.
+
+Mrs. Grant was the first member of the mission, called away by
+death. She had been thoroughly educated, and the two bishops in her
+family wondered to see a woman learning Syriac through the Latin
+language. Nor was their wonder less when she turned to the Greek for
+the meaning of some difficult passage in the New Testament. Finding
+the prejudices of the people too strong to permit her to begin a
+girls' school at once, she taught her own female domestics to read,
+and then sought to interest mothers in the education of their
+daughters. At length she succeeded in collecting a small school of
+girls, of which she was the first teacher. When too sick to leave
+her chamber, she had the pupils assemble there. This was the
+beginning of the Female Seminary, which afterwards became so noted
+under Miss Fiske. It was commenced March 12, 1838, with four pupils,
+but the number soon increased, and Mrs. Perkins rendered valuable
+aid. Mrs. Grant readily learned to speak the Turkish, and to read
+the ancient Syriac. The modern Syriac she was able both to read and
+write, and the French she could speak before leaving home. But,
+cultured and refined as she was, she declared the time spent in the
+mission field among that rude people, to have been the happiest part
+of her life. The aid she rendered her husband in his medical
+practice, added not a little to her usefulness. She had great
+aptness and skill in the sick chamber, and like her divine Master
+went about doing good; yet without neglecting her household affairs.
+Her death occurred on the 14th of January, 1839, at the age of
+twenty-five. She was greatly lamented by the Nestorians. The bishops
+said to the afflicted husband, "We will bury her in the church,
+where none but holy men are buried;" and her death produced a
+subdued and tender spirit throughout the large circle of her
+acquaintance. This better state of feeling continued through the
+year, especially in the seminary.
+
+Priest Dunka, from one of the independent tribes, gave indications
+of piety. He had learned the alphabet in his childhood, while
+tending his father's flocks on the mountains, and became a reader
+without farther instruction. At Oroomiah he was now both a learner
+and helper. Three months of the summer he spent among his native
+mountains, preaching the Gospel in the villages around his home.
+Little of the truth had been heard there for ages, except in the
+unknown language of the liturgy, but the people were eager to
+listen.
+
+In September, Robert Glen, son of the Rev. William Glen of Tabriz, was
+hopefully converted while at Oroomiah on a visit. He was born at
+Astrakhan, where his father labored seventeen years as a missionary,
+and was now employed as a teacher in a small school of Moslem young
+men. The mission at this time had twelve schools in as many villages,
+containing two hundred and seventy-two males, with twenty-two females;
+and seventeen pupils in the female boarding-school, and fifty-five in
+the seminary, which was taught by a priest and deacon, under the
+supervision of Mr. Stocking.
+
+The scarcity of copies of the Holy Scriptures among the Nestorian
+people would be remarkable, in view of their receiving them as their
+rule of faith and practice, if we did not remember how sorely they
+had been persecuted in the past, and how much they still suffered
+from Moslem oppression. Excepting the Psalms, which entered largely
+into the prescribed form of worship, they had but one copy of the
+Old Testament, and that was in a number of volumes, the property of
+several individuals. The British and Foreign Bible Society had
+printed the Gospels in the Nestorian character; but they had
+scarcely more than a single copy of the Acts of the Apostles and the
+Epistles, and none of the Book of Revelation, in their own
+character. Of course all was in the ancient language.
+
+Dr. Grant had been suffering for some time before the death of his
+wife, from the climate of the plain; and he was now instructed by
+his Committee to commence a station, if possible, among the
+Nestorians on the western side of the Koordish mountains. Incapable
+of fear, he had vainly sought the consent of his brethren to
+penetrate the mountains directly from the plain. It was the belief
+of the Committee that, with his medical skill and his courage and
+address, he could do this with safety; but the brethren of the
+mission had been so impressed by the murder of Mr. Schultz, on that
+route, that they could not consent; and the opinions of brethren on
+the ground were not to be disregarded. He was, however, authorized
+to enter the mountains from the west, in the belief that, once
+established there, he would soon find his way opened on every side.
+
+On the first of April, 1839, Dr. Grant left Oroomiah, expecting to
+meet Mr. Homes at Erzroom, who had been appointed to accompany him.
+An unusually late fall of snow made the journey perilous. For more
+than two hundred miles, it was from two to four feet deep; and for
+twenty miles, in the mountains beyond Ararat, there was not a single
+human habitation. In descending, the only way he could know when he
+was out of the path, was by the depth to which he sank in the snow.
+In the pass of Dahar, near the sources of the Euphrates, where
+Messrs. Smith and Dwight had well-nigh perished, the guide lost the
+path in a snow-storm, and declared it impossible to go on. The snow
+was too deep for the horses. Turning back was out of the question,
+as their tracks were obliterated by the wind, which would then be in
+their faces. Though benumbed and feeble, the courage of Dr. Grant
+did not fail. He could not tell how deliverance would come, but had
+a sweet assurance that God would send it, and encouraged his
+companions to new effort. Just then four mountaineers came tramping
+over the snow before them, and one of them consenting to turn back,
+they passed safely on foot, the man breaking down the drifts for the
+horses, and exploring the path by thrusting his long staff deep into
+the snow. He reached Erzroom on the seventeenth, and rested with his
+kind friend Dr. Riach, who had retired from Teheran, because of
+impending war between England and Persia. Dr. Grant's health had
+improved amid all his hardships.
+
+Learning that Mr. Homes was detained at Constantinople, he started
+for Trebizond on the eighteenth, with no attendant except the
+surijee from the post-house, and there took a steamer for
+Constantinople. Mr. Homes not being yet able to accompany him, he
+returned alone to Erzroom, and proceeded thence to Diarbekir, where
+he arrived May 30. He found the city waiting in suspense for news
+from the battle of Nizib, between the forces of Mohammed Ali and the
+Sultan. The defeat of the latter was soon manifest in the arrival of
+hundreds of fugitives, completely stripped by the Koords. Anarchy
+reigned from that moment, and the city was filled with robbery and
+murder. The people ascribed their defeat to Frank innovations in
+military tactics; and when Mr. Homes arrived, the brethren not only
+heard curses against themselves in the streets, but an openly
+expressed purpose to kill every European in the place. The
+thermometer was then 98 in the shade, and their danger from both
+climate and people induced them to leave for Mardin, which they did
+with an escort of thirty horsemen. Such was their personal danger
+even at Mardin, only a few days after their arrival, that the
+governor offered them a guard. This they declined, not thinking it
+best to manifest any alarm, and the excitement soon apparently died
+away. But, two months later, a mob killed the governor in his palace
+in open day, and also several leading men, and then sought the
+lodgings of the missionaries, intending to kill them. Providentially
+they had ridden out farther than usual that morning, in a vain
+search for a caravan, and before their return, the Koords had shut
+the gates, to prevent the entrance of government troops. That saved
+the lives of our brethren, who retired to the convent of the Syrian
+Patriarch, a few miles distant, which their enemies did not dare to
+attack.
+
+In the midst of so much peril, and with so little hope of
+usefulness, Mr. Homes, by the advice of brethren at Constantinople
+and Smyrna, resolved to return, and Dr. Grant did not withhold his
+consent. "Within the ruined walls of an ancient church," he writes,
+"in a lonely ravine, overlooked by the town, I exchanged the parting
+embrace with my brother and companion in tribulation. On account of
+the anarchy around us, we had travelled together barely two days,
+but on a bed of sickness, and surrounded by men of blood, I had
+learned to prize the company of a Christian friend. Yet, while
+Providence called him back to Constantinople, to me it seemed to
+cry, 'Onward to the mountains!'"
+
+Dr. Grant resolved to go to Mosul. Disguised in an Oriental dress,
+he returned to Mardin to prepare for his journey, and while there,
+his safety was insured by the surrender of the town to the Pasha of
+Mosul. On his way, he was favored with the company of Captain
+Conolly, the bearer of despatches for India, whose sad fate on the
+banks of the Oxus afterwards occasioned the journey of Dr. Wolff to
+Bokhara. The distance was nearly two hundred miles, and they arrived
+at Mosul on the 20th of September.
+
+Fully resolved to penetrate the fastnesses of Koordistan, and
+trusting in the protecting power of his gracious Lord, Dr. Grant
+left Mosul on the 7th of October, with two Nestorians from Persia, a
+Koordish muleteer, and a kavass from the Pasha. Crossing the bridge
+of twenty-one boats, which spans the Tigris, he was amid the ruins
+of Nineveh, and soon reached a Yezidee village, where he was
+hospitably received. On the 15th, as he approached Duree, near the
+borders of Tiary, deep Syriac gutturals from stentorian voices in
+the rocks above him demanded who he was, where he was going, and
+what he wanted. Had he been a Papist, he would have been robbed; as
+it was, the frightened kavass lost all courage, and begged
+permission to return.
+
+When the people heard him speak their own language, they gathered
+around, and welcomed him to their mountain home. His fame as a
+physician had preceded him, and they came for medicine from all
+directions. The venerable bishop, with a long white beard, took him
+into their ancient church, which was a cave high up on the mountain
+side, with heavy masonry in front, and dark within. Here the bishop
+slept, to be in readiness for early morning prayers, and he was
+pleased with the gift of a box of matches to light his lamp.
+
+A loftier range still separated Dr. Grant from Tiary, the "munition
+of rocks," which he describes as "an amphitheatre of mountains
+broken with dark, deep defiles and narrow glens, that for ages had
+been the secure abodes of this branch of the Christian Church." He
+had been warned at Mosul, not to enter this region without an escort
+from the Patriarch. But he could not afford the delay, and as the
+bishop encouraged him, he resolved to go alone. Exchanging his
+Turkish boots for the bishop's sandals, made of hair, to avoid a
+fatal slip on the smooth, narrow ledges of the mountain, he set off
+early on the 18th. An hour and a half brought him to the summit.
+Retiring to a sequestered corner, where he could feast his eyes with
+the prospect, his thoughts went back to the period when the
+Nestorians traversed Asia, and, for more than a thousand years,
+preached the Gospel in Tartary, Mongolia, and China. Though the
+flame of vital piety was almost quenched on their altars, his faith
+anticipated the day when those glens would reėcho the glad praises
+of God; and down he sped, over cliffs and slippery ledges, to the
+large village of Lezan, on the banks of the noisy Zab. Scarcely had
+he entered it, when a young man, the only one he had ever seen from
+this remote region, from whose eyes he had removed a cataract a year
+before, came with a present of honey, and introduced him at once to
+the confidence of the people. He became so thronged with the sick
+from all the region, that he had to forbid more than three or four
+coming forward at once.
+
+Leaving Lezan, he went up to Ashita, where he became the guest of a
+priest, reported to be the most learned of living Nestorians, who
+had spent twenty years in copying, in beautiful style, the few works
+of Nestorian literature; but even he had not an entire Bible. He was
+electrified by Dr. Grant's account of the press, that could do his
+twenty years' work in a less number of hours. At Kerme, where he
+arrived on the twenty-fifth, almost exhausted by a walk of ten long
+hours, he was soon recognized and welcomed by a Nestorian, who had
+received medical aid from him two years before at Oroomiah. Starting
+the next morning for the Patriarch's residence, he forded a river on
+horseback, that was fifty or sixty yards across. He was now on the
+caravan road from Salmas to Julamerk. In the more precipitous
+places, the rock had been cut away and regular steps chiseled out.
+He was received by the Patriarch with great cordiality, without the
+extravagant compliments so common with the Persians. "And now," said
+the Patriarch, "you will make my house your own, and regard me as
+your older brother." Mar Shimon was thirty-eight years old, above
+the middle stature, well-proportioned, with a pleasant, expressive,
+and rather intelligent countenance; and his large flowing robes, his
+Koordish turban, and his long gray beard, gave him a patriarchal and
+venerable appearance, that was heightened by a uniformly dignified
+demeanor. But for the fire in his eye and his activity, he would
+have been thought nearer fifty than thirty-eight. Being the temporal
+as well as spiritual head of his people, the difficulties of his
+situation were assigned as the cause of his hoary hair and beard.
+
+During the five weeks spent in the patriarchal mansion, Dr. Grant
+had an opportunity to see Nestorians of intelligence and influence
+from all parts of the mountains, and elicited from them information
+such as he could not have gained in any other way. At parting, the
+Patriarch presented him one of the ancient manuscripts of his
+library. It was the New Testament, written on parchment, in the old
+Estrangelo character, seven hundred and forty years before. It was
+presented by Dr. Grant to the library of the American Board, and is
+now there.
+
+His next sojourn was in the castle of Nūrūllah Bey, chief of the
+independent Hakary Koords, two days from the residence of the
+Patriarch. The Bey was very sick; and becoming impatient under the
+slow operation of the medicine given him by the doctor, he sent a
+messenger for him at midnight. "The sentinels upon the ramparts,"
+says Dr. Grant, "were sounding the watch-cry in the rough tones of
+their native Koordish. We entered the outer court through wide,
+iron-cased folding-doors. A second iron door opened into a long dark
+alley, which conducted to the room where the chief was lying. It was
+evident that he was becoming impatient; and as I looked upon the
+swords, pistols, guns, spears, and daggers--the ordinary furniture
+of a Koordish castle--which hung around the walls of the room, I
+could not but think of the fate of the unfortunate Schultz, who had
+fallen, as it is said, by the orders of this sanguinary chief. He
+had the power of life and death in his hands. I knew I was entirely
+at his mercy; but I felt that I was under the guardian care of One,
+who had the hearts of kings in His keeping."
+
+The chieftain recovered, and, in token of his gratitude, made his
+benefactor the present of a horse. Dr. Grant describes him as a man
+of noble bearing, fine open countenance, and about thirty years of
+age. This important journey was completed on the 7th of December,
+1839.
+
+The Rev. Willard Jones and wife arrived in the month previous; and
+the Rev. Austin H. Wright, M. D., and wife, in the following July,
+to take Dr. Grant's place as missionary physician; and Mr. Edward
+Breath, a printer, in November. A press, made for the mission, to be
+taken to pieces and so rendered portable, came with the printer,
+much to the satisfaction of the people. A font of Syro-Chaldaic type
+had previously been received from London, through the kindness of
+the Rev. Joseph Jowett, editorial superintendent of the British and
+Foreign Bible Society's publications. The press was the more
+seasonable, because the Jesuits had commenced their characteristic
+and determined efforts to get possession of the field. The vain
+young bishop, Mar Gabriel, imagining himself to have been slighted
+by his clerical brethren, and being strongly assailed with
+flatteries and offers of money, had, in an evil hour, encouraged
+them to come among his people. On reflection he repented of his
+rashness, called in the aid of his Protestant friends, and wrote to
+Boré, the French Jesuit, warning him to keep aloof from his people.
+Boré was enraged, and replied that, having a firman from the King of
+Persia permitting him to open schools, he should open one at
+Ardishai. But Gabriel and the mission had already opened a school
+under one of the best teachers from the Seminary, and soon opened
+another,--the two containing sixty scholars; while the Jesuit's
+school, commencing with nine scholars, dwindled to four or five. One
+of the first works of the press was to print a tract in the Syriac
+language, entitled "Twenty-two Plain Reasons for not being a Roman
+Catholic." The Nestorians were exceedingly interested by the array
+of Scripture texts against the corrupt doctrines and practices of
+that sect. This was followed by a thousand copies of the Psalms.
+
+The gradual revival of preaching in this ancient Church, became now
+apparent. At the earnest request of the people, a circuit was formed
+of seven preaching stations, at all of which the missionaries were
+aided by ecclesiastics, three of them bishops.
+
+Thus, with the hearty approval of both bishops and priests, the
+missionaries began to preach in the churches, and so great was the
+demand for preaching that Mr. Stocking was ordained. The ordination
+took place in one of the Nestorian churches. Mr. Perkins felt that
+spiritual death, rather than theological error, was the calamity of
+the Nestorians. Their liturgy was composed, in general, of
+unexceptionable and excellent matter, and the charge of heresy on
+the subject of Christ's character, he pronounces unjust. The Nicene
+Creed, which they always repeat at the close of their worship,
+accords very nearly with that venerable document, as it has been
+handed down to us.1
+
+1 Annual Report of the Board for 1841, p. 114.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE MOUNTAIN NESTORIANS.
+
+1840-1844.
+
+
+We paused in the history of the Nestorian mission at the return of
+Dr. Grant to Oroomiah, after a successful exploration of the
+mountains of Koordistan. He remained there till the 7th of May,
+1840. During this time, two brothers of the Patriarch visited the
+mission, and urged its extension into the mountains. Mar Shimon also
+wrote, renewing his request for a visit in the spring. Dr. Grant had
+but little prospect of recovering his health on the plain; and the
+welfare of his two sons in the United States, children of his first
+marriage, and the three children then with him at Oroomiah, seemed
+to require that he revisit his native land. Two of these last
+mentioned sickened and died in January. Having then only one son to
+take with him, four years of age, he decided to return through the
+mountains, and revisit the Patriarch on his way. It was a perilous
+journey so early in the season, especially with so tender a
+companion; but the brave little fellow appears to have endured the
+snows and precipices of Koordistan as well as the father. The boy
+was everywhere a favorite, both with Koords and Nestorians. One
+night the snow was so deep near the summit of a mountain that they
+were obliged to sleep under the open sky, with the thermometer below
+zero; but the Patriarch's brothers had carpets enough to keep them
+warm until three in the morning, when the light of the moon enabled
+them to resume their journey. Mar Shimon was then a guest of
+Suleiman Bey, in the castle of Julamerk, and with him they spent ten
+days. Nūrūllah Bey had gone to Erzroom to negotiate for the
+subjugation of the Independent Nestorians to the Turkish rule,
+having already relinquished his own personal independence, and
+become a Pasha of the empire. Suleiman Bey was a relative of the
+Emir, and had been the leader of the party that murdered Mr.
+Schultz. He showed special kindness to Dr. Grant. His mother and
+sister, as also the sister and mother of the Patriarch, with womanly
+forethought, loaded the Doctor with supplies for the inhospitable
+road before them. He found the Emir at Van on his return home, and
+discovered what had been the object of his journey to Erzroom. When
+Dr. Grant arrived there, with clothes worn and ragged from the
+roughness of the journey, he had the happiness of meeting Dr.
+Wright, then on his way to Oroomiah. The two brethren called on the
+gentlemen of the Persian embassy, then at Erzroom, and one of them,
+observing Dr. Grant's erect and commanding person, remarked that a
+good soldier was spoiled when that man became a missionary. At
+Trebizond he gladly exchanged the saddle for the quiet of the
+steamer, which took him to Constantinople, and he arrived at Boston
+on the 3d of October.
+
+Having embraced the theory, that the Nestorians are descendants of
+the lost Ten Tribes of Israel, Dr. Grant, with characteristic
+industry, employed such time as he could command during his
+missionary travels and his homeward voyage, in preparing a volume in
+support of these views. It was published both in this country and in
+England, and attracted considerable attention. The celebrated Dr.
+Edward Robinson deemed it deserving of an elaborate discussion in
+the "American Biblical Repository," in which he makes a strong
+argument against the theory.1
+
+1 See _American Biblical Repository_, 1841, vol. vi. of new series,
+pp. 454-482, and vol. vii. pp. 26-68.
+
+In January, 1841, Dr. Grant had the pleasure of witnessing the
+departure of the Rev. Messrs. Abel K. Hinsdale and Colby C.
+Mitchell, and their wives, for the Mountain Nestorians. They went by
+way of Aleppo and Mosul, that being the more practicable route for
+females; but the Doctor, thinking to reach the mountains before
+them, and prepare for their arrival, went himself by way of
+Constantinople, Erzroom, and Van. He was at Constantinople May 14th,
+and at Van on the first day of July. The journey from Erzroom to
+that place was wearisome and perilous, famine, the plague, and
+predatory Koords harassing him nearly all the way.
+
+Van, with fourteen thousand Armenian population, though at that time
+difficult of access, was even then regarded as an important place
+for a missionary station, and preferable for residence to most
+others in the interior. Being five thousand feet above the level of
+the sea, it was not subject to oppressive heats. There were fruitful
+gardens on the one hand, stretching for miles over the plain, and on
+the other, the placid lake, and snow-capped mountains; altogether
+forming a very striking landscape. A small Nestorian community had
+formed a settlement on the mountains within three or four hours of
+Van.
+
+Dr. Grant reached the summer residence of the Patriarch on the 9th
+of July, and was cordially received as before; and the same may be
+said of his intercourse with the mountaineers. He mentions several
+places in Koordistan as having strong claims for a missionary
+station, but gives the preference to Asheta in Tiary.
+
+While at Asheta, he received painful tidings of the death of Mr. and
+Mrs. Mitchell, and the sickness of Mr. and Mrs. Hinsdale, and
+immediately started for Mosul, though at much risk from Koords on
+the frontier, and from roving Arabs near the Tigris. He reached
+Mosul on the 25th of August, in time to minister successfully to Mr.
+Hinsdale, whose life had been seriously endangered by a relapse of
+fever.
+
+Messrs. Hinsdale and Mitchell were forty-one days on their voyage to
+Smyrna, from whence an Austrian steamer took them to Beirūt. Mr. and
+Mrs. Beadle accompanied them as far as Aleppo, to commence a new
+station. Mr. Mitchell had a slight attack of fever and ague at
+Aleppo, which detained him till the 28th of May. That was rather
+late in the season, still all might have gone well, had they been
+able to press on with the usual speed. The abundant green grass on
+the plain, however, caused the muleteers to loiter, and, once on the
+road, the company was entirely at their mercy. Still the journey, as
+far as Mardin, where they arrived June 19th, was both pleasant and
+prosperous. On the plain below the city Mr. Mitchell, in efforts to
+keep their tent from being blown down in a storm, became wet and
+chilled. This brought on another fit of ague, which was repeated
+after three days. On the 25th, with scarcely any apparent disease,
+he lost his reason, and from that time drooped, like the withering
+of a plant, till he died on the morning of June 27th, 1841. The
+Koordish villagers refused the Christian a grave, nor would they aid
+in carrying the body a few miles to the Jacobite village Telabel,
+The survivors had not strength themselves to carry it, but secured
+its conveyance thither as best they could. There they buried the
+mortal remains in the village cemetery, and two rude stones mark the
+grave.
+
+Eight hours brought them in sight of the Tigris, at Beshabor. The
+next day they crossed on rafts supported by inflated goat-skins,
+and, on the 30th, rode six and a half hours to a Yezidee village.
+Next morning, after riding an hour, Mrs. Mitchell became too ill to
+proceed, and she lay four days in a mud hovel, among Arabs so rude
+that they could not be kept from the sick room, where they laid
+their hands on whatever they fancied. To remain there was out of the
+question, so Mr. Hinsdale constructed a litter, and at exorbitant
+prices obtained men from a distant village to carry it. She had to
+be repeatedly laid upon the ground, while he rode far and near to
+find four men willing to perform the degrading service of carrying a
+woman. At length the sun became so hot, that they could travel only
+by night. Their troubles were somewhat relieved by the services of a
+man, whom Mr. Rassam had kindly sent to meet them. On the 7th of
+July, they entered Mosul, and were cordially welcomed by Mr. and
+Mrs. Rassam. Mrs. Mitchell's disease then assumed a new form, and
+from that time till her death, on the 12th, her reason was
+dethroned. Mr. Hinsdale was taken violently ill before the death of
+Mrs. Mitchell, and Mrs. Hinsdale was unable to render any assistance
+to her husband. It was in these trying circumstances, that Dr. Grant
+so opportunely arrived.
+
+There was ample evidence in the subsequent experience of the
+mission, that these fatal results were not owing to any peculiar
+hazard in the journey itself, though they may have resulted from the
+lateness of the season. All the way from Aleppo to Mosul, they had
+the assistance of Mr. Kotschy, who, in addition to his medical
+knowledge, had travelled seven years in Western Asia and Africa. The
+route, moreover, had been, and is still, one of the great highways
+of nations.
+
+No doubt Divine Providence is always consistent with itself, and
+with the Saviour's promise; and so would it always appear to us,
+could we see, as God sees, the end from the beginning. To the
+devoted missionary, who dies at the outset of his career, all is
+satisfactory, however painful the circumstances, as soon as he
+passes the dark portal. Then, too, in contemplating the reverses
+which were now beginning to thicken upon the mission, we should bear
+in mind, that the divine plan for the Mountain Nestorian mission, as
+afterwards appeared, was not that it be prosecuted from the western
+side of the mountains, but from Oroomiah, the position first taken
+by the mission; where, as we shall soon see, Gospel influences were
+gathering a peculiar and most needful strength.
+
+As soon as Mr. Hinsdale was able to travel, he accompanied Dr. Grant
+on a tour among the Yezidee and Nestorian villages lying near to
+Mosul.1
+
+1 For an account of this tour, see _Missionary Herald_, 1842, pp.
+310-320.
+
+The Jacobites are a branch of the venerable Church of Antioch, and
+were then painfully struggling to repel the inroads of the Papacy.
+As soon as they learned the adherence of the American missionaries
+to the Bible, and their opposition to Papal innovations, they began
+to welcome them as friends. Having been duped by the plausible
+pretenses of the Papists, they were at first cautious in their
+advances; but a priest from the Syrian Christians in India, named
+Joseph Matthew, on his way to be ordained metropolitan by the Syrian
+Patriarch at Mardin, did much to dispel their fears, and promote
+friendly relations with the missionaries. He was a graduate of the
+English college at Cotayam, was evangelical in his views, spoke
+English with propriety, and at once gave the right hand of
+fellowship to the missionaries, and bespoke for them the confidence
+of the people. Early in the following year, he returned from Mardin
+as Bishop Athanasius, and consented to remain and preach among the
+Jacobites during Dr. Grant's absence in the summer.
+
+Nūrūllah Bey had now commenced making war on the mountain
+Nestorians, with the aid of the Turks; and the Nestorians, split
+into hostile parties, were incapable of combined resistance.
+Suleiman Bey, being opposed to an alliance with Turkey, had seized
+the reins of government in the absence of the Emir; and since the
+object of the Osmanlis was to subjugate the Nestorians, as well as
+the Koords, the Patriarch naturally, but as it proved unhappily,
+sided with Suleiman.1
+
+1 _Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians_, p. 203.
+
+Dr. Grant believed it would now be easier to enter the mountains
+from the east, than from the west. Accordingly he set out for
+Oroomiah, on the 6th of June, 1842, going the southern route by way
+of Ravandooz. Mr. Hinsdale and Bishop Athanasius accompanied him the
+first day. When about to return, the bishop offered prayer in the
+English language, and thus they parted, not all to meet again.
+Athanasius wrote a letter to Dr. Grant from Malabar, but with a date
+nearly a year subsequent to Dr. Grant's death, in which he stated,
+that his people had welcomed him with great joy, and gladly received
+the Word of God.1
+
+1 _Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians_, p. 219.
+
+Dr. Grant crossed the plain of Arbela, where Alexander conquered
+Persia, and in ten days arrived at Oroomiah. Being impatient to get
+into the mountains, the mission assembled immediately, and delegated
+Mr. Stocking to accompany him. Dr. Wright said of him, at this time,
+that "his spirits were buoyant, his step elastic, and his energy
+untiring." Two Nestorians went with them, and they had letters from
+the governor and some Persian nobles to the Persian Khan and the
+Emir of the Hakary Koords. At Khosrawa, Mr. Stocking was constrained
+by sickness to return; and both the native assistants were so
+alarmed by the warlike aspect of things, that they declined going
+farther. The now solitary traveller succeeded, at the last moment,
+in getting the brave bishop Mar Yūsūf to be his companion.
+
+The Emir had now broken his treaty with the Sultan, formed two years
+before in the hope of immediate aid to subdue the Nestorians; and
+had sworn perpetual allegiance to the Shah, who promised him support
+against the Sultan. Dr. Grant found Yahya Khan and the Emir at the
+castle of Charreh, on the summit of an isolated rock near the river
+of the same name. The tents of more than a dozen chiefs dotted the
+green banks of the stream. Nūrūllah Bey still professed to regard
+Dr. Grant as his physician and friend, and in the presence of the
+Khan promised to protect him and his associates, and permit them to
+erect buildings in Tiary for themselves and their schools.
+
+The Khan, to whose friendly agency with the Emir Dr. Grant was
+specially indebted, had a good reputation for integrity. He was a
+Persian subject, then governor of Salmas, and also chief of a branch
+of the Hakary tribe. He had married a sister of the Emir, and given
+him one of his own in return, and another was in the harem of the
+Shah. He assured his missionary guest of the Emir's personal
+friendship, and interested himself for his future safety.
+
+After sundry adventures among precipitous mountains and savage
+Koords, Dr. Grant was once more the guest of Mar Shimon, who kindly
+received the New Testament, the Psalms, and other books from the
+mission press. The Doctor was himself suffering from the effects of
+exposure in a wet dormitory the previous night; but the bracing air
+of that elevated region renewed his strength, and he was glad to
+resume his journey towards Asheta, which he had proposed as the site
+of his first mountain station. On this part of the way he had the
+company of Mar Shimon, who had then decided not to join the Koords
+and Persians against the Turks, having discovered that the strife
+between them was for the supremacy over his own people. Of the two
+he preferred the Turks. He was, however, advised by Dr. Grant to
+cultivate the friendship of the Emir. Further than this Dr. Grant
+would not interfere, being, fully resolved not to meddle with their
+political relations. A secret correspondence of the Patriarch with
+the Turkish Pasha, when discovered, cost him the favor of the Emir;
+and it soon became apparent that the Turks, whatever their
+pretensions, were resolved upon nothing short of the complete
+subjugation of his people. It was but too evident, also, to his
+missionary friend, that the Patriarch was himself more concerned for
+their political, than for their religious and moral condition.
+
+Amadia, on the western frontier of the Nestorians, had now
+surrendered to the Turks; and the war on that side of the mountains
+being ended, Mr. Hinsdale left Mosul on the last day of September,
+and in eight days was at Asheta. The prospect from the summit on the
+western side of the valley was of singular beauty. The village of
+Asheta extended below him for a mile and a half, with numerous plats
+of grain and vegetables interspersed, the whole diversified with
+shade trees of various kinds. A short distance above the village was
+a deep ravine, from which the snow never disappeared. The spot
+selected for the mission house, was on the summit of a hill, near
+the centre of the village.
+
+Soon after the arrival of Mr. Hinsdale, the papal bishop of Elkosh
+and an Italian priest found their way to Asheta. They stated to the
+Patriarch, that many boxes of presents were on their way from
+Diarbekir, and requested permission to remain till they arrived. The
+following Sabbath the Patriarch, with Mar Yūsūf and several priests,
+held a public discussion with them on the prominent errors of the
+Papacy. The result was not favorable to their object, and the next
+day their presents were returned, and they had permission to leave
+the country. They left during the week, but not till they had taken
+much pains, though apparently without success, to shake the
+Patriarch's confidence in the American missionaries. Soon after,
+early in November, Mr. Hinsdale returned to Mosul.
+
+Up to this time, Mar Yūsūf had been fearless and tolerably patient,
+but he had now become heartily tired of the mountains, and longed
+for his peaceful home on the plain. It was the first time in a life
+of fifty years, that he had been ill when far from home. Yet he had
+been faithful in imparting religious instruction, and the missionary
+regretted his departure. Near the close of November, Dr. Grant
+received a letter from Nūrūllah Bey, requesting his professional
+services at Julamerk. His Nestorian friends strongly objected to his
+going, as they were apprehensive of treachery, and not without some
+reason; but he went, committing his way unto the Lord. He found the
+chief sick of fever, from which he recovered, through the blessing
+of God on the remedies employed. There was now opportunity to
+counteract reports intended to enlist the Emir in measures to
+destroy the mission. He became convinced that Dr. Grant was neither
+building a castle at Asheta, nor a bazaar to draw away the trade.
+Elsewhere, as will appear in the sequel, these reports had a more
+serious effect.
+
+Dr. Grant had already heard of the arrival of the Rev. Thomas Laurie
+and wife at Mosul; and two days after, returning from Julamerk, he
+received the painful intelligence that Mr. Hinsdale was dangerously
+sick. He at once hastened to his relief, but he was too late. The
+devoted missionary rested from his labors on the 26th of December,
+at the age of thirty-five, after a sickness of twenty-four days. His
+disease was typhus fever. Mr. Hinsdale was a native of Torrington,
+Connecticut, and received his education at Yale College, and the
+Auburn Theological Seminary. "On the night of his decease," says Dr.
+Grant, "while his deeply afflicted wife and Mr. Laurie were sitting
+by him, he was heard to say, amid the wanderings of his disordered
+intellect; 'I should love to have the will of my Heavenly Father
+done!' It was his 'ruling passion strong in death.' Desiring to have
+the will of God done in all the earth, he had toiled to fit himself
+for the missionary work, and then, regardless of sacrifices, he had
+come to a field rich in promise, but full of hardships. His daily
+spirit, as evinced in all his actions, made me feel that he was just
+the man for this portion of the Lord's vineyard."
+
+The Papists were, to say the least, not the main cause of Mar
+Shimon's alienation from his American friends. In 1840, after Dr.
+Grant had passed through the mountains the second time, on his
+return to America, the Patriarch was visited by Mr. Ainsworth,
+travelling at the expense of the Society for Promoting Christian
+Knowledge and the Royal Geographical Society. The statements of this
+gentleman and of his companion, Mr. Rassam, to Mar Shimon, so
+resembled those made by the Papists, that the Patriarch suspected
+them of being Jesuits in disguise, and they actually left the
+mountains without removing that suspicion. Nor was it creditable to
+them, that they passed through Oroomiah without even calling on the
+American missionaries there.1
+
+1 See _Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians_, pp. 151-154. For Mr.
+Ainsworth's account of this visit, see _Travels and Researches in
+Asia Minor_, _etc_., vol. i. p. 1, and vol. ii. pp. 243-255. It is
+not necessary here to correct the erroneous statements in the
+passage referred to.
+
+Had the interference gone no further, not much harm might have
+ensued. But Mr. Ainsworth's report induced the Christian Knowledge
+and Gospel Propagation Societies, in 1842, to send the Rev. George
+Percy Badger as a missionary to the Mountain Nestorians, or rather
+to the Patriarch and his clergy in the mountains. This was nine
+years after the commencement of the mission to the Nestorians at
+Oroomiah, eight years after the republication in England of the
+Researches of Messrs. Smith and Dwight among the Nestorians, and a
+year after the publication there of Dr. Grant's work, entitled "The
+Nestorians, or the Lost Tribes." Nor was there ever a time when the
+attention of the English nation was more directed to Western Asia.
+
+How much the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London
+actually knew of the American mission, before officially and
+strongly commending Mr. Badger to the confidence of the Nestorian
+Patriarch, is not known. They make no reference whatever to that
+mission, and write as if they looked upon the field as entirely
+unoccupied, and open to a mission from the Church of England.
+
+Mr. Badger spent the winter of 1842-43 in Mosul; and, early in the
+spring, before the mountain roads were open, and while Dr. Grant and
+Mr. Laurie were preparing at Mosul to visit Asheta, he hastened to
+the Patriarch, with letters and presents from the dignitaries of the
+Church of England. The civil relations of the Patriarch to the
+Koords, the Persians, and the Turks were such at that time, as to
+make him extremely anxious for the intervention of some foreign
+power; and he had been frankly told, by the American missionaries,
+that they could assure him of no such intervention. Coming with
+letters commendatory from the Primate of all England, the Lord
+Bishop of London, and the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, and with
+offers of schools, his power for good or evil must have been great.
+It cannot be that the patrons of Mr. Badger anticipated the attitude
+he would assume with regard to the American mission. The speedy
+close of his mission, may be assumed as proof that they did not. But
+while this is cheerfully admitted, the disastrous consequences of
+this interference should be distinctly stated. Mr. Badger gives the
+following account of his proceedings, in his report to the Committee
+of the Gospel Propagation Society, dated March 30, 1843. After
+stating the pains he took to explain the character, teaching, and
+discipline of his own Church, and how well his proposals to
+establish schools were received by Mar Shimon, he says, "The
+proceedings of the American Dissenters here necessarily formed a
+leading topic of our discourse. Through the influence of Nūrūllah
+Bey, they have been permitted to settle in the mountains, and two
+large establishments, one at Asheta and the other at Leezan, a
+village one day distant, are at present in course of being built.
+They have also a school in actual existence at Asheta, the expenses
+of which are defrayed by the Board, and, if I am rightly informed,
+another at Leezan. .... I did not fail to acquaint the Patriarch how
+far we are removed, in doctrine and discipline, from the American
+Independent missionaries. I showed him, moreover, that it would be
+injudicious, and would by no means satisfy us, to have schools among
+his people by the side of theirs, and pressed upon him to decide
+what plan he would pursue under existing circumstances. I think the
+Patriarch expressed his real sentiments on the peculiar doctrines of
+the Independents, when he said, 'I hold them as cheap as an onion;'
+but there are other considerations, which have more influence in
+inclining him to keep on friendly terms with the missionaries. In
+the first place, Dr. Grant has gained the _apparent_ good will of
+Nūrūllah Bey, and the Patriarch may fear that, if he manifests any
+alteration in his conduct towards the American missionaries, the
+Emir might revenge it. Secondly, although I am fully convinced, that
+there is hardly a Nestorian in the mountains, who sympathizes with
+the doctrine or discipline of the Dissenters, whenever these differ
+from their own, yet I am persuaded, that, from the Patriarch to the
+poorest peasant, all value the important services of a good
+physician; and besides this, they highly prize the money which the
+missionaries have already expended, and are still expending among
+them with no niggardly hand, in presents, buildings, schools, etc."1
+
+1 _Nestorians and their Rituals_, vol. i. pp. 248, 249.
+
+The reader need not be told, that Congregationalists and
+Presbyterians are neither Dissenters nor Independents; and these two
+large bodies of Christians founded the mission.
+
+The object of Mr. Badger was to alienate the Patriarch from the
+American mission; and he appears to have succeeded. Mar Shimon, in a
+letter addressed to the Archbishop and Bishops of the English
+Church, in August, 1843, speaks thus of the missionaries, with whom
+he was on confidential and somewhat intimate terms before the visit
+of Mr. Badger.
+
+"Such was our condition, remaining in our own country in perfect
+peace and security, when, about three years since, persons came to
+us from the new world called America, and represented themselves as
+true Catholic Christians; but when we became acquainted with their
+way, we found that they held several errors, since they deny the
+order of the Priesthood committed to us by our Lord, nor do they
+receive the oecumenical councils of the Church, nor the true
+traditions of the holy Fathers, nor the efficacy of the sacraments
+of salvation, which Christ hath bequeathed to his Church, namely,
+Baptism, and the holy Eucharist; on which account we must beware of
+their working among us. But when your messenger, the pious presbyter
+George, came to us, and delivered into our hands your letters, we
+were filled with joy when we read their contents, and learned
+therefrom your spiritual and temporal prosperity. And we have now
+given up all others, that we may be united with you, in brotherhood
+and true Christian love."1
+
+1 _Nestorians and their Rituals_, vol. i. p. 273.
+
+Five months before the date of this letter, and after the return of
+Mr. Badger to Mosul, Dr. Grant received a letter from Mar Shimon,
+filled with Oriental protestations of undiminished attachment, and
+with urgent invitations to revisit the mountains. He went,
+accompanied by Mr. Laurie. They were kindly received as before, and
+spent several weeks with him, but found the Nestorians in constant
+dread of attacks from the Koords.
+
+Meanwhile the reports, which had been put in circulation with regard
+to Dr. Grant's operations at Asheta, in the way of building, were
+communicated by the Pasha of Mosul to the Pasha of Erzroom, and by
+him to Constantinople. It is not probable that the reports were
+believed anywhere; but as the government was then intent upon
+subjugating that portion of the empire, they were unwilling to have
+the mountaineers enlightened and elevated. Accordingly they refused
+firmans to Dr. Azariah Smith and Rev. Edwin E. Bliss, in case they
+were going as missionaries to the Nestorians, for these would pledge
+to them the protection of the government; though they would grant
+them passports to go where they pleased. The Turkish minister even
+declared to Mr. Brown, our Charge d'affaires at the Porte, that they
+did not wish schools to be opened in the mountains.
+
+In June, Dr. Grant, by special invitation, visited Bader Khan Bey,
+the most powerful chief in Koordistan. The journey occupied him five
+days, by way of Zakhu and Jezireh. The castle of the chief lay
+sixteen or eighteen miles northeast of Jezireh, in a pass among the
+mountains. He found there his old friend, of Koordish sincerity,
+Nūrūllah Bey, who had come to engage the Buhtan chief in the
+subjugation of the Nestorians. The fearless missionary spent ten
+days with these "deceitful and bloody" men. They made no concealment
+of their designs upon the Nestorians, but promised safety and
+protection to the mission-house and property at Asheta.
+
+The successful attack soon after made on the hitherto independent
+Nestorians, appears to have had its origin in the Turkish
+government. Only unity of action could now save the Nestorians, and
+that unity was wanting. The Buhtan Koords came upon them from the
+northwest, and the Hakary tribes from the northeast and east. On the
+south was a Turkish army from the Pasha of Mosul, while the
+Ravandooz Koords are said to have been ready for an onset from the
+southeast. Diss, the district in which the Patriarch resided, and
+Tiary were soon laid waste by the combined force of the Buhtan and
+Hakary Koords. Many were slain, and among them the Patriarch's
+mother, a brother, and a fine youth who was regarded as the probable
+successor to the Patriarch. The valuable patriarchal library of
+manuscripts was destroyed. When the work of destruction began, Dr.
+Grant was in the southeast part of Tiary. From thence, without
+returning to Asheta, where the Patriarch then was, he hastened, by
+way of Lezan and Amadia, to Mosul, where great fears had been
+entertained for his safety. He reached Mosul on the morning of July
+14, 1843, much fatigued with his journey, but in tolerably good
+health.
+
+In the first invasion, Asheta and three other large villages in
+Tiary were spared the general destruction. Previous to November,
+however, the Nestorians of these villages rose upon the Koordish
+governor, and wounded him; and this occasioned the destruction of
+these villages, and the massacre of their inhabitants. Nothing was
+spared except the house Dr. Grant had erected, and that was
+converted into a fortress. Of the seventy-four priests in Tiary,
+twenty-four were killed, whose names were known. The districts east
+of Diss and Tiary were not destroyed. The tribes of Tehoma, Bass,
+and Jelu suffered comparatively little in either of the invasions,
+except in the loss of their property and their independence. After
+the disasters of Tiary and Diss, each of the remaining tribes sent
+in its submission. The Patriarch fled to Mosul. Several of his
+brothers fled to Oroomiah, and there threw themselves on the
+hospitality of the mission, which in their destitute circumstances
+could not be refused. Many were sold into slavery. Of the fifty
+thousand mountain Nestorians, the estimated number before the war,
+one fifth part were numbered with the slain.
+
+Mrs. Laurie was called on the 16th of December, to rest from her
+labors. "In her last hours," writes Dr. Grant, "she was mercifully
+delivered alike from bodily pain and from mental anxieties. A noble
+testimony of Christian devotedness had been given in her
+consecration to one of the most difficult and trying fields in
+modern missions; and death to her was but the Saviour's welcome to
+mansions of undisturbed repose."
+
+It has been stated that the Turkish government had refused a firman
+to Dr. Azariah Smith, in case he were a missionary to the Nestorians
+of Koordistan. He accordingly remained in the Armenian mission,
+where he found useful occupation till the arrival of the Foreign
+Secretary; when it was arranged that he should proceed to Mosul by
+way of Beirut and Aleppo, and either remain permanently connected
+with the mission, or return to the Armenians as a missionary
+physician. A firman was now given him, and he reached Mosul in
+safety on the 29th of March. Little did any one think that his first
+duty would be to smooth Dr. Grant's descent to the grave, yet an
+all-wise Providence had so ordained. A typhoid fever, which had
+carried off many of the refugee Nestorians in Mosul, seized their
+beloved physician on the 5th of April. He was delirious from the
+moment it assumed a threatening character, and died on the 24th of
+April, 1844.
+
+While the author was at Constantinople, he received a letter from
+Dr. Grant, stating how much his presence was needed, for a time, by
+his children at home. The case being urgent, he was encouraged to
+return and was preparing for this, when his gracious Lord called him
+into his presence above. The tidings of his dangerous sickness
+awakened much interest in Mosul. People of every rank, men of all
+sects and religions, watched the progress of his disease with the
+most earnest anxiety. The French Consul visited him almost daily.
+The Turkish authorities sent to inquire for him, and some came in
+person. One, who arrived immediately after his decease, could not
+refrain from tears when he heard of it. A leading Jacobite remarked,
+that all Mosul was weeping. The poor Patriarch, roused to a sense of
+his loss, exclaimed, "My country and my people are gone! Nothing
+remains to me but God!"
+
+Those who have attentively read the preceding history will need
+nothing more to set forth the character of this eminent servant of
+Christ. His courage, his calmness and yet firmness of purpose, his
+skill in the healing art, his devotion to the cause of his Saviour,
+his tact in winning the confidence even of those who never before
+trusted their own friends, his fearlessness in the presence of
+unscrupulous and cruel men and his ascendency over them, his lively
+faith under appalling discouragements, and his unyielding
+perseverance, form an array of excellence rarely combined in one
+man. Like the holy Apostle, he was "in journeyings often, in perils
+of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils in the city, in perils in
+the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false
+brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in
+hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." Yet
+was he not cast down by these things. He regarded them as incidental
+to his calling of God in Christ Jesus; and in the pursuit of this
+heavenly calling, he was more happy in the savage wilds of
+Koordistan, than he would have been in the most favored portions of
+his native land.
+
+Mr. Laurie and Dr. Smith, the surviving brethren at Mosul, entered
+the mountains in the summer of 1844, explored the district of Tiary,
+and visited Nūrūllah Bey at Birchullah above Julamerk. Wherever they
+went among the Nestorians, they found a painful scene of desolation.
+On their return to Mosul, they forwarded their journal and a summary
+view of the facts, and asked the Committee to decide whether to
+continue the effort to approach the Nestorians from the west, and
+the Committee now forwarded definite instructions to discontinue
+this branch of the mission.1 They proceeded to Beirūt in Syria,
+accompanied by Mrs. Hinsdale, who had been bereaved of her only
+child. Mr. Laurie became a member of the Syrian mission, and Dr.
+Smith of the Armenian; and Mrs. Hinsdale was for some time employed
+in the instruction of missionary children at Constantinople.
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1845, pp. 116-125.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1830-1838.
+
+
+Syria was not in a condition for a return of the missionaries until
+after two years. Messrs. Bird and Whiting left Malta for Beirūt on
+the 1st of May, 1830. Mr. Abbott, the English Consul, had already
+returned, and gave them a cordial welcome. The members of the Greek
+Church greeted them in a friendly manner, and were ready to read the
+Scriptures with them; but the Maronite priests, faithful to the
+Church of Rome, forbad their people all intercourse with the "Bible
+men," whom they described as "followers of the devil." Among those
+who received them gladly were a few young men, over whom the
+missionaries had rejoiced in former years, and who had remained
+steadfast in the faith, and had honored the Gospel by their lives.
+
+Gregory Wortabet, one of the two Armenian ecclesiastics who early
+became connected with the mission, is already somewhat known to the
+reader. He belonged to the monastic priesthood in the Armenian
+Church, and there is an interesting autobiography of him in the
+"Missionary Herald" for 1828. His career up to that time, as
+described by himself, shows him to have been an uncommon character;
+and his personal sufferings, both for good and evil doing, prepared
+him to receive benefit from his converse with the missionaries at
+Beirūt, which began in 1826, when he was twenty-six years of age. He
+was then ignorant of the Gospel, with his mind in great darkness and
+confusion. His first ray of light was from the good example of his
+missionary friends. Comparing their lives with their preaching, he
+admired the consistency of the two. He then compared both with the
+Scriptures, reading through the entire New Testament. At length day
+dawned upon his darkness. He became fully satisfied, that the
+Scriptures were from God, and committed himself to their divine
+teaching. Renouncing his self-righteousness, and all dependence on
+the absolutions of the Church, he trusted for salvation only in the
+blood of the Lord Jesus. Having adopted the opinion, that his
+monastic vows were unscriptural and therefore void, he married a
+discreet woman, who not long after gave good evidence of piety.
+
+Wortabet accompanied the missionaries to Malta, as did also
+Dionysius, the other ecclesiastic. This change in their
+circumstances was at their own earnest request, but it was a great
+change. The author saw them at Malta, and did not wonder at some
+dissatisfaction on the part of the younger of the two, which helped
+to bring a cloud, for a time, over his Christian character. But his
+morals were irreproachable in the view of the world, and on his
+return to Syria in 1830, which was mainly in consequence of the
+failure of his eyes, the sun shone forth again, and continued to do
+so till his death. He went back to Beirūt with the intention of
+supporting himself by manual labor, but the return of ophthalmia
+interrupted his plans, and reduced him to poverty. Mr. Bird visited
+him in May, 1831, at his residence near Sidon, and found him and his
+wife destitute indeed of the good things of this life, but contented
+and cheerful, and Wortabet warning all around him, night and day.
+Much of his conversation was spiritual, and he was listened to with
+deference. He was respected by the principal inhabitants of the
+place, and his wife was regarded as a model of humility and piety.
+Two or three were thought to have received saving impressions from
+his conversation. He obtained his support, such as it was, by means
+of a small shop, and was rigidly conscientious in his dealings.
+Respectable men of all classes came frequently to converse with him
+on religious subjects, and so gave him an opportunity to circulate
+the Bible, and to recommend its religion to Druses, Armenians,
+Papists, and Jews. Even Moslems sometimes listened with attention.
+
+Having been drawn into a written controversy by a zealous Maronite,
+Wortabet called in the aid of Taunūs el Haddad, not being himself at
+home in the Arabic, and with important aid from the written
+discussions of Messrs. King, Bird, Goodell, and the lamented Asaad,
+he came out with a full exposition of the points at issue between
+Protestants and the Church of Rome, which attracted much attention.
+An answer was repeatedly promised, but none ever appeared, and it
+was thought the Maronite was himself half convinced of his error.
+Wortabet's weight of character, and his perfect knowledge of the
+people, made his influence at Sidon exceedingly valuable, and it was
+increasing and extending. But on the 10th of September, 1832, a
+short illness, supposed to be the cholera, terminated his earthly
+labors. From the first attack, he regarded the disease as fatal, and
+met death with a calm reliance on the Saviour.
+
+The operations of the mission in 1832, were disturbed by plague,
+cholera, and war. The ravages of the plague were not great, but
+cholera occasioned intense alarm. It swept over Armenia and along
+the western borders of Persia, cut off one third of the pilgrims
+from Beirūt to Mecca, was exceedingly fatal at Cairo and Alexandria,
+and made approaches to the seat of the mission as near as Aleppo,
+Damascus, Tiberias, and Acre; but from this terrible judgment the
+inhabitants of Beirūt were providentially shielded. They suffered
+much, however, from the rapacity of the Pasha of Acre, until his
+power was broken by the invading army of the Viceroy of Egypt, under
+Ibrahim Pasha. With the aid of ten or fifteen thousand men from
+Mount Lebanon, under the Emir Beshir, Ibrahim Pasha took Acre; then
+pushing his conquests to Damascus, established the dominion of Egypt
+over Palestine and all Syria.
+
+The papal bishop of Beirūt having published an answer to Mr. King's
+"Farewell Letter," Mr. Bird made a reply in thirteen letters,
+containing many extracts from the Fathers and Roman Catholic doctors
+against the bishop's opinions and expositions of Scripture.
+Preparatory to this, the mission library was furnished with the more
+important works of the ancient Fathers; and what was wanting to
+complete the polemic department of the library, was munificently
+supplied by Mr. Parnell, of the Bagdad mission; who also presented
+the mission with a lithographic press for printing in the Arabic and
+Syriac languages. About this time, Mr. Temple was instructed to send
+the Arabic portion of the Malta establishment to Beirūt, where Mr.
+Smith, who returned from the United States in 1834, was to have the
+charge of it.
+
+Mr. Smith had been instructed by the Prudential Committee, to
+explore the country eastward of the Jordan, and also that bordering
+on the eastern range of Lebanon. Accordingly, soon after his
+arrival, he and Dr. Dodge visited Damascus, and then went into the
+Hauran, which was never before explored by Protestant missionaries,
+and until the publication of Burckhard's travels, twelve years
+before, was almost unknown in modern times. The Bozrah of the
+Scriptures was the limit of their travels southeastward, and marks
+the limit of habitation towards the great desert. Thence they
+traversed the region of Bashan to the southwest, as far as the river
+Jabbok, now called Zerka, beyond which the country is surrendered to
+the wild Bedawīn. Turning to the north, they crossed the Jordan not
+far from the lake of Tiberias, ascended the western shore, visited
+the numerous Greek Christians on the west of Mount Hermon, and
+returned to Damascus. The health of the mission now called Dr. Dodge
+back to Beirūt, and Mr. Smith completed the survey of Anti-Libanus
+alone; visited a village of Jacobite Syrians in the desert towards
+Palmyra; passed through Homs, and as far north as Hamah, or "Hamath
+the great;" then, bending his course homeward, he crossed Lebanon in
+the region of the Ansaireea, through Tripoli to Beirūt. Of this
+whole deeply interesting tour Mr. Smith, as was his custom, kept an
+accurate journal, which he intended to elaborate for publication as
+soon as he should have opportunity. The learned world heard with
+deep regret, in the year 1836, of the loss of this valuable
+manuscript in the shipwreck of Mr. and Mrs. Smith on their voyage to
+Smyrna. The Arabic press arrived in 1834, and passed without
+objection through the customhouse. Indeed, there were at that time
+no less than six presses in Syria and the Holy Land, belonging to
+Jews and Papists, and no one of them was subjected to hindrance,
+censorship, or taxation.
+
+It could not truly be said, that any material change had taken place
+in the character and condition of the people at large, as a
+consequence of Protestant missions. But this at least was true, that
+the impression given by the Jesuits, that Protestants had no
+religion, no priesthood, and no churches, had been extensively
+removed. The missionaries unite in their testimony, that the
+circulation of the Scriptures is not alone sufficient to regenerate
+a people. A very considerable number of copies had been put in
+circulation from Aleppo to Hebron and Gaza, and many of them had
+been in the hands of the people for more than ten years. It is not
+known indeed how much they had been used; but where there had been
+no personal intercourse with missionaries, not a single radical
+conversion of the soul unto God had come to the knowledge of the
+missionaries.
+
+Commodore Patterson visited Beirūt during the summer with the U. S.
+ship _Delaware_ and schooner _Shark_; principally, as he said, to do
+honor to the mission, and to convince the people that it had
+powerful friends.
+
+Ten interesting young men placed themselves under the tuition of Dr.
+Dodge to learn English, and Mr. Smith gave them lessons in geography
+and astronomy, of which they knew almost as little as of English. A
+school taught by Taunūs el Haddad was converted into a girls'
+school. A female school was also opened by the ladies of the
+mission, assisted by the widow of Wortabet, for which a house was
+erected by the subscriptions of foreign residents. The school
+contained twenty-nine pupils, of whom three were Moslem children,
+and one a Druse, and no opposition was made to it. Religious
+instruction was given, of course, and the scholars made good
+progress in reading, sewing, knitting, and behavior. The whole
+number in the schools exceeded a hundred. Mr. Abbott, the early and
+valued friend of the mission, died during this year.
+
+In 1835, Mr. Bird was compelled, by the declining health of his
+wife, to visit Smyrna. After remaining there nearly a year, and not
+receiving the benefit they expected, they came to the United States,
+and were never able to return to Syria. Their removal was for a time
+an irreparable loss to the mission, and was a severe disappointment
+to themselves. In subsequent years, they gladly gave two of their
+children to the missionary work in Western Asia. Miss Rebecca W.
+Williams arrived this year as a teacher; and in the next year the
+Rev. Messrs. Story Hebard and John F. Lanneau, and Miss Betsey
+Tilden. In 1835, Mr. William M. Thomson was married to Mrs. Abbott,
+the widow of the late English Consul, who, from an early period in
+the mission, had given decisive evidence of attachment to the
+kingdom of Christ.
+
+The high school, commenced in 1835, took a more substantial form in
+the following year. It was wisely decided, that the pupils should
+lodge, eat, and dress in the style of the country; and the annual
+expenses of each scholar for boarding, clothing, etc., was only from
+thirty-five to forty dollars. The course of study embraced the
+Arabic language for the whole period, the English language,
+geography and astronomy, civil and ecclesiastical history, with
+chronology, mathematics, rhetoric,--in the Arab sense, a popular
+study,--natural and moral philosophy, composition and translation,
+natural theology, and sacred music. The Bible was studied
+constantly. In all these departments there was a great deficiency of
+books; in some it was entire.
+
+Mr. Hebard and Miss Williams were united in marriage in October,
+1836. Mr. Hebard had then the care of the seminary, and the girls'
+school was taught by Mrs. Hebard and Mrs. Dodge. The latter was
+subsequently married to the Rev. J. D. Paxton, a clergyman from the
+United States, then on a visit to Syria.
+
+The mission, as early as 1836, became sensible of a serious
+deficiency in their Arabic type. As it did not conform to the most
+approved standard of Arabic caligraphy, it did not meet the popular
+taste. Mr. Smith therefore took pains to collect models of the
+characters in the best manuscripts. These were lost in his
+shipwreck, but he afterwards replaced them at Constantinople, to the
+number of two hundred; so varied, that the punches formed for them
+would make not far from a thousand matrices. These he placed in the
+hands of Mr. Hallock, the missionary printer at Smyrna, who
+possessed great mechanical ingenuity, and was entirely successful in
+cutting the punches. The type was cast at Leipzig by Tauchnitz. Thus
+a really great and important work, without which the press could not
+have been domesticated among the many millions to whom the Arabic is
+vernacular, was brought to a successful issue.
+
+The disastrous shipwreck of Mr. and Mrs. Smith on their way from
+Beirūt to Smyrna, has been already mentioned. The voyage was
+undertaken chiefly for the benefit of Mrs. Smith's health; but the
+exposures consequent on the shipwreck, extending through
+twenty-eight days until their arrival at Smyrna, aggravated her
+consumptive tendencies, and hastened her passage to the grave. She
+died on the thirtieth of September, 1836, at the age of thirty-four.
+The closing scene is described by her husband. "Involuntary groans
+were occasionally muttered in her convulsions. These, as we were
+listening to them with painful sympathy, once, to our surprise,
+melted away into musical notes; and for a moment, our ears were
+charmed with the full, clear tones of the sweetest melody. No words
+were articulated, and she was evidentally unconscious of everything
+about her. It seemed as if her soul was already joining in the songs
+of heaven, while it was yet so connected with the body as to command
+its unconscious sympathy. Not long after, she again opened her eyes
+in a state of consciousness. A smile of perfect happiness lighted up
+her emaciated features. She looked deliberately around upon
+different objects in the room, and then fixed upon me a look of the
+tenderest affection. .... Her frequent prayers that the Saviour
+would meet her in the dark valley, have already been mentioned. By
+her smile, she undoubtedly intended to assure us that she had found
+him. Words she could not utter to express what she felt. Life
+continued to struggle with its last enemy until twenty minutes
+before eight o'clock; when her affectionate heart gradually ceased
+to beat, and her soul took its final departure to be forever with
+the Lord."1
+
+1 _A Memoir of Mrs. Sarah Lanman Smith_ was given to the public by
+her brother, Edward W. Hooker, D. D., in 1837, pp. 407.
+
+In the winter and spring of 1838, an opportunity was afforded Mr.
+Smith to perform a very useful service as the associate of Dr.
+Edward Robinson, in his celebrated "Biblical Researches in Palestine
+and the Adjacent Regions."1 The aid was essential to the full
+success of the enterprise, from Mr. Smith's acquaintance with the
+Arabs and their language, and it was cheerfully rendered by the
+missionary, and assented to by the mission and by the officers of
+the Board at home. Mr. Smith had been hopeful of being able to visit
+the Hauran, and to recover the more important facts lost in the
+shipwreck, but the troubled state of the country prevented. Joining
+Dr. Robinson in Egypt, he travelled with him from Cairo to Suez;
+thence to Sinai and Jerusalem, by way of Akabah; then to Bethel, the
+Dead Sea, and the valley of the Jordan. At Jerusalem, they attended
+the annual meeting of the Syria mission.
+
+1 Mr. Smith rendered a similar service, during a part of Dr.
+Robinson's second tour in 1852, in a portion of the same regions.
+
+The Rev. Messrs. Elias R. Beadle and Charles S. Sherman, and their
+wives, joined the mission this year.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+THE DRUZES, AND THE WARS OF LEBANON.
+
+1835-1842.
+
+
+We now enter upon a period of some special difficulty in the
+prosecution of the missionary work. Turkey, Egypt, and several great
+European powers, conflicting for secular objects, brought the Druzes
+into very singular and as it proved unfortunate, relations to the
+mission.
+
+The Druzes are found chiefly on the mountains of Lebanon, and in the
+country called the Hauran, south of Damascus, and number sixty or
+seventy thousand souls. The sect originated with Hakem, a Caliph of
+Egypt, but derived its name from El Drusi, a zealous disciple of the
+Caliph. They believe Hakem to be the tenth, last, and most important
+incarnation of God, and render him divine honors. They have ever
+taken great pains to conceal their tenets, which seem to be
+compounded from Mohammedanism and Paganism, and it is only a portion
+of themselves that know what the tenets are. Those are called the
+Akkāl, or _initiated_; the others are the Jebal, or _uninitiated_.
+Four centuries and a half after the death of the founder of the
+sect, it became powerful under a single chief. Inhabiting the rugged
+mountains of Lebanon, they maintained for many ages a free and
+independent spirit in the midst of despotism, and were a
+semi-independent people within the Turkish dominions down to the
+summer of 1835, when they were subdued by Ibrahim Pasha.
+
+As early as 1831, a hope was awakened in the mission, that the
+Gospel might be successfully introduced among that people. A Druze
+woman was in the habit of coming daily to listen to the reading of
+the Scriptures and to religious conversation, and would often say,
+"That's the truth," with her face bathed in tears. Her visits were
+continued until she fell a victim to the plague. An old man, also,
+who was one of the "initiated," came, and, after much disputation,
+professed to receive the Gospel. In proof of his sincerity, he
+brought one of the secret books of his religion, and gave it to the
+missionaries. Mr. Smith, moreover, when on the mountains, was
+invited to attend one of their stated meetings, and, at its close,
+was requested to read and expound a portion of the word of God.
+
+The prospects became more favorable in 1835. Mr. Bird and others
+spent the hot months of summer at Aaleih, a Druze village on
+Lebanon. Mrs. Dodge gathered a school of girls there, and Mr. Bird
+had ten or fifteen Druzes present at his Arabic preaching every
+Sabbath, and among them the young sheiks of the village, with their
+servants. Many of the people listened with attention, and received
+and read the New Testament and other religious books, with apparent
+eagerness. They readily acknowledged that neither repentance,
+alms-giving, prayers, nor any works of their own, were sufficient to
+insure the pardon of sin; and when pointed to the great atonement of
+the Lord Jesus, it seemed to commend itself to their understanding
+and conscience. Though nominally the disciples of the Koran, they
+did not cry out "blasphemy," as did the Moslems, when told that
+Jesus is the Son of God, thus partaking of the divine nature; but
+they seemed to feel that this character was necessary for one who
+should undertake to be a Saviour for a world of sinners.
+
+Mr. Bird coming down from the mountains to accompany his sick wife
+to Smyrna, Mr. Smith took his place, and visited eight or nine
+villages, with every opportunity afforded him for preaching the
+Gospel; and he was everywhere listened to with respectful attention.
+Though aware of the deceitfulness of the people, he could not but
+see how open they then were to this species of missionary labor. Yet
+he could not find among them any real spirit of inquiry, and his
+only hope was in the influences of the Holy Spirit, giving efficacy
+to the truth. The Druzes, though wrapped up in hypocrisy, and
+apparently without one spiritual thought, were of the same race with
+all other men, and the preaching of the word might be expected, in
+the end, to have the same effect upon them.
+
+There was reason to believe, that this movement among the Druzes
+grew mainly out of their recent subjugation by the Egyptians, and
+their apprehension of a military conscription. They had always
+professed Mohammedanism hypocritically, to escape the oppressions
+which Christians suffered under Moslem rule; but now the Christians
+fared better than the Moslems, in that they were not liable to be
+drafted into the army, to which as Moslems the Druzes were exposed.
+They had very painful apprehensions of such a levy, and the reason
+having ceased that had led them to profess Mohammedanism, they were
+disposed to renounce that religion; and some among the uninitiated
+seemed ready to renounce the Druze religion also. Their great object
+was to enjoy equal rights with the Christians, and especially to
+escape the military conscription.
+
+A levy had been demanded of the Druzes before this visit of the
+brethren to the mountains, and had been refused, with an urgent
+request to Mohammed Ali that he would not impose upon them so odious
+a burden. Nothing was heard in reply until the fourth day after Mr.
+Smith's return to Beirūt, when Ibrahim Pasha presented himself at
+Deir el-Kamr, at the head of eighteen thousand men. Taken by
+surprise, no opposition was made. Both Druzes and Christians were at
+once disarmed, and officers were left to collect recruits.
+
+With the dreaded evil thus strongly upon them, there was a more
+general disposition to throw off the Druze religion. Applications
+came from individuals and from families in different and distant
+villages. Among them were some of the higher ranks. One whole family
+connection of eighty individuals declared their readiness to pledge
+their property as security that they would never apostatize from the
+Christian faith; and had it been in the power of the mission to
+secure to them the political standing of Christian sects, and had
+the brethren been disposed to favor a national conversion, after the
+example of the early and middle ages, it is probable that the whole
+body of the Jebal Druzes, at least, would have become nominal
+Protestants. Of course the missionaries explained to them how
+inconsistent with the spirituality of our religion would be such a
+mere profession of Christianity. For a few Sabbaths, the Arab
+congregation was composed chiefly of Druzes; and Mr. Smith threw
+open his doors to them at the time of family prayers, and had the
+opportunity of reading and explaining the Gospel to from ten to
+fifteen for two months; but without finding evidence, with perhaps a
+single exception, of a sincere desire to know the truth.
+
+That exception was in the case of a Druze named Kasim. Mr. Smith saw
+him first in October, 1835. Residing in the mountains, Kasim had two
+of his sons already baptized by the Maronites, and had openly
+professed himself to be no longer a Druze, but a Christian. He had
+not himself received baptism, for fear of his relatives, who had
+once gone in a body and beaten him. He now removed into the
+immediate neighborhood of the missionary, where he hoped for
+protection, and he and his family became regular attendants upon
+Christian worship. He professed a strong attachment to the Saviour,
+as did also his wife, and they both made evident progress in
+religious knowledge. Both openly declared themselves Protestants,
+and were anxious for baptism. The officer of the Emir Beshir,
+finding in his hands a testimonial from Mr. Smith, that he was a
+Christian, respected him in this character, while he was seizing all
+his Druze neighbors for soldiers; but he had not then been admitted
+to the church, for want of sufficient evidence of true conversion.
+
+Kasim was at length apprehended by the governor of Beirūt, beaten to
+make him confess that he was a Moslem, and cast into prison. Mr.
+Smith visited him, and urged him to make the profession he intended
+to abide by, that the mission might know what to do. In the presence
+of a dozen Moslems, he professed himself a Christian, and declared
+that he would die a Christian, if they burned him at the stake. The
+governor, on hearing this, ordered him to be thrust into the inner
+prison, and loaded with chains. Here his persecutors renewed their
+promises and threats, but his firmness remained unshaken, and they
+left him in prison. Such a confession had never been made in Beirūt
+before, and it attracted much attention. The poor man in his
+dungeon, aware of the danger of his situation, spent much of his
+time in prayer, and was often heard by his fellow-prisoners, in the
+watches of the night, calling upon Jesus Christ to help him. He even
+sent directions to a friend respecting the disposal of a few
+effects, in case he should be martyred, thereby showing his
+expectation of persevering unto death.
+
+As the best thing that could be done, the American Consul at Beirūt,
+who took a deep interest in the case, addressed a letter to Soleiman
+Pasha, next in power to Ibrahim, who was then at Sidon on his way to
+Beirūt. This was favorably received, and the Pasha expressed his
+wish that the family would send a petition to him, that he might be
+ready to judge the case when he should arrive at Beirūt. This was
+accordingly done, and the requisite evidence was made ready. The
+poor man received his food daily from his missionary friend, with
+messages of cheer, and he never wavered.
+
+On the arrival of the Pasha, the prisoner's wife immediately sought
+access to him, and this she did day after day; but the governor of
+Beirūt threw every obstacle in her way. The Pasha wished to set him
+free, without seeming to yield to Frank dictation, or stirring up
+Moslem fanaticism. At length the governor, threatened by the agent
+of the European consuls with deposition, presented himself in person
+at the door of the prison, and told Kasim to go free.
+
+Thus terminated, after an imprisonment of seventeen days, the first
+case of a converted Druze called to confess Jesus Christ before a
+Moslem tribunal. This was in the early part of the year 1836.
+
+Kasim was kept by the mission two years on probation, but on the
+first Sabbath in 1838 he and his wife were admitted to the church,
+and were baptized, with their six children, receiving Christian
+names at their own request. Mr. Thomson took occasion to preach on
+the subject of baptism, explaining the true meaning and intention of
+the ordinance. The congregation was larger than usual, and there was
+more solemn attention than had ever been witnessed in the chapel.
+Much anxiety was felt for Kasim, but he was not molested. His
+brother and his brother's wife also made a very importunate request
+for baptism, and the mission not long after complied with it.
+
+As these converts were not molested after their baptism, the Druzes
+resorted more and more to the mission for instruction. Mr. Thomson
+was invited to visit their villages, and open among them schools and
+places of worship. They applied for the admission of their sons to
+the seminary, and a young sheik was received, his friends paying the
+expense. Some of them corresponded with Mr. Thomson by letter, and
+some came to reside at Beirūt. The Papists assailed them with
+promises, flatteries, and threats of vengeance from the Emir Beshir;
+but the Druzes declared they would never join the Church of Rome.
+While the mission was aware that in all this the Druzes were greatly
+influenced by political changes, past and expected, they could not
+avoid the hope that an increasing number were really desirous of
+knowing and obeying the truth. Indeed it was impossible to avoid
+this conclusion with the facts before them, some of which Mr.
+Thomson embodied thus in his journal:--
+
+"_August_ 13, 1838. This morning Kasim brought a leading Druze to
+see me. He is from Shweifat, and desires to become an English
+Christian. His conversation was very satisfactory, so far as
+sensible and even pious remarks are concerned. He makes the most
+solemn appeals to the Searcher of Hearts to bear witness to his
+sincerity; asks neither for protection, employment, or money; but
+says, that his only object is to secure the salvation of his soul.
+He asks for nothing but Christian instruction, which I of course was
+most happy to afford to the extent of my abilities. Alas! that long
+experience with people here, and especially with the Druzes, compels
+me to receive with hesitation their most solemn protestations.
+
+"_Sept_. 5. M., the ruling sheik of A., came down from the mountains
+to request Christian instruction and baptism for himself and family.
+He is very earnest and rational, for a Druze, and thinks that nearly
+all his villages will unite with him. In a conversation, protracted
+to more than half a day, I endeavored to place before him, with all
+possible plainness, our views of what true religion is. He is not so
+ignorant on this subject as most Druzes, having been acquainted with
+us for many years, and frequently present at our Arabic worship.
+
+"_Sept_. 6. Sheik S., from the heart of Lebanon, came to-day with
+the same request for Christian instruction, not only for himself,
+but for his father and four brothers, leading sheiks of the
+mountains. He asks not for protection, money, or temporal advantage
+in any way, but solely for religious instruction; and declares, with
+apparent sincerity, that his only desire is to secure the salvation
+of his soul. He says concerning their own superstition, that he
+knows it is utterly false and pernicious; and that, having for three
+years read the Bible, and compared the various sects with it, he is
+persuaded that they have forsaken the word of God, and imposed upon
+men many human inventions, designed not for the good of the people,
+but to augment the power and wealth of the priesthood. He mentioned
+with special abhorrence auricular confession, and forgiveness of sin
+by the priest; also, their long fasts, their prayers to saints, and
+their worship of images and pictures; showing that he was well
+acquainted with the leading differences between us and them; and
+proving, by his pertinent quotations from the Bible, that he had
+read it with attention and understanding.
+
+"Sheik S. intends to remain several days for the purpose of
+receiving more instruction. He appears to have no fears of
+persecution, but to be resolved to persevere whatever may happen.
+
+"_Sept_. 12. Went to B.'T., and spent the day in conversing with the
+large family of sheiks there. These sheiks govern, under the Emir,
+all this part of Lebanon. The greater part of them appear resolved
+to become Christians at all hazards. Alas! how little do they know
+of that religion, which they profess to be so anxious to embrace.
+The mother of the sheiks in A. is married to the most powerful sheik
+in B.'T., and she sent word to her children, encouraging them to
+become Christians, and approving also of their plan to place the
+youngest boys in our seminary.
+
+"I had no time to converse with the common people in B.'T., but one
+of our Christian Druzes who accompanied me, spent the day with them,
+and tells me, that a great many of the villagers wished to join us.
+Here also the Papists are busy as bees, both with arguments and
+terrors. What the end will be, is known only to God."
+
+Two days later, several sheiks camp down from the mountains, with an
+apparent determination to take houses, and receive religious
+instruction; declaring their wish not to return to the mountains
+until they had been both instructed and baptized. The same day, two
+Druzes came as agents from a large clan of their people residing in
+Anti-Lebanon, three days from Beirūt, professing to treat in behalf
+of their whole community. In the evening, several leading Druzes
+came from Andara, the highest habitable part of Lebanon, professing
+to act in the name of their whole village, and earnestly requesting
+the mission to open schools, build a church, and baptize them all
+forthwith. The missionary preached to them till a late hour, and
+they promised to come again after a few days. They kept their
+promise, and stated that they had made arrangements with the people
+of several villages to unite together, and all declare themselves
+Christians at the same time; hoping that the Emir, when he saw so
+many of them of one mind, would not venture to execute the plans of
+cruel persecution, with which they were threatened. Mr. Thomson now
+found it necessary to call in the aid of Mr. Hebard and Mr. Lanneau.
+
+The Emir Beshir, urged on by the Papal priests, now sent for the
+young Druze sheiks, and threatened them with the full measure of his
+wrath. This occasioned a division among them, some through fear
+siding with the Emir. The father of several young sheiks,--a
+venerable old man, with rank and talents to give him extensive
+influence,--being at Beirūt, declared in oriental style his
+attachment to the Gospel, and his intended adherence to it.
+
+The excitement among the Druzes continued, and visitors from all
+parts of Lebanon thronged the house of the missionary, till winter
+rendered communication with the mountains difficult.
+
+Near the close of November, a number of Druzes, who had become Greek
+Papists, were seized by order of the Pasha, and cast into prison,
+whence five of them were drafted into the army. The rest were
+allowed to return to their homes. It was understood that the Pasha
+would not disturb the Protestant converts; but he had shown that he
+was not disposed to tolerate the conversion of the Druzes to
+Christianity. Kasim and his associates appeared resolved to go not
+only to prison, but to death, rather than deny Christ.
+
+At the close of the year, the severity of the Emir, in connection
+with the snows of winter, greatly diminished the attendance of
+Druzes at the meetings. The knowledge, also, that they could not be
+baptized till they had given evidence of being truly converted,
+helped to repress the movement. Still, some of the more hopeful
+persons continued to show their interest in the Gospel.
+
+Syria was now within the jurisdiction of Egypt, and hence the
+mission was not affected by the persecutions, for which the year
+1839 was so distinguished in Turkey. But the missionary force was
+much reduced, Messrs. Bird, Smith, and Whiting being in the United
+States. The Rev. Elias R. Beadle and Charles S. Sherman arrived as
+missionaries, with their wives, in the autumn of that year; and
+Messrs. Samuel Wolcott, Nathaniel A. Keyes, and Leander Thompson,
+with their wives, and Dr. C. V. A. Van Dyck, in April 1840. They had
+the language to learn, and the press lay idle during the year, for
+want of a printer and funds. Mrs. Hebard died in February.
+
+Yet there was progress. A large and convenient chapel had been
+obtained, where were held two stated Arabic services on the Sabbath;
+and on the evening of the Sabbath, the natives had a prayer meeting
+by themselves. In the free schools there were eighty scholars; the
+seminary for boys had twenty boarders; and the distribution of books
+and tracts continued. In this work a blind old man of the Greek
+Church named Aboo Yusoof was an efficient helper. Though stooping
+with age, he went about the country with a donkey loaded with books,
+and a little boy to lead him, doing what he could. In a district
+northeast of Tripoli, he was encouraged in his work by the
+approbation of the Greek bishop Zacharias.
+
+The political and religious events then occurring were intimately
+connected. The conquest of Syria by Mohammed Ali, was the apparent
+cause of the religious movement among the Druzes already described.
+The defeat of the Sultan's army at Nisib, in 1839, and the feelings
+of jealousy towards France and Egypt, then intimately allied, led to
+the determination of England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria to
+restore Syria and the Turkish fleet to the Porte. The consequent
+armed intervention made Beirūt the seat of war. An English fleet
+bombarded the city, and the English officers, by a singular
+miscalculation, treated the Papal Maronites as their friends, and
+the Druzes as their enemies. Missionary operations were suspended.
+Mr. Lanneau, whose eyes had failed him, left on a visit to the
+United States. Messrs. Beadle, Keyes, and Leander Thompson spent the
+summer and autumn at Jerusalem, and Dr. Van Dyck joined them there.
+Messrs. W. M. Thomson and Wolcott remained at Beirūt until the
+bombardment, when Captain Latimer, of the United States corvette
+_Cyane_, who had come to Beirūt to look after their welfare, kindly
+took them and their families to Cyprus.
+
+In the presence of such mighty forces, the mission could only wait
+the course of events. The brethren, before leaving Beirūt, had done
+all they could for the protection of their houses, furniture, the
+Arabic press, and the library and philosophical apparatus. They did
+this by hoisting over their houses the American flag and placing
+guards in them, and by an understanding with the admiral. The pupils
+in the boarding-school were sent to their friends. Mr. Wolcott
+visited Beirūt during the contest, and found the Egyptian forces
+evacuating the town, and the British troops taking possession. He
+met the American consul there surveying the ruins of his house,
+which had been battered by the great guns and plundered by the
+pasha's soldiers; but the magazine beneath it, which contained most
+of the property of Messrs. Beadle and Keyes, had not been opened.
+Making his way through the ruins of the city to the mission houses,
+he saw the American flags still floating over them, and the guards
+on the ground. Soldiers had encamped in his garden, but had
+abstained from pillage. A few bombs had burst in the yard, and
+several cannon balls had penetrated the walls. The furniture, the
+library, the philosophical apparatus were uninjured. The native
+chapel in Mr. Thomson's house had been filled with goods, brought
+thither for safety by the natives, and these had not been molested.
+The field around Mr. Smith's house had been plowed by cannon balls,
+and he expected to find the new Arabic types converted into bullets,
+but not a type had been touched. Even the orange and lemon trees,
+within his inclosure, were bending with their load of fruit. All
+this was remarkable; and the goodness of Providence was gratefully
+acknowledged at the time, by the missionaries and by their patrons
+at home.
+
+The persecuting Emir Beshir surrendered, and was sent to Malta, and
+a relative of the same name, but with small capacity for governing,
+was appointed Prince of the Mountains. The mission families returned
+from Cyprus before the end of the year, and the seminary was
+resumed; but those students who had been taught enough of English to
+make themselves intelligible as interpreters, had all been drawn
+away by the high wages which British officers paid for such
+services. The place of Tannūs, Arabic teacher in the seminary, who
+was sick, was supplied by Butrus el-Bistany, from the Maronite
+College at Ain Warka. He had written a treatise against the
+corruptions of Popery and the supremacy of the Pope, and the enraged
+Patriarch had tried to get him into his power, but without success.
+
+The brethren all reassembled at Beirūt early in the year 1841, and
+Mr. Beadle, with a native assistant, commenced a station at Aleppo,
+but it was not long continued. The press resumed its operations with
+the new type, under the management of Mr. George Hurter, a printer
+just arrived from America. The declining health of Mr. Hebard
+compelled him to suspend missionary labors, and he died at Malta,
+June 30, on his way to the United States, greatly and deservedly
+lamented. About the same time, Mr. Smith arrived at Beirūt, on his
+return to Syria, with his wife. Four months later, Mrs. Wolcott was
+called away, after a distressing illness of three days, but in sure
+and certain hope of a blessed immortality.
+
+The allied powers had settled the affairs of the East in a manner
+not agreeable to France, and that government seems to have sought
+redress through the Jesuits. In the first month of 1841, three
+French Jesuits arrived at Beirūt, with an ample supply of money;
+and, at the same time, the Maronite Patriarch received large sums
+from France and Austria, ostensibly for the relief of sufferers in
+the late war, but never expended for such a purpose. The Maronites
+had been the chief movers in favor of the Sultan and the English,
+and the English agent in negotiating with them was a Roman Catholic.
+On account of their services in that war, the Maronites stood high
+in favor with the English officers and with the Turkish government;
+and the Patriarch received important additions to his power, till he
+thought himself strong enough to expel the American missionaries and
+crush the Druzes. The local authorities having no power to drive the
+missionaries away, he petitioned the Sultan to do this. The Sultan
+laid the subject before Commodore Porter, then American Minister at
+the Porte, who said he was not authorized by his government to
+protect men thus employed. This fact coming in some way to the
+knowledge of the Patriarch, he made proclamation through the
+mountains, that the American missionaries were denounced by their
+own government as troublesome, mischief-making proselyters, and
+would not be protected.1
+
+1 This mistaken opinion of the Minister was made the subject of
+correspondence with the United States Government, and the favorable
+response by Mr. Webster, Secretary of State, is quoted in chapter
+xviii.
+
+Meanwhile, the English officers had obtained a more correct
+understanding of the relations of parties in Lebanon; and they saw
+at once that it was for the interest of England that the Druzes
+should be encouraged to become Protestants. They therefore held
+consultations with the Druze sheiks, and the results were
+communicated to the British government. As a natural consequence,
+the Druze sheiks expected support from England, and some at least of
+the British officers were in favor of such support, should the
+Druzes put themselves under the instruction of the American
+missionaries. It is certain, at any rate, that the Druze sheiks
+confidently expected this. With such expectations, they made a
+definite agreement with the mission, that a school for the sons of
+the ruling class should be established at Deir el-Kamr, and other
+schools as fast as practicable in their villages, and that the
+missionaries should be welcomed as religious teachers among all
+their people.
+
+A school was at once opened at Deir el-Kamr by Messrs. Wolcott and
+Van Dyck, and Mr. Thomson removed to 'Ain Anab to superintend the
+schools for the common people, of which there were three opened in
+the vicinity. Mr. Smith, on arriving at Beirūt, was so much
+interested that he did not stop to open his house, but went up at
+once to Deir el-Kamr.
+
+In this same month, the Rev. Mr. Gobat, a German in the service of
+the Church Missionary Society, arrived from Malta. He had long been
+known as a missionary in Egypt and Abyssinia, and was a personal
+friend of the older members of the mission. His object was to see if
+he could make arrangements by which evangelical missionaries of the
+English Church could advantageously share in the labors for
+converting the Druzes.
+
+In September, despatches arrived from Lord Palmerston, which were
+reported to contain an order for taking the Druzes under British
+protection; and with them came from England the Rev. Mr.
+Nicholayson,--originally a Baptist, and at this time an Episcopalian
+and zealous high-churchman--with instructions, it was said, to
+assist in carrying out that arrangement. He did not agree with Mr.
+Gobat in respect to the treatment due to the American missionaries;
+and when the Druzes inquired of him what support they might expect
+from England, the answers they received led them to the conclusion,
+that England would not protect them unless they renounced the
+American missionaries, and put themselves under the exclusive
+instruction of clergymen from the English Church. This they were not
+ready to do. Mr. Gobat retired, in a spirit of catholicity. Neither
+did Mr. Nicholayson prosecute his mission, being disheartened, it
+may be, by the civil war which shortly arose between the Maronites
+and Druzes. His intervention was unfortunate, and I find it referred
+to, thirty years afterwards, by a venerable member of the mission,
+as a warning against similar intrusions.
+
+The Patriarch now deemed himself strong enough to enter upon his
+project of crushing the Druzes. His power in the mountains being in
+the ascendant, he ordered the Druze sheiks to assemble at Deir
+el-Kamr. They came armed, and, as they approached Deir el-Kamr, were
+required to send away their followers and lay aside their arms. They
+refused. A battle ensued, and the Maronites were defeated. The
+Patriarch then proclaimed a crusade against them, ordered his
+bishops to take arms, and marched his forces towards the Druze
+territory. But the Druzes seized the mountain passes, and defeated
+every attempt to enter. Though greatly inferior in numbers, they
+went desperately to work to exterminate or expel every Maronite from
+their part of the mountains. Not a convent, and scarce a village or
+hamlet belonging to the Maronites, was left standing. They then
+descended and dispersed the main army of the Maronites; and were
+ready to march northward into Kesrawan, and attack the Patriarch in
+his stronghold, but were persuaded by British officers to suspend
+their march. The Turkish army, which might have prevented the
+conflict, now took the field, and separated the combatants.1
+
+1 Tracy's _History_, pp. 417, 440. Report for 1842, pp. 117-124.
+_Missionary Herald_, 1842, pp. 196, 229, 362.
+
+This was very properly regarded as a providential deliverance for
+the mission, which had never been threatened with so formidable an
+opposition as at the beginning of the year. It now entered into a
+correspondence with nearly all the principal Druze sheiks, who felt
+that they had, by their swords, won the right to schools. The
+prospects were at that time very hopeful. The country never seemed
+more open to evangelical labors. For a year there had been no
+opposition to the schools, except two or three among the Druzes. The
+press was in operation without censorship, sending forth thousands
+of copies each year, and there was an increasing demand for books.
+The mission bookstore, in the centre of the town, was visited by all
+classes, including very many high officers of government, and even
+by the Seraskier himself, and there was no complaint against it. No
+one had been persecuted for a long time for professing the religion
+of the Bible, and Protestantism seemed to have gained a tacit
+toleration.
+
+In reply to the objection, that the mission had been long
+established, and yet the conversions had been very few, Mr. Smith
+wrote thus: "I ask, what labor? Has it, after all, been so
+disproportioned to the results? The instrumentality highest on the
+scale of efficiency for the conversion of souls in every country, is
+oral instruction, especially formal preaching. Now how much of this
+has there been in Syria? Before Mr. Bird could engage in it, Mr.
+Fisk was called away by death. I had hardly been preaching in Arabic
+a year, when Mr. Bird left for America. Mr. Thomson had but just
+preached his first sermon when my family was broken up, and I became
+a wanderer. Since then, we have both been here together but a few
+months at a time, until the last year. And these are all the Arabic
+preachers we have had at our station. In the mean time we have all
+been away, once for nearly two years at Malta, and again for a while
+at Cyprus. And when here, so many other cares have we had, that a
+single sermon on the Sabbath has been, for most of the time, all the
+formal preaching that has been done. Add to this a weekly
+prayermeeting for six or seven months in the year."
+
+Again he says: "The labor of years has been accomplished in gaining
+experience, forming favorable acquaintances, doing away with
+prejudice, disseminating evangelical truth, the successful
+commencement of printing operations, etc. All this labor is in the
+language of a vast nation of Mohammedans, the sacred language of the
+whole sect, the language of their prophet. And when their power
+falls, it will be so much done towards their conversion. Instead of
+being alarmed and discouraged by the revolutions that are occurring
+around me, I am interested in them as forerunners of that great
+event."
+
+The political changes have generally been very sudden in Syria. In
+April, 1842, Omar Pasha imprisoned the leading Druze sheiks, and
+Albanian soldiers were arriving daily, as if to disarm the Druzes.
+And so it proved. The Turks decided to take the matter into their
+own hands. An army was marched into Lebanon, accompanied by Moslem
+sheiks and teachers, and the whole Druze nation was compelled to
+appear, outwardly at least, as Moslem.1 The motives of the
+government in this were chiefly political, but partly religious.
+They wished to be able to draw recruits from this brave people for
+the army, which could not be done should they become Protestant
+Christians; and also, to retain a strong party in Lebanon, to be
+used, as they afterwards were used, against the large nominally
+Christian majority of its inhabitants. They expected thus to control
+the mountains, and keep down the influence of foreign Christian
+powers.
+
+1 These statements are made on the authority of a document received
+from the mission in the year 1869.
+
+In this manner were the operations for educating and Christianizing
+the Druzes suddenly arrested. In working out their policy, the Turks
+necessarily resorted to measures intended to place the Druzes in
+bitter antagonism to all the native Christians. In the atrocious
+massacre of 1860, which, for the time, threw the Druzes far from all
+Christian sympathy, that unfortunate people were used as tools by
+the Turks to work out their own policy. Events such as these, are
+among the deep mysteries of Providence. Nor is this mystery yet
+solved; though, from facts that will appear in the sequel, we shall
+see enough to authorize the hope of a renewal at some time, of the
+former pleasing relations between the Druzes and Christian
+missionaries.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1842-1846.
+
+
+The mission was strengthened, early in 1842, by the arrival of Dr.
+Henry A. DeForest and wife; and suffered a new bereavement in the
+death of the second Mrs. Smith, but little more than a year after
+her arrival. Some months later, Mr. and Mrs. Sherman retired from
+the field, in consequence of failing health. Messrs, Beadle,
+Wolcott, and Leander Thompson, and Miss Tilden, also returned home
+soon after. Mr. Lanneau rejoined the mission, with his wife, early
+in 1843.
+
+The Foreign Secretary and Dr. Hawes, visited the mission in the
+early part of 1844, and assisted in a meeting of the missionaries,
+which continued several days. Facts and principles were freely
+discussed, and the results were embodied in written reports, drawn
+up by committees appointed for the purpose. There is space for only
+a concise statement of a few of these results.
+
+It was recognized as a fact of fundamental importance, that the
+people within the bounds of the mission were Arabs, whether called
+Greeks, Greek Catholics, Druzes, or Maronites, and that the divers
+religious sects really constituted one race. There were believed to
+be advantages, in the fact, that these sects were intermingled in
+the several villages, since the population was less inclined to
+oppose, and more easily accessible, than where the villages were
+exclusively of one sect. The most hopeful parts of Lebanon were the
+southern districts, inhabited by a people social in their habits,
+owners of the soil, shrewd, inquisitive, industrious, and capable of
+devising and executing with tact and efficiency.
+
+There was much discussion as to the best manner of cultivating the
+field, but all agreed that wherever small companies were ready to
+make a credible profession of piety, they were entitled to be
+recognized as churches, and had a right to such a native ministry as
+could be given them. The reformed churches might combine persons
+from several, and perhaps from all, the various sects; and the
+method of church organization should be such as to throw the
+greatest responsibility on the individual members.
+
+The question was raised, whether the marked disposition in the
+mountain communities to place themselves collectively under the
+instruction of the mission, would justify a lowering of the
+qualifications for church-membership, especially with reference to
+the baptism of children. It was believed that no good would result
+from this; especially, as the people are so bent on regarding
+baptism as a renewing ordinance. To form churches in this way, would
+only be to multiply communities of merely nominal Christians.
+
+The brethren admitted, that their labors had been too little
+adapted, hitherto, to awaken religious feeling among the people. The
+reasons assigned for this were, the absorbing demands of the press
+and of education; the habits of preaching and laboring formed under
+past unfavorable states of the field; and finally, a painful
+impression of the suffering that converts must endure, with no civil
+power to interpose between them and their persecutors.
+
+To counteract the first of these causes, it was decided to suspend
+the printing for a year; and the seminary was revived, which had
+been suspended in 1842, to counteract the second. The remedy for the
+last two, was a more perfect reliance on the Holy Spirit and the
+divine energy of the Gospel. It was the general opinion, that
+education in all its parts should bear a fixed proportion to the
+frequency, spirituality, and power of the more formal preaching. Nor
+was it less clear, that the press should be kept strictly
+subservient to the pulpit.
+
+The most remarkable call for preaching, at this time, was at
+Hasbeiya, a village of four or five thousand inhabitants, situated
+at the foot of Mount Hermon.1 Druzes and members of the Greek Church
+made up the population, with some Greek Catholics, Moslems, and
+Jews. The village lay about fifty miles southeast of Beirūt,
+bordering on the country of the Bedawīn, with whom was its principal
+trade. As the result of this, the people had much personal
+independence, with a tendency to segregation; features which Mr.
+Smith noticed as specially predominant among other native Christians
+similarly situated, especially in the Hauran.
+
+1 The _New York Observer_, from July 18th to August 29th, 1846, has
+an instructive series of articles on Hasbeiya, from the pen of Dr.
+Eli Smith.
+
+Early in the year 1844, a considerable body of the Hasbeiyans
+seceded from the Greek Church, declared themselves Protestants, and
+made a formal application to the mission for religious instruction.
+About fifty men came at one time to Beirūt for that purpose, and
+asked for ministers to teach them. Their dissatisfaction with their
+Church was not of recent date, but had been increasing for years. It
+had arisen from the selfishness and worldliness of their clergy, and
+their consequent neglect of the flock. These men had some
+acquaintance with the mission, Hasbeiya having been visited by more
+than one of the native book agents. It was evident, however, that
+concern for the salvation of the soul was not the cause of their
+coming. What they sought had reference solely to the present life.
+Appropriate instruction was given, and they were advised to go home,
+pay their taxes (which they had not done), and do what they could to
+live in peace with their townsmen, and then to write to the mission.
+A letter was received after a few days, stating that they had done
+as they were advised, and urging the visit of a missionary. In this
+request they were earnestly seconded by the two brethren from the
+United States, who arrived at Beirūt, just before the letter came.
+The mission sent two of their native helpers; but these had not left
+Beirūt before a second delegation arrived, more urgent than the
+first. The native helpers were followed in May by Messrs. Smith and
+Whiting, who soon saw that they had been too backward to credit the
+sincerity of these men. The hope of political advantage had been
+abandoned, but their decision and their numbers had steadily
+increased. The men were about one hundred and fifty, and among them
+were some of the most respectable inhabitants, and a large
+proportion of enterprising men. Their love of peace, as well as
+their decision, had secured for them general respect. Some had made
+considerable progress in Christian knowledge, and the neighbors
+acknowledged that the profane among them had left off swearing, and
+the drunkard had abandoned his cups. The Sabbath, moreover, was
+carefully observed; the old church fasts were given up; prayers to
+saints and to the virgin had ceased; pictures for adoration had
+disappeared from their houses; and it was remarkable that in these
+changes the women were more zealous than the men. Still their
+knowledge in all cases was very imperfect, and it was uncertain how
+well they would endure persecution. Nearly all the members of the
+mission were there at different times; as also Tannūs el Haddad, and
+Butrus el-Bistany, of the native helpers.
+
+Meanwhile the spirit of persecution was rising. The Greek Patriarch
+at Damascus became alarmed, and tidings were received that a company
+of horsemen was coming from Zahleh, a large nominally Christian town
+at the eastern foot of Lebanon, to force a recantation from the
+Protestants of Hasbeiya. Mr. Smith and Butrus were there at the
+time. The stony-ground hearers had fallen off; yet fifty adults were
+present at the preaching, and gave close attention. Of women a
+larger number than usual were present, and seemed to be waking up to
+the idea, that religion was a thing for them. From twelve to fifteen
+women attended a daily afternoon prayermeeting. It was affecting to
+think how lately these were blind devotees of the virgin and the
+saints, and profaning the name of God a hundred times a day. "Going
+to the afternoon service," says Mr. Smith, "where Butrus addressed
+the people, I found the children of the congregation assembled in
+the court, and engaged in repeating the Assembly's Catechism. Their
+order was perfect, their attention solemn, and their answers
+generally given with correctness, while the teacher showed his own
+improvement by the explanations he gave them. Their parents and
+friends stood around, and listened with evident gratification, while
+curiosity had drawn the members of a neighboring Greek family to
+their windows, and they too were quietly looking on. To appreciate
+its interest you must have been present, and heard the shouts rising
+at the same time from an opposite quarter, where the boys of the
+town were assembled in belligerent array, and making a mimic (or
+rather real) war, by throwing stones at each other, to see which
+would gain the victory. The little company before me, when I first
+came to the place, scarcely two months ago, were as fully carried
+away as any of them with these wild sports, and even parental
+authority could not, for a Sabbath or two, bring them to break off
+for an hour to learn the word of God. Now, what a change! It was as
+if the devil had been cast out of them, and they were sitting in
+their right minds. Such are missionary triumphs, and the joy that
+springs from them is what the world can neither give nor take away."
+
+Some members of the community not being satisfied with the
+strictness of the mission in regard to baptism and the Lord's
+Supper, the two brethren went into a thorough explanation of the
+subject. This led to a long and earnest conversation. The next day,
+July 4, the people gave in their reply; which was, that they would
+yield entirely to the judgment of the missionaries, who might admit
+them to the rites of the church when they thought them qualified.
+
+On Sabbath, July 14, it being certain that the people of Zahleh were
+coming, the Protestants assembled in the house of the missionary, to
+enter into a solemn covenant to stand by each other to the last.
+After the service, they drew up an engagement in the following
+terms: "We, whose names are hereto subscribed, do covenant together
+before God and this assembly, and pledge ourselves upon the holy
+Gospel, that we will remain leagued together in one faith; that we
+will not forsake this faith, nor shall any separate us from each
+other while we are in this world; and that we will be of one hand
+and one heart in the worship of God, according to the doctrines of
+the Gospel. In God is our help." The covenant was taken by them
+separately, each one standing by the table, and laying his hand upon
+the Bible as it was read to him. Sixty-eight names were subscribed
+on the spot; and the number was increased next day to seventy-six,
+all of them adult males.
+
+"The affecting solemnity of this scene," writes Mr. Smith, "I leave
+you to imagine. I have been many years a missionary, and have
+witnessed a great variety of heart-thrilling events, but this is one
+of the last that I shall ever forget. Would that that chamber, as
+then crowded with those hardy mountaineers, in the interesting
+attitude of that moment, could have been thrown upon the painter's
+canvas! At some future day, when the Gospel shall have triumphed
+here, it would be cherished and admired as the first declaration of
+independence against ecclesiastical tyranny and traditionary
+superstition."
+
+About thirty horsemen arrived the next day from Zahleh, to quarter
+themselves on the Protestant families until they yielded, or were
+impoverished; but the people, foreseeing their intentions, had
+closed their houses, and assembled elsewhere. The storm seemed now
+ready to burst upon them. At this moment two Druzes, one the leading
+feudal sheik of the province, the other a man of unequaled personal
+bravery, made their way through the excited crowd; seated themselves
+by the side of the Emir; protested in the strongest language against
+the treatment the Protestants were receiving from their townsmen;
+warned all against treating them as men who had no friends to take
+their part; and called upon the Emir to stand forth in their
+defense, promising to support him if he did. This decided
+interference checked a little the progress of events.
+
+The people of Zahleh had been accompanied by a number of Greek
+priests, and in prosecuting their object employed entreaties,
+threats, bribes, reproaches, and actual violence. They were
+countenanced by the Emir, and backed up by a "Young Men's Party,"
+which had grown into an organization under the political excitement
+of the times. They returned home in consequence of an order obtained
+from the Pasha of Damascus, but not until they had drawn away
+perhaps twenty, old and young, some of whom soon after returned to
+the instructions of Mr. Thomson and Tannūs, who had taken the place
+of Mr. Smith and Butrus. While they were absent on the mountain to
+recover from illness, the result of confinement, anxiety, and a
+suffocating sirocco, the "Young Men" rose in arms, against the
+Protestant brethren. They virtually took the government of the place
+into their own hands, and the Protestant men fled to escape their
+murderous violence. Returning to Hasbeiya, Mr. Thomson found only
+the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters of those who had fled;
+some of them so poor as not to know how or where they could find
+their daily bread, yet apparently without fear. He overtook the
+fugitive people the next day, who were half perishing with hunger.
+Abeih was their place of refuge; and there they remained till
+October, zealously attending upon religious instruction.
+
+In that month, one of the two Druze skeiks [sic] arrived, who had
+interposed on their behalf on the fifteenth of July, bringing with
+him a document from the Pasha of Damascus, procured, it was said, by
+Mr. Wood, English Consul there, directing their return and
+guaranteeing their entire security. The guaranty proved to be
+illusive, though probably not intended to be so. Strong, unfriendly
+influences were subsequently brought to bear on the Pasha.1 They
+were accompanied by Butrus, and it was intended that one of the
+missionaries should soon follow. The party reached Hasbeiya on the
+fourteenth of October, and found those who had remained there in
+great fear. The Patriarch having arrived the same day, to inflame
+the passions of their enemies, intimidate the governor, and weaken
+the hands of the Druze sheiks. Butrus wrote, advising that no
+missionary come there until the Patriarch was gone, and things had
+become more quiet. He was succeeded by Tannūs, in October, and he,
+in the following month, by Elias el-Fuaz. The friendly governor was
+at length set aside for one more in sympathy with their persecutors.
+On the two following Sabbaths, the Bible-men were stoned in the
+streets, and Elias el-Fuaz was seriously wounded; while the governor
+made only a sham resistance, that emboldened the evil-doers, as he
+intended it should, till the native preacher was driven from the
+place, and some of the Protestants fled to Lebanon. Others, wearied
+with persecutions to which they could see no end, complied so far
+with the demands of the Patriarch, as to visit the Greek church,
+though they took no part in the services, and openly spoke against
+its idolatries. This very partial compliance relieved them from
+persecution, but inwardly set them more firmly against an
+organization that resorted to such measures to retain them.
+
+1 Not only the influence of the Patriarch of Damascus, but also of
+the Russian Consul-general of Syria, who wrote to the Pasha as
+follows, on learning that Mr. Wood had privately secured permission
+for the Protestants to return home:--
+
+"However, I may desire to address your Excellency on this subject in
+a friendly manner, I must remind you, that I am serving the
+magnificent Emperor of Russia, and that _we have the right of
+protecting the Greek Church in the Ottoman dominions_. I should
+greatly regret, if I were compelled to change my language and
+protest against every proceeding which may lead to the humiliation
+of the Greek Church at Hasbeiya, and the encouragement of pretended
+Protestants, especially as _the Sublime Porte does not recognize
+among her subjects such a community_."
+
+I give this on the authority of the Rev. J. L. Porter, English
+missionary at Damascus, a man every way competent to give testimony
+in this case.
+
+The station at Jerusalem was suspended in this year, and Mr. Lanneau
+removed to Beirūt. Mr. and Mrs. Keyes, in consequence of a failure
+of health, returned to the United States.
+
+The seminary was now revived, not at Beirūt, but at Abeih, fifteen
+hundred feet above the sea-level, in a temperate atmosphere, and
+with a magnificent prospect of land and sea. The experience gained
+in the former seminary was of use in reconstructing the new one. Its
+primary object was to train up an efficient native ministry. None
+were to be received to its charity foundation, except such as had
+promising talents and were believed to be truly pious. The education
+was to be essentially Arabic, the clothing, boarding, and lodging
+strictly in the native style, and the students were to be kept as
+far as possible in sympathy with their own people.
+
+A chapel for public worship was fitted up, and here, as also at
+Beirūt, there was preaching every Sabbath in the Arabic language,
+with an interesting Sabbath-school between the services. Mr. Calhoun
+having joined the mission, coming from Smyrna, the charge of the new
+seminary was committed to him. The Rev. Thomas Laurie arrived from
+Mosul the same year.
+
+Yakob Agha died in the year 1845. The evidence he gave of piety had
+never been wholly satisfactory, but for the last six years he was a
+communicant in the church. In this time he appeared to be a changed
+man, and his missionary brethren hoped that, with all his failings,
+he was a sincere believer and died in the Lord.
+
+In the spring of this year war broke out afresh between the Druzes
+and Maronites, and Lebanon was again purged by fire. It was in no
+sense a religious war, but a desperate struggle for political
+ascendency. The Maronite clergy in the Druze part of the mountain
+had been rapidly recovering power, and were as rapidly rising in
+their opposition to the mission. The result of this war, as
+aforetime, was the destruction of their villages and their power;
+and the Patriarch sank under the disappointment and died. Moreover
+the party in Hasbeiya, which stoned the Protestants and their
+teachers, were driven out of the place by the Druzes, and great
+numbers of them killed, so that the "Young Men's" party seemed to be
+broken to pieces.1
+
+1 There was a special enmity of the Druzes against the Christians of
+Hasbeiya. The most celebrated sacred place of the Druzes is on the
+top of a hill just above Hasbeiya, called Khūlwat el Biyād. In their
+revolt against Ibrahim Pasha in 1838, he was aided by the
+Christians, and when the Druzes were defeated in a battle near this
+place, their sacred place was entered, and several chests of books,
+setting forth their tenets, were scattered through the land. The
+Christians paid dearly for their trespass. The leader of the Hauran
+rebellion became, for a time, the governor of Hasbeiya, and for this
+loss imposed exorbitant indemnities on every one, who had been known
+to take a book. The consequent enmity between the parties doubtless
+had much to do with the events described above.
+
+Abeih, now a missionary station, was inhabited by both Druzes and
+Maronites, and the conflict began there on the 9th of May. Our
+brethren were all along assured by both parties, that neither they
+nor their property would be molested, whichever was victorious. The
+Druzes early had the advantage, and the Maronite part of the village
+was speedily in flames, and more than three hundred and fifty
+Maronites were obliged to take refuge in a strong palace belonging
+to one of the Shehab Emirs. About two hundred more, and among them
+several of the most obnoxious, found an asylum in the houses of the
+missionaries, and in the house of a native helper of the mission,
+which, being in the centre of the Maronite quarter, was crowded with
+refugees. Mr. Thomson ventured out in the midst of the tumult, and
+succeeded in getting a guard of Druzes and Greeks whom he could
+trust, placed around this house, and thus the people with their
+goods were secured. The palace was in danger of being taken by
+storm, and the people within it all massacred; when the leaders of
+the Druzes, to avoid this, requested Mr. Thomson to carry a flag of
+truce, with offers of safety and permission to retire whenever they
+might choose. This was done at some risk, as the battle was still
+raging. After the surrender, Dr. Van Dyck dressed the wounded
+Maronites in the palace, and brought several of them to his own
+house. He also performed like services for the wounded Druzes. This
+he did not without peril to himself; for, returning alone from the
+neighboring village, where he had gone on this professional errand,
+a Druze warrior mistook him for a Maronite, and was so enraged that
+one in an Arab dress and with an Arab tongue should pretend to be an
+American, that, but for the providential coming up of one who knew
+the Doctor, he would have killed him on the spot. Meanwhile Mr.
+Laurie had come safely from Beirūt, attended by only two
+janissaries, and passing through hordes of the victorious Druzes.
+Finding, on his arrival, a half-burned corpse of the Italian padre
+lying in the street, he buried it under the pavement of his chapel.
+
+The Maronites being in a starving condition, the missionaries baked
+for them all the flour they had on hand, and sent express by night
+to Beirūt for more. Fearing, too, that the Maronites might be
+massacred by the Druzes on their way down to Beirūt, notwithstanding
+their Turkish escort, they sent an express to Colonel Rose, the
+English Consul-general, which brought him up immediately with his
+most efficient protection. It should be added, that on the day the
+Maronites left Abeih, a strong proclamation came out from the
+Maronite and Greek Catholic bishops at Beirūt to all their people,
+requiring them to protect all the members of the American mission.
+
+The reflections of Mr. Smith on the death of the persecuting
+Patriarch, are just and impressive. "What a lesson," he says, "does
+that event, in such circumstances, teach us! After having martyred
+that faithful witness Asaad Shidiak, caused the Bible often to be
+burned, had missionaries insulted and stoned, and boasted that he
+had at last left no spot open for them to enter the mountains, he
+finds himself stripped of all his power; missionaries established
+permanently in the midst of his flock, and his own favorite bishop
+constrained to give orders for their protection; his people once and
+again ravaged and ruined in wars, which his own measures have
+hastened, if they have not originated; and finally he sinks himself
+under his disappointment and dies. How signally has the blood of the
+martyred Asaad been avenged upon him even in this life."
+
+The war broke up the schools in the mountains; but in the following
+year there were ten schools in charge of the station at Abeih, with
+four hundred and thirty-six pupils. One hundred and forty-four of
+these were girls, and one hundred and ninety-seven Druzes. Connected
+with the Beirūt station, were four schools for boys and girls, and
+one for girls alone. In Suk el-Ghūrb, a village four miles from
+Abeih, a Protestant secession from the Greek Church was in progress,
+embracing fourteen families, and religious services were held with
+them every Sabbath. At Bhamdūn, the summer residence for the
+brethren of the Beirūt station, there were a number of decided
+Protestants, who declared that they found persons to sympathize with
+them wherever they went. Even in Zahleh, the hot-bed of fanaticism,
+there were men who openly argued from the Gospel against the
+prevailing errors. Mr. Smith wrote of a village on Mount Hermon,
+that sixty men were known to be standing ready to follow the example
+of Hasbeiya, as soon as the Protestants in that place had made good
+their position. He also declared the movement in Hasbeiya the
+beginning of what would doubtless have been a great revolution, had
+persecution been delayed.
+
+Mr. Lanneau's health constrained him to retire from the field in
+1846. In the same year, Dr. Van Dyck, having acquired an
+extraordinary facility in the use of the Arabic language, was
+ordained to the work of the Gospel ministry.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+GREECE.
+
+DR. JONAS KING AND THE GREEK HIERARCHY.
+
+1845-1847.
+
+
+The struggle of Dr. Jonas King with the Greek Hierarchy, deserves a
+permanent record. The point at issue between them was, freedom to
+worship God and to preach the Gospel in Greece. The conflict was not
+waged by Dr. King as a Greek citizen, for such he never claimed to
+be, though he was a property-owner in Athens, and married to a Greek
+lady, who retained her nominal connection with the Greek Church.
+
+These facts were helpful to him, as was also his American
+citizenship. A mere citizen of Greece could not have maintained his
+ground after the persecuting hierarchy had overawed the courts of
+justice and the officers of state. His courage resembled that of
+Martin Luther. He was a sturdy Puritan, which no Greek at that time
+could have been; and he had strong resemblances to the great
+Reformer, as will abundantly appear in the sequel. Yet the fact of
+his foreign origin made him to be no more than the forerunner of a
+Grecian Luther. His labors and sufferings only prepared the way for
+a national reformation, which it may be hoped is yet to come.
+
+Early in 1845, a public accusation was made against Dr. King, that
+he had uttered impious language respecting the Virgin Mary. In
+reply, he quoted from Epiphanius, Bishop of Cyprus, one of the
+Fathers of the Eastern Church, who says: "Let the Father, and the
+Son, and the Holy Ghost be worshipped; Mary, let no one worship."
+Such a defense, as the writer anticipated, only increased the
+excitement. The most abusive epithets were heaped upon him. Among
+other things, he was accused of falsifying the testimony of the
+Fathers. He published a "Defense," in a small volume of about two
+hundred pages; embracing a history of the controversy from the
+beginning, and proving his teachings to be, as he affirmed,
+doctrines of the Greek Church. This he did by freely quoting from
+Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Clemens, and others. The book was sent to
+the most prominent men, civil and ecclesiastical, in Greece and
+Turkey, and produced a powerful impression. Several persons of
+distinction confessed that it was true.
+
+It was not to be expected, however, that such a publication would
+escape the condemnation of the more bigoted members of the Greek
+Church. The opposition became furious, with threats of personal
+violence. In August, the "Holy Synod of the kingdom of Greece"
+formally denounced the book and its author. Dr. King was
+characterized as a hypocrite, imposter, deceiver, as impious and
+abominable, and a vessel of Satan; and after a confused and lame
+attempt at an answer, every orthodox Christian was forbidden to read
+it, and required to deliver it to the flames. The writer was
+pronounced "an outlaw, whom no one might salute or greet in the
+street," and all were forbidden to enter his dwelling, or to eat or
+drink with him, on pain of the most severe ecclesiastical penalty.
+The Synod also requested the government to institute a criminal
+prosecution. In view of all this, Dr. King consoles himself with the
+Saviour's words (Luke vi. 22, 23), "Blessed are ye when men shall
+hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and
+shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of
+man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy."
+
+In September, officers of justice entered the house of the
+missionary, and seized all the copies of his book they could find,
+ninety-seven in number. About nine hundred had been previously
+distributed. He was then summoned to appear before one of the judges
+to be examined. I give his own characteristic statement.
+
+"My examination and answers were as follows:--
+
+_Question_. What is your name?
+
+_Answer_. Jonas King.
+
+_Q_. Your country?
+
+_A_. The United States of America.
+
+_Q_. Of what city?
+
+_A_. Hawley, a country town.
+
+_Q_. What is your age?
+
+_A_. Fifty-three.
+
+_Q_. What is your profession?
+
+_A_. I am an evangelist, that is, a preacher of the Word of God.
+
+_Q_. What is your religion?
+
+_A_. What God teaches in His Word; I am a Christian, most orthodox.
+
+_Q_. Did you publish this book, entitled "Jonas King's Defense,
+etc.?"
+
+_A_. I did, and distributed it here and elsewhere. I gave it to all
+the professors in the University, and to others.
+
+"The Judge then read to me my accusation as follows: 'You are
+accused of having in your book reviled the Mother of God, the holy
+images, the liturgy of Chrysostom and Basil, the seven oecumenical
+councils, and the transformation of the bread and wine into the body
+and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the fearful mystery of the
+communion. Have you any defense to make?'
+
+"_A_. Those things in my book with regard to Mary, with regard to
+transubstantiation, and with regard to images, I did not say; but
+the most brilliant luminaries of the Eastern Church, St. Epiphanius,
+St. Chrysostom, the great St. Basil, St. Irenęus, Clemens, and
+Eusebius Pamphyli, say them.
+
+_Q_. Have you anything to add?
+
+_A_. Nothing.
+
+_Q_. Do you know how to write?
+
+_A_. Enough to write my name.
+
+"I was then directed to subscribe my name to the examination, which
+I did, and went away."
+
+In October, intelligence came of the "excommunication" of the book
+and its author by the "Great Church" at Constantinople. They
+assigned the publicity which the "Defense" had obtained in Turkey as
+the reason for this act; and this was doubtless the reason why the
+synodical accusation was sent extensively to be read in the Greek
+churches of the East.
+
+The case went to trial, and was decided against Dr. King in three
+successive courts, the last of which was the Areopagus, or highest
+court of appeal. This was in April, 1846. In this latter court, he
+was well defended by two Greek lawyers, and permission was granted
+him, at his request, to address the court. But after about twenty
+minutes and repeated interruptions by the President, he was silenced
+altogether; not having the freedom which the Pagan Areopagus of
+ancient times gave to the first missionary to Greece. The effect of
+these decisions was to declare the offenses charged against Dr. King
+to be criminal in law, and to refer the case, for trial as to the
+truth of the charges and the infliction of punishment, to the
+criminal court. If condemned, he must suffer imprisonment. The trial
+was to take place at Syra in July. An inflammatory pamphlet was
+secretly printed by a priest, named Callistratus, for distribution
+at the place of trial among judges, jurors, and the populace. It was
+industriously circulated among the lowest class, with the avowed
+sanction of the high priest of the Cyclades. Dr. King soon
+ascertained that a conspiracy was formed there against his life,
+similar to the one which endangered the life of the great Apostle on
+his last visit to Jerusalem. Three Greek lawyers were engaged for
+his defense at Syra, of whom one was Mr. Stephen Galatti, who had
+been educated by the Board in America, and two of these accompanied
+him in the steamer. At least a thousand people awaited his landing.
+Such was the excitement, that even the lawyers dreaded to go among
+them, and the governor of the island confessed his inability to give
+effectual protection. The king's attorney decided, that he could not
+be legally compelled to submit to a trial on that day. His lawyers
+therefore advised him to return in the steamer to Athens, which he
+did. Learning, soon after his arrival, through his wife, of a
+combination there to take his life, he acquainted Sir Edmund Lyons,
+the British Ambassador, with the fact, and that gentleman kindly
+offered him British protection in case of need.
+
+It would be charitable to suppose, that the government had not
+entered into this prosecution willingly, but were urged on by the
+hierarchy. Certain it is, that the whole subject was allowed to rest
+for nearly a year. But on the 4th of June, 1847, the missionary
+received a citation from the officers of government to appear in
+person for trial before the criminal court at Syra. As a similar
+court was at that moment holding a session in Athens, he could
+regard the motive of the citation as not very different from that
+which led the Jews to demand the transfer of St. Paul's trial from
+Cęsarea to Jerusalem. It was subsequently affirmed, that this
+proceeding had been without the knowledge of the Prime Minister and
+the Minister of Justice; and the King's attorney soon after recalled
+the citation. The British Ambassador again proffered his kind
+offices, and there were friends among the Greeks themselves. But the
+great body of the people were hostile, and Dr. King concludes one of
+his letters thus: "I feel that my Lord and Master has called me to
+this combat, and though it seems to be waxing hotter and hotter, so
+long as my Captain and Leader lives, I have nothing to fear." He was
+somewhat cheered by the assurance of a Greek of standing, that his
+book, though the cause of much suffering to the author, had given a
+turn to public opinion.
+
+After this Dr. King ventured out into the city with considerable
+freedom, and conversed with such as he met on the subject of
+religion. Many, even some of the priests, saluted him in the
+streets, though contrary to the commands of the Holy Synod. A member
+of the Synod, who had subscribed the excommunication, on meeting him
+returned his salutation.
+
+There was only a lull in the storm. In July of the same year, a
+series of articles appeared in a leading newspaper of Athens called
+the "Age," designed to excite the prejudices of the Greeks against
+our missionary, and to urge them to put a stop to the scandal of his
+preaching. The last and most extraordinary of these was avowedly
+from Simonides, and was fitted to produce an excitement in the Greek
+community. Its statements were improbable in the highest degree, and
+there could not have been a more affecting proof of the superstition
+and bigotry of the people of Athens, than the general credence given
+to this gross fabrication.
+
+The article was called "The Orgies," and was under the headings of
+"Mystery of Marriage," and "Mystery of Baptism;" and a translation
+of it may be found in the "Missionary Herald" for 1847.1
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_ for 1847, pp. 366-368.
+
+It was subsequently ascertained, that Simonides was materially aided
+by two priests; who were elevated, not long after, one to an
+archdeaconry, the other to an archbishopric, under the "Great
+Church" at Constantinople. What immediately followed, will be
+described by Dr. King himself.
+
+"While reading the article in my family, the Governor of Attica, Mr.
+Soutzos, came in and desired to speak with me alone. He informed me
+that he had come to say to me from the Minister of the Interior,
+that, on the one hand, they wished to give me protection, and that,
+a week before, there was no reason for suspecting any difficulty,
+unless it were from my own conscience; but that they desired me to
+put a stop to the scandal of my preaching. He had also to say to me
+from the Minister of Religion, that I must do so, or the government
+would take some measures against me.
+
+"To this I replied, that I considered it an insult, on the part of
+the Minister of the Interior, to say that I had no reason for fear
+except from my own conscience, as I had reason to fear from the
+threats I had heard from various quarters; that my conscience was
+perfectly clear, inasmuch as I had done nothing but my duty; that as
+to my preaching, I considered myself free to preach the Gospel in my
+own house. 'Yes,' said he, 'but not to admit others of the Greek
+religion.' I replied, that I considered myself as having the same
+right, which is enjoyed by the Roman Catholics, by the English, by
+the King's chaplain, and by the Queen's, to hold my service with
+open doors; that the government did not demand of any person of any
+other rite to close his doors against such as might wish to come,
+and that, should I do this, I might be justly suspected of doing
+something improper; that I had a right to preach in my own house,
+and that the constitution protected me in this right; that I
+intended to preach, and with open doors, and whosoever wished might
+come; that what had appeared in the "Age" with regard to my
+religious service, called the "Orgies," and with regard to
+proselytes, was all false; and that it was folly for the government
+to found an accusation, or take any measures against me, on the
+ground of such abominable falsehoods. But if they chose to prevent
+Greeks from coming to my service, they had the power so to do.
+
+"The governor said that this was the last advice the Minister of
+Religion had to give me, and it would be followed by severe
+measures.
+
+"During the greater part of this conversation, my wife was present,
+and added remarks vindicating my right to do as I pleased in my own
+house, and declaring the accusations, which had appeared in the
+'Age' of the preceding day, to be false."
+
+One of the two Greek lawyers already mentioned, on being consulted
+with regard to an article in the Penal Code, to which the Governor
+had referred, said that it had no reference whatever to the case of
+Dr. King, but only to secret societies. In the evening, the
+missionary observed three soldiers guarding his house, and was told
+that they were placed there for that purpose.
+
+Hearing that the Swedish Minister desired an interview, Dr. King
+called, and was informed that the King had expressed a wish that he
+should "economize" the present difficulty by taking a journey, as in
+protecting him there might be bloodshed; that the people were much
+exasperated, and the Parliament being about to assemble, many sought
+to throw everything into confusion; that they might feel obliged to
+order him away, which they did not wish to do, as then, in order to
+return, he must have a permit, which it might be difficult to
+obtain; whereas, if he went away voluntarily, he could return
+whenever he pleased.
+
+It seemed wise to comply with these suggestions, and Dr. King
+resolved to take the Austrian steamer, then soon to leave the Piręus
+for Trieste. Sir Edmund Lyons secured for him a passport, and
+assured him that he would take special care of his family during his
+absence. At the Piręus he was most hospitably entertained by Mr. and
+Mrs. Buel, of the American Baptist Mission in that place. He arrived
+at Geneva on the 25th of August, where he met with Christian
+sympathy and a hearty welcome.
+
+Simonides subsequently published other articles in the same
+newspaper, entitled "The Mysteries of Jonas King," and "Teaching of
+Jonas King against the honorable and life-giving Cross;" and still
+another, entitled "He is sent away;" all designed, and some of them
+well adapted, to exasperate the multitude. An extract from the last
+may find a place in this history.
+
+"The false apostle, Jonas King, is out of the Greek commonwealth.
+His nation-corrupting and Satanic congregation of strange doctrine,
+already bearing date of fifteen years, has now been destroyed. The
+terrible progress of the great common scandal of religious strange
+doctrine, has been smitten on the head. In giving this important
+news we congratulate Greece, being persuaded that every other
+important question of the day holds, in respect to this, a second
+place. It concerned religious sentiments, from which flows the Greek
+existence, the national personality; and the corruption of these
+religious sentiments, or even the simple disturbance of them,
+effected especially in the female race, would overturn from the
+foundation everything which holds together the strong links of
+Grecian nationality and liberty.
+
+"Of all the foreign holy apostles, of various religions and various
+heresies, unhappily for Greece, heaped together from every quarter,
+no one became more to be feared, and more destructive, than the
+imposter and deceiver, Jonas King. A man of much speech, of powerful
+sophistry, of infinite subtlety, of hypocrisy incarnate, uniting in
+himself, also, boldness and great pecuniary means, he was able to
+proceed to such lengths, profiting for many years from the double
+indifference of the political and ecclesiastical authorities, as to
+proclaim publicly, that the act of the holy Synod against him of the
+5th of August (19th, N. S.), was unjust and false."
+
+There can be no doubt that a withdrawal from Greece, just at that
+time, was the only judicious course to be pursued; and perhaps the
+proceedings of the government, in view of the uncontrollable
+excitement of the people, were all that could have been reasonably
+expected. For a week after the departure of Dr. King, a guard of ten
+or twelve soldiers was kept at his house, to protect it from the
+mob.
+
+Subsequently, the government went into a protracted examination of
+the case, for which no satisfactory reason has been assigned. It had
+the effect to delay the return of Dr. King, and it may have been
+designed for that end. And perhaps they hoped, by eliciting the
+truth, to allay public excitement.
+
+Dr. King proceeded to Malta in November, that he might be nearer
+Athens, and Mrs. King joined him there in February. About that time,
+by advice of his counsel, he petitioned the Greek government to
+bring the examination to a speedy close. While in Malta, he printed
+his "Farewell Letter"1 in French and Italian, and the edition was
+distributed in Malta, Sicily, Rome, Tuscany, and other places. An
+edition of two thousand copies is said to have been printed in
+Sicily in 1849, of which nine hundred copies were distributed in one
+night, and seven hundred in another, apparently with good effect.
+
+1 This letter is mentioned repeatedly in the second, third, and
+seventh chapters. The reader, who is curious to see precisely what
+it was, will find the translation of a large portion of it in the
+_Missionary Herald_ for 1828, pp. 141-145.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+DR. JONAS KING AND THE GREEK HIERARCHY.
+
+1847-1869.
+
+
+Impatient of longer delay, Dr. King boldly resolved upon returning
+to Athens, and he arrived there on the 20th of June, 1848. He
+assigns his reason for this in a letter to his Secretary: "I thought
+it best," he writes, "to wait no longer, but to throw myself
+suddenly into the midst of the people, and take whatever might come.
+No one ever took a castle by remaining quietly outside. He may lose
+his life, and he may take the castle. At any rate, here I am. I
+believed it my duty to come, and to come now, and I returned with my
+mind perfectly tranquil. I know that a sparrow shall not fall to the
+ground without my Father, and that the very hairs of my head are all
+numbered."
+
+The newspapers were silent. The editor of the "Age," who printed the
+"Orgies," gave him his hand, and welcomed him back to Greece.
+Simonides tried to revive the excitement, but did not succeed.
+Calling on most of the King's Ministers, as a matter of civility, he
+was generally received with cordiality.
+
+It was not thought prudent, however, to resume his preaching at
+once, but his book depository was opened, and Bibles, Testaments,
+and other religious books were again in demand. Within six months
+after his return, he printed over five hundred thousand pages of
+religious books; and the opening of the year 1849 found him
+preaching publicly on the Sabbath, with a Scripture exposition
+Thursday evening, and several young men much impressed by these
+ministrations. The disturbed political condition of Europe at that
+time, had a tendency, no doubt, to divert the public attention. One
+fact deserves mention. Just as a new paper was about to be published
+at Athens, with the special design of holding up Protestant missions
+to popular indignation, a British fleet appeared in the offing, and
+public attention was diverted from the undertaking. In August,
+several students from the University attended the Sabbath and
+Thursday evening services, and called at other times for
+conversation, and two Greeks of hopeful piety were accustomed to
+take part in reading the Scriptures and extempore prayer at a
+Sabbath evening prayermeeting. The devoted missionary felt himself
+called on to work while the day lasted.
+
+It is worthy of note that Simonides, whose inflammatory writings had
+led to the withdrawal of our missionary brother from Athens,
+pretended about this time to have discovered certain Greek
+manuscripts of Homer, Hesiod, etc., which he claimed to be more
+ancient than any others, and some men of learning thought them to be
+genuine; but when they were discovered to be forgeries, the people
+regarded him as a deceiver and liar.
+
+Nearly three years elapsed after Dr. King's return to Athens, and he
+began to be more encouraged in his work. He speaks of a call from an
+abbot of a convent, who embraced him as a brother on leaving, and
+whom he regarded as indeed a brother in the Lord. But early in the
+spring of 1851, indications of public uneasiness began again to
+appear. The Synod represented to the Minister of Ecclesiastical
+Affairs "the scandalous attacks of the American, King, on the Holy
+and Orthodox Church," and demanded prompt redress according to law.
+
+The first outbreak of the popular feeling was in Dr. King's own
+house, on the 23d of March, by evil-minded persons assembled at the
+usual preaching service on the Sabbath. Entering the room, he found
+it crowded with more than one hundred persons. The strictest
+attention was given to the sermon, but a student of theology in the
+University began to put questions immediately after the benediction,
+and a tumult soon arose. The audience was composed of friends and
+foes, the former endeavoring to prevent a disturbance, while the
+latter reviled them. Finding remonstrance unavailing, Dr. King
+unfurled at the door the flag of the United States, which the absent
+Consul had committed to his care, and at the sight of this the crowd
+immediately withdrew.
+
+On the 15th of May, 1851, he was called to appear before a judge to
+answer to the charge of proselyting. The first ten or twelve
+questions and answers were similar to those in the examination six
+years before. The remainder is here reported:--
+
+_Question_. What do you preach?
+
+_Answer_. The Word of God; that is, the Scriptures contained in the
+Old and New Testament, which are recognized by all Christian
+Churches as being the Word of God. This word I hold in my hand, and
+endeavor to draw the attention of those present to what it contains,
+saying, "Thus saith the Lord," and pointing out to them the book,
+chapter, and verse, where what I state is to be found.
+
+_Q_. Have you any other service?
+
+_A_. In the afternoon I have sometimes a service, which consists in
+reading the Word of God, and in prayer and some remarks, the object
+of which is to draw the attention of those present to what Christ
+teaches.
+
+_Q_. Do many attend this service in the afternoon?
+
+_A_. Very few.
+
+_Q_. Do you invite people to come to your preaching, or do they come
+of their own accord?
+
+_A_. In general they come of their own accord. If any ask me if it
+is permitted to them to come, I always tell them that my house is
+open, and any one who wishes is free to come. When I first commenced
+this service, in the time of Capodistria, I invited his particular
+friend, old Mr. Konstantas, and others.
+
+_Q_. Our questions relate principally to the last two years.
+
+_A_. During that time, and since the great opposition to my
+preaching commenced, I have been particularly careful, in general,
+to avoid inviting people.
+
+_Q_. You are accused of having, this year and the last, expressed
+things to the offense of others, and of having expressed principles,
+sentiments, and opinions, which attack in general the foundations of
+religion, and are otherwise injurious. Have you anything to say by
+way of defense?
+
+_A_. What religion is meant? If it be that of Mohammed, I may be
+guilty.
+
+_Q_. The religion of the Oriental Orthodox Church?
+
+_A_. I have already said that my preaching consists in teaching what
+is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, that
+is, the Word of God, which all the most distinguished early Fathers
+in the Eastern Church, especially Chrysostom and Athanasius,
+declared to be the only school of godliness, the fountain at which
+all Christians ought to drink; and if the Eastern Church
+acknowledges these sacred Scriptures as the foundations of its
+religion, I cannot be guilty of the charge, for I have said nothing
+against those bases. As to the superstructure, what has at various
+times been built up on these foundations, I have nothing to say at
+this time. That is quite another question, and one which the
+accusation does not touch. But against the foundations themselves,
+as already explained, I can have said nothing, because I preach that
+Word, which contains them. And besides, I consider it a sin for any
+one to preach anything of his own, and that it is the duty of every
+one to preach only what is contained in the Word of God."
+
+The judge then said, "The examination is ended."1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1851, p. 268.
+
+Dr. King, sometime before, had prepared an "Exposition of an
+Apostolical Church," founded entirely on the Word of God, which was
+printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This was extensively
+distributed, and was denounced by the Greek hierarchy in
+Constantinople, Smyrna, and Thessalonica. In September, the Council
+of Judges in the criminal court of Athens, a sort of grand jury,
+presented him for trial in that court upon the allegations, that for
+two years he had "preached within his house in this place publicly,
+in the exposition of the sacred Scriptures, that baptism is no other
+than a simple symbol, and consequently it is indifferent whether men
+are sprinkled or immersed; that those who eat a little bread, and
+drink a little wine, are foolish in thinking that they will be saved
+by this communion; that the most holy mother of God is not ever
+virgin; that those who worship her, as also the other divine images,
+are idolaters; that he does not accept the sacred Councils, and the
+things ordained by them in religion, and handed down by tradition to
+the orthodox Christians in later times; that the fathers and the
+saints of the orthodox Oriental Church of Christ were deceivers, and
+as a consequence of this, they brought in divers heresies; that holy
+baptism is no other than an external sign for Christians;" etc.
+
+There were successive appeals, as in the former case, up to the
+Areopagus; but with similar results, except that the highest court
+decided that the penal law did not apply to one half of the
+allegations. It was hoped that the matter would end here, but a
+trial was ordered for the 5th of March, 1852.
+
+Great pains were taken, by the evil-disposed, to excite a tumult
+when Dr. King was brought before the court; and the head of police,
+while giving assurance of protection, advised him to go to the
+court-house in a carriage. This he declined. After a prayer with his
+family, he took his little son by the hand, and, in company with an
+American friend, walked first to the house of Mr. Pellicas, one of
+his lawyers. There he was told, that the King's attorney, in view of
+the excitement among the people, desired him to wait till he could
+enter the court with some hope of safety. But Dr. King did not wish
+a postponement on account of the excitement, of which there would
+always be more or less, and so they set out again on foot for the
+court-room. It was with difficulty they pressed through the crowd,
+in which the peculiar hats of many priests were to be seen on all
+sides. Our missionary declares, that he felt very happy, though not
+indifferent to his position, in the full belief, that the result
+would be good.
+
+The charge of reviling the dogmas of the Eastern Church, which was
+now their only dependence, was not proved. So the King's attorney
+had recourse to the "Exposition of an Apostolical Church," printed
+in the United States, to the "Defense," printed in 1845, and to the
+"Farewell Letter," printed twenty-seven years before, which formed
+no part of the indictments, on the assumption that he must have
+preached the sentiments they contained. But even so, his preaching
+would be no more a reviling of the dogmas of the Greek Church, than
+any other exposition of the doctrines held by the millions of
+Protestants in Europe and America. His lawyers made an able defense,
+though embarrassed by the evident bias of the President of the
+court. After a trial of six hours, Dr. King was adjudged to be
+guilty, and was condemned to fifteen days' imprisonment, to pay the
+costs of court, and then to be banished from the Kingdom of Greece.
+
+The court-house was soon cleared by the soldiers, but such a crowd
+awaited Dr. King without, that the military officer in charge
+proposed to call a carriage, and the King's attorney consented to
+his returning to his own house for the night, rather than going
+immediately to prison. He went out through a back door, and the
+officer ordered two or three soldiers to mount the carriage before
+and behind. Just as they entered the carriage, a rush was made by
+the crowd, but the soldiers drove them back with their bayonets.
+
+He had been arraigned for violating the seventeenth and eighteenth
+articles of the Penal Code; yet the attorney failed to prove the
+"reviling," contemplated in the seventeenth article, and the
+Areopagus had decided that the eighteenth did not apply to the case.
+So that Dr. King was adjudged to be deserving of imprisonment and
+banishment, simply for preaching the Gospel in his own house, as
+held by all evangelical Christians. Yet the government claimed to be
+tolerant of all religions.
+
+On the 9th of March, Dr. King entered the prison of Athens, where
+were one hundred and twenty-five prisoners, occupying eleven small
+rooms, eight of which were ten or eleven feet square, with from
+eight to twelve prisoners in each, the other three being larger.
+
+"My heart is not sorrowful," he writes on the same day, "but full of
+joy. I consider this as one of the brightest days of my life. With
+my whole heart I thank the Lord Jesus Christ, that I am counted
+worthy to suffer shame for his name, and for the truths which he has
+taught. The morning before I came to the prison, I read with great
+interest, yea, I may say with tears of joy, Hebrews xi., xii., and
+xiii.; and I felt constrained to render to the Most High ascriptions
+of praise for mercies, rather than to seek freedom from trials. My
+principal petition to God, during all these days of excitement and
+triumph of the enemy, has been, that the name of the Lord may be
+glorified in me, and that the cause of truth may finally prevail."
+
+On the 10th, having appealed to the Areopagus, he was removed to the
+police office, where he was treated kindly, and his friends had
+liberty to call upon him freely. Three days later, becoming ill of a
+fever, he was removed to his own house, where he remained, under a
+guard provided for the purpose, till the decision of the Areopagus
+was announced on the 25th. The sentence of the Criminal Court was
+confirmed.
+
+By the more intelligent in the community, whether native or foreign,
+and by several of the ablest journals, the proceedings of the court
+were strongly condemned. Twelve Greek lawyers, several of whom had
+held the highest offices in Greece and were among the most
+distinguished of their profession, signed their names to a letter,
+declaring their entire dissent from its proceedings.1
+
+1 See _Annual Report_ for 1852, p. 55, and _Missionary Herald_ for
+1852, p. 239.
+
+Execution of the sentence of banishment was delayed by a protest
+from Dr. King, in the name of the United States Government,
+indicating his intention to appeal to that government. The time had
+now fully come for extending to him the protection due to
+missionaries in their just rights and privileges. There can be no
+doubt, that missionaries have equal claims to protection with their
+fellow-citizens, in the lawful pursuit of their profession as
+preachers of the Gospel.1 In 1842, Daniel Webster, being then
+Secretary of State, instructed Commodore Porter, Minister Resident
+at Constantinople, "to omit no occasion, where his interference in
+behalf of American missionaries might become necessary or useful,
+and to extend to them the proper succor and attentions of which they
+might stand in need, in the same manner that he would to other
+citizens of the United States, who as merchants should visit or
+reside in Turkey."2 Happily Mr. Webster was again in the same high
+office. Twenty-nine years before, while the Greeks were fighting for
+their independence, he had eloquently pleaded their cause in the
+House of Representatives of the United States, and procured their
+recognition as a nation by our government. An appeal now came to him
+from an American citizen of the highest respectability, suffering
+oppression by that very nation which he had so befriended. There
+being no diplomatic agent of the United States in Greece, the Hon.
+George P. Marsh, the learned and able Minister Resident at
+Constantinople, was instructed to proceed to Athens in one of the
+ships of war, and inquire into the case, with one or more of the
+national vessels in that neighborhood subject to his order. Having a
+competent knowledge of the Greek language, Mr. Marsh entered upon
+his delicate mission in August, 1852, and prosecuted it till the
+arrival of his successor in the Constantinople embassy, late in
+1853. During this time, Mr. Webster died, and was succeeded by
+Edward Everett; and he again by Mr. Marcy, on the accession of
+President Pierce. Mr. Webster's letter of instruction, dated April
+29, 1852, states the case clearly, as it does also the rights of
+missionaries. Mr. Everett's letter, dated February 5, 1853, gives
+the opinion of President Fillmore, based on Mr. Marsh's report of
+the case. "Although the forms of the law may in general have been
+observed," Mr. Everett writes, "it is quite plain, that Dr. King was
+not tried for any offense clearly defined by the law of Greece; that
+his trial was in many respects unfairly and illegally conducted;
+that the constitution and laws of Greece guarantee a full toleration
+of all religious opinions; and that there is no proof that Dr. King
+has exceeded the just limits of the liberty of speech implied in
+such toleration." "Either the sound and safe maxims of criminal
+jurisprudence," he adds, "which prevail in this country, are unknown
+to the jurisprudence of Greece, or her tribunals were presided over
+by persons who entertained very false notions of the judicial
+character, or there are prejudices against Dr. King, which, in this
+case at least, corrupted the fountains of justice. It may have been
+in part produced by all three, and there is reason to suppose that
+such is the case. This state of things unavoidably destroys all
+confidence in the Greek courts, as far as Dr. King is concerned, and
+compels the President to regard their decision in this case as
+unjust and oppressive."3 He repeats the declaration of Mr. Webster,
+that missionaries are entitled to all the protection, which the Law
+of Nations allows to be extended to citizens who reside in foreign
+countries in the pursuit of their lawful business. Mr. Marsh was to
+communicate to the government of Greece the decided opinion of the
+President, "that Dr. King did not have a fair trial, and that
+consequently the sentence of banishment ought immediately to be
+revoked."
+
+1 See _Proceedings at the Annual Meeting of the Board_ in 1841, pp.
+36-39.
+
+2 See _Memorial Volume of the First Fifty Years of the A. B. C. F.
+M._, p. 201.
+
+3 _Congressional Documents_, No. 9, Senate, 1854, p. 6.
+
+The piece of ground in Athens purchased by Dr. King in 1829, was at
+that time little prized by Turks or Greeks. But after the capital
+became permanently fixed there, the land had become a most desirable
+part of the city, as it commanded an unobstructed view of many of
+the finest ancient monuments and interesting localities of Athens.
+For this reason it was early selected by the government as the site
+of a national church. The law required the value of all land thus
+taken, to be paid for before it was put to use. Years passed, and
+the government neither made use of it, nor allowed the owner to
+build upon it, and yet refused all compensation. This act of gross
+injustice--so gross that it even subjected the government to the
+suspicion of sinister aims in the prosecution of Dr. King,1--was
+one of the points referred to the President of the United States,
+and he declared his conviction, that compensation ought immediately
+to be made by the government of Greece.
+
+1 _Senate Documents_, p, 184.
+
+After some delay, this was done, but I know not to what extent. Mr.
+Paicos, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, objected, on purely
+technical grounds, to reversing the judgment founded on the charge
+of reviling the dogmas of the Greek Church; and as Dr. King very
+properly refused to receive a pardon, that judgment remained in
+force. It was never revived, however, and Mr. Pellicas, one of the
+counsel for the defense, having become Minister of Justice, a royal
+order was issued, revoking the sentence of banishment.
+
+"Dr. King and his creed," writes Mr. Marsh to the Secretary of
+State, "have served as a convenient scape-goat, to bear maledictions
+intended for other teachers and other doctrines, as well as for
+himself and his faith; or perhaps as an experiment, to test how far
+the Greek government would sustain, or foreign powers permit, the
+encroachments of an intolerant priesthood upon the guarantees of the
+independence of Greece, and the solemn sanction of the constitution
+and laws."
+
+A manifest change now took place in the popular sentiment towards
+the persecuted missionary. Many who had been bitterly opposed,
+became cordial. The preaching service had forty or fifty hearers,
+who were generally attentive. The "Exposition of an Apostolical
+Church" continued to attract notice. Dr. Barth's "Ecclesiastical
+History," translated by Dr. King, was extensively read; and the
+American Bible Society responded to an application for a new grant
+of ten thousand copies of the New Testament for the schools. Near
+the close of 1854, Dr. King placed at the disposal of the Minister
+of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Public Instruction for the use of
+schools, a thousand copies of "Chrysostom on Reading the
+Scriptures," printed with the sanction of the American Tract
+Society. The Minister replied, thanking him for the books, and
+sending him a copy of a circular he had addressed to the teachers
+strongly recommending the reading by the pupils, not only of
+Chrysostom, but of the Scriptures also. Several young men appeared
+truly converted, and a class in theology was formed, made up of two
+young men from Athens and four from Constantinople. These had been
+in the Greek department of the Bebek Seminary, and were sent to
+study with Dr. King in consequence of the death of Mr. Benjamin.
+After a year and a half he still had this class. To aid them he
+wrote a little work in modern Greek, combating the idea, prevalent
+with many, that nothing in the Word of God can be understood, except
+by those who have been enlightened by the study of the Fathers. In
+January, 1857, he finished correcting the fifth volume of the
+American Tract Society's publications in modern Greek. The first
+volume he printed in 1853, the second and third in 1854, the fourth
+in 1855. The five volumes contained more than two thousand five
+hundred pages, and were in an eligible form; but they were found to
+be in advance of the national taste for religious reading.
+
+The old enmity in Greece burst forth, once more, with violence, in
+forgeries and fictions of an extraordinary character. It was then
+regretted by many patrons of the mission, that the veteran
+missionary sustained consular relations to the United States, which
+prevented him from meeting this crisis in the simple character of a
+missionary; and such may have been the feeling of Dr. King himself,
+but he found it difficult to change his relations while the storm
+was raging. The public excitement, however, soon subsided, and he
+went on with his work unmolested.
+
+In September, 1859, Dr. King was most unexpectedly cited to appear
+before the judicial authorities, to answer to charges brought
+against him, two years and a half before, by a Greek named Kephalas.
+After an examination of two hours, the accusation was read to him.
+Its import was not clear; but it implied an apprehension, that he
+was secretly endeavoring to form a Christian Church,--an exclusive
+body, with members, meetings, rules, and occupations, and a religion
+not recognized by the government.
+
+After nearly a year, the Council of Judges decided not to proceed
+then with the proscution, [sic] and it was never resumed. Dr. King
+now printed, at private expense, five volumes of his own writings;
+one in French, and four in modern Greek. Two of the volumes in
+modern Greek are supposed to have been made up of forty-eight of his
+sermons, and one of miscellaneous documents. Among them were his
+Farewell Letter; his Defense; Speech before the Areopagus in 1846;
+Exposition of an Apostolic Church; Religious Rites of an Apostolical
+Church; Canons for the Interpretation of the Scriptures; Orgies of
+Simonides; Answer to the Greek Synod; The Opinion of Twelve Lawyers;
+Letter of the Hon. George P. Marsh to the Greek Government; etc.
+
+In the great work of giving the Word of God to the people of Greece,
+Dr. King fully acknowledges the hearty coöperation of the Episcopal
+and Baptist missionaries, and of Bible agents both British and
+American.
+
+In the autumn of 1862, King Otho and his queen were constrained to
+fly from Greece. In the midst of the consequent revolution, the head
+of police sent a company of soldiers to protect the house of the
+missionary, but Mrs. King told him they were not afraid, and the
+soldiers went away. The editors of the "Age" and of the "Hope," his
+most bitter persecutors in years past, now fell into deep disgrace,
+and were in peril of their lives. Prince Alfred, of Protestant
+England, was elected king by an almost unanimous vote. Not obtaining
+him, they elected a king from Protestant Denmark. George I. arrived
+in October, 1863, and was received by the people with much joy. The
+form of government is a constitutional monarchy. There are neither
+titles nor privileged classes among the people. The only
+qualification for voting is that of a prescribed age, and all
+citizens are eligible to the offices of the state, who possess the
+required mental qualifications. Unfortunately for Greece, the
+article of the constitution of 1843 is retained, which, while it
+grants toleration, prohibits proselytism from the Established
+Church, which it declares to be a crime punishable by the penal
+code. It will be well for Greece, if this be dropped from the
+constitution in the revision to be made in 1875. In March of the
+year following, twenty-six editors of newspapers at Athens formed a
+society, "to discuss subjects connected with the good of the
+country," and, by a large majority, chose Dr. Kalopothakes, editor
+of the "Star of the East," for their President. In May, the
+venerable missionary was invited by the king to administer the
+Lord's Supper in the palace; which was no more than an act of public
+justice towards one of the oldest, most disinterested, and
+self-sacrificing of the friends of the Greek nation.
+
+Dr. King's health was now much impaired, and required a change; and
+in July, 1864, he left Athens, with Mrs. King, and reached the
+United States in August, where they remained three years. Their
+return to Greece was in the autumn of 1867, and the missionary was
+happy to find some of his former pupils actively engaged in labors
+not very dissimilar to his own. Two were preachers of the Gospel;
+Mr. Kalopothakes, from the New York Union Theological Seminary,
+ordained by a Presbytery; and Mr. Constantine, from Amherst College
+and Andover Seminary, and ordained by a Congregational body. A
+third, Mr. Sakellarius, a printer, studied for a while in the
+Baptist Seminary at Newton, and had charge of the office of the
+"Star." All three had their Bible classes and Sunday-schools. Dr.
+King wisely avoided interfering by a separate service of his own.
+Sometime before his return, a mob, excited by the report that
+"Puritanism" was taught in these schools, nearly forced its way into
+the house of Dr. Kalopothakes; but an officer of the police passed
+at the moment, and arrested some of the ringleaders. The Cretan
+refugees were then there, and about twelve hundred of these were in
+their day and Sabbath-schools.
+
+In April, 1868, a distinguished Professor in the University arranged
+for an interview between Dr. King and the President of the "Holy
+Synod." This man in 1863 signed the accusation against Dr. King, in
+consequence of which, after his return to Greece, he was a third
+time cited before the Criminal Court, though without any result. The
+interview was altogether pleasant, and was a striking illustration
+of the progress of public opinion. "A considerable degree of
+religious liberty has been gained," writes the missionary, "and a
+foundation has been laid, on which, I trust, will one day arise a
+beautiful superstructure."
+
+Dr. King finished his course at Athens on the 22d of May, 1869, in
+the seventy-seventh year of his age.
+
+The characteristics of this remarkable man are everywhere apparent
+in the preceding narrative. He was evidently designed by Providence
+to be a reformer; and though he lived not to witness anything that
+could be called a reformation among the Greek people, the battle he
+fought through so many years with the bigotry and intolerance of the
+Greek hierarchy, will be held in perpetual remembrance. A
+reformation has begun, and Dr. King, more than any other Protestant,
+was the instrument of Providence in bringing it about. To him is it
+owing, preėminently, that the Scriptures, since the year 1831, have
+been so extensively used in the schools, and that, in Greece, "the
+Word of God is not bound." It is not forgotten, that others labored
+with him, and not in vain; but it is mainly to the preaching of Dr.
+King, during his protracted residence in Greece, in connection with
+his persistent and triumphant struggle with the Greek hierarchy,
+that we owe, under God, the visible decline of prejudice against
+evangelical truth and religious liberty.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1841-1848.
+
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, finding a sea voyage necessary for the
+recovery of her health, left Oroomiah July 5, 1841, and arrived at
+New York on the 11th of January, just in time to be present at the
+special meeting of the Board in that city. Their passage from Smyrna
+had been prolonged to one hundred and nine days, and much solicitude
+was felt for their safety. They were accompanied by Mar Yohannan,
+who desired so earnestly to see the new world, that he could not be
+dissuaded from coming. As the early friend and constant helper of
+the mission, and as representing one of the most interesting
+branches of the ancient Church of Christ, he was received by the
+Board and the religious community with Christian affection, and his
+visits to different parts of the country with Mr. Perkins were both
+pleasant and useful.
+
+The number of pupils in the seminary at the close of 1841 was
+forty-six; there were also eighteen in the boarding-school for
+girls, and there were twenty free schools in as many villages, all
+taught by Nestorian priests. The free schools contained four hundred
+and seventy pupils, of whom forty were girls; making the whole
+number in the schools five hundred and sixteen. The press, during
+its first year, sent forth sixteen hundred volumes, and three
+thousand six hundred tracts, containing in all five hundred and ten
+thousand pages. Under the superintendence of Mr. Perkins, Mr. Homan
+Hallock cut and cast a new font of type, modeled on the best Syriac
+manuscripts. This was in the year 1841. Three years later, Mr.
+Breath, the printer at Oroomiah, with the help of a native
+assistant, cut and prepared two sets of type after the most approved
+forms of Syriac calligraphy. The natives pronounced these types
+perfect. The two sets resembled each other, the only difference
+being that in one the stroke was larger and the letter more open.
+Mr. Breath afterwards prepared a third set, of a medium size
+compared with the other two.
+
+While the plain of Oroomiah is perhaps one of the most fertile and
+beautiful in the world, its luxuriant vegetation occasions fevers at
+certain seasons, and ophthalmia is prevalent. To escape fevers, the
+missionaries built dormitories on the tops of their flat-roofed
+houses. This preventive not being found sufficient, a health-station
+was formed in the elevated village of Seir, about six miles from
+Oroomiah, where dwellings were provided for two families, which were
+surrounded by a strong stone wall, to serve as a defense against any
+sudden incursion of the Koords.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Perkins and Mar Yohannan embarked at Boston on their
+return in March, 1843. They were accompanied by the Rev. David T.
+Stoddard and wife, and by Misses Catherine E. Myers and Fidelia
+Fiske, who went to promote the education of their own sex among the
+Nestorians. They reached Oroomiah on the 14th of June, and were
+received by the Nestorians with great manifestations of joy. Mr.
+Perkins, while at home, prepared for the press an octavo volume of
+five hundred pages, entitled "A Residence of Eight Years among the
+Nestorian Christians." It is in the form of a journal, is
+illustrated by a map and plates, and is a history of the mission
+during that time.
+
+The ancient Syriac version of the Scriptures was held in such
+veneration by the people, that there were strong reasons for making
+it the basis of the proposed version in the modern language. The
+case was referred to the Prudential Committee, who decided that the
+only proper course was to translate from the original Hebrew and
+Greek, and the translation was made accordingly.
+
+The female seminary at Oroomiah now came under the efficient
+superintendence of Miss Fiske, and soon assumed a very interesting
+religious character. The whole number under instruction in the two
+seminaries, and in the forty-four village free schools, was eleven
+hundred and forty-two. The call for preaching tasked the capacity of
+the mission. The missionaries were free to preach in the Nestorian
+churches, and generally found attentive congregations, and they were
+aided in the ministry of the word by five intelligent native
+preachers. Dr. Perkins thus speaks of a congregation at Ardishai:
+"The church was crowded to overflowing. It would have been difficult
+for half a dozen more to press themselves into it. Priest Abraham
+read the first chapter of the Epistle of James, which we expounded
+for more than an hour, to the great satisfaction of the people, who
+did not suppress their audible Amen, and ejaculatory comments of
+approbation. Priest Abraham spoke very appropriately and feelingly
+on the subject of temptations, applying it to his hearers, who are
+now so sorely beset by the Jesuits. That crowd of eager listeners
+presented a thrilling spectacle. I could not help thanking God for
+the privilege of addressing them on the things that pertain to their
+everlasting well being."
+
+The efforts of the Jesuits among the Nestorians began in 1838. In
+1842, they pushed their proselyting measures so recklessly among the
+Armenians of Ispahan and Tabriz, as to lead the Persian King, at the
+instance of the Russian Ambassador, to send them out of the kingdom.
+A "permanent order" was at the same time adopted, probably on
+Russian suggestion, growing out of repugnance to the political
+influence of the Jesuits, that no native Christian should be
+proselyted from one Christian sect to another. The French
+government, after some delay, sent an envoy to Persia to effect, if
+possible, the return of the Jesuits; but before his arrival, they
+had covertly made their way to Oroomiah, run another race of
+proselytism among the Nestorians, and been a second time expelled.
+The French agent therefore took cognizance of both expulsions, and
+gave the greater prominence to the more recent one, since it had
+just occurred, and was fresh in mind, and since the Jesuits were
+just then specially intent on adding the Nestorians to their sect.
+His demand, however, that they should have leave to return, was
+refused. He then required the expulsion of the American
+missionaries, as being obnoxious to the same law. The Russian
+Ambassador, whose protection the mission had enjoyed since the
+departure of the English embassy in 1839, denied that it was the
+object of the mission to proselyte in the sense contemplated by the
+law. The French envoy then demanded an investigation, and to this
+the Ambassador and the Persian government readily assented. Two
+Mohammedan meerzas were sent from Tabriz to Oroomiah to make the
+investigation. These fell under the papal influence at Oroomiah, and
+made a report so strongly prejudiced against the mission, that it
+was thought necessary to send a committee to the capital to
+counteract their misrepresentations. Messrs. Perkins and Stocking
+were sent accordingly. Riding rapidly on horseback, many hundred
+miles, over cold regions just as winter was setting in, and sleeping
+on the ground at night without beds, with other similar discomforts,
+seemed to them not the least trial of this undertaking. On their
+arrival at Teheran, the importance of their errand was very obvious.
+They found the report of the meerzas bearing manifest traces of
+Jesuit influence. It made but few tangible charges, yet contained
+many serious and unjust insinuations. They were able to meet it with
+satisfactory explanations, and thus the storm passed by, without
+inflicting the injury which the mission feared. I am not aware that
+the "permanent order" against proselyting ever proved any serious
+embarrassment to the mission. The banishment of the Jesuits had not
+been requested by the Nestorians, nor by the missionaries. The
+Russian Ambassador assumed the whole responsibility, saying that the
+business was his own, that he was authorized to protect the
+Christians in Persia, which could not be done while these papal
+disturbers remained in the country. An attempt by the Jesuits to
+wrest from the Nestorians one of their ancient and favorite
+churches, appears to have been the immediate cause of the decisive
+measures last mentioned. Of course these papal emissaries returned
+again, but with a somewhat diminished arrogance.1
+
+1 Manuscript letter from Rev. Justin Perkins, D. D., dated Oroomiah,
+Persia, March 28, 1844.
+
+There were also embarrassments of a serious nature within the
+Nestorian community. In the subjugation of the mountain Nestorians,
+while the Patriarch fled to Mosul, several of his brothers escaped
+to Oroomiah, and threw themselves on the hospitality of the mission,
+which of necessity fell short of their wishes. They demanded money
+of the mission, on the ground that they were the ecclesiastical
+heads of the people. In this they were unhappily countenanced by the
+Patriarch, upon whom an influence hostile to the mission had been
+successfully exerted; who wrote a letter, calling upon the
+ecclesiastics and people of Oroomiah to oppose the mission and its
+schools. The people, as a body, had sense enough to refuse
+obedience. In view of the attitude thus assumed by the patriarchal
+family, and the questionable conduct of some of the bishops, a
+thorough reconstruction of the school system was rendered necessary.
+The seminary for boys and the village schools were accordingly
+dismissed, and finally the female boarding-school under Miss Fiske.
+"When this last result was announced to the pupils," writes one of
+the mission, "there was a general burst of grief. Their tears and
+sobs told, more expressively than language, the bitterness of their
+hearts. Nor did they weep alone. And who would not weep at such a
+scene? Here were those, whom we had hoped to train up for immortal
+blessedness, about to be sent back to a darkness almost like that of
+heathenism. The stoutest Nestorians who were standing by were
+melted. After these tender lambs had been commended to the gracious
+Shepherd of Israel, they began to make their preparations for
+leaving us. The most trying thing was the parting, of the pupils
+from each other, and from those who had been to them as parents.
+They threw their arms around the neck of their teacher, and said
+again and again, 'We shall never more hear the words of God.'"
+
+Nearly all the pupils of this seminary returned of their own accord,
+and after the hostility of the patriarchal family had become known
+to their parents. Miss Fiske was aided in the instruction by a pious
+Nestorian deacon. Besides the ordinary instruction, the pupils were
+taught several useful arts, of which their less favored mothers knew
+little or nothing; among which were knitting and sewing, and these
+branches many of the mothers were eager to learn from their
+children. Moreover they were taught industry, self-denial,
+benevolence, and the preciousness of time. The boys' seminary was
+reorganized in the following spring, under the superintendence of
+Mr. Stoddard; who received a number of promising boys into his
+family as an experiment, with the understanding that the pupils
+would reside wholly on the mission premises.
+
+There was still enough of vacillation among the bishops, and of
+dissatisfaction among the Patriarch's brothers, to raise a question
+which the mission submitted to the judgment of the Prudential
+Committee, as to how far it was proper to employ the higher
+ecclesiastics on wages. The Committee approved of the course which
+had been pursued in relation to the four bishops on the plain of
+Oroomiah, Mar Yohannan, Mar Elias, Mar Joseph, and Mar Gabriel; but
+intimated, while deprecating sudden changes, that the services of
+the bishops, should they prove troublesome helpers, might be
+dispensed with gradually. What the Committee feared was, that
+putting them forward in a manner which had seemed proper in time
+past, might now give them too much control of the reformation that
+was believed not to be far off. The fundamental principle was, to
+pay only for services rendered, and for none more than their fair
+and true value. It was also recommended, that care be taken to
+preserve the independence of the mission; the evangelical character
+of its influence upon the people; its unquestioned right to prepare
+for the expected religious awakening; and when it came, to pursue
+the appropriate measures according to their own better informed
+judgments.
+
+The mission to the Mohammedans of Persia, of which an account is
+given elsewhere, having been discontinued, the Rev. James L. Merrick
+and wife joined the Nestorian mission in 1842. In 1844, the health
+of Mrs. Merrick made it necessary for her to visit England, her
+native land. She was followed by her husband in the next year, and
+he, soon after his arrival at Boston, was released from his
+connection with the Board. Mr. Jones retired from the mission in
+1844.
+
+John and Moses, two young Nestorians of hopeful piety, were ordained
+deacons by Mar Elias and Mar Yohannan. John was a native of Geog
+Tapa, the largest Nestorian village in the province, and one which
+always took the lead, whether for good or for evil. Abraham, the
+well-known priest, and the two newly ordained preachers, divided the
+village into districts for visiting and preaching. Mr. Stocking, and
+after him Dr. Perkins, found there abundant evidence of unusual
+religious interest. Scores of persons called on the native preachers
+almost every evening, after the toils of the day, and many lingered
+to a late hour. There were cases of special interest, and none but a
+skeptic could doubt the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
+
+In May, 1845, the Shah, at the instance of the English and Russian
+Ambassadors, appointed Dawood Khan, of Tabriz, an Armenian from
+Georgia and an officer of the army, Governor of the Nestorians. The
+object was to protect the Christians from the oppressions they had
+long suffered from the Moslem nobles residing in the district.
+
+We have now entered on an auspicious period in the history of the
+mission. Geog Tapa became the radiant centre of spiritual life. The
+preceding year had been one of apprehension, but the brethren now
+learned not to despond every time the heavens gathered blackness,
+for in the darkest hour the sun may break forth and change the whole
+scene. We have come to the beginning of that series of revivals,
+with which the mission was so remarkably blessed.
+
+The first revival was in the year 1846, and the first hopeful
+conversions were in the female seminary in January. Both seminaries
+were moved. A number in each came to their teachers with the
+inquiry, "What shall I do to be saved?" The religious concern
+rapidly increased. The 23d of January was set apart by the mission
+as a day for private fasting and prayer. On the preceding evening,
+as the people were assembling for a religious service, Mr. Stoddard
+observed signs of deep feeling in different groups, and was
+convinced that a revival had begun. After service, the people came
+in crowds to his study, and he, with unutterable delight, unfolded
+the Gospel of Christ to one company after another, until near
+midnight. On the 25th, Tamo, a deacon from the mountains, was
+overwhelmed with a sense of his sinfulness. At the same meeting,
+priest Eshoo sat with his face buried in his handkerchief, and when
+spoken to wept, but said nothing. On the day following, he led the
+devotions in the male seminary, in a prayer so humble and earnest,
+so in contrast with his former sing-song tone and thoughtless
+manner, that Mr. Stoddard could not refrain from tears. He had
+evidently learned how to pray, and his knowledge, his stable
+character, and his important position would enable him, if truly
+converted, to do much good among his people. Though every room about
+the premises, that could possibly be spared from other uses, had
+been opened for retirement, so numerous were the awakened that they
+could not find places in which to pour out their souls to God. Such
+was the natural excitability of the people, that it was difficult to
+keep their expressions of feeling within proper bounds. On the 26th,
+deacon John came to Mr. Stoddard, saying that the boys were weeping
+violently in one of their rooms, and desired that he would go to
+them. John added, that he had been looking at them with amazement,
+having never before seen anything of the kind, and he knew not what
+to do. Mr. Stoddard entered the room with Dr. Wright, and they found
+fifteen or twenty boys lying on the floor, weeping, groaning, and in
+broken sentences praying for mercy, presenting a scene of great
+confusion. Some older people were standing around in silent wonder,
+thinking that an angel had visited the school. Measures were
+immediately taken for checking this disorder. The pupils all
+promised that no two of them would again pray aloud at the same
+time. The school was still the next day, but with no diminution of
+solemnity.
+
+Miss Fiske had often ten or fifteen women, relatives of her pupils,
+to pass the night with her, making it necessary to collect together
+all the spare pillows, cushions, and quilts in the house, and make
+the sitting-room one great dormitory. She frequently conversed with
+them till midnight, and then she heard them from her room, praying
+most of the night.
+
+Priest Eshoo called his neighbors together, and told them of the
+great change in his feelings. So upright had he been as a priest,
+that a confession of his need of salvation through the blood of
+Christ made a strong impression. It became more and more evident
+that he was truly a child of God. On the 5th of February, he
+announced his great joy that his oldest daughter, a member of Miss
+Fiske's school, was hopefully born again, and he thought she knew
+the way to the cross better than himself.
+
+The name of this daughter was Sarah. She was the first in the
+revival to ask the way to heaven, the first to find the way, and the
+first to enter it. Sarah was a tall, dark-eyed girl ten years old
+when she entered the school. There were then but few books in the
+school except the Bible, and she became very familiar with its
+pages. She first learned that she was a sinner in January, 1846, and
+she lived only five months after that time. Her father loved to have
+her pray with him, and so remarkable was her Christian experience,
+that Mr. Stocking had great pleasure and profit in conversing with
+her. Miss Fiske also felt it to be a delightful privilege to watch
+over her as she was nearing heaven. They would sit for an hour at a
+time, and talk of the home of the blest, while Sarah would sing, "It
+will be good to be there." She had a rare anxiety to be the means of
+saving souls. The girls, and the women too, loved to have her tell
+them "the way, for" as they said, "we can see it when she tells us."
+Her health was not good at the time of her conversion, and as early
+as March the sentence of death was visible on her countenance. But
+she clung to her school till May, and continued to attend the
+meetings, even when it was necessary for some one to aid her in
+reaching the chapel. The "Dairyman's Daughter" was a favorite book
+with the girls of the school, and young disciples were sometimes
+heard to say, as Sarah took her seat in the house of God, "Have we
+not an Elizabeth Wallbridge among us?" She lingered till June, and
+was often found with her open Bible and several women by her side,
+whom she was leading to Christ. Her praying companions often had
+meetings in her room. Her last words were, "Lord Jesus, receive----"
+Here her voice ceased.1
+
+1 _Life of Fidelia Fiske_, p. 173.
+
+On the 13th of February, Deacon Isaac,--one of the Patriarch's
+brothers, and to a considerable extent his representative in the
+district, respected moreover among the people for his force of
+character, as well as for his official station,--made Mr. Stoddard a
+visit. His manner showed that he wished to converse on the subject
+of religion, and Mr. Stoddard commenced by asking him, if he
+rejoiced in what the Lord was doing for his people. He replied,
+"None but Satan can help rejoicing. I do certainly rejoice. But I am
+like a man that stands on the shore of a lake, and seeing a
+beautiful country on the other side is gladdened by the prospect,
+but has no means of reaching that country himself. Would that I were
+a child, that I might repent too! But no, it cannot be. My heart is
+ice. There is no such sinner among the people as I am. I do not
+believe it is possible for me to be saved." He was reminded of the
+freeness of Christ's love, and his willingness to receive the vilest
+sinner that will come to him. After some hesitation, he admitted
+that it was so. "But," said he, "the great obstacle is myself. My
+heart is perfectly dead. You may cut and thrust me with a sword, but
+I am insensible to the stroke. And if you kindly pour ointment on my
+wounds, it is all the same. I choose sin. I love sin. The wild
+beasts in the mountains are enticed by the hunters, and seize the
+bait, not knowing what they do. But I take this world with my eyes
+open, knowing that I am choosing destruction, and eating death. It
+is a shame for me to remain in such a miserable condition, while
+these boys are weeping over their sins, and I am ashamed. But such
+is the fact, and I expect to die as I have lived, and go to hell."
+He seemed to speak with sincerity, and Mr. Stoddard learned that he
+conversed with his people in a similar manner.
+
+On the 16th of February, Mr. Stocking went to Geog Tapa, accompanied
+by Miss Fiske and John. Miss Fiske found herself surrounded by a
+company of females at the house of priest Abraham; and again, at the
+close of a meeting in the church, about fifty of the women present
+met her in the school-room, for conversation and prayer. A
+considerable number of them were evidently awakened, and a few gave
+evidence of real conversion. Yet there were opposers at Geog Tapa,
+who said, "Why all this ado? Must all we have done for salvation go
+for nothing? Have all our fathers gone to hell?"
+
+Several of the converts in the seminary for boys having rooms near
+Mr. Stoddard's study, he could hear their voices from morning till
+night, as they pleaded in prayer, and their petitions came evidently
+from the depths of the soul. Their natural love for vivid metaphor,
+combined with much ardor, gave great vividness to their prayers.
+They begged that the dog might have a single crumb from the table of
+his master; at another time, they were smiting their breasts by the
+side of the publican; at another, they were prodigals, hungry,
+naked, and far from their father's house; again, they sink in the
+sea, and cry out, "Lord save me, I perish;" again, poor, diseased,
+outcast lepers, they came to the great Physician for a cure. Those
+who had given themselves to Christ, now built their house on the
+Rock of Ages, while the waters were roaring around them; now they
+washed the feet of their Redeemer with tears, and wiped them with
+the hairs of their head; and now, having become soldiers of the
+cross, they planted the blood-stained banner in the inner citadel of
+their souls.
+
+Before the end of May, the boys' seminary was removed to Seir, to
+obviate the necessity of a long vacation, which might be injurious
+to the pupils in their peculiar state of feeling. Mr. Stoddard was
+often delighted, in walking about the mountains, to find pupils
+praying in secluded spots. A Mussulman once fell in with a pupil
+thus engaged, and having never before seen a Nestorian praying in
+secret, he stopped in silent wonder. The young man, on being asked
+what he was doing, commenced teaching the Mussulman how to pray, and
+so deeply interested him, that they kneeled down together, and the
+prayer was renewed in the Turkish language, that it might be
+intelligible to the stranger.
+
+The estimated number of converts in the two seminaries, at the close
+of 1846, was fifty. The general aspect of Geog Tapa, containing a
+population of about a thousand, was much changed. Almost every one
+who had come to years of discretion, gave good attention to the
+preaching of the Gospel, and as many as fifty seemed to be true
+disciples. Cases of hopeful conversion were found in eight or ten
+other villages on the plain. Nor was the awakening restricted to the
+plain. Of one hundred and fifty hopeful converts, twelve were at
+Hakkie, and ten at Gawar, fifty miles further west, and both
+mountain villages.
+
+An edition of the New Testament, with the ancient and modern Syriac
+in parallel columns, was printed near the close of 1846. The value
+to the Nestorians of having the Scriptures in their spoken language,
+cannot be estimated. The translation was made by Dr. Perkins from
+the original Greek, and the type was that made by Mr. Breath. Dr.
+Perkins entered at once upon a translation of the Old Testament from
+the Hebrew. Among the books that had been recently printed, was a
+new and enlarged edition of the Nestorian Hymn-book. The hymns were
+sung in all the social religious meetings of the Nestorians, and in
+some of their churches, and with most happy effect. The sentiments
+of the hymns, and much of their language, entered largely into the
+prayers of the people. The hymns were also committed to memory by
+not a few, who were unable to read.
+
+Ill health obliged Mr. and Mrs. Holladay to visit their native land
+in the spring of this year, and they were not able to resume their
+connection with the mission. The Rev. Joseph G. Cochran and wife,
+and Miss Mary Susan Rice, embarked for Oroomiah in June, 1847.
+
+The cholera, in its progress from the east, reached the plain of
+Oroomiah in the autumn of 1846, and about two thousand persons died
+in the city. An interesting account of the pestilence by Dr. Wright,
+as it came under his observation, may be found in the "Missionary
+Herald" for 1847.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1847, pp. 154-157.
+
+Among the noticeable occurrences of the year 1847, was the visit of
+Dr. Wright, to Bader Khan Bey, on the same errand which took Dr.
+Grant to him three years before. The request came through Nūrūllah
+Bey and the governor of Oroomiah, and the mission advised him to go,
+as such a visit might open the way for the Gospel into the
+mountains. Mr. Breath was requested to accompany him. They took with
+them deacon Tamo, who was a subject of the recent revival, and
+deacon Yoosuph, an assistant in the medical department. Leaving
+Oroomiah on the 4th of May, they reached Julamerk, the home of
+Nūrūllah Bey, in five days; and in his absence, were cordially
+welcomed by his nephew, Suleiman Bey, and other relatives. They were
+detained there thirteen days by a report, that the mountains beyond
+were covered with snow. The Emir was at home the last three days,
+and soon became familiar and kind. Two days from Julamerk, they were
+refreshed by a bath in a hot sulphur spring, admirably suited for
+the purpose. Four days more brought them to the residence of Bader
+Khan Bey. There had been a wonderful change in the mountains since
+Dr. Grant's first entrance. Our travellers crossed the wild central
+regions of Koordistan with no fear of robbers. The principal reason
+for this was doubtless the character and energy of Bader Khan Bey's
+government; which extended from the Persian line to Mesopotamia, and
+from the neighborhood of Diarbekir to that of Mosul. Nearly all the
+chiefs in northern Koordistan came to pay their respects to him
+while the missionaries were there, bringing valuable presents. Even
+the Hakkary Bey, though higher in rank, and once more powerful than
+he, seemed to feel himself honored in his presence. In the wildest
+parts of Koordistan, our travellers often slept in the open air,
+their horses let loose to graze around them during the night, and
+their luggage without a guard; yet nothing was stolen. In most parts
+of Turkey and Persia, such a course would not have been safe.
+
+They spent four weeks with the chief. During the last two, the
+Hakkary chief was there also, and the demeanor of both was kind and
+respectful from first to last. Dr. Wright was every day engaged
+professionally among the sick in the Khan's family and retinue. He
+also introduced the vaccine matter, of which they had never heard
+before. Nūrūllah Bey was unwilling, for some reason, that they
+should return through Tiary and Tehoma. They therefore took a
+northern route by Bashkallah, a fortress about thirty miles
+northeast of Julamerk, and reached Oroomiah, July 3, after an
+absence of two months.
+
+The Nestorians within the range of their observations manifested
+simplicity and readiness to receive instruction, but were in danger
+from the inroads of Rome.
+
+It appears to have been the intention of the Turkish government in
+1847, doubtless through the influence of the English Ambassador at
+Constantinople, to restore the Nestorian Patriarch to his native
+regions, and constitute him the civil head of his people; and while
+at Mosul, he was invited to the seat of government for that purpose.
+Distrusting the motives of the Porte, he fled to Oroomiah, where he
+arrived in June. It was a kind Providence that delayed his coming
+until there were no longer grounds for dissatisfaction arising from
+members of his family being in the employ of the mission. There were
+indeed ill disposed Nestorians, who were always ready to fill the
+ears of the Patriarch with insinuations against the mission. Among
+these were two of his own brothers, the least respectable portion of
+his family. But there were others who were watchful to correct
+misrepresentations, and to give him right views of the results of
+the mission, and of its doctrines. Among these were two of his
+brothers, deacon Isaac and deacon Dunka, whom he held in high
+esteem.
+
+"These brothers," writes Mr. Stocking in July, 1847, "have appeared
+truly friendly for two years, and disposed, to the full extent of
+their influence, to aid us in our work. Both have been regular
+attendants on our preaching; and, though not pious, they maintain
+decidedly evangelical views in regard to the doctrines of grace.
+Deacon Isaac especially, one of the most talented of the Nestorians,
+is always ready, before the Patriarch and all others, boldly to
+advocate the doctrine of justification by faith through grace alone.
+He has studied critically, and appears to understand, as well as an
+unconverted man can, the book of Romans; without the study of which,
+he has been heard to remark, no one can understand what Christianity
+really is. We have been interested to learn, through our native
+helpers, that these brothers have voluntarily acted in concert, one
+or both never failing to be with the Patriarch whenever there was
+any one present to assail us and our work, ready to confront them to
+their faces, and repel all false charges."
+
+The Patriarch received priests Eshoo, Dunka, Abraham, and John, who
+called to obtain his coöperation, with apparent cordiality, and gave
+his full consent to their preaching in all the dioceses. He told
+them that his letter from Mosul, forbidding preaching and schools,
+was written through the importunity of Mr. Rassam. He spent a month
+at Seir, where he had much friendly intercourse with the
+missionaries. He even invited Dr. Perkins to preach in his tent, and
+Messrs. Wright and Stoddard led in prayer, before and after the
+sermon, while the Patriarch himself pronounced the benediction at
+the close. The hymns sung on this occasion were from the new
+Nestorian Hymnbook.
+
+The Patriarch's friendly deportment continued till some time in
+April, 1848, when he threw off the mask, if he had worn one, and
+took the stand of open and decided opposition. This was not wholly
+unexpected, and while it was matter for regret, it did not occasion
+much alarm. His power to do harm had been greatly circumscribed by
+the providential embarrassments of his civil and ecclesiastical
+relations; by the extensive prevalence of evangelical truth among
+the Nestorians; by their friendliness, and the good will of the
+Persian government towards the mission; and by the number, standing,
+and influence of the religious among his people. His first
+unfriendly act he concealed from our brethren, but it was made known
+to them by the British Consul at Tabriz. It was a formal
+communication to the Russian Consul at that place, designed to
+prejudice him against the American missionaries, of whom his Embassy
+was the nominal protector. The Consul made no response to this. The
+first open attack was on the seminary under the care of Mr.
+Stoddard. The Patriarch next endeavored to withdraw the native
+assistants from the missionaries; at one time calling into exercise
+all his powers of persuasion, and at another uttering the severest
+threats. Though his people were deriving great advantages, in many
+ways, from the educational system introduced by the mission, he
+recklessly determined to deprive them of it, without providing
+anything to supply its place. He ordered the leading men of Geog
+Tapa to break up the schools in that village, and received a
+respectful but decided refusal. The priest of Charbush was ordered
+to suspend his school, but declined. The Patriarch came to that
+village soon after, and his servants, meeting the priest in the
+street, beat him severely and wounded him. Those same servants
+returning to the city intoxicated, entered the mission premises, and
+fell to beating Mar Yohannan and his brother Joseph, and priest
+Dunka, who happened to be sitting within the gate. The Governor at
+once interfered. At that juncture, an order arrived from the Heir
+Apparent, the ruler of Azerbijan, directing the Mohammedan
+authorities to allow no one to molest the missionaries, or any one
+in their employment. In September, the Patriarch sought the
+intervention of the chief Doctor of the Mohammedan law against the
+mission. It so happened that the missionaries were paying their
+respects to the Moolah, at the very time when the Patriarch called,
+with a large retinue of Nestorians, on this business. The Moslem
+doctor made him a public and mortifying reply: "These gentlemen," he
+said, "are peaceable men; the Mohammedans respect them, and are
+pleased with them. Why are you falling out with them? You, who are
+Christians, ought to respect them even more than the Mohammedans."
+For a time the Patriarch and the Jesuits, both aiming at the
+overthrow of the mission, were in practical combination. As a
+necessary means to this end, both wished to expel from office Dawood
+Khan, the Christian Governor and civil protector of the Nestorians
+of that province; and the Mohammedan nobles were in sympathy with
+them in this, as that dignitary stood in the way of their exactions.
+
+But this political alliance, though at first promising success both
+to the Patriarch and the Jesuits, in the end led to the signal
+overthrow of both. It was stated to the mission by Mr. Stevens, the
+English Consul, as a well ascertained fact, that Mar Shimon had
+united his interests with the French Jesuits, and that they had
+strong hope of making use of him to cast their net over his people.1
+Up to this time, the mission had not applied to any European
+functionary for interference in their troubles with Mar Shimon. Nor
+did they now; but Mr. Stevens, hearing of his persecuting course,
+took up the matter of his own accord, gave the information as above
+stated, and befriended the missionaries in various ways. The
+Patriarch having declared, that he had the countenance and support
+of the Russian Consul, that official wrote sharply rebuked him for
+so doing. The four bishops of Oroomiah and nearly all the priests
+and deacons, with many of the leading Nestorians in the province,
+now united in a representation to the Persian Government, highly
+commending the character, objects, and labors of the mission. It is
+recorded, that the converted Nestorians also, with scarce an
+exception, stood firmly by the mission, in the face of trials and
+reproaches; and the same was true of many who made no pretensions to
+piety.
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1849, p. 30.
+
+News of the death of the King arrived at Oroomiah on the 14th of
+September. He was succeeded by his eldest son, a young man of twenty
+years, who for the last year had been Prince Governor of Azerbijan.
+In Persia, the death of the King interrupts for a time the regular
+transaction of public business.
+
+An immediate effect of the news was to displace the Governor of
+Oroomiah, Yahyah Khan, with whom Mar Shimon had been forming an
+alliance, to strengthen him in his persecutions.
+
+Through the friendly, but unsolicited agency of the English Consul,
+five of the most prominent of Mar Shimon's coadjutors were put under
+heavy bonds in no way to aid or abet him again in similar
+proceedings. Should they violate their written engagements to the
+authorities, they would expose themselves to severe corporal
+punishment and heavy fines.
+
+Another requisition from the government was, that the two servants
+who had entered the mission premises, and beaten and insulted
+several of the ecclesiastics, should be taken to that same
+inclosure, and be bastinadoed to the satisfaction of the mission.
+Only one of the two could be found. He was brought thither, and laid
+upon the pavement with his feet tied to a pole, and a large bunch of
+rods by his side; and the missionaries were requested to come and
+see that due punishment was inflicted. But they, greatly to the
+satisfaction of the crowd of Nestorians who had assembled to witness
+the punishment, complied with the earnest entreaties of the culprit
+to excuse the crime he had committed, and he was at once released.
+
+The repeated mention of Suleiman Bey's friendly attentions to Dr.
+Grant, must have interested the reader in his behalf. But we are now
+obliged to place him among the persecutors of the Lord's people.
+Tamo was teacher in the male seminary for about ten years, and
+became hopefully pious in the revival of 1846. He accompanied Dr.
+Wright and Mr. Breath in their visit to Bader Khan. His family
+resided in the mountain district of Gawar, within the limits of
+Turkey. Being fleet, athletic, and capable of great endurance, he
+was well fitted for a mountain evangelist. After an extended
+preaching tour in the summer of 1848, he spent some time at his
+mountain home. The Bishop of Gawar had received a charge from Mar
+Shimon to ruin him, and made complaint against him to Suleiman Bey.
+He was seized by that chief, heavily fined, and his life threatened.
+But Suleiman Bey was taken, meanwhile, a prisoner by the Turks.
+Afterwards, Tamo, while on his return to Oroomiah with two of his
+brothers and a nephew, all members of the seminary, was attacked in
+the night by a party of ruffian Koords, also incited by the
+Patriarch, who beat all the company with clubs, and called to each
+other to "kill them." Friendly Koords came to their rescue, but not
+until they had been stripped of nearly all their clothing and
+suffered cruelly from the hands of the barbarians.
+
+In the year 1848, Bader Khan Bey, failing in one of his favorite
+night attacks on the Turkish army, was taken prisoner in his own
+castle of Dergooleh, and placed, as such, on one of the islands of
+the Grecian Archipelago.
+
+Nūrūllah Bey, also, some time in 1849, was driven from his
+stronghold at Julamerk, and fled from castle to castle, till he also
+was taken captive by the Turks, whom he had aided to destroy the
+Nestorians, and went into captivity, far from the scenes of his
+former power. Suleiman Bey, as already stated, was taken captive
+while cruelly persecuting deacon Tamo, and died at Erzroom, while on
+his way to Constantinople.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1850, p. 96.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1848-1852.
+
+
+The health of Mr. Stoddard became so prostrated, early in the summer
+of 1848, as to leave no hope of his recovery without a change of
+climate. At Trebizond, on his way home, he and his family were
+subjected to a quarantine of eight days. His wife and children were
+then in good health, and they had no reason to apprehend cholera
+there, as it passed beyond that place westward. But it returned, and
+Mrs. Stoddard was one of its victims. The death of this excellent
+woman was a grievous loss, not only to her husband and infant
+children, but to the mission. The nurse also sickened of the same
+disease, while on the voyage to Constantinople, and died soon after
+her arrival; and it was a remarkable Providence that spared the
+enfeebled and overtasked husband and father. But he lived to serve
+Christ in his native land, and afterwards again among the
+Nestorians. The Rev. George W. Coan and wife joined the mission in
+the autumn of 1849.
+
+Mr. Cochran succeeded Mr. Stoddard in charge of the male seminary.
+Twelve had gone from the institution, and most of them were exerting
+a good Christian influence. The new scholars, as a consequence of
+these village schools, were older and more advanced than their
+predecessors had been. The thirty-two schools contained five hundred
+and ninety-eight pupils, of whom one hundred and twenty-five were
+girls. Twelve of the teachers were priests, and about half of them
+would have been welcomed into New England churches. The female
+seminary, a most valuable institution, was under the care of Misses
+Fiske and Rice.
+
+Mar Shimon returned to the mountains early in 1849, though not
+without apprehension of being sent into exile, as the Koordish
+chieftains had been.
+
+Hearing that the good seed sown by Dr. Grant and his associates at
+Mosul was giving promise of a harvest, the mission deemed it
+expedient for Dr. Perkins and Mr. Stocking to visit that city,
+preaching the Gospel as they went. Mar Yohannan and deacons Isaac
+and Tamo went with them.1 They were hospitably entertained by Mr.
+Rassam, the English Consul at Mosul, during the eleven days of their
+visit. Many of the Mosulians were thought to have come under
+evangelical influences. Some of them were much enlightened, and a
+few were regarded as truly pious. All would gladly have welcomed a
+Protestant missionary to reside among them. These were chiefly
+Jacobites, but a few were Papists. The mountain districts were found
+to be accessible to the Gospel; though everywhere they heard of
+messengers and letters from the Patriarch, warning the people
+against them as deceivers, and particularly against deacon Isaac,
+his brother, who, he said, had become "English." Nevertheless they
+were treated in all places with kindness, and found attentive
+listeners to their preaching.
+
+1 For a full account of this tour by Dr. Perkins, see _Missionary
+Herald_ for 1850, pp. 53-61, and 83-97.
+
+The first revival of religion, already described, was in 1846; the
+second was in 1849; and there was a third in 1850. The severe trials
+of the years 1847 and 1848 seem to have produced in the mission a
+subdued feeling, and unusual earnestness in prayer. This resulted in
+the revival of 1849.
+
+In the seminary for boys, the converts of the previous revival were,
+for two or three days after this began, the subjects of intense
+heart-searchings, and of piercing compunctions for their
+backslidings. This was not less true of the more devoted Christians,
+than of others. The irreligious members of the seminary were also
+deeply moved; and there was a similar experience in the girls'
+seminary. Geog Tapa again shared largely in the spiritual blessings
+of a revived religious feeling. In the village of Seir, hardly a
+person was unaffected. In Degala, Charbush, Ardeshai, and other
+places, there were large and attentive congregations, and many gave
+delightful evidence of having passed from death unto life. A
+vacation occurred in the male seminary, and pious students labored
+with great zeal and success in the houses of the people. Deacon
+Isaac had been known for many years as an evangelical man and a
+friend of the mission, but now he gave good evidence of conversion,
+and the pious natives beheld the change in him with wonder and
+thanksgiving. Mar Yohannan had never before given satisfactory
+evidence of a thorough change of heart. He now made full confession
+of his sins as a man, and of his unfaithfulness as a bishop. The
+revival was marked by a deep sense of the lost condition of men by
+nature, by a vivid sense of the evil of sin, by an intelligent and
+cordial embrace of salvation as the gift of sovereign grace, by a
+hearty self-consecration to the service of Christ, by earnest
+desires for the salvation of others, and by a remarkable quickening
+of the moral and intellectual powers.
+
+One of the most noted among the native evangelists at this time, was
+deacon Guwergis of Tergawar. Before conversion in 1846, he was as
+wild and wicked as a Koord. In the autumn of 1845, he brought his
+eldest daughter, then twelve years of age, to Oroomiah, and begged
+Miss Fiske to receive her into the seminary. She consented
+reluctantly, being painfully impressed by the gross avarice and
+selfishness of the father, who even asked permission to take away
+with him the clothes she had on. He came again in February, with his
+belt of ammunition, his dagger at his side, and his gun thrown over
+his shoulder. Many of the pupils were then weeping over their sins,
+among them his own daughter, and the teacher felt that the wolf had
+come into the fold. Guwergis ridiculed the anxiety of the girls for
+their souls till his daughter, distressed by his conduct, asked him
+to go alone with her to pray. He went and repeated his form in
+ancient Syriac, while she, in her native tongue, poured forth her
+soul in earnest prayer, first for herself, and then for her father.
+When he heard her say, "Save, O save my father, going down to
+destruction," as he afterwards confessed, he raised his hand to
+strike her. Sabbath morning found him toiling to prevent others from
+coming to Christ. At noon, Miss Fiske went to his room, and was
+received with sullen rudeness, but he broke down under her
+affectionate and faithful appeals, and retired to pray. He soon
+entered the place of worship. His gun and his dagger had been laid
+aside, and he sank into the nearest seat, and laid his head upon the
+desk. That night Mr. Stocking took him to his study, and the recent
+blasphemer cried out in agony, "My sins, my sins, they are higher
+than the mountains of Jeloo!" Next morning, Mr. Stoddard found him
+subdued and humbled. All Guwergis could say was, "My great sins, my
+great Saviour." Before noon, he left for his mountain home, saying,
+as he left, "I must tell my friends and neighbors of sin and of
+Jesus."
+
+Nothing was heard from him for two weeks, when priest Eshoo was sent
+to his village to look after him, and found him in his own house,
+surrounded by his friends, and discoursing to them on these very
+topics,--of sin and of Jesus. The deacon accompanied priest Eshoo to
+Oroomiah, and his relations of Christian fellowship with the members
+of the mission were at once firmly and forever established.1 His
+conversion and his self-consecration to the service of the Lord
+Jesus were entire. He became known as the "mountain evangelist," and
+was faithful unto death. He rested from his labors on the 12th of
+March, 1856.
+
+1 _Woman and her Saviour in Persia_, pp. 87-93.
+
+The revival scenes of 1849, were renewed in the first month of 1850.
+The awakening commenced on the same day in each of the seminaries,
+without any communication between them, though they were six miles
+apart. The first manifestation of deep feeling in the male seminary,
+was at the evening prayer-meeting. While deacon Tamo was speaking of
+the need of preparation for death, the school gave signs of deep
+feeling. The emotion was increased when Dr. Perkins came in, and
+took up the same strain, until the weeping became so loud and
+general that he feared the result of further excitement, and
+requested the pupils to repair to their closets. There were similar
+indications the next morning.
+
+The strength of feeling was as intense in the girls' school, but was
+manifested in a different manner. The devout among them were
+disposed to spend much time in prayer, while at the same time they
+were very active in efforts for the conversion of their associates,
+as well as of the members of their families that visited the school.
+For two months, until the close of the term, there was no diminution
+of interest. The regular attendance on preaching at Oroomiah, Seir,
+Degala, Geog Tapa, and Ardishai, was greater than ever before. The
+same may be said of numerous other villages, where meetings were
+occasionally held. Divine truth seemed to reach and affect the mass
+of the people. Geog Tapa was specially favored. The people were
+affected, not as in former years with the overwhelming convictions
+of the law, but with a deep and intelligent persuasion of the claims
+of truth.
+
+Perhaps the most distinguished among the Nestorian laborers, at this
+time, next to priest Abraham, was deacon John. He is described as
+unwearied in the work, often preaching three times a day during the
+week, and performing other arduous labors. The missionaries admired
+the grace of God, as developed in his active piety, discreet zeal,
+and indomitable perseverance.1
+
+1 Mr. Stocking gives the following description of the study of
+deacon John at that time. "His study is a small chamber about five
+feet by eight, entered by a ladder, built of mud, and plastered on
+the inside with the same material mixed with straw. It has two small
+windows covered with paper instead of glass, to let in the light. On
+the floor is a coarse woolen rug, but as yet no chair. His library
+is neatly arranged on a high shelf, reaching from one side to the
+other, and protected from the loose earth and dust of the roof by a
+paper ceiling. It consists of a copy of the Syriac, the Hebrew, and
+the English Bibles, the Comprehensive Commentary, the Scripture
+Manual, a Dictionary, and a few other choice books, lent or given
+him by friends. Through these books and his knowledge of the English
+language, he derives much assistance in preparation for his pastoral
+duties. When his friends in the village heard that a table was
+needed to complete the furniture, they made at once a voluntary
+contribution to procure one. This is the first study of the first
+Nestorian pastor, and is likely to introduce a new idea into the
+minds of Nestorian ecclesiastics in regard to their appropriate
+calling."
+
+Among the interesting converts was deacon Jeremiah, who came with
+Messrs. Perkins and Stocking from Mosul. He was formerly in a papal
+monastery near Elkoosh. Becoming disgusted with the abominations of
+the place, he at last, after many attempts, effected his escape. His
+convictions of sin were very deep, and seemed to result in his full
+consecration to the service of Christ. He returned to Mosul on the
+reėstablishment of a mission in that city.
+
+The year 1850 was one of great activity. Deacon Jeremiah visited
+Bootan in the spring, at the invitation of some of the leading
+Nestorians in that region.1 Yonan and Khamis, native helpers, made a
+preaching tour through a part of Koordistan.2 Deacons Syad and
+Mosheil encountered many hardships and dangers in a visit to
+Bootan.3 In July, Messrs. Wright and Cochran accompanied by deacons
+John, Tamo, and Guwergis, made a tour in the mountains by way of
+Bashkallah, Kochanis, Julamerk, and Asheta.4 Messrs. Perkins,
+Stocking and Coan, went in the autumn to Gawar and beyond, and the
+results were interesting and satisfactory.5
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1851, p. 90.
+
+2 _Ibid_. 1851, pp. 91-97.
+
+3 _Ibid_. 1851, p. 139.
+
+4 _Ibid_. 1851, pp. 54-58.
+
+5 _Ibid_. 1851, pp. 61-63.
+
+The mission was much strengthened in the year 1851, by the return of
+Mr. Stoddard, accompanied by Mrs. Stoddard, and by the accession of
+the Rev. Samuel A. Rhea. In this year, through the efforts of Mr.
+Stevens, British Consul at Tabriz, and Colonel Shiel the Ambassador,
+the Persian government promulgated an edict of toleration, granting
+equal protection to all its Christian subjects, including the right
+of proselyting, following in this the example of Turkey. The mission
+was now received again under British protection, and the Persian
+government notified the authorities at Oroomiah of the change.
+
+The advance of public sentiment in respect to the education of
+women, is worthy of special notice. Only a few years had elapsed
+since it was deemed disgraceful to instruct that sex. Now, an
+examination of the female seminary drew together all the principal
+men and women of the Nestorian community, who listened with
+unwearied interest for two days. The examinations of both seminaries
+were highly satisfactory, Mar Yohannan, who had been present on
+similar occasions at colleges in the United States, and had desired
+to see the same things in his own country, was greatly delighted.
+Mr. Stoddard doubted whether he had ever attended an examination of
+greater excellence than that of the seminary for girls. "The
+pupils," he says, "were thoroughly acquainted with all their secular
+studies, and their familiarity with the Scriptures was truly
+wonderful." Three-fourths of the forty in the male seminary were
+also in the school of Christ, and there was the same prevalence of
+piety in the female seminary. Dr. Perkins regarded the latter school
+as unsurpassed by any in America in system, studiousness, good
+conduct, and rapid improvement.
+
+The fifty-eight village schools contained a thousand and
+twenty-three pupils, and were generally under evangelical teachers.
+On the Sabbath, these schools took the form of Sabbath-schools, and
+many of the parents came in to hear their children, or to take part
+with them. The Sabbath-school in Geog Tapa numbered more than two
+hundred. Every school was a place for preaching, and when there was
+no one to preach, a meeting was sustained by the teacher. An
+increasing interest was felt by the Nestorians in the monthly
+concert of prayer for the conversion of the world. At Geog Tapa
+three or four hundred were present at the concert, and they joined
+contributions with their prayers.
+
+The labors of the mission were widely extended. Mr. Cochran and
+deacon Moses preached in villages along the southern border of
+Oroomiah, and found the people there eager to hear the word of life.
+Messrs. Stocking and Coan, and Misses Fiske and Rice, with several
+native helpers, spent a month in Gawar, preparing the way for a
+station there. That place is seventy miles from Oroomiah, and within
+the Turkish dominions.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1852, p. 67.
+
+Mr. Coan went from here with some Nestorian helpers through the
+mountains beyond Tiary, till their way was hedged up by hostile
+Koords. They met with great encouragement in their proclamation of
+the gospel.1 Mention has been made of the preaching of deacons Syad
+and Mosheil in Bootan, in the summer of 1850. The next winter was
+spent by deacons Murad Khan and Mosheil in the same region; and
+their journal affords evidence of singular talent for the labors of
+an evangelist. They were gone six months.2
+
+1 _Ibid_. 1852, p. 71.
+
+2 _Missionary Herald_, 1852, pp. 257-262.
+
+Among the native helpers, who accompanied Mr. Stocking to Gawar, was
+deacon Isaac. After spending a few days with Mr. Stocking, he
+proceeded to Kochanis, the residence of his brother, whither his
+family had previously gone on a visit. The influence of this deacon
+and his amiable wife was the probable cause of the unusual conduct
+of the Patriarch in a visit he shortly afterwards made to Gawar,
+when he received the missionary and his native helpers with the
+greatest apparent cordiality in the presence of a large number of
+ecclesiastics, and charged the people to see that they were treated
+with the regard due to good men.
+
+This was in the summer of 1851. The station was commenced by Messrs.
+Coan and Rhea in the autumn of that year. The plain of Gawar is
+large and beautiful, and is hemmed in by some of the wildest of the
+Koordish mountains. The village of Memikan, selected for the
+station, lay on the southwest base of the great Jeloo mountains.
+That village was preferred to the larger ones, as having received
+much religious instruction from deacon Tamo. It was also central.
+The rigors of a severe climate cut them off three mouths from
+communication with the plain of Oroomiah, and these rigors were to
+be encountered in native huts. But they enjoyed comfortable health,
+and were happy and successful in their work. The Bishop of Gawar
+sent orders to the villagers not to attend their services, nor to
+send children to their schools; but the order produced only a
+momentary effect. Mrs. Coan had a school for the mothers and
+daughters of the village, who came barefooted through the snow day
+after day, the mothers bringing their children on their backs. All
+the young men and all the boys of suitable age learned to read the
+gospel, and the fathers came to the school-room every Saturday, to
+listen while the scholars were learning their Sabbath-school
+lessons. Thirty or forty were accustomed to assemble every night to
+hear the Word of God expounded, and all attended on the services of
+the Sabbath. Deacon Tamo preached in the surrounding villages.
+Though threatened at times, he encountered no active opposition.
+
+The year was distinguished by the death of a youth of seventeen
+years of age, of whom Dr. Perkins speaks as being a remarkable
+instance of the triumph of faith. His name was Guwergis. He was a
+nephew of deacon Tamo, and a member of the seminary. Guwergis came a
+rude mountain boy from Memikan, and was one of the converts of 1849.
+His convictions of sin were pungent, and his interest in the welfare
+of souls was engrossing. His prayerfulness was unequaled. During the
+period of greatest interest in the revivals, he would occasionally
+pray for nearly the whole night. Quite frequently he would rise at
+midnight, and repair to his cold and dark closet, which he ever
+found warm with a Saviour's love, and radiant with his presence. He
+was often known to spend two hours in prayer, and as might be
+supposed, in this exercise he soon excelled many of his superiors.
+
+His sickness was very severe. Mr. Coan, after relating an
+interesting conversation with the dying youth, speaks of him in the
+following manner: "He then closed his eyes, and offered one of the
+most touching prayers I ever heard. It were vain for me to attempt
+repeating it. He began by expressing a desire to die, and be with
+Christ; but he checked himself by saying, 'Not my will, but thine be
+done.' He then proceeded in a most humble and penitent strain, to
+speak of his own vileness, and to adore the sovereign love of God in
+calling him to be an heir of his grace.
+
+"His humble confession of sin, his strong confidence in the efficacy
+of the atonement, even for him sinful as he was, his entire
+renunciation of all dependence on anything save the grace of God in
+Christ, were deeply affecting. He ceased, and on opening his eyes he
+saw us weeping. 'Why do you weep?' said he. 'If it is the will of
+God that I die, my heart is burning to see Christ in his glory.'
+Surely, this is far more than a return for all that has been
+expended by the Church in the work of missions."
+
+"I have been happy during his sickness," wrote Dr. Perkins, "to try
+to alleviate his bodily pains; but I have also been greatly
+refreshed in spirit; and I have been instructed and comforted in
+watching the remarkable exercises of his mind, and the ardent
+longing of his soul after Christ and heaven. Since the death of Mrs.
+Grant, more than twelve years ago, I have been present at no such
+rapturous deathbed, nor have I ever beheld any more wonderful."
+
+The Rev. Edward H. Crane and wife, and Miss Martha A. Harris, were
+added to the mission in the year 1852.
+
+Among the adverse influences of the year, was the conscription of a
+regiment of Christian soldiers by the Persian government. This was
+made in that arbitrary and oppressive manner, in which Moslems deal
+with their Christian subjects. The Romanists, also, taking advantage
+of the edict of toleration, and relying on French protection, became
+very unscrupulous and troublesome. Mar Shimon, having been
+recognized by the Turkish government as the civil head of the
+mountain Nestorians, became intent on driving the missionaries from
+Gawar, and the Turkish authorities were only too willing to unite
+with him in this effort.
+
+Among the extreme measures of the Turkish rulers, under such an
+influence, was the arrest of deacon Tamo, with his two brothers, and
+several of the chief villagers, on the strange charge of murdering a
+Turkish soldier, who was spending the night near the house of the
+deacon, and was shot by a company of marauders. Deacon Tamo was
+arrested as the chief offender, and along with the others was taken
+to Bashkallah, the residence of the local Pasha. They were there
+chained together, made to work in brick under taskmasters, and
+thrown at night into a vile prison. It so happened, that
+Lieutenant-colonel W. F. Williams, the British Commissioner for
+settling the boundary between Turkey and Persia, was in that
+district at the time of this outrage. On learning it, his generous
+nature was aroused, and he immediately proceeded to Bashkallah, a
+distance of twenty hours. The Pasha was absent, and not securing the
+release of the prisoners, he continued his journey to Van, three
+days further, to see the Pasha of Koordistan. He made him many fair
+promises, but forgot them on the departure of Colonel Williams. He
+however had the prisoners removed in October to Van, and there,
+after the form of a trial, dismissed all except deacon Tamo to their
+homes. To him the Pasha said, "I shall exact from you thirty
+thousand piastres, and retain you a prisoner three years." He had
+promised Colonel Williams, that both the fine and the imprisonment
+of Tamo should be merely nominal. No one believed the deacon to be
+guilty. And it is interesting to note the persons, who put forth
+efforts through a whole year from this time, to effect his release.
+Colonel Williams went to Constantinople, and laid the case before
+Colonel Rose, H. B. M. Chargé d'Affairs, and Mr. Brown, the American
+Chargé. Mr. Brant, English Consul at Erzroom, and Mr. Stevens,
+English Consul at Tabriz, cooperated with Colonel Williams; and
+finally Sir Stratford de Redcliffe, British Ambassador at the Porte,
+made a decisive and successful appeal; and deacon Tamo once more
+appeared among his friends at Memikan, exhibiting a truly Christian
+spirit towards his enemies.
+
+The interposition of such powerful friends in behalf of this
+persecuted Nestorian Christian, exerted a favorable influence upon
+the local authorities. Kamil Pasha sent reiterated friendly
+assurances from Bashkallah to Messrs. Coan and Rhea. He also removed
+from office the Moodir of Gawar, who had been one of the chief
+causes of the trouble, and put one of his own household in his
+place; and the restriction upon building at Memikan was so far
+modified, that their accommodations were tolerable before the
+arrival of winter, when the thermometer sometimes sank fifteen,
+twenty, and twenty-five degrees below zero.
+
+In this year Dr. Perkins completed his translation of the Old
+Testament into the modern Syriac, and the whole Bible was given to
+the people in their spoken language.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1845-1856.
+
+
+Good tidings were received in 1845 concerning Aintab, in Northern
+Syria, communicated by Dr. Kerns, of the London Jews Society, and by
+Bedros, an Armenian vartabed, who had been banished from
+Constantinople by the Patriarch Matteos.1 His banishment was to the
+Armenian monastery at Jerusalem, but he turned aside from Beirūt to
+Northern Syria. Letters came also from prominent men in Aintab,
+written in behalf of a large number of families in that place who
+had heard the gospel from Bedros, and were resolved to abandon the
+errors of their Church. They asked for a missionary to instruct
+them, and said their need of aid was the greater, as they were
+violently persecuted by their bishop.
+
+1 See chapter xxii.
+
+Mr. Thomson was instructed by the mission to visit Aleppo and
+Aintab. He went by way of Antioch, and reached Aleppo in August.
+Bedros was there, having been driven from Aintab, and Mr. Thomson
+concluded it was not prudent for him to proceed farther. He
+accordingly wrote to the Protestants of Aintab, requesting more
+information as to their condition and wishes. The distance was two
+long days' ride from Aleppo, and on the fifth day an answer came,
+that eighteen of their number, including two priests, were coming to
+see him. A message arrived soon after, stating that they had
+prepared to come, but fearing the commotion it would produce, they
+had concluded to abandon the visit and write. Their letter contained
+a very earnest appeal for a missionary, with strong affirmations of
+attachment to the gospel, and their determination to adhere to it at
+all hazards. Mr. Thomson stated, in his reply, why a missionary
+could not be sent from Beirūt, and that he would forward their
+letters, and those of Bedros, to the missionaries at Constantinople,
+with a request, that a missionary might be sent who could preach
+both in Turkish and Armenian; or at least an experienced Armenian
+preacher, to assist Bedros in this important work. Just before
+leaving Aleppo, Mr. Thomson received from them another letter,
+declaring their satisfaction with this arrangement, and their
+gratitude for his interest in their welfare. "We are the fish in the
+great sea," they said, "and wait for you to spread the gospel net
+for us."
+
+Mr. Thomson estimated the nominally Christian population of Aleppo
+at twenty thousand, and the whole number of inhabitants at sixty
+thousand. The most promising were the Armenians, though at that time
+they were kept aloof by the excommunication of Bedros and all
+associated with him. The Protestant Armenians in that city were
+thought to be about fifty. The orthodox Greeks were not numerous.
+Their bishop was in poor health, but received the missionary with
+much cordiality, and appeared quite pleased with the prospect of a
+missionary in Aleppo. The Greek Catholics were by far the largest
+body of Christians. To this body belonged Athanasius, the Archbishop
+of Tripoli, so called, but residing at Aleppo. He was not forty
+years old, and had been two years in England, and two in Malta. Mr.
+Thomson had much intercourse with this man, and spoke of him as the
+most learned theologian of his sect, and the most promising
+ecclesiastic he had seen in Syria. He seemed to be serious and
+earnest, evangelical in sentiment, desirous of reforming his
+countrymen, and enlightened enough to take a comprehensive view of
+the work to be done, and make a rational estimate of the obstacles
+to be overcome. He was highly respected by all classes; and though
+his Protestant sentiments were well-known, there was said to be no
+power in his Church to depose him.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1846, p. 418.
+
+Mr. Calhoun visited Hasbeiya in February, 1846, accompanied by
+Tannūs, and was there eighteen days. The congregations were smaller,
+but made up mainly of those who sought to know the way of life;
+while their townsmen, softened by last year's war, were not disposed
+to persecute, as before. Mr. Whiting, Mr. Hurter, and Butrus were
+there in June. The spirit of the congregation is thus described by
+the missionary. "They like to hear a good long exposition, and then
+to stay and hear and converse, after prayer, as long as we are able
+to sit up. Some are coming in during the day at all hours, so that
+we scarcely cease teaching and preaching from morning until
+bed-time." Some of the declared Protestants, and even some new
+inquirers, took a bold stand under persecution by the Governor; and
+many, who did not venture to call upon the missionary, were in an
+inquiring state of mind.
+
+Mr. Laurie's health suffered at Mosul, and also in Syria, so that he
+was obliged to return home in the autumn of this year, and to
+relinquish the idea of resuming the foreign service. His subsequent
+labors through the press, have endeared him to a large number of the
+friends of missions.1
+
+1 See his works: "_Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians_." Boston,
+1853; and "_Woman and her Saviour in Persia_." Boston, 1865.
+
+The year 1847 opened with an earnest and eloquent appeal from the
+missionaries for an increase to their number.1 And there is nothing
+more painful in the retrospect of this mission, than the numerous
+and often unexpected and surprising openings for usefulness, that
+were so often effectually closed, solely, as it would seem, because
+there were not missionaries to enter and take possession. There is
+space for only a single extract from this appeal. Addressing the
+Prudential Committee, they say:
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_, 1847, pp. 185-193.
+
+"We tell you, with all earnestness, that there is great danger, that
+the work may languish almost to lifelessness, even at the two posts
+which you now occupy in Syria, before your new messengers can be
+found, cross the ocean, and pass through the primary process
+indispensable to fit them to prophesy upon the slain. Yes, we must
+make you understand with unmistakable explicitness, that unless you
+hasten the work, and quicken the flight of those who have the
+everlasting gospel to preach, the voice may cease to sound, even in
+the valleys and over the goodly hills of Lebanon! Your infant
+seminary for training native preachers may droop, or disband; your
+congregations on the mountains, and on the plain, may be left
+without any one to break to them the bread of life; and your press
+may cease to drop those leaves, which are for the healing of the
+nations. All this may, yes, must occur, by a necessity as inexorable
+as the decree that commands all back to dust, unless you hasten to
+renew the vitality of our mission, by throwing into it the young
+life of a new generation of laborers."
+
+The appeal was published; but it continued painfully true, that the
+harvest was plenteous, while the laborers were few.
+
+Among the interesting events of the year, were the accession of nine
+persons to the church at Abeih; and a "fetwa" of the mufti, or
+Moslem judge, at Beirūt, deciding that the Druzes stand in the same
+relation to the Mohammedan community and law with the Jews, or any
+Christian sect; _i.e_. as "_infidels_;" and, consequently, that a
+Druze was not subject to prosecution in the Turkish courts, in case
+of his embracing Christianity. Mr. and Mrs. Benton joined the
+mission in the latter part of the year.
+
+In the spring of 1847, the Protestants of Hasbeiya sent one of their
+number to Constantinople, to lay their grievances before the Sultan.
+The agent was informed, that the Pasha of Damascus had been
+instructed to protect the Protestants. The British Ambassador
+afterwards made inquiries, and received a copy of the document,
+which proved satisfactory. The Pasha sent a strong order to the Emir
+at Hasbeiya in 1848, for their protection; and he, though extremely
+reluctant to obey, sent word to the Protestants, that they might
+meet and worship together as Protestants, and he publicly forbade
+all parties to interfere with them.
+
+When the Greek Patriarch saw that the Turkish government had
+recognized the principle of toleration, and acknowledged the
+Protestants as a Christian sect, he resolved to try the effect of a
+bull of excommunication. The form of these missives is similar in
+the Latin and the Oriental Churches, and the reader will recall some
+of the specimens already given.1 The consequence at Hasbeiya, for a
+time, was that no Protestant could buy, sell, or transact any
+business, except with his fellow Protestants, and many of the poorer
+ones were at once thrown out of productive employment, and cut off
+from the means of living. They were compelled to pay their debts,
+but could collect nothing due to them, and no redress could they get
+from the Governor. Many suffered for the necessaries of life. But
+the faith of the brethren, with a single exception, did not fail.
+The Druzes and other sects remonstrated against the whole
+proceeding, and the rigor of the excommunication began at length to
+fail, and in December it had lost its force.
+
+1 See in the case of Dr. King, chapter xvii.; and Mr. Bird, chapter
+iii.
+
+The most important event in the year 1848, was the formation of a
+purely native church at Beirūt. Hitherto the native converts had
+joined the mission church, formed at an early period of the mission,
+which was composed mostly of the missionaries and their families.
+Circumstances had made it seem inexpedient, hitherto, to form a
+church exclusively of native converts. Whether the brethren were
+right in this, it is not needful now to inquire. The new church
+originated in the best manner. At the annual meeting of the mission,
+a petition was presented from the native Protestants at Beirūt to
+the American missionaries, asking that they might be organized into
+a church, according to certain principles and rules embodied in
+their petition. The whole originated with the native brethren. The
+principles proposed for the constitution and discipline of the
+church were afterwards modified somewhat, at the suggestion of the
+mission, in order to a closer conformity with the organization
+adopted by the Protestant Armenians in another part of the empire.
+For some special reasons, they were advised to delay the election of
+a native pastor.
+
+The great work of translating the Scriptures into Arabic, was now
+committed to Mr. Smith; and he was assisted by Butrus el-Bistany and
+Nasif el-Yasijee.
+
+Messrs. Ford and Benton removed to Aleppo, with a view to a
+permanent station. They were accompanied by Mr. Smith, Butrus, and
+Wortabet, the latter of whom remained there until his services were
+required at Hasbeiya. Mr. Smith visited on his return, the
+Nusairiyeh in Antioch, Suwaidiyeh, and around Ladikiyeh, and then
+both them and the Ismailiyeh in their mountain fastnesses back of
+Ladikiyeh. He found them a rude people in a rough country.
+
+The Rev. Horace Foot and wife arrived in Beirūt in August, 1848, and
+were associated with Mr. Wilson at Tripoli. Bedros Vartabed, whose
+labors were so much blessed at Aintab, died after a very short
+illness at Aleppo, on the 13th of November, 1848. His last hours
+were spent in fervent prayer, and his last words were expressive of
+his gratitude to God. His life had been characterized by visible
+progress in the way of holiness, by habitual prayerfulness, and by
+zeal in the work of urging upon men the claims of the gospel.
+
+A very hopeful fact in the missions to Oriental Churches, has been
+the number of able men affected by the truth. Eminently such was a
+learned Greek Catholic of Damascus, named Michael Meshakah, who
+became convinced of the errors of his Church, and openly declared
+himself a Protestant in 1848. He had embraced infidel views to quiet
+his conscience, but the reading of "Keith on the Prophecies" in
+Arabic, and other books from the mission presses, especially the
+Scriptures, led him to relinquish these, and personal intercourse
+with missionaries, especially with Dr. Smith, induced him to take a
+decided stand for Christ. He used no reserve in professing his
+attachment to the gospel. This brought on a controversy between him
+and his Patriarch, and as he was esteemed the most intelligent
+native layman in the country, and the Patriarch the most learned
+ecclesiastic, attention from all quarters was directed to their
+debate. Having decided to publish the reasons of his secession from
+the Catholic Church, and to prove the corruptness of the doctrines
+and practices in that Church, he commenced a free and full
+correspondence with Dr. Smith in Arabic. The result was a treatise,
+which was published by the mission. After making the reader
+acquainted with his own history, he disproved the supremacy of the
+Pope, the existence of any priesthood but that of Christ, or of any
+atonement but his. He then showed that there was no authority for
+more than two grades of officers in the church, or for the doctrine
+of transubstantiation. There were, also, chapters on justification
+by faith and the new birth. Dr. Smith declares the treatise to have
+been "well and thoroughly argued, sometimes most impressively
+solemn, at others keenly sarcastic, and spirited and fearless
+throughout."1
+
+1 The _Bibliotheca Sacra_, for October, 1858, contains an account of
+Dr. Meshakah by Dr. Thomas Laurie, and a translation of a treatise
+by him on skepticism.
+
+Michael Aramon took the place of Butrus in the seminary, and gave
+the highest satisfaction both as to his literary and his religious
+qualifications for the post. A Hasbeiyan brother, well informed,
+upright, "a burning and shining light," taught a school among the
+Druzes in the higher part of the mountains. Another, named Asaad
+el-Maalūk, exercised a silent influence for good, in a school and
+upon the people of another mountain village where he taught. Through
+him, a priest in the Greek church of that village, named Elias,
+became gradually enlightened. When Asaad began declaring the truths
+of the gospel, the villagers appealed to priest Elias, and he
+several times endeavored publicly to defend the doctrines and
+ceremonies of his Church. Perceiving at length how much the Bible
+was against him, and that he could not answer his opponent, he
+became angry, and forbade all communication with Asaad. But the mild
+and earnest manner of the native brother at length won his heart,
+and he came to the conclusion, that nothing in his Church had any
+authority, which was not derived from the Bible. This change in his
+views he soon declared to his people, and absented himself from the
+church. Once and again they forced him to go and say mass. Sometimes
+he yielded, and sometimes refused; till, near the end of January,
+1849, having performed mass, he went out with the people, locked the
+door of the church, threw the key down before the door, and
+declared, in the presence of them all, that he was a Protestant, and
+could no more act against his conscience by officiating as a priest.
+Various methods were tried to bring him back, but in vain.
+
+In May, 1849, Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. De Forest accompanied their
+husbands to Hasbeiya, and had delightful intercourse with the native
+Protestant women, who had from the first gone hand in hand with the
+men.
+
+The brethren at Tripoli endeavored to secure a summer residence in
+the Maronite village of Ehden, where Mr. Bird had been so rudely
+assailed twenty years before, but were driven thence by similar acts
+of violence. The English Consul at Beirūt, without the knowledge of
+the missionaries, laid the facts before the British Government, and
+Lord Palmerston promptly administered a severe rebuke to the
+Patriarch and Emir. The case was eventually settled by the offenders
+paying seventy dollars, and by the governor of the mountains
+furnishing the missionaries with an official guaranty in writing,
+for their protection wherever they should be able to hire houses.
+The American Ambassador also procured a strong vizieral letter to
+the Pasha in the Tripoli district.
+
+A fourth class was admitted to the seminary at Abeih in October,
+1849. One member of the class was from the most influential family
+in Hasbeiya, another was a Greek Catholic from Ain Zehalty, another
+a Maronite from Kefr Shema, another from the Greek sect at El Hadet,
+and the fifth was a young Druze emir of the Raslān family. Three
+pupils had been expelled for bad conduct in the previous year, and
+the discipline had a good effect on the school. Arabic was the
+medium of instruction; English was taught only as a branch of
+knowledge, and near the end of the course.
+
+The printing in 1849 exceeded a million of pages. There were two
+fonts of beautiful type, of different sizes, modeled on the best
+Arabic calligraphy, and cut by Mr. Hallock at New York. The type
+were cast in Syria under the supervision of Mr. Hurter.
+
+Of the twenty-seven members in the native church at Beirut, up to
+the close of 1849, ten were from the Greek Church, four were Greek
+Catholics, four Maronites, five Armenians, three Druzes, and one a
+Jacobite Syrian; showing how men of different sects may be made one
+in Christ Jesus. These church members were widely dispersed, and
+most of them exerted a salutary influence in the places where they
+resided.
+
+In the autumn of 1850, the Greeks and Greek Catholics of Aleppo were
+subjected to terrible outrages by the Mohammedans. Their number was
+from fifteen to twenty thousand, and they were more wealthy and
+refined than their brethren in most eastern cities. They looked upon
+themselves as the aristocracy of Syria. Instead of prudently
+concealing their wealth, they made an ostentatious display of it in
+furniture, dress, and costly decorations of their churches. Added to
+this was an arrogant bearing, often even towards the Moslems,
+rekindling their hereditary hate; while the recent efforts of the
+Sultan to establish liberty throughout his dominions, both inflated
+still more the pride of the Christians, and stirred up the
+indignation of the Moslems.
+
+The arrival of a government order for a military conscription, a
+thing most unwelcome to the Moslems, occasioned a popular tumult.
+They determined, while setting the Pasha at defiance, to gratify
+their hatred of the Christians. The attacks on these commenced on
+the 16th of October. Thousands of wild Arabs, along with ruffians
+from the city, filled the houses and churches, and splendid
+furniture, gorgeous dresses, and gold and silver hoarded for
+generations, were suddenly transferred to the swarthy Arabs. All the
+churches, save one, were rifled and then burnt or destroyed,
+together with a large number of private houses. Not a few of the
+Christians were murdered, or severely wounded. The Pasha, unequal to
+the crisis, took refuge among the soldiers of the barracks, and
+yielded to the demands of the populace until new orders should
+arrive from the Sultan. There was a fortnight of anarchy, while the
+Pasha was employed in collecting troops sufficient to regain his
+authority. Then, having received explicit instructions from the
+capital, he commenced a bloody attack upon the insurgents. These
+were all Moslems, and such was their desperation that they suffered
+more severely than had the Christians.
+
+Until this outbreak, there had been a manifest change going on in
+the feelings of the nominally Christian community towards the
+Protestants. There was a growing respect among all classes for the
+missionaries and their teachings, a readiness on the part of many to
+acknowledge the truth, and a more easy access to the houses of the
+people. All this the outbreak interrupted for a time, and the effect
+was not good on the whole. There was a bloody feud between the two
+great parties. Yet the bonds of superstition had been weakened;
+especially the faith of the people in the miraculous virtue of the
+pictures, which filled their churches and had been worshipped for
+centuries. Some of these pictures were supposed to be so sacred,
+that whoever touched them would have a withered hand. But they had
+now seen them torn in pieces, trampled under foot, and burned by the
+enemies of their religion.
+
+Of the nineteen pupils in the seminary at Abeih in 1850, four were
+Druzes, three were Greeks, four Maronites, four Greek Catholics, two
+Protestants, one Syrian, and one Armenian; all on a level, eating at
+the same table, mingling in the same sports, and meeting at the same
+place of prayer.
+
+The native brethren at Hasbeiya suffered considerably in their
+spiritual interests, from the delay in organizing a native church
+with a native pastor. A church of sixteen members was formed in
+July, 1851, and the number of members, before the end of the year,
+was increased to twenty-five. Mr. John Wortabet, son of the Armenian
+convert of that name, had been their preacher four years, and
+ultimately became their pastor. He inherited the abilities of his
+father, and was an acceptable, courageous, and zealous preacher.1
+There were occasional dissensions among his people, but the church
+gradually increased in compactness, order, and efficiency. When
+there was a call for discipline, it was carried through firmly and
+wisely, without assistance from the mission.
+
+1 He was educated in the first Seminary, in English and Arabic. When
+that closed, he commenced the study of medicine and Latin under Dr.
+Van Dyck, and completed his medical course under Dr. De Forest.
+After practicing for a time in Tripoli, he commenced his theological
+studies, Greek and Hebrew included, at Beirūt, under the care of
+Messrs. Smith, Whiting, and Thomson. These studies he prosecuted for
+a time at Aleppo, and afterwards at Abeih. Upon the establishment of
+the Hasbeiya station, in 1851, he took up his residence at Hasbeiya
+as preacher, and was ordained at Beirūt in the spring of 1853. The
+honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon him by Yale
+College, in view of an article from his pen on the fevers of Syria,
+published in the _American Journal of Medical Science_.
+
+The annual meeting of the mission, in 1851, was favored with the
+valuable assistance of Dr. Leonard Bacon, and the meeting in 1852,
+with that of Dr. Edward Robinson; both corporate members of the
+Board.
+
+A girls boarding-school had been commenced at Beirūt, under the
+general superintendence of Dr. and Mrs. De Forest, and the
+instruction of Miss Whittlesey. The decease of the latter, in 1852,
+was a check to its growth. The Rev. William Bird, son of one of the
+pioneers in this mission, with his wife, and Miss Sarah Cheney,
+arrived in the year 1853. Miss Cheney was to take the place of Miss
+Whittlesey. The value of this school as a means of elevating women,
+became more and more evident. The marriage of the senior teacher in
+the seminary at Abeih with a young lady trained by Mrs. De Forest,
+gave them a native family, which Mr. Calhoun says, "in its domestic
+economy and religious order, would do no discredit to the best
+portions of New England." In this year a native church was formed at
+Abeih, and another at Aleppo.
+
+The Rev. William W. Eddy and wife joined the mission in 1852, and
+were designated to Aleppo. The political condition of Hasbeiya and
+the surrounding region, now became so disordered as often to make it
+inaccessible to missionaries, or their native assistants. Yet Mr.
+Wortabet persevered in his labors during all these troubles, and was
+afterwards ordained pastor of the church. Protestant communities at
+Ibel near Hasbeiya, and at Rasheiya over the mountain, survived the
+severe persecutions to which they were subjected by the combined
+efforts of bishops, priests, and local governors; until the
+governors, who had been the real cause of most of the difficulties,
+were summoned to Damascus, through the agency of the English
+Ambassador at Constantinople, to answer for their conduct.
+
+At Sidon, there was an average congregation of thirty-live, and
+persecution did not shake their constancy. In a dozen villages near
+that city, there were persons in the habit of reading the
+Scriptures, and visiting the missionaries. Mr. William Thomson, a
+son of the missionary, rendered valuable service in this portion of
+the field. Messrs. Foot and Wilson, on a visit to Hums and Hamath,
+northward of Damascus, found the former place peculiarly accessible
+to religious teaching, and that Dr. Meshakah of Damascus had sent
+books to several persons in this place, and been in correspondence
+with them. Dr. De Forest was much interested in what he saw in
+villages along the coast, as far south as Carmel. Everywhere the
+people were anxious to know more of the new way, which was
+everywhere spoken against.
+
+One of the persons received to the Abeih church, about this time,
+had a somewhat singular experience. In the war with the Druzes, nine
+years before, his party plundered a large village. In one of the
+houses he saw a Bible, which he seized and carried home. Soon he
+became intensely interested in reading it, and learned from it the
+errors of his Church. He then sought the acquaintance of the
+missionaries, and several of his relatives adopted his new views. He
+was excommunicated, his house attacked, his property destroyed, and
+his just dues were withheld. But he remained firm, and was admitted
+to the church. His wife and other relatives became Protestants; and
+by his judicious course, at once decided and conciliatory, he lived
+down the persecution. A school which he opened, was attended mostly
+by Druze pupils, but several of his former co-religionists intrusted
+their children to his instruction.
+
+In August, 1853, Dr. Smith had completed the translation of the Four
+Gospels. His work was then suspended by the failure of his health.
+He was afterward able to resume it, and in May, 1854, he had
+translated the Acts, the Epistle to the Romans, and the greater part
+of the Epistles to the Corinthians.
+
+In 1853, interesting developments occurred in the southern portion
+of the field, which was that year under the special charge of Dr.
+Thomson. Yacob el-Hakim, interrupted in his school at Ibel by
+opposers, made two extended medical tours, and preached the Gospel,
+with another native helper, in villages to the south as far as
+Nazareth. In one village, after visiting from house to house for
+some time, he was invited to preach in the church on the Sabbath,
+and there the entire community listened for two hours to the Word of
+God. In consequence of these labors the whole village, with the
+priest at their head, declared themselves Protestants, and went to
+Nazareth to be enrolled with the Protestant community at that place,
+under the care of the Episcopal brethren at Jerusalem. In his last
+tour, Yacob reported fifty men in Rany, another village not far from
+Nazareth, who had adopted the same course, and he met with great
+encouragement in several other places. Indeed he became so much
+interested in this work, that he did not wish to return to his
+school. These tours were made wholly at his own expense, and he was
+able to support himself by his medical practice.
+
+Elias Yacobe, a native of Rashaiah, spent the summer at Abeih in the
+study of theology, and was found to possess uncommon preaching
+talents. He subsequently labored with success at his native place,
+at Ibel, and especially at Khuraibeh. Wherever the native brethren
+went, they reported an unusual desire among the people to hear the
+Word of God. At Sidon the attention paid to the preaching of Mr.
+Thomson and his helpers was marked and solemn. More than thirty were
+in a Bible-class. It was somewhat remarkable that the whole class
+found the study of Romans far more interesting than any other
+portion of the New Testament. The powerful arguments of Paul, when
+clearly opened to their comprehension, seemed to fall upon their
+minds with the charm of novelty. And having clearly understood and
+embraced the great fundamentals of Christian faith, there was good
+reason to hope, they would never return again to the beggarly
+elements of this world. What they learned in the class they made
+known abroad. The surrounding country was awakened more or less to a
+spirit of inquiry. At a village directly east of Sidon, several
+families declared themselves Protestants. At Kanah, in the
+neighborhood of Tyre, at Alma, higher up on the mountain, and at
+Acre and Kaifeh, there were decided Protestants.
+
+The clergy of the different sects became thoroughly alarmed, and for
+a time worked in concert to arrest this spirit of inquiry. A strong
+corps of women, under the general name of Sisters of Charity,
+settled in Sidon, and opened large schools to which the parents were
+commanded, by the clergy of the various sects, to send their
+children; and strenuous exertions were made to break up the mission
+school. Every possible measure was employed to intimidate the
+people.
+
+Nearly all the professed converts stood firm; though subjected to
+want, cruel hatred, and banishment from their homes. There was an
+advance in religious character; more decision, more intelligence,
+more earnestness. The inquiry was, what is real religion, and how
+can one become a partaker in its infinite blessings. Progress was
+thus made towards organizing a church at Sidon.
+
+The Protestants at Hasbeiya, under favor of the Druzes, who then had
+the upper hand in all political matters, and under the successful
+pastorate of Mr. Wortabet, now built a neat, substantial church,
+forty-five feet by thirty-five, with a basement for schools and
+prayer meetings.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Foot left the mission in the autumn of 1854, on account
+of her illness, but too late to save her life. She died when near
+the shores of her native land. The Rev. Jerre L. Lyons and wife
+arrived at Beirūt early in the following year. Dr. Smith had now
+completed the translation of the New Testament; and in addition to
+the Pentateuch, previously completed, he had gone through seven of
+the Minor Prophets, and commenced upon Isaiah.
+
+The author made his second visit to this mission in 1855, on his
+return from India. During this visit he accompanied Dr. Smith to Ain
+Zehalty, a place of difficult access in the heart of Lebanon, where
+Mr. and Mrs. Lyons were residing, with no one to speak the English
+language, in order the sooner to learn the Arabic. There, through
+the teachings of a native brother from the church at Abeih, the
+people had lost all confidence in the ceremonies and superstitions
+of their Church. The priest, after making vain attempts to bring
+them back, left the place in disgust, and begged the bishop to send
+him elsewhere. He was obliged to return, however, and as his flock
+would not support him, a salary was given him by the bishop, in the
+hope of ultimately recovering them to his fold. The experiences of
+this little community of Protestants will again claim our attention.
+
+It was now agreed to leave Aleppo, and northern Syria from Kessab
+northward, to be cultivated by the Armenian mission; since the
+language in that region was chiefly the Turkish.
+
+The Rev. Messrs. Edward Aiken, Daniel Bliss, and Henry H. Jessup,
+and their wives, were added to the mission in this year. Mrs. Aiken
+died at Hums before she had completed a residence in the field of
+half a year. In November, one of the older missionaries, the Rev.
+George B. Whiting, finished his course, after a devoted service as a
+missionary through a fourth part of a century.1 Mrs. Whiting
+returned, in poor health, to the United States.
+
+1 For an obituary notice of Mr. Whiting by Mr. Calhoun, see
+_Missionary Herald_ for 1856, pp. 129-133.
+
+The Gospel was preached statedly at sixteen places. At four of
+these--Beirūt, Abeih, Sidon, and Hasbeiya--churches had been
+organized. Fifteen members were added during the year 1856. The
+number admitted from the beginning was one hundred and six, of whom
+eighty were living and in regular standing. The average number of
+hearers was about four hundred and twenty; but the whole number was
+of course much larger. The sons-in-law of the old Emir Beshir, the
+unrelenting persecutor no longer among the living, were among the
+firmest friends of the mission, and his grandchildren were in its
+schools. The anathemas of the Maronite clergy, once so terrific, had
+lost their power. Light was spreading; and though there was not a
+corresponding religious interest, yet the most influential
+inhabitants were on friendly terms with the mission, and in favor of
+education and good morals.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1845-1846.
+
+
+We come now to the grand crisis, when the evangelical Armenians, who
+claimed the right of worshipping God according to the teachings of
+his Word, were on that account excommunicated, pronounced accursed,
+and subjected to a protracted and most cruel persecution. But
+inasmuch as this made it necessary to organize Protestant churches
+all over the country, it was overruled, in God's providence, for the
+furtherance of his kingdom.
+
+Matteos, the leader of this persecution, became Patriarch of
+Constantinople in the autumn of 1844. Peshtimaljian, the celebrated,
+teacher, who knew him as one of his scholars, said of him, ten years
+before, when he was on very friendly terms with the missionaries,
+that he was a man of enlightened views, but without principle, and
+always governed by what he considered the wishes of those who were
+likely to promote his interests. His position as Patriarch was one
+of great difficulty. The evangelical doctrines were spreading in all
+directions, and their enemies demanded that they be rooted out. A
+report was even started, that Matteos himself was a Protestant, and
+his convictions were known to have been at one time in that
+direction; but his interests and his ambition now led him to oppose.
+He had attained the highest post in his nation, and was resolved to
+keep it. As the evangelical brethren would not yield, he must, if
+possible, put them down. He resolved to sacrifice the Protestants;
+and all his powers, personal and official, were employed to
+eradicate Protestantism from the land.1
+
+1 Dr. Dwight, in his _Christianity Revived in the East_ is severe on
+Bishop Horatio Southgate, of the American Episcopal mission in
+Turkey, on the ground of his publicly declared sympathy with the
+Patriarch Matteos, and the advice and countenance he was believed to
+have given that cruel persecutor. How far the Patriarch was actually
+influenced by Bishop Southgate, it is impossible to say; and I have
+supposed that at this late day, the demands of history would be
+satisfied with this brief allusion to the case. See _Christianity
+Revived_, pp. 211-213.
+
+He first secretly directed those among his own flock, who were
+patrons or regular customers of the evangelical brethren, silently
+to withdraw their patronage. Many of the Protestants thus suddenly
+found themselves deprived of business, and that remonstrances
+availed nothing, unless they pledged themselves to withdraw from the
+preaching of the missionaries. A more decisive measure was, ordering
+the priests to hand in to the Patriarch the names of those who did
+not come to confession, and partake of the communion, in their
+respective churches. All such were threatened with excommunication
+and all its dreaded consequences.
+
+As two or three vartabeds and some of the priests continued to
+attend the preaching of the missionaries, and others were known to
+be friendly, something must be done to operate upon those spiritual
+guides of the people. Bedros Vartabed was the first to be made an
+example. He was ordered to perform a mass, but declined on
+conscientious grounds. He was then instructed to proceed forthwith
+to a town on the Russian frontier, ostensibly to take charge of a
+diocese, but really to get him where he could easily be conveyed as
+a prisoner to the monastery of Echmiadzin. He politely declined to
+go, and the Patriarch was not then prepared to resort to force.
+After some delay, it was arranged that Bedros should go to the
+monastery at Jerusalem. He proceeded no farther, however, than
+Beirūt, and from thence went to Aleppo and Aintab. His usefulness at
+the latter place, and his Christian death at Aleppo, have been
+already stated.1
+
+1 See chapter xxi.
+
+The Patriarch's attention was next turned to Priest Vertanes, who
+was already in his hands as a prisoner at the monastery of Armash,
+whither he had been sent by his predecessor. It was found that he
+had been preaching to the monks salvation through the blood of
+Christ alone, without the deeds of the law. It was represented to
+Matteos, that if the Protestant priest was not removed, the inmates
+of the monastery would soon become corrupted. An imperial firman was
+therefore procured for his banishment to Cesarea, whither Hohannes
+had been sent, six years before, for a like offense. On his way
+there, in charge of a Turkish officer, and indeed after his arrival,
+he ceased not to preach the Gospel for which he was in bonds. In the
+same year the Sultan gave orders, on occasion of a great feast, to
+have all the exiles in the country set at liberty, and Vertanes
+returned to Constantinople. Letters came to the Patriarch from
+Cesarea, soon after, saying that he had seduced many, and that had
+he remained there much longer, all would have gone after him.1
+
+1 _Christianity Revived_, p. 152. Authority for most of the
+following statements concerning these persecutions, may be found in
+the _Missionary Herald_ for 1846: pp. 193-203, 218-230, 263-273,
+298-304, 397-406; and for 1847, pp. 16-22, 37-45, 75-83, 150,
+193-199, 264-273, 298-301, 372-374. The account of them given by Dr.
+H. G. O. Dwight, in his work entitled _Christianity Revived in the
+East_, published in 1850, is so well written, that I cannot confer
+upon the reader a greater favor than by a free, though much
+abridged, use of his language.
+
+At the metropolis there were restraints upon the hierarchy, that
+were unfelt in the provinces. Ephrem, bishop of Erzroom, had once
+acknowledged the errors of his Church, and had often strongly
+expressed his desires for reform, though now among the most zealous
+and persevering of the persecutors. The same was lamentably true of
+Boghos, Vartabed of Trebizond. Ephrem and Boghos had actually
+suffered persecution, on the charge of being Protestants. The change
+in their conduct was owing to the change in their relations, and to
+their loving the praise of men more than the praise of God.
+
+The Bishop of Erzroom exceeded all others in bitterness against the
+followers of the Gospel. He had spies in every part of the town, and
+often upon the roofs of houses adjacent to the dwellings of the
+missionaries, to observe who were their visitors. He never allowed
+disobedience to his orders to go unpunished. The bastinado was
+repeatedly applied under his own eye, merely for an expression
+indicating reverence for the Word of God. Twenty blows were
+inflicted on the bare feet of a young man, and he was thrown into
+prison, because he had sold a copy of the Psalms in modern Armenian,
+and called at the house of a missionary. A teacher of a country
+school was severely bastinadoed for teaching the Gospel to the
+villagers. A merchant, who had early embraced the truth, was cruelly
+beaten in the bishop's own room, and the people were commanded to
+spit in his face in the streets, merely because he visited the
+missionary. A priest, for showing so much sympathy as to call upon
+him, was summoned before the bishop and bastinadoed. Another, who
+had called once at Mr. Peabody's house and procured some books, was
+seized, put in irons, and thrown into prison, and his books were
+burnt before his eyes. In most cases these violent measures
+confirmed the individuals in their new ways; and the truth is said
+never to have made so much progress among the permanent Armenian
+residents of Erzroom, as during the period of these outrages.
+
+One principal reason for the determination of the ecclesiastics to
+uproot Bible religion from Erzroom, was the central and consequently
+influential position of that city in the interior of Armenia. In the
+district of Pasin, to the east, were nearly two hundred villages, in
+which Mr. Peabody found both priests and people remarkably
+accessible. In the nearer villages, a few were always found so much
+awake to the truth as to pay little regard to the injunctions of
+their spiritual rulers, who were opposed to Bible teachings. Not
+unfrequently individuals from Egin, Diarbekir, and other distant
+places, called on Messrs. Peabody and Smith for religious inquiry. A
+tour of Haritūn of Nicomedia to Sivas, Erzroom, Egin, etc., brought
+to light many encouraging facts in those places. In every important
+place some inquirers were found, and only laborers seemed needful to
+gather in an abundant harvest.
+
+The author can bear witness to the increase of intelligence at
+Trebizond. The quiet preaching of the word by Messrs. Johnston and
+Bliss, and the distribution of the Scriptures and other evangelical
+books, had, by the blessing of God, moved many minds, and taught the
+difference between truth and error; and they gladly availed
+themselves of every opportunity to come together for conference and
+prayer. Not many, however, were willing to run much risk for the
+truth's sake, and few gave satisfactory evidence of being "born
+again."
+
+A young man of superior attainments in Trebizond, belonging to the
+Papal Armenians, died in the spring of 1844, giving the most
+satisfactory evidence of conversion. His priest had made every
+effort to reclaim him, but Mugurdich, for that was his name, was
+very decided, and a few days before his death made a formal
+renunciation of his Church in writing, and peacefully committed his
+all to Christ. His body was not allowed a burial in the graveyard,
+or with the usual religious ceremonies, but was carried out at a
+late hour, in a dark stormy night, by common street porters, under
+the direction of a Turkish police-officer, and buried in a waste
+place about a mile out of the city. His priest had threatened to
+bury him like a dog; but he told them, at the time, that they could
+thus do him no harm, as they could not reach his soul.
+
+The Vartabed in this city was not deemed sufficiently energetic as a
+persecutor. But Boghos, his successor, was. On receiving
+instructions from the Patriarch in the spring of 1845, he
+immediately set the whole persecuting machinery in motion. And so
+terrific did it become, that in the space of ten days about one half
+of the Bible readers had recanted.
+
+Just at this juncture, a highly respected evangelical inhabitant of
+Trebizond, named Tateos, returned from a visit to Constantinople,
+Smyrna, Broosa, Nicomedia, and Adabazar, whither he had been to make
+the acquaintance of the missionaries and native brethren in those
+places. Fearing the influence of such a man, the persecuting party
+resolved to put him out of the way. He was accordingly decoyed on
+board the steamer as it was leaving for Constantinople, thrust down
+into the hold, and confined there by order of the Turkish Pasha.
+Thus was he torn from his affectionate wife and children, and
+carried off like a felon, they knew not whither, without even the
+show of a trial. Arriving at the capital, he was taken to the
+Armenian hospital, and shut up in the mad-house. Placed in a sitting
+posture, he was fastened with two chains, one from his neck to the
+wall, the other from his feet to the floor. Orders from the
+Patriarchate were, that no one should have access to him, but some
+of the native brethren discovered the place of his confinement, and
+gained admittance. He was then removed to another place, where it
+was believed he could not be found. On the Sabbath, the eighth day
+of his imprisonment, while the Armenian congregation was engaged in
+singing in the chapel at Pera, he entered, a free man! Much prayer
+had been offered for him, and his sudden liberation reminded all of
+Peter the Apostle. Sir Stratford Canning had been informed of his
+case, and there was no doubt that the remonstrances of this
+benevolent statesman had caused the Patriarch to loosen his grasp
+upon this innocent victim of his oppression.
+
+But whatever was the influence exerted to moderate the proceedings
+of the Patriarch in this case, he was fully resolved not to fail of
+success. In the beginning of 1846, he entered upon the more decisive
+course of subjecting the evangelical Armenians to the pains and
+penalties of excommunication. He began with Vertanes, who escaped
+arrest only through the friendly agency of his landlord, (not a
+Protestant,) and was concealed for several weeks in the house of a
+friend. At the patriarchal church, after the morning service,
+January 25th, the church was darkened by extinguishing the candles,
+the great veil was drawn in front of the altar, and a bull of
+anathema was solemnly read against Priest Vertanes; and, on the next
+Sabbath, against all who were of his sentiments,--"followers," as
+the instrument read, "of the corrupt new sect, who are accursed,
+excommunicated, and anathematized." Vertanes was denounced in the
+usual style of such documents, as "a contemptible wretch," "a
+vagabond," "a seducer of the people," "a traitor and murderer of
+Christ," "a child of the devil," "an offspring of Antichrist," and
+"worse than an infidel or a heathen." "Wherefore," says the
+Patriarch, "we expel him, and forbid him, as a devil and a child of
+the devil, to enter into the company of our believers; we cut him
+off from the priesthood, as an amputated member of the spiritual
+body of Christ, and as a branch cut off from the vine, which is good
+for nothing but to be cast into the fire. By this admonitory bull, I
+therefore command and warn my beloved in every city far and near,
+not to look upon his face, regarding it as the face of Belial, not
+to receive him into your holy dwellings, for he is a house
+destroying and ravening wolf; not to receive his salutation, but to
+refuse it as a soul-destroying poison; and to beware, with all your
+households, of the seducing and impious followers of the false
+doctrine of modern sectarists, and to pray for them to the God who
+remembereth not iniquity, if perchance, they may repent, and turn
+from their wicked paths, and secure the salvation of their souls,
+through the grace of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who is
+blessed forever and ever. Amen."1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1846, pp. 197, 198.
+
+The Patriarch immediately issued orders to his clergy, to see that
+the temporal penalties threatened in the anathema were all
+inflicted. Most of the clergy obeyed these orders with good will,
+but some reluctantly. The leading men in the different trade
+corporations were required to deprive the persons anathematized, and
+their families, of their employments and means of living, and they
+evinced more pitiless zeal than did even the clergy. Many of the
+brethren were forcibly driven from their houses and shops, and some
+were expelled even from the paternal roof. A form of recantation was
+drawn up, and a new creed, and these were sent throughout the
+country for the signature of the Protestants. The evangelical
+brethren were everywhere summoned before their ecclesiastical rulers
+for this purpose. The creed contained the worst errors of Popery.
+The recantation required was, in substance, a confession that "being
+deceived by the enticements of Satan" they had "separated from the
+spotless bosom of the holy Church," and had "lovingly joined the
+impious New Sectaries," which they now saw to be "nothing else but
+an invention of arrogance, a snare of Satan, a sect of confusion, a
+broad road which leadeth to destruction." Wherefore repenting of
+their "impious deeds," they "fled again to the bosom of the
+immaculate and holy Armenian Church," and confessed that "her faith
+is spotless, her sacraments divine, her rites of apostolic origin,
+her ritual pious," and promised to receive "whatever this same holy
+Church receiveth, whether it be a matter of faith or ceremony," and
+to "reject with anathemas whatever doctrines she rejects."1
+
+1 Appendix to _Christianity Revived in the East_, p. 272.
+
+The persecutions designed to enforce this bold and cruel measure,
+both at Constantinople and elsewhere, were too numerous to be fully
+set forth in this history. It appears, from a statement drawn up by
+the missionaries at Constantinople, that nearly forty persons, in
+that city alone, had their shops closed and their licenses taken
+away, and were thus debarred from laboring for an honest livelihood.
+Nearly seventy were ejected from their own hired houses, and
+sometimes from houses owned by themselves, and were thus exposed as
+vagabonds, to be taken up by the patrol and committed to prison; and
+could find shelter only in houses provided for the emergency at
+Pera, or Galata, through the charity of Europeans or Americans. To
+increase the distress, bakers were forbidden to furnish them with
+bread, and water-carriers to supply them with water. Thirty or more
+persons were exiled, imprisoned, or bastinadoed, on no other charge
+than their faith. Many were compelled to dissolve partnerships, and
+bring their accounts to a forced settlement, involving their utter
+ruin. Where the agents of the Patriarch ascertained that debts were
+due from the anathematized to faithful sons of the Church, the
+latter, however reluctant, were compelled to urge an immediate
+settlement.1
+
+1 _Annual Report_ for 1846, p. 98.
+
+Dr. Dwight gives us a glimpse of the working of the Anathema in the
+following narrative: "At one time the Patriarch called before him
+several of the leading Protestants, and sought to win them by
+gentleness and argument. When he found that they could outreason
+him, he said, rather petulantly, 'What is the use of your talking? I
+only called you to sign this paper. If you cannot do it, you may go,
+and next Sabbath you will all be anathematized.'
+
+"One of the number he retained for a more private conversation. This
+was Mr. Apisoghom Khachadūrian, who afterwards became the first
+Protestant pastor. After those present had been sent away, the
+Patriarch, with a great show of kindness, entreated our brother to
+yield to the demands of the Church, for the sake of peace. 'Let me
+know,' said he, 'how much you receive as a salary from those men
+(meaning us), and I will pledge myself to secure more for you, if
+you will only come over to our side.' Ap. Khachadūrian begged the
+Patriarch not to pain his feelings again by addressing to him any
+such motives, which, in a matter of such solemn moment, were worthy
+of no consideration.
+
+"The Patriarch then said: 'If you will only come back to us, you may
+retain your own private opinions and nobody shall molest you; only
+you must not speak of them to others. Why should you preach? You are
+no priest.'
+
+"_K_. 'I cannot return on any such conditions. It is every man's
+duty to try to enlighten his neighbors in things pertaining to
+salvation, so far as he understands the Gospel.'
+
+"_Patriarch_. 'But, if the evangelical men are permitted to remain
+in the Church on such conditions, the time is not distant when they
+will make the whole Church evangelical.'
+
+"_K_. 'And what if they should? Would it be a calamity to our people
+to receive the Word of God as a body, and endeavor to follow it? You
+well know that this is the true way. You know that you confessed
+this to me some years ago. The course you are now pursuing will be
+destructive to our nation. I well understand your motive. You have
+been called a Protestant, and you seek to wipe this blot from your
+name; but have you not already done enough? Surely everybody must be
+convinced, by this time, that you are an Armenian, and no
+Protestant. Desist, I beseech you, from this work; for your own
+sake, I beseech you desist; otherwise it may result in something
+very bad for you.'
+
+"_Patriarch_. 'Why? what will they (meaning the missionaries) do
+unto me?'
+
+"_K_. 'They will do nothing to you, but your own nation will, if you
+go on in this way.'
+
+"This conversation continued for some time, and the Patriarch's
+conscience seemed, for the moment, to be touched by our brother's
+faithful appeals, and he looked very thoughtful. He requested Mr.
+Khachadūrian to call again after two days, which he accordingly did,
+but was not received. A vartabed was sent to say, that if he
+continued of the same mind as before, the Patriarch did not wish to
+see him; and on the following Sabbath he was publicly anathematized
+in all the churches."1
+
+1 _Christianity Revived_, pp. 199-201.
+
+Soon after this anathema, the persecuted brethren addressed a letter
+to the Patriarch, explaining their religious sentiments, and asking
+to be relieved from their sufferings. This producing no effect, they
+addressed themselves to the Primates of the Armenian community, but
+no one of them was disposed to interfere in their behalf. At length
+they presented a petition to Reschid Pasha, Turkish Minister of
+Foreign Affairs. This petition was treated with respect; but, owing
+to the influence of some of the Armenian Primates, it procured no
+relief. Subsequently they carried their case before the English,
+Prussian, and American Ministers, asking their intervention. These
+gentlemen took the kindest interest in their case, and made repeated
+efforts to procure redress. Still the persecution went on. The
+Patriarch even ventured, within a month after the excommunication,
+to send the names of thirteen leading Protestants to the Porte,
+requesting their banishment. This was going a step too far. The
+English Ambassador, Sir Stratford Canning, had called the attention
+of the Turkish ministry to the pledge given, three years before, by
+the Sultan, that "henceforth there should be no more persecution for
+religious opinions in Turkey;" and it was now decided, in accordance
+with this pledge, that the persecution of the evangelical Armenians
+could not be allowed.
+
+Scores of men, women, and children were wandering houseless, for the
+faith of Jesus, in the streets of the great metropolis, but they
+could not be left thus to suffer. Through the kindness of Mr. Allan,
+missionary of the Free Church of Scotland to the Jews, twenty
+individuals were comfortably lodged in a large building he had
+secured for a chapel and mission house. For the rest, the
+missionaries hired such tenements as could be found; at the same
+time providing bread for those cut off from all means of procuring
+their own subsistence. Nor was any time lost in appealing for aid to
+evangelical Christians throughout the world; and responses were
+received from the United States, from England, from every country in
+Europe, and from India; and five hundred dollars were contributed by
+foreign Protestant residents on the ground.
+
+One good resulting from this evil should not be overlooked. The
+evangelical brethren in Constantinople had lived scattered over a
+territory eight or ten miles in diameter, so that they could rarely,
+if ever, come together. But while driven from their homes, and
+sheltered by the hand of Christian charity, they were, for many
+weeks, almost in one neighborhood, with abundant opportunity to
+cultivate each other's acquaintance. Most of their time, indeed, was
+spent in social prayer and religious conference; the effects of
+which were seen in a deeper interest felt for one another, and in a
+stronger bond of union.1
+
+1 _Christianity Revived_, p. 208.
+
+Early in March, Reschid Pasha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
+called up the Armenian Patriarch, and charged him to desist from his
+present course. This was an important point gained. It was now
+virtually decided, that the evangelical subjects of the Porte could
+have a civil existence in Turkey, without being under the spiritual
+dominion of the Patriarch.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1846, p. 218.
+
+But freedom from the Patriarch's civil power they did not actually
+attain until their full and formal recognition as a Protestant
+community. In point of fact, there was no material relief from the
+persecution; though the Patriarch issued a pamphlet, about this
+time, utterly denying that there was any. He even proclaimed from
+the pulpit, that religion was free in Turkey. There was no doubt a
+change for the better in the Turkish government, and the Patriarch
+was gradually learning that persecution for religious opinions was
+not to be allowed. Therefore he felt constrained to use every
+artifice, so that nothing should seem to be done contrary to law;
+and, if possible, so that no ambassador should be able to prove upon
+him an act of persecution. At that very time, however, thirty-four
+shops were closed in Constantinople, and their former occupants were
+forcibly kept from resuming their business, merely because they did
+not subscribe to the Patriarch's creed. This was all, however, under
+the pretense of law. The Patriarch was the civil head of the
+Armenian community, and as such was responsible to the government
+for every trade. No person could open a shop without a license, and
+each trade was incorporated, and regulated by a small committee of
+the most prominent persons in that business. The license came from
+this committee; and each one taking out a license was required to
+give two or more sureties for good conduct. Licenses were refused to
+the evangelical Armenians; or if not, they were not accepted as
+sureties for each other, and none others ventured to assume the
+relation. Thus, until the slow moving Turk discovered the abuse, the
+persecutor pursued his work with impunity under the broad shield of
+the law.
+
+It was specially so in the interior. One of the most trying cases of
+persecution was that of Priest Haritūn at Nicomedia, whose
+conversion was mentioned in connection with that of Vertanes, more
+than twelve years before. When Der Vertanes was anathematized, the
+bishop of Nicomedia required Haritūn to write a confession of his
+faith, in order to show the people that he was a true son of the
+Armenian Church. The document was far from being satisfactory, and
+his letter appended to it was still less so, for in that he affirmed
+the Holy Scriptures to be the only infallible rule of faith and
+practice, and declared his willingness to receive whatever
+punishment was prepared for him. He was naturally timid, but now he
+was filled with the spirit of martyrdom. He was brought to the
+church on the Sabbath, and the bishop, after reading his confession,
+immediately pronounced him excommunicated and accursed. Two priests
+then violently tore his clerical robes from his shoulders, and with
+boisterous shouts, cried, "Drive the accursed one from the church."
+The excited rabble now fell upon him, and with kicks and blows
+thrust him into the street. All this he received with the greatest
+meekness, and returned to his house exceeding glad that he was
+counted worthy "to suffer for the name of Jesus."
+
+The bishop then sent him a paper of recantation to sign. Refusing to
+do this, he was by an easy artifice, thrown into prison. Finding
+that he owed small sums to different individuals, the debts were all
+bought up by a magnate of the place, and immediate payment was
+required. Being unable to meet the demand, as it was well known he
+would be, he was cast into prison. It was under sanction of the law.
+After thirteen days, he was conducted by a soldier to the bishop's
+palace, where the Patriarch's creed was offered for his signature.
+When they could not persuade him to sign it, he was threatened with
+the loss of his beard, which was considered the greatest indignity
+to a priest. He replied, "For the wonderful name of Christ, I am,
+God helping me, ready even to shed my blood." A barber was called
+in, and not only his beard, but all the hair from his head was
+shaved off. They then tore his clerical cap, and cast it into a
+filthy corner of the street, together with the hair and beard. A mob
+of boys now fastened the beard and the disfigured cap to the end of
+a long pole, and paraded through all the wards of the city,
+shouting, "Heads out! behold the cap of the accursed Haritūn." He
+was afterwards sent back to prison, the soldiers leading him by a
+circuitous route to prolong his sufferings, and the mob continually
+following him with opprobrious language. "I entered the prison," he
+wrote to a native brother, "with a joyful heart, committing myself
+to God, and giving glory to Him, that He had enabled me to pass
+through fire and sword, and brought me to a place of repose."
+
+The Turkish governor of the prison, moved by pity, immediately
+released the unoffending old man. Passing through a Turkish burying
+ground, he reached his home unobserved. It was the Sabbath day, and
+he says, "Being delivered from the hands of reckless men, I fell
+down on my face about the eighth hour, with my wife alone, and gave
+glory to God that He had accounted me worthy of such an honor, which
+I formerly avoided, but now by his grace he has made me cheerfully
+to receive, though I am altogether unworthy. He has kept me for such
+a day."
+
+Haritūn's inability to pay his debts subjected him to a second
+imprisonment; but as his cup increased in bitterness, his resolve
+was the more firmly fixed, never to deny his Lord and Saviour. His
+spotless reputation, and his meekness in suffering, procured for him
+many friends, even among the Mohammedans.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1846, pp. 219-223, 366.
+
+It deserves to be recorded, that the magnate who secured his
+imprisonment, was thrown from his horse, not long after, and
+received a fracture of the skull, from which he died; and his
+splendid mansion was subsequently consumed by fire.
+
+After having thus cruelly treated Priest Haritūn, the bishop
+summoned the evangelical brethren before him, as a body, and so
+wrought upon their fears, that they all agreed to sign the paper of
+recantation. Some of them, however, declared to the bishop, at the
+time, that they should continue to read the Gospel, and come
+together for prayer; and he assured them, that he merely wanted
+their signatures as a matter of form, and that they should be left
+at liberty to believe and act as they pleased. But they lost all
+peace of mind from that moment, until they had abjured their
+recantation, and publicly declared their determination to abide by
+the doctrines of the Gospel, even unto death. This was in March,
+1846. They were all soon after excommunicated.
+
+At Adabazar, there was much suffering. Four of the brethren were
+seized for debt, and thrown into prison. The Protestants were
+assailed with hootings and curses. Fresh outrages were of daily
+occurrence. A native brother, named Hagop, on his way from Adabazar
+to a village an hour distant, was passed by one of the persecutors
+on horseback, who turned upon him and cruelly beat him. Returning
+home with eyes and forehead swollen and blackened, and his limbs
+bloody from the blows he had received, he was taken by his friends
+to the Turkish governor, and two Turks came in as witnesses; but the
+governor refused to give him a hearing. Soon after, the houses of
+the brethren were stoned, and some of them were imprisoned on false
+pretenses, while the governor and judge, though perfectly aware of
+these things, cared not for them. Emboldened thus, the chief ruler
+of the Armenians headed a band of about fifty desperate fellows, and
+went in the evening to the house of Hagop, who had been beaten a few
+days before, broke down the door, rushed up-stairs, and, in the
+presence of his family, beat him on his nose and mouth, and wherever
+else the blows happened to fall, and threw him down stairs. They
+there beat him again, pushed him into the street, and dragged him to
+a place of confinement. Other brethren were subjected to similar
+violence, until the mob became so outrageous that the governor and
+judge were obliged to interfere.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1846, p. 270.
+
+At Trebizond, a young man, refusing to sign the recantation, was
+beaten on the soles of his feet, the vartabed aiding with his own
+hands in inflicting the blows. He was afterwards thrown into a
+miserable stable as a prison; water was plentifully poured upon the
+cold, damp ground on which he stood with mangled feet; his hands
+were tied behind him by the two thumbs; a rope was passed under his
+shoulders and fastened to a beam over his head; and in this
+torturing condition he was left to stand during the night. Orders
+were also issued that no one should give him food. After being kept
+here nearly two days, with some mitigations, and repeatedly
+importuned to sign the recantation, with terrific threatenings in
+case he did not, the sufferer was induced to yield. The
+ecclesiastics were encouraged by this to bastinado and imprison all
+who refused to comply. Those who could, fled to the house of the
+missionary, and ten men were at one time lodged in the chapel, and
+fed at his table.
+
+This mode of proceeding could not continue. The British Consul
+interposed and gave information to the Pasha, who arrested the
+barbarous proceedings, and virtually advised the brethren to secede
+from their persecuting Church. Mr. Powers thought the effect of
+these sufferings had been salutary on all the brethren.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1806, [sic, 1846?] pp. 298-300.
+
+Another case occurred at the remote station of Erzroom, and I
+mention it because of the extreme violence of the persecutors,
+though regretting that they partially gained their point. The man
+was a recent convert, but his answers when interrogated, were so
+judicious and decisive, and so sustained by Scripture proofs that
+his adversaries were unable to reply. The main question was, whether
+he would worship the sacred pictures. This he refused to do,
+whereupon he was severely bastinadoed; and afterwards some of the
+priests kicked him, spat in his face, and smote him on the face,
+till the blood gushed from his nose and mouth. He was then put in
+chains, and thrust into a cold prison, without being allowed water
+to wash the blood from his face, though he earnestly requested it.
+
+During the evening two priests went to his prison, and he begged
+them to secure his removal to a stable. They called him a dog, and
+told him he could receive no favor unless he submitted in
+everything. This he said he could never do. He was afterwards
+removed to a stable, and the next day was brought before his
+persecutors and required to sign a creed they had drawn up. This he
+did, after the most objectionable parts had been erased. Emboldened
+by this, and by the refusal of the Pasha to protect the sufferer,
+the ecclesiastics next Sabbath ordered the same man to appear before
+them, and he was immediately thrust into prison. In the evening he
+was taken into the church and brought before the altar, where, in
+the presence of a great multitude, curses were heaped upon him
+without measure. The vartabed who performed this service, used
+language fitted to stir up the worst passions of the people; many of
+whom being partially intoxicated, became so enraged that when the
+brother was conducted to the vartabed's room they grossly abused
+him, not only by words, but by blows and spitting in his face. They
+crowded the door, declaring that he was worthy of death, and that
+they were ready to shed his blood, even if for so doing, they should
+have to shed their own, and it was with difficulty they were
+prevented from rushing upon him. Indeed some actually entered and
+kicked him on the head as he was seated on the floor, without one
+word of rebuke from the ecclesiastics. Their object was to compel
+him to sign a paper recently sent them by the Patriarch. He told
+them he could never heartily sign such a paper. "No matter about
+your _heart_," they exclaimed, "perform the outward act." In
+consequence of this remark, and terrified by the mob, which seemed
+panting to lay violent hands upon him, and into the midst of whom he
+was to be thrust if he did not sign his name, he at length yielded,
+and the next morning his sentence of excommunication was revoked.
+
+A month later, this man much regretted having done so, even under
+such a pressure, and had no thought of abandoning the new religious
+life. He continued his efforts to enlighten the dark minds of those
+to whom he had access, though by so doing, he exposed himself to new
+trials.1
+
+1 Mr. Peabody, in Missionary Herald, 1846, pp. 265-267.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1846-1848.
+
+
+We are now in the middle of the year 1846. Hitherto no one has
+voluntarily separated himself from the Armenian community. The
+so-called "schismatics" were made such by the exscinding act of the
+Patriarch himself. For nearly six months anathemas had been dealt
+out in the patriarchal church every Sabbath until many of the people
+grew weary of them. Through ecclesiastical influence, bread and
+water were still withheld from many Protestant families by the
+dealers in those articles, and everything was done that could be
+done with impunity to afflict those who remained steadfast in the
+truth; nor did the Patriarch or the magnates give them any hope of
+relief, except through unconditional submission to their demands.
+Their only earthly hope was in the Protestant Ambassadors, and in
+Reschid Pasha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Sir Stratford
+Canning, the English Ambassador, whose noble efforts for religious
+liberty in Turkey are worthy of all praise, did not cease urging the
+government to secure to their Protestant subjects the right of
+pursuing their lawful callings without molestation. As to sureties
+for those who were excluded from their shops and business, he
+represented that the demands of the law might be met by their
+becoming sureties for one another. He at length succeeded, and
+Reschid Pasha, who soon became Grand Vizier, gave orders that the
+Protestants be permitted to resume their business on this condition.
+A new officer was put in the place of the one who had turned a deaf
+ear to their petitions. When summoned before him, they declared
+themselves to be Armenians, and he told them it was "Protestants,"
+whom he was to allow to open their shops. They had never adopted
+that name, as it had been applied to them by their enemies by way of
+reproach,--as probably the term "Christian" was to the disciples at
+Antioch,--but called themselves the "Gospellers," or "Evangelists."
+But now, whether they wished it or not, they were constrained to
+adopt the designation of "Protestants."
+
+A letter from the Grand Vizier, written at this time to the Pasha of
+Erzroom, also recognized them as Protestants. It was the first
+document issued by the Turkish government for their protection, and
+began with stating, that certain Armenians at Erzroom, who had
+embraced the Protestant faith, were represented to the government as
+suffering various forms of persecution, from which they prayed to be
+delivered. The Grand Vizier says that the same thing had occurred at
+the capital, where the Protestants, having been anathematized by the
+Patriarch, were cut off from both social and commercial intercourse
+with their countrymen. While the Sultan would not interfere with the
+spiritual duties of the Patriarch, he could not allow his Protestant
+subjects to be hindered in their lawful pursuits. As the Armenian
+Primate had converted the law, requiring every subject entering into
+business to provide sureties for his good behavior, into an
+instrument of oppression, by refusing to accept Protestants as
+sureties for each other, the Pasha was to see that they had the same
+liberty, in this respect, as was enjoyed by their countrymen. This
+was their privilege at Constantinople, and the Grand Vizier hoped
+the Pasha of Erzroom would secure the same for them in his province.
+
+The Patriarch had left no means untried to break up the seminary at
+Bebek, and succeeded in taking away seventeen out of the
+twenty-seven students. But five of them soon returned, and ten
+others speedily joined the institution. About half of the ten were
+young men of good intellectual capacity and mature faith, who had
+fallen under the anathema of the Patriarch. Shutting up their shops
+had sent them to the seminary, where their minds would be
+disciplined, and where, studying the history of the Church, and
+comparing the past and present with God's Word, they would be
+prepared to comprehend the Oriental Apostasy. Of the other five,
+three were from anathematized families, and two were without
+relatives. A lad, who had been expelled from his father's house
+because he was a Protestant, was about to enter the seminary,
+through the influence of a young man who had left it because of the
+failure of his eyes. His father carried both to the patriarchate;
+and the Patriarch, who had declared himself no persecutor, condemned
+them to imprisonment, with hard labor and the wearing of a heavy
+chain day and night. The father repented of his cruelty and implored
+their release, but in vain. It was only when the Patriarch
+understood that the father was carrying the case before the English
+Ambassador, that he released the son. The other youth remained in
+irons; and the reply of the Turkish authorities to repeated
+petitions was, that he had been committed for crime. The
+missionaries believed him entirely innocent, and truly pious. We are
+obliged to leave this youth, after six weeks of labor begirt with a
+chain, in the midst of ferocious and beastly criminals, refusing to
+accept deliverance on condition of subscribing the Patriarch's
+creed.
+
+This persecution changed the seminary into a theological school.
+More instruction was given in ecclesiastical history, especially, in
+regard to the introduction of doctrinal errors, and more attention
+was paid to the exposition of the written Word. A select class was
+formed for the study of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and care was taken
+to have the pastors of the reformed churches men of faith and
+prayer, strong in the Scriptures, and able to expose the
+antichristian character of the nominal Churches round about them.
+
+A seminary for young ladies had been opened in Pera, in the autumn
+of 1845. Eight were then admitted, and five more some months later.
+As the pupils came from evangelical families, most of them had
+received some instruction at their homes. They could read in the New
+Testament with more or less readiness when they entered, and they
+made good proficiency in their studies. Several of them were
+excommunicated by name, and nearly all belonged to excommunicated
+families; so that the sympathies of all were enlisted on the side of
+evangelical truth, though only two or three of the older ones were
+regarded as hopefully pious. The school was under the charge of Mrs.
+Everett and Miss Lovell.
+
+On the 21st of June, 1846, a great feast day in the Armenian Church,
+the Patriarch issued a new anathema against all who remained firm to
+evangelical principles; and decreed that it be publicly read, at
+each annual return of this festival, in all the Armenian churches
+throughout the empire. The Protestants were thus cast out forever.
+They had no power to organize themselves into a civil community; but
+it was clearly their duty to secure for themselves and their
+children, as far as they could, the spiritual privileges of the
+Gospel. Nothing remained for them but to organize themselves into a
+separate church, and this they resolved to do.
+
+They made a written request to the missionaries for aid in this
+matter, having themselves no experience. A meeting was accordingly
+held in Constantinople of delegates from the different stations of
+the Armenian mission. Messrs. Allan and Koenig, missionaries of the
+Free Church of Scotland to the Jews, were present by invitation; and
+also Dr. Pomroy, of Bangor in Maine, and Mr. Laurie, then on his way
+home from Syria. Though the meeting was composed of two or three
+different denominations of Christians, there was the most entire
+harmony in the discussions, and a plan then drawn up for the
+organization of the Evangelical Armenian church, was agreed to by a
+unanimous vote.
+
+The evangelical Armenians in Constantinople came together on the
+first day of July for the public recognition of the church. After
+the reading of the Scriptures and prayer, the plan of organization,
+confession of faith, covenant, and rules of discipline, were read,
+with such explanations as seemed necessary. Those present were then
+requested to rise and give their assent to the articles of faith and
+to the covenant. All rose, and the articles were again read, at the
+end of which all audibly responded, "We do thus believe." In like
+manner they audibly assented to the covenant. The missionaries and
+others then rose, and, as the representatives of Protestant
+Evangelical Churches, publicly acknowledged them as a true church of
+Jesus Christ. Their names were then recorded, amounting to forty,
+three of whom were women.
+
+Thus was constituted the First Evangelical Armenian Church of
+Constantinople. As soon as the names of members had been recorded,
+they proceeded to the choice of a Pastor by ballot, and the
+unanimous choice fell upon Apisoghom Khachadūrian, of whom honorable
+mention was made in the preceding chapter. The other church officers
+were then elected; and the church unanimously requested Mr. Dwight
+to act as helper in the pastoral office, which he consented to do.
+
+After one week, an Ecclesiastical Council, invited by the church,
+assembled to ordain the pastor elect. It consisted of the
+missionaries of the Board resident at Constantinople, and Mr. Allan,
+missionary of the Free Church of Scotland. The candidate was
+examined, in the presence of the church, as to his personal piety,
+his views in entering the ministry, as to the doctrines of the
+Gospel, church government, the sacraments, and the duties of
+the pastoral office. He had been educated in the school of
+Peshtimaljian, had for years been in constant intercourse with the
+missionaries, had attended courses of exegetical and theological
+lectures in the seminary, and had received much private instruction.
+More than all, he possessed an experimental knowledge of religion,
+and seemed eminently taught by the Holy Spirit. His clear perception
+of evangelical truth, his power in argument, his impressive manner,
+his superior judgment, his boldness, and his general weight of
+character, plainly singled him out as the man, whom God had called
+to that position.1
+
+1 _Christianity Revived_, p. 231. _Missionary Herald_, 1846, pp.
+317-320, 357.
+
+The new church lost no time in setting forth to their countrymen a
+declaration of their faith, and their reasons for the steps they had
+taken; which they did in a pamphlet issued in the Armenian
+language.1
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_, 1846, p, 356.
+
+Churches on the same basis were formed at Nicomedia and Adabazar in
+July, and at Trebizond early in the autumn. There were disturbances
+at each of these places, but the Mohammedan authorities showed a
+disposition to repress them promptly.1
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_, 1846, pp. 368-370.
+
+The church at the metropolis was soon called to suffer affliction in
+the death of its beloved pastor, on the 12th of March, 1847. His
+disease was brain fever, occasioned by an exciting missionary visit
+to Nicomedia, where the church was about calling his brother to be
+their pastor. From the nature of the disease, he was mainly without
+the use of his reason; but a few hours before his death, while Mr.
+Dwight was present, the cloud passed from his mind, and they enjoyed
+a most delightful interview. "There were present," says the
+missionary, "besides his own relatives, his two deacons, and several
+of the brethren and sisters of the church, and their joy was
+unbounded when they heard their dying pastor, with restored reason,
+giving such clear testimony of the all-sufficiency of Christ to
+support him in that trying hour. At the end of every answer he gave
+to my inquiries, they cried out all over the room, "Bless the Lord,"
+"Glory to God," unable to restrain their gratitude that God had
+given him grace and opportunity to bear such a testimony. I have
+been present at many Christian death-beds of the people of God, but
+I can truly say, that I never witnessed anything so deeply
+affecting. I afterwards led in prayer. Our departing brother uttered
+a loud _Amen_ at the end of every sentence, and his reason then left
+him to return no more on earth."
+
+I cannot refrain from quoting here the testimony of so judicious, an
+observer as Mr. Dwight, concerning the wife of the pastor. "She is a
+person every way fitted to be a pastor's wife. She is one of the
+most intelligent, pious, and lovely women I have known in this
+country. Indeed, in native intellectual power and in piety, she has
+few superiors anywhere."
+
+Der Haritūn had long been the spiritual leader at Nicomedia; but
+when a church was formed, and there was need of one who should be
+both a pastor and preacher, he as a priest, having never learned to
+preach, and having almost reached the age of sixty, meekly gave
+place to one who was better qualified to preach the Gospel with
+power and effect, and now took the place of a deacon.
+
+The reader will remember the manner in which the reformation arose
+among the Armenians of Aintab, through the labors of Bedros
+Vartabed.1 It is worthy of notice, that while the letter of Mr.
+Thomson was on its way to Constantinople, and before his visit
+became known to the Prudential Committee, they had directed the
+Constantinople brethren to send Mr. Van Lennep on a visit to Aleppo
+and Aintab. Mr. Van Lennep estimated the number of Armenian families
+in the place at fifteen hundred. The people were rude and ignorant,
+but they were residents, and not sojourners, as were most of the
+Armenians at Aleppo. He had visitors from morning till night, and
+the conversation was confined to the great subjects of salvation and
+eternal life. All the people knew the reason of his coming, and
+therefore were anxious for instruction on those great questions.
+Meetings were well attended. About ten men appeared to have been
+truly converted. The people were very anxious to have a missionary
+reside among them, but this was not possible at that time.
+
+1 See chapter xxi.
+
+The next visit was by Mr. Johnston, who remained three months at
+Aleppo, till the way was open to Aintab. Meanwhile three were chosen
+from among the brethren to go and study the Scriptures with him at
+Aleppo. Their names were Avedis, Sarkis, and Krikor, all under
+thirty years of age. Mr. Johnston went to Aintab in September, and
+was subjected to a quarantine of twelve days on his arrival. Bedros
+accompanied him, and they called on the Governor. The Catholicos of
+Sis, the spiritual head of the Church, arrived soon after to oppose
+the missionary. Mr. Johnston was fully occupied, however, with the
+numerous inquirers, and there was no way for the opposers but to
+induce the Pasha to drive him from the place. In this they
+succeeded, but not until the time that he himself had set for his
+departure. He and his companions were followed, as they left the
+town on the 14th of December, by attendants of the Catholicos
+reviling and throwing stones. No reason was assigned by the Governor
+for permitting this outrage, and he was shortly afterwards removed
+from office. Remonstrances from the American Minister at the Porte,
+were supposed to be among the causes of his removal.
+
+Meanwhile Dr. Azariah Smith was traversing regions in eastern
+Turkey, which have since become endeared to the friends of missions,
+and reached Aintab just after Mr. Johnston left. A tumult was raised
+at once, with the hope of driving him away also, but without
+success. Having a firman, he refused to go without first seeing the
+Governor, and his medical profession and practice were in his favor.
+He remained until March, and before leaving gathered the hopeful
+converts into a church, which has since proved to be one of the most
+prosperous in Turkey. On his departure, a number of the brethren
+accompanied him a considerable distance, and parted after uniting in
+prayer for each other, and for the cause of their Redeemer and
+Saviour. Bedros, however, whom he left behind to look after the
+infant church, was soon expelled. Mr. Schneider labored there in the
+summer and until some time in the autumn.
+
+Still the position of the Protestants was everywhere one of trial.
+They were separated from the Armenian community, but not united with
+any other. The government, though determined to protect them from
+persecution, did not know exactly what to do. The municipal
+regulations of Constantinople forbad marriage, baptism, or burial
+without the cognizance of the civil power. To obtain a permit for
+marriage, it was necessary to present to the head of the police a
+certificate from the Patriarch; and the Patriarch must report the
+name of every baptized child to the same officer for enrolment.
+Before every burial, permission must be obtained from the Board of
+Health, and this also must be through the Patriarch. Then every
+traveller must have a passport, which could not be obtained without
+a voucher from the Patriarch. It had become quite obvious, that the
+Patriarch could no longer act as their civil representative at the
+Porte.1
+
+1 _Christianity Revived_, p. 241.
+
+In order to promote the internal peace of the empire, the Sultan
+found it necessary to reduce the power of the Armenian Patriarch, by
+appointing a council of laymen, for secular matters, and another of
+ecclesiastics and laymen, for matters spiritual; the Patriarch not
+being allowed to act without their sanction.
+
+The number of Protestant Armenians, including men, women and
+children, now separated from their former churches, was about one
+thousand. Nearly three thousand more were known to entertain
+Protestant sentiments, though still retaining a loose connection
+with their former churches. Those who were more or less awakened to
+a knowledge of their errors, and secretly desired the progress of
+the reformation, must have amounted to several thousands more; but
+of these no accurate estimate could be made.
+
+The six churches formed previous to May, 1848, were as yet small,
+the whole number of members being only one hundred and sixty-six.
+Ninety-nine were at Constantinople, twenty-six at Nicomedia, twelve
+at Adabazar, sixteen at Trebizond, five at Erzroom, and eight at
+Aintab. But neither the number of church members, nor the size of
+the congregations, nor the number of those who came to the
+missionaries for religious conversation, told the whole story. There
+was a deep movement going on in the Armenian community itself, which
+might be expected to produce great changes in the whole body. In
+some of the churches there were contentions, occasioned chiefly by
+their inexperience in self-government, and their ignorance of the
+proper modes of acting under their new circumstances. In Trebizond,
+it became necessary to separate two of the church members by a
+formal vote of excision. But this event, though exceedingly trying
+to the infant community, as well as to the missionaries at the
+station, was overruled for good. By the divine blessing on such
+experiences, the self-governing power usually gains strength.
+
+Baron Simon was ordained pastor of the bereaved church in
+Constantinople, in place of his brother. Baron Haritūn Manasian was
+ordained pastor of the churches in Nicomedia and Adabazar, and was
+to spend one fourth of his time in the latter place. Both were from
+the seminary at Bebek.
+
+During the year ending May, 1848, the seminary containing
+forty-seven scholars, and the school for girls containing
+twenty-three, were both favored with what may be called a revival,
+which added several from each of them to the church; and there was a
+similar awakening in both institutions in the following year. The
+work of the Holy Spirit was distinctly traceable also at Aintab,
+Aleppo, Killis, Arabkir, and other places in the interior. The
+houses of worship in Pera, and in the city proper, were crowded on
+the Sabbath, and nearly every week new persons were present.
+
+
+END OF VOLUME FIRST.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of The Missions Of The
+American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I., by Rufus Anderson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE MISSIONS ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of The Missions Of The American
+Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I., by Rufus Anderson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I.
+
+Author: Rufus Anderson
+
+Release Date: July 28, 2006 [EBook #18930]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE MISSIONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bechard (JaBBechard@aol.com)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY
+OF
+THE MISSIONS
+OF THE
+AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS
+TO THE
+ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
+
+BY RUFUS ANDERSON, D.D., LL.D.,
+LATE FOREIGN SECRETARY OF THE BOARD.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+VOL. I.
+
+BOSTON:
+CONGREGATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY.
+1872.
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
+THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS,
+in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
+
+RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
+STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Missions to the Oriental Churches occupy a large space in the
+forty-nine volumes of the Missionary Herald, and in as many Annual
+Reports of the Board; and in view of the multitude of facts, from
+which selections must be made to do justice to the several missions,
+it will readily be seen, that their history cannot be compressed
+into a single volume. The Missions may be regarded as seven or eight
+in number; considering the Palestine and Syria missions as really
+but one, and the several Armenian missions as also one. The history
+of the Syria mission, in its connection with the American Board,
+covers a period of fifty-one years; that of the Nestorian,
+thirty-seven; that of the Greek mission, forty-three; of the
+Assyrian (as a separate mission), ten; of the Armenian mission, to
+the present time, forty; and of the Bulgarian, twelve. The mission
+to the Jews, extending through thirty years, was so intimately
+connected with these, as to demand a place in the series; and the
+facts scattered through half a century, illustrating the influence
+exerted on the Mohammedans, are such as to require a separate
+embodiment.
+
+In writing the history, one of three methods was to be adopted;
+either to embrace all the missions in one continuous narrative; or
+to carry forward the narrative of each mission, separately and
+continuously, through its entire period; or, rejecting both these
+plans, to keep the narratives of the several missions distinct, but,
+by suitable alternations from one to another, to secure for the
+whole the substantial advantages of a contemporaneous history. The
+first could not be done satisfactorily, so long as the several
+missions have a separate existence in the minds of so many readers,
+and while so many feel a strong personal interest in what is said or
+omitted. Even on the plan adopted, so much must necessarily be
+omitted, or stated very briefly, as to endanger a feeling, that
+injustice has been done to some excellent missionaries. As for the
+second, the author had not the courage to undertake consecutive
+journeys through so many long periods; and he believed not a few of
+his readers would sympathize with him. If, however, any desire to
+read the history of any one mission through in course, the table of
+contents will make that easy. Each of the histories is complete, so
+far as it goes.
+
+No attempt has been made to write a philosophical history of
+missions. The book of the Acts of the Apostles is not such a
+history, nor has one yet been written. The time has not come for
+that. There are not the necessary materials. The directors of
+missions, and missionaries themselves, have not yet come to a full
+practical agreement as to the principles that underlie the working
+of missions, nor as to the results to be accomplished by them; and
+it must be left to competent writers in the future,--when the whole
+subject shall be more generally and better understood,--after
+patiently examining the proceedings of missionary societies in
+America, England, Scotland, and Germany, to state and apply the
+principles that may be thus evolved. The most that can now be done,
+is to record the facts in their natural connections, together with
+the more obvious teachings of experience. If the author has been
+successful in doing this, his end is gained.
+
+In the present state of religious opinion respecting divine
+Providence among a portion of the reading community, it may be
+proper to state the author's strong conviction, that the promise of
+the Lord Jesus, to be with his missionaries, pledges the divine
+interposition in their behalf; and that "whoso is wise, and will
+observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness
+of the Lord." In the work of missions, "God is our refuge and
+strength, a very present help in trouble." The history before us
+often presents cases, in which there is no more reason to doubt the
+divine agency, than the human; and no intelligent missionary would
+labor hopefully and cheerfully, after becoming a disbeliever in a
+particular providence.
+
+Nearly all the early laborers in the fields here presented, have
+finished their work on earth. Parsons and Fisk were the only ones,
+with whom the writer had not a personal acquaintance. Of not a few
+others,--and of some who, like himself, still linger here,--he has
+many pleasant personal recollections that sweeten anticipations of
+the heavenly world. He is thankful in being allowed to commemorate
+their labors and virtues, and only regrets the want of space and
+ability to do it better. His constant endeavor has been to present
+the missions to the reader as their imprint is left on his own mind.
+More biographical notices would have been gladly inserted, had there
+been room. The details of persecution are sufficient to furnish
+glimpses of the severe ordeal, through which it has pleased the Head
+of the Church to bring the infant churches of those fields.
+
+The Syria and Nestorian missions passed under the direction of the
+Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in the year 1870, and our
+history of them closes at that time. Up to that date, the
+Congregational and New School Presbyterian Churches (the Old School
+Presbyterians also up to the year 1837, and the Reformed Dutch
+Church for many years) sustained an equal relation to all these
+missions. The mission to the Jews in Turkey was relinquished in
+1856, out of regard to Scotch and English brethren, who had
+undertaken to cultivate that field. The communities in Turkey among
+whom our missionaries now labor, are the Armenians, Greeks,
+Bulgarians, Mohammedans, and the Arabic-speaking Christians of
+Eastern Turkey.
+
+The Board has ever acted on the belief, that its labors should not
+be restricted to pagan nations.1 The word "heathen" in the preamble
+of its charter, is descriptive and not restrictive. It is not in the
+Constitution of the Board, which was adopted at its first meeting
+only a few weeks after its organization. The second article of the
+Constitution declares it to be the object of the Board, "to devise,
+adopt, and prosecute ways and means for propagating the Gospel among
+those who are destitute of the knowledge of Christianity." This of
+course includes Mohammedans and Jews; and those who carefully
+consider the statements embodied in the Introduction to the History,
+will see that it embraces, also, the Oriental Churches, as they were
+fifty years ago.
+
+1 These remarks were suggested by a speech at the Annual Meeting of
+the Board in Salem, by the Rev. S. B. Treat, Home Secretary of the
+Board.
+
+In November, 1812, the year in which the first missionaries sailed
+for Calcutta, a committee, appointed by the Board to appeal to its
+constituency, used this emphatic language: "It is worthy of
+consideration, that the Board is not confined in its operations to
+any part of the world, but may direct its attention to Africa, North
+or South America, or the Isles of the Sea, as well as to Asia." At
+the Annual Meeting in 1813, it was voted: "That the Prudential
+Committee be directed to make inquiry respecting the settlement of a
+mission at San Salvador, in Brazil, at Port Louis, in the Isle of
+France, or on the island of Madagascar." In the latter part of 1818,
+it was resolved to commence a mission in Western Asia. The
+Prudential Committee said, in their Report for 1819: "In Palestine,
+Syria, the provinces of Asia Minor, Armenia, Georgia, and Persia,
+though Mohammedan countries, there are many thousands of Jews, and
+many thousands of Christians, at least in name. But the whole
+mingled population is in a state of deplorable ignorance and
+degradation,--destitute of the means of divine knowledge, and
+bewildered with vain imaginations and strong delusions." In that
+year Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons embarked for this field.
+
+This historical review makes it clear, that those who organized the
+Board and directed its early labors, regarded not only Pagans, but
+Mohammedans, Jews, and nominal Christians, as within the sphere of
+its labors; and such has been the practical construction for nearly
+sixty years.
+
+The reader is referred to the close of the second volume for an
+Index; also, for a detailed statement of the Publications issued by
+the several missions, which must impress any one with the amount,
+value, and influence of the intellectual labor there embodied. Had
+these statements been given at length in the History, they would
+have embarrassed its progress. A list is also appended of the
+Missionaries, male and female, giving the time during which they
+were severally connected with the missions.
+
+Thankful acknowledgments are due to the Rev. Thomas Laurie, D.D.,
+the writer of a number of valuable and popular works, and to the
+Rev. Isaac R. Worcester, well known as the Editor of the Missionary
+Herald, for their kind and careful revision of the work.
+
+This History of the Missions of the Board to the Oriental Churches,
+is respectfully dedicated to the friends of those missions; and the
+author, who has no pecuniary interest in the work, will be amply
+rewarded, should he be regarded as having given a true and faithful
+account of the agency of the Board in the Republication of the
+Gospel in Bible Lands.
+
+Boston, 1872.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+MISSIONS TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+CHAPTER I. PALESTINE.--1819-1824.
+
+The First Missionaries.--Their Instructions.--Reception by other
+Missionaries.--The Seven Churches.--Temporary Separation.--Mr.
+Parsons at Jerusalem.--Disturbing Influence from the Greek
+Revolution.--Returns to Smyrna.--Their Voyage to Alexandria.--Death
+and Character of Mr. Parsons.--Mr. Fisk goes to Malta.--Printing
+Establishment.--Rev. Jonas King becomes Mr. Fisk's Associate.--Rev.
+Joseph Wolff.--The Missionaries in Egypt.--Crossing the Desert.--At
+Jerusalem.--Beirut and Lebanon.--The Emir Beshir.--An interesting
+Convocation.--Journals and Labors.--Jerusalem revisited.--Arrest of
+Messrs. Fisk and Bird.--Visit to Hebron.--Sale of Scriptures.
+--Return to Beirut.--Communion of Saints.--Journey to Damascus and
+Aleppo.
+
+CHAPTER II. PALESTINE.--1824-1843.
+
+Proclamation of the Grand Seignior.--Jerusalem again visited.
+--Absurd Reports.--Disturbed State of the Country.--Mr. King's
+Farewell Letter.--He visits Smyrna and Constantinople.
+--Contributions in France and England.--Agency among the Churches.
+--Sickness and Death of Mr. Fisk.--His Character.--Jerusalem
+reoccupied.--Danger to the Mission Families.--Death of Mrs.
+Thomson.--New Missionaries.--Death of Dr. Dodge.--The Cholera.
+--Station at Jerusalem suspended.--Opinion of Dr. Hawes.--Burying
+Ground on Mount Zion.
+
+CHAPTER III. SYRIA.--1823-1828.
+
+Origin of the Mission to Syria.--Beirut.--Studies of the
+Missionaries.--Native Helpers.--Papal Opposition.--Hopeful View.
+--Education.--First Acquaintance with Asaad Shidiak.--Greek
+Invasion.--Providential Interposition.--Pious Natives.--Dionysius at
+Jerusalem.--A Prayer-meeting.--The Mission Church.--Works in the
+Native Languages.--Persecution of Mr. Bird.--Apprehension of War.
+--Suspension of the Mission.--Parting Scene.
+
+CHAPTER IV. SYRIA.--THE MARTYR OF LEBANON.--1826-1830.
+
+Significance of the Narrative.--Early History of Asaad.--Becomes
+known to the Missionaries.--Employed by Mr. King.--Prepares an
+Answer to Mr. King's "Farewell Letter."--His Conversion.--Employed
+by the Mission.--Stands on Protestant Ground.--His Constitutional
+Weakness.--Puts Himself in the Patriarch's Power.--His Boldness.
+--His Escape.--His Account of his Experiences.--First Effort to
+Recapture him.--Second and successful Effort.--Is taken to the
+Patriarch.--Imprisoned and in Chains.--The Family relent.--Barbarous
+Treatment.--Increased Cruelty.--Time and Manner of his Death.--A
+Martyr.--Exploration by an English Merchant.--Remarks on the
+Narrative.
+
+CHAPTER V. THE PRESS AT MALTA.--1822-1833.
+
+Why at Malta.--Successful Publications.--Publication of the
+Armeno-Turkish New Testament.--Extent of the Publications.--Singular
+Use of Alphabets and Languages.--Preaching at Malta.--Missionary
+Fellowship.--The Press removed to Smyrna.
+
+CHAPTER VI. PRELIMINARY EXPLORATIONS.--1828-1831.
+
+Need of Information.--The Author's Visit to the Mediterranean.
+--Results of Malta Conferences.--Explorers of Armenia.--Preparations
+for the Tour.--The Route.--Sojourn at Shoosha.--German Colonies.
+--Sufferings from Illness.--Kindness of the English Embassy in
+Persia.--The Nestorians of Former Ages.--How Attention was first
+drawn to the Nestorians.--A Week among the Nestorians.--The
+Published Researches.--Religious Condition of the Armenians.
+
+CHAPTER VII. THE ARMENIANS.--1827-1835.
+
+Effect of Mr. King's "Farewell Letter."--School of Peshtimaljian.
+--Its Influence on the Priesthood.--The Erasmus of the Armenians.--A
+Preparedness for Reformation.--Commencement of the Mission.
+--Splendid Scenery.--Destructive Conflagration.--Schools for the
+Greeks.--The Armenian Patriarch.--Accessions to the Mission.--Outset
+of the Mission characterized.--Unexpected Obstacles.--Remarkable
+Converts.--Removal of the Press.--Supply of School-books.--High
+School.--New Missionaries.--New Stations.
+
+CHAPTER VIII. THE ARMENIANS.--1836-1840.
+
+Trebizond.--Favoring Circumstances.--Improvement in the Publishing
+Department.--Progressive Civilization among the Turks.--Papal
+Opposition.--Signs of Progress.--Education of Women.--Active
+Usefulness of Der Kevoork.--Death of Peshtimaljian.--Deaths by the
+Plague.--Missionary Convocation.--Remarkable Occurrence.--Serope at
+Broosa.--Vertanes and Haritun.--Year of Persecution.--Causes of the
+Persecution.--The Sultan enlisted.--Deposition of the Patriarch
+Stepan.--Banishment of Hohannes.--Zeal of the Persecutors.
+--Cooeperation of the Greek Synod.--An Imperial Firman.--Efforts to
+Expel the Missionaries.--Divine Providence effectually interposes.
+--The Power of the Persecution broken.--Hohannes recalled.--The
+Persecutors brought low.--Stepan restored to Office.
+
+CHAPTER IX. THE ARMENIANS.--1840-1844.
+
+Pledges of the New Sultan.--Boarding School at Bebek.--Station
+commenced at Erzroom.--Interest at Nicomedia.--The Gospel introduced
+into Adabazar.--Danger from the Papacy.--Favorable Reaction.--New
+Missionaries.--Publications.--Scripture Translations.--Education.
+--Signs of Progress.--Visit of Vertanes to Nicomedia.--Awakening at
+Adabazar.--New Missionaries.--An Anxious Sinner seeking Rest.
+--Unexpected Opposition.--Hohannes goes to the United States.--A
+Native Mission.--Prayer Meetings.--Publications.--Preaching to
+Women.--A Turkish Execution.--Efforts of Sir Stratford Canning.--A
+Second Execution.--The Ambassador's Demand on the Sultan.--The Death
+Penalty no more to be Inflicted.--Importance of the Pledge.
+--Sufferings from Persecution.--Changes in the Mission.--Case of Mr.
+Temple.--Death of Mrs. Van Lennep.
+
+CHAPTER X. GREECE AND THE GREEKS.--1824-1844.
+
+The Greek Mind as affected by Circumstances.--Death of Mr. Gridley.
+--Education of Greek Youth.--Result of Experience.--Marriage of Mr.
+King.--His School in Poros.--He removes to Athens.--Change in the
+Government.--A New Missionary.--High Schools.--Station at Argos.
+--Power of the Hierarchy.--Free Circulation of the New Testament.
+--Opposition to the Old Testament.--Intrigues against the Mission.
+--Success notwithstanding.--Station on Scio.--Argos relinquished.
+--Removal from Scio to Ariopolis.--Serious Embarrassments.--Death of
+Mrs. Houston.--Religious Toleration and Political Parties.--Growth
+of Intolerance.--The Station abandoned.--The Retiring Missionaries.
+--Station among the Greeks of Cyprus.--Explorations.--Ignorance of
+the People.--Insalubrious Climate.--Friendly Disposition of the
+People.--Death of Mr. Pease.--Relinquishment of the Station.--Athens
+the only Station retained in Greece.--Preaching and the Press.
+--Labors among the Greeks of Turkey.--Why in great measure
+Discontinued.--Valuable Results.
+
+CHAPTER XI. THE NESTORIANS.--1833-1836.
+
+Commencement of the Mission.--Instructions to the Missionary.--Rise
+of the Nestorians.--Their Missions.--Destroyed by the Mohammedans.
+--The Overland Journey of Mr. and Mrs. Perkins.--Hardships endured
+in Russia.--Kindness of the British Embassy in Persia.--Remarkable
+Escape.--Friends in Need.--The Field to be Occupied.--Preliminary
+Measures.--Additional Laborers.--The Province of Oroomiah.--Dr.
+Grant's Medical Practice.--Recollections of Dr. Grant.--When a
+Missionary Physician is most valuable.--A Nestorian Wedding.
+--Reducing the Language to Writing.--Rise of the Seminary for
+Males.--School for Moslem Youths.--Sickness in the Mission.
+
+CHAPTER XII. THE NESTORIANS.--1836-1840.
+
+Escape from Assassination.--New Missionaries.--First Impressions.
+--Too much Pecuniary Aid given to the People.--Native Helpers.
+--Eminent Qualities of Mrs. Grant.--She commences the Female
+Seminary.--Her Death.--Priest Dunka.--Robert Glen.--Schools.
+--Scarcity of Scriptures in Ancient Syriac.--Dr. Grant's Desire to
+enter Koordistan from the East.--Authorized to enter from the West.
+--An Arduous Journey.--Battle of Nizib.--Consequent Anarchy at
+Diarbekir.--Mr. Homes.--Dr. Grant goes to Mosul.--Starts for
+Koordistan.--Is challenged from the Rocks.--Welcomed by the
+Mountaineers.--Boldly enters Tiary.--Pleasing Meditations.--His
+Reception there.--A Learned Priest.--How Received by Mar Shimon.
+--The Patriarch described.--Old Parchment Copy of the New
+Testament.--Visits Nurullah Bey.--His return to Oroomiah.--New
+Missionaries.--Arrival of Press and Type.--Bold Inroad of Jesuits.
+--Counteractive Influences.--Demand for Preaching.--What was the
+Calamity of the Nestorians.
+
+CHAPTER XIII. THE MOUNTAIN NESTORIANS.--1840-1844.
+
+Invitations from the Patriarch.--Dr. Grant resolves to return Home
+through the Mountains.--Ten Days at Julamerk.--Womanly Forethought.
+--Arrival at Boston.--Work on the Ten Tribes of Israel.
+--Missionaries for Koordistan.--Dr. Grant returns through Van.
+--Again with the Patriarch.--Painful Tidings.--Hastens to Mosul.
+--Journey of the New Missionaries.--Death of Mr. Mitchell.
+--Sufferings and Death of Mrs. Mitchell.--Seasonable Arrival of Dr.
+Grant.--Reflections.--Reception by the Jacobites.--A Syrian Priest
+from India.--The Koords making War on the Nestorians.--Bishop
+Athanasius.--Dr. Grant again visits Oroomiah.--A Third Time enters
+the Mountains.--Guest of Mar Shimon.--The Patriarch's Cooeperation.
+--Mr. Hinsdale.--Papal Missionaries.--Dr. Grant visits Nurullah
+Bey.--Returns to Mosul.--Death of Mr. Hinsdale.--Influence of Mr.
+Ainsworth and Mr. Badger on the Patriarch.--Letter from Mar Shimon
+to English Bishops.--Dr. Grant's Last Visit with Mr. Laurie to the
+Patriarch.--Visits Bader Khan Bey.--Subjugation of the Mountain
+Nestorians.--Escape of Dr. Grant.--Destruction of Tiary.--The
+Patriarch flees to Mosul.--Destruction of Life.--Death of Mrs.
+Laurie.--Arrival of Dr. Azariah Smith.--Death of Dr. Grant.
+--Reflections on his Life and Character.--Tiary again explored.
+--Discontinuance of the Western Branch of the Mission.--Disposal of
+the Missionaries.
+
+CHAPTER XIV. SYRIA.--1830-1838.
+
+The Station at Beirut resumed.--Gregory Wortabet.--His Conversion.
+--Accompanies the Missionaries to Malta.--Returns to Syria.--Active
+in the Christian Life.--Respected by all Classes.--His Death.
+--Disturbing Influences.--Conquest of Syria by Ibrahim Pasha.--Mr.
+Bird's Letters in the Arabic Language.--Arabic Press at Beirut.
+--Explorations in the Hauran.--Journal of the Tour lost in a
+Shipwreck.--Presses in Syria.--Influence of the Mission.--National
+Protection.--Schools.--Retirement of Mr. and Mrs. Bird.--Accessions
+to the Mission.--Improvements in the High School.--Great
+Improvements in Arabic Type.--Death of Mrs. Smith.--Biblical
+Researches.
+
+CHAPTER XV. THE DRUZES, AND THE WARS OF LEBANON.--1835-1842.
+
+The Druzes.--Hope of introducing the Gospel among them.--Disposition
+to Hear.--Their Leading Motive.--Subdued by Ibrahim Pasha.
+--Increased Tendency towards a Nominal Christianity.--A Hopeful
+Druze Convert.--His Firmness under Persecution.--Admitted to the
+Church.--Striking Illustration of an Apparent Religious Interest.
+--Papal Opposition and its Effect.--Treatment of Papal Druzes.
+--Causes of Declining Interest.--Changes in the Mission.--Evidence
+of Progress.--Connection between Religious and Political Events.
+--Consequent Warlike Proceedings.--Remarkable Preservation of
+Mission Property.--The persecuting Emir Beshir deposed.--Changes in
+the Seminary.--The Mission Reassembled.--Inroad of French Jesuits.
+--Mistaken Policy of English Officials.--The Patriarch's Effort to
+expel the Americans.--English Officers better informed.--Mistake of
+the American Minister.--Renewed Interest among the Druzes.--Proffer
+of Friendly Aid.--An Unfortunate Interposition.--The Patriarch makes
+War to his own Ruin.--Deliverance of the Mission.--Its Favorable
+Prospects.--The Success of the Mission proportioned to its Efforts.
+--Value of the Results.--A Sudden and Disastrous Revolution.
+
+CHAPTER XVI. SYRIA.--1842-1846.
+
+Experiences of the Mission.--Missionary Convention.--The People all
+of one Race.--The most Hopeful Districts.--When to form Churches.
+--Qualifications for Church membership not to be relaxed.--Practical
+Errors.--Counteracting Agencies.--Call for Preaching at Hasbeiya.--A
+Secession from the Greek Church.--Attention given to the Gospel.
+--Needed Explanations.--Affecting Scene.--Arrival of Persecutors.
+--Seasonable Intervention.--The Protestants obliged to flee.--Their
+Return.--Interference of the Russian Consul General.--Partial
+Success of the Enemy.--The Jerusalem Station suspended.--The
+Seminary revived.--Death of Yakob Agha.--Another War between Druzes
+and Maronites.--Its Results.--Friendly Services of the
+Missionaries.--Reflections on the Patriarch's Death.--After the War.
+
+CHAPTER XVII. DR. JONAS KING AND THE GREEK HIERARCHY.--1845-1847.
+
+Importance of this Struggle.--The Accusations against Dr. King.--His
+Response.--Increased Violence of the Opposition.--His Examination by
+a Judge.--His Book denounced at Constantinople.--The Courts against
+him.--Goes to the Criminal Court at Syra.--A Dangerous Gathering.
+--Returns to Athens.--Is offered British Protection.--Again cited
+for Trial at Syra.--The Citation recalled.--Alleviations.--Renewal
+of the Storm.--Extraordinary Accusations.--Call from the Governor of
+Attica.--A Guard of Soldiers.--Advice from the King.--Offer of Sir
+Edmund Lyons.--Retires to Geneva.--More Slanderous Accusations.--His
+House protected.--Subsequent Proceedings of the Government.--Goes to
+Malta.--Editions of his "Farewell Letter."
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. DR. JONAS KING AND THE GREEK HIERARCHY.--1847-1869.
+
+Returns to Athens.--His Reasons.--The Reception.--Resumes his
+Labors.--His Chief Accuser discredited.--Cheering Incident.--The
+Greek Synod demands his Prosecution.--An Outbreak.--Quelled by
+raising the United States Flag.--Answers to a Judge.--Effect of a
+New Publication.--Allegations for a New Trial.--The Trial at
+Athens.--Decides to go to the Court-room openly and on foot.
+--Extraordinary Sources of Proof.--His Condemnation.--Ground of the
+Condemnation.--Is imprisoned.--Appeals to the Areopagus.--Which
+confirms the Sentence.--Greek Lawyers dissent from the Courts.
+--Appeal to the United States Government.--The Rights of
+Missionaries.--The Appeal responded to.--Opinion of the President.
+--Justice partially rendered.--Sentence of Banishment revoked.
+--Opinion of the American Minister.--Favorable Change in the Popular
+Sentiment.--Temporary Outbreak of the Old Enmity.--Unexpected
+Citation.--The Judges decide not to proceed.--Cooeperation of other
+Missionaries.--A Revolution in the Government.--Disgrace of Old
+Persecutors.--New King and Constitution.--Association of Editors.
+--An Act of Public Justice.--Visit to the United States.--Return to
+Greece.--Zealous Native Labors.--Conference with the President of
+the Synod.--Death of Dr. King.--General Reflections.
+
+CHAPTER XIX. THE NESTORIANS.--1841-1848.
+
+Visit of Dr. and Mrs. Perkins to the United States.--Accompanied by
+Mar Yohannan.--Schools and the Press.--Improved Type.--Health
+Station.--New Missionaries.--Dr. Perkins's History of the Mission.
+--His Return.--Version of the Scriptures.--Religious Influences.
+--The Jesuits and French Government.--Counteracting Influences.--The
+Patriarchal Family.--Hostility of the Patriarch.--Dismission of the
+Schools.--Female Seminary revived.--Boys' Seminary reorganized.--On
+employing the Higher Clergy.--Mr. Merrick's Connection with the
+Mission.--Ordinations.--Protection for Native Christians.--The First
+Revival.--Its First Fruits.--Brother of the Patriarch.--Interest at
+Geog Tapa.--Interest in the Boys' Seminary.--Estimated Number of
+Converts.--Modern Syriac New Testament.--Translation of the Old
+Testament.--Nestorian Hymn Book.--New Missionaries.--Devastation by
+the Cholera.--Dr. Wright's Visit to Bader Khan Bey.--Wonderful
+Change in the Mountains.--Homeward Route.--Mar Shimon invited to
+Constantinople.--Flees to Oroomiah.--Conflicting Influences upon
+him.--His Apparent Friendship.--Throws off the Mask.--His Power
+circumscribed.--His Unfriendly Acts.--The Government interposes.
+--His Combination with the Jesuits.--Prejudicial to Both.--Death of
+the King.--Providential Interpositions.--Persecution of Deacon
+Tamo.--Deposition of the Great Koordish Chieftains.
+
+CHAPTER XX. THE NESTORIANS.--1848-1852.
+
+Mr. Stoddard Visits the United States.--Death of Mrs. Stoddard.
+--State of the Schools.--Mar Shimon returns to the Mountains.--A
+Visit to Mosul.--A Second Revival.--Deacon Guwergis.--Third
+Revival.--Deacon John.--Deacon Jeremiah.--Various Tours.--The
+Mission Enlarged.--Advance in Female Education.--Village Schools.
+--Sabbath-schools.--The Monthly Concert.--Preaching Tours.--Deacon
+Isaac.--Station at Gawar.--A Remarkable Youth.--Adverse Influences.
+--Persecution of Deacon Tamo.--Intervention of Lieut.-Col.
+Williams.--Powerful Friends.--Release of Tamo.--Favorable Results.
+--Modern Syriac Bible.
+
+CHAPTER XXI. SYRIA.--1845-1856.
+
+Good News from the North.--Mr. Thomson Visits Aleppo.--The People
+characterized.--Greek Catholic Archbishop.--Visit to Hasbeiya.--Mr.
+Laurie's Return Home.--Unsuccessful Appeal for Laborers.--Relation
+of the Druzes to Mohammedanism.--Successful Appeal of the Hasbeiyans
+to the Turkish Government.--Desperate Resort of the Greek
+Patriarch.--Formation of a Purely Native Church.--Translation of the
+Scriptures into the Arabic.--Station of Aleppo.--Visit to Northern
+Lebanon.--Death of Bedros.--Intelligent Men affected by the Truth.
+--Another Visit to Hasbeiya.--English Protection.--Seminary at
+Abeih.--Improved Arabic Type.--The Native Church.--Outrages at
+Aleppo.--Effect of the Proceedings.--Pupils in the Seminary.--The
+Church at Hasbeiya.--John Wortabet.--Drs. Bacon and Robinson.
+--Female Boarding School.--Native Church at Abeih.--Experience in
+Different Localities.--An Interesting Conversion.--Hopeful
+Developments.--Opposition and its Effect.--A Church built at
+Hasbeiya.--Progress of the Arabic Translation of the Scriptures.
+--The Gospel at Ain Zehalty.--Northern Syria transferred to the
+Armenian Mission.--Accessions and Bereavements.--General View.
+
+CHAPTER XXII. THE ARMENIANS.--1845-1846.
+
+The Grand Crisis.--The Persecuting Patriarch.--Mention of Bishop
+Southgate.--The Patriarch's Mode of Proceeding.--His Treatment of
+Bedros Vartabed.--Priest Vertanes.--The Chief Persecutors.
+--Persecution at Erzroom.--Its Effect.--Central Position of
+Erzroom.--Progress at Trebizond.--Persecutions.--The Patriarch
+resorts to Excommunication.--Temporal Penalties enforced.--The
+Patriarch and the First Protestant Pastor.--Appeals of the
+Persecuted.--Charitable Aid.--Good Resulting from Evil.
+--Intervention of the Government.--The Patriarch's Subterfuge.--Case
+of Priest Haritun.--A Temporary Triumph.--Cruelties at Adabazar and
+Trebizond.--A British Consul interposes.--Effect of the
+Persecutions.--Barbarities at Erzroom.
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. THE ARMENIANS.--1846-1848.
+
+Continued Persecutions.--Interposition of the English Ambassador.
+--Designation of "Protestants."--A Vizierial Letter.--The
+Patriarch's Hostility to the Seminary.--Its Effect.--Seminary for
+Young Ladies.--Perpetual Excommunication of the Protestants.
+--Consequent Organization of an Evangelical Church at
+Constantinople.--Choice of Officers.--Ordination of a Pastor.
+--Public Declaration of Faith.--Other Churches formed.--Early Death
+of the Pastor.--The Pastor's Wife.--Der Haritun.--Reformation at
+Aintab.--Visit of Mr. Van Lennep.--Visit of Mr. Johnston.--Arrival
+of Dr. Azariah Smith.--Mr. Schneider's Visit.--Trying Situation of
+the Protestants.--Power of the Patriarch reduced.--Number of the
+Protestants.--The Churches.--Additional Native Pastors.--Revivals of
+Religion.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+We may not hope for the conversion of the Mohammedans, unless true
+Christianity be exemplified before them by the Oriental Churches. To
+them the native Christians represent the Christian religion, and
+they see that these are no better than themselves. They think them
+worse; and therefore the Moslem believes the Koran to be more
+excellent than the Bible.
+
+It is vain to say, that the native Christians have so far departed
+from the truth that they do not feel the power of the Gospel, and
+that therefore the immorality of their lives is not to be attributed
+to its influence. The Mohammedan has seen no other effect of it, and
+he cannot be persuaded to read the Bible to correct the evidence of
+his observation, and perhaps also of his own painful experience.
+
+Hence a wise plan for the conversion of the Mohammedans of Western
+Asia necessarily involved, first, a mission to the Oriental
+Churches. It was needful that the lights of the Gospel should once
+more burn on those candlesticks, that everywhere there should be
+living examples of the religion of Jesus Christ, that Christianity
+should no longer be associated in the Moslem mind with all that is
+sordid and base.
+
+The continued existence of large bodies of nominal Christians among
+these Mohammedans, is a remarkable fact. They constitute more than a
+third part of the population of Constantinople, and are found in all
+the provinces of the empire, as, also, in Persia, and are supposed
+to number at least twelve millions. Being so numerous and so widely
+dispersed, should spiritual life be revived among them a flood of
+light would illumine the Turkish empire, and shine far up into
+Central Asia. The followers of Mohammed would look on with wonder,
+and perhaps, at first, with hatred and persecution; but new views of
+the Gospel would thus be forced upon them, and no longer would they
+be able to boast of the superiority of their own religion.
+
+It is true of the Oriental Churches, that they have lost nearly all
+the essential principles of the Gospel; at least that those
+principles have, in great measure, ceased to have a practical
+influence.1 Their views of the Trinity, and of the divine and human
+natures of Christ, are not unscriptural; but their views of the way
+of salvation through the Son, and of the work of the Holy Spirit,
+are sadly perverted. The efficacy of Christ's death for the pardon
+of sin, is secured to the sinner, they suppose, by baptism and
+penance. The belief is universal, that baptism cancels guilt, and is
+regeneration. They also believe baptism to be the instrumental cause
+of justification. Hence faith is practically regarded as no more
+than a general assent of the understanding to the creeds of their
+churches. Of the doctrine of a justifying faith of the heart,--the
+distinguishing doctrine of the Gospel,--the people of the Oriental
+Churches are believed to have been wholly ignorant, before the
+arrival of Protestant missionaries among them.
+
+1 This brief description of the religion of the Oriental Churches,
+is condensed from a statement by that eminent missionary, Dr. Eli
+Smith, in a sermon published in 1833, but now accessible to very
+few. I often use his words, as best adapted to convey the true idea.
+Subsequent observations, so far as I know, have never called for any
+modification in his statement.
+
+Being thus freed from the condemning power of original sin, and
+regenerated by baptism, men were expected to work their way to
+heaven by observing the laws of God and the rites of the church.
+These rites were fasting, masses, saying of prayers, pilgrimages,
+and the like, and in practice crowded the moral law out of mind. The
+race of merit was hindered by daily sins, but not stopped, provided
+the sins were of a class denominated venial. These could be canceled
+by the rites of the church, the most important of which was the
+mass, or the consecration and oblation of the elements of the Lord's
+Supper. That ordinance is to be observed in remembrance of Christ,
+but the people of the Oriental Churches are taught to look upon it
+as a renewal of his death. On the priest's pronouncing the words,
+"This is my body," the elements are believed to be changed from
+bread and wine, and thenceforth to contain the body and blood, the
+soul and divinity, of Christ; so that He is crucified afresh, and
+made an expiatory sacrifice for sin, every time the consecration is
+performed; which, in most churches, is almost every morning in the
+year. Its merit attaches not only to the offerer and the partaker,
+but to all the faithful, living and dead; especially to those who,
+by paying the priest, or by some other service, have their names
+mentioned in the prayers that form a part of the ceremony.
+
+Thus a ministry to offer sacrifices is substituted for a ministry to
+feed the flock of God with sound doctrine, and the spiritual worship
+of God is converted into the formal adoration of a wafer. Preaching
+is nowhere regarded as the leading duty of the clergy, but to say
+mass. By exalting the eucharist into an expiatory sacrifice, the
+partaking of the elements by the people came to be considered quite
+unessential, and is generally neglected. They need not understand,
+nor even hear the language of the officiating priest. It is enough,
+if they see and adore. A bell warns them when to make the needful
+genuflections and crosses. Nor can there be a reasonable doubt, that
+the adoration of the host (which is required on pain of
+excommunication in the Romish Church) is the grossest species of
+idolatry.
+
+But there are deadly, as well as venial, sins; and these expose the
+soul to eternal punishment. When these are committed after baptism,
+they can be remitted only by auricular confession, or the sacrifice
+of penance, of which confession forms an essential part. To the
+efficacy of this ceremony, contrition of heart is supposed, in
+theory, to be essential; but its necessity is rarely taught, and the
+great mass of the community go away from the confessional fully
+satisfied that their sins are canceled by the mere external form.
+
+Pardon by the priest is not, however, absolute. Grace is restored,
+and eternal punishment remitted, but there must be a temporary
+punishment,--certain penances, such as fasting, alms-giving, saying
+prayers, and the like. The fasts are merely the substituting of a
+less for a more palatable and nutritious diet. Alms are more for the
+spiritual benefit of the giver, than for the relief of the receiver.
+The supposed efficacy of prayer has no connection with the sincerity
+of the offerer. For in none of the Oriental Churches, excepting the
+Arabic branch of the Greek Church, are the prayers in a language
+understood by the people.
+
+They believe that all who die before baptism, or after baptism with
+deadly sins unconfessed, are lost forever; but if one die after
+confession, and while his penance is incomplete, he cannot be sent
+to hell, neither is he prepared for heaven. He must first complete
+his penance in a temporary state of misery. This state the papists
+call purgatory; and though the other churches reject the name, they
+cleave tenaciously to the thing. As all believe that the sufferings
+of the departed may be shortened by the merit of good works
+performed by surviving relatives and imputed to them, prayers for
+the dead are frequent in churches and over graves, and masses are
+celebrated in their name.
+
+Though the Nestorians renounced auricular confession, they no more
+looked to the redemption of Christ for pardon, than did their
+neighbors, and they knew of no other regeneration than baptism.
+
+There is no need of entering here on the practical influence of such
+a religion on the lives of the people. That will appear in the
+progress of our history. Enough has been said to justify the
+American churches in laboring to restore to the degenerate churches
+of the East the Gospel they had lost, especially as an indispensable
+means of Christianizing the Moslems of Turkey and Persia.
+
+The Oriental communities within the range of this history, are the
+following:--
+
+The GREEKS;
+The ARMENIANS;
+The NESTORIANS;
+The JACOBITES;
+The BULGARIANS;
+The ROMAN CATHOLICS OF TURKEY;
+The JEWS OF TURKEY; and
+The MOHAMMEDANS.
+
+The Missions are as follows:--
+
+The PALESTINE Mission;
+The SYRIA Mission;
+The GREEK Mission;
+The ARMENIAN Mission;
+The NESTORIAN Mission;
+The ASSYRIAN Mission;
+The MISSION TO THE JEWS; and that to
+The MOHAMMEDANS.
+
+
+MISSIONS TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+PALESTINE.
+
+1819--1824.
+
+
+American missions in Bible lands, like their apostolic predecessors,
+had a beginning at Jerusalem. The first missionaries from this
+country to the Oriental Churches were Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons.
+On the 23d of September, 1818, they were appointed to labor in
+Palestine. But as, at that early period, there was special need of
+making the churches acquainted with the work, and foreign
+missionaries were less common than now, they were detained to labor
+at home until November of the following year, when they embarked at
+Boston for Smyrna, in the ship _Sally Ann_, Captain Edes. They were
+both interesting men, and the impressive public services connected
+with their departure were long remembered in Boston. A single
+extract from the official instructions of Dr. Worcester, the
+Corresponding Secretary of the Board, will give at once a glimpse of
+that remarkable man, and a view of the object of the mission.
+
+"From the heights of the Holy Land, and from Zion, you will take an
+extended view of the wide-spread desolations and variegated scenes
+presenting themselves on every side to Christian sensibility; and
+will survey with earnest attention the various tribes and classes
+who dwell in that land, and in the surrounding countries. The two
+grand inquiries ever present to your minds will be, WHAT GOOD CAN BE
+DONE? and BY WHAT MEANS? What can be done for Jews? What for Pagans?
+What for Mohammedans? What for Christians? What for the people in
+Palestine? What for those in Egypt, in Syria, in Persia, in Armenia,
+in other countries to which your inquiries may be extended?"
+
+The vessel touched at Malta, thus giving opportunity, so far as the
+quarantines of those times would allow, for personal intercourse
+with the Rev. William Jowett, of the Church Missionary Society, and
+afterwards one of its secretaries. He received his American brethren
+in that catholic spirit, which has ever characterized that society
+and its agents, and gave them all the aid in his power. They also
+received kindness from the Rev. Mr. Wilson, of the London Missionary
+Society, then resident in Malta, and from Dr. Naudi, a native of the
+island and interested in Protestant missions, though then a Roman
+Catholic.
+
+The brethren reached Smyrna at the opening of the year 1820, and
+took lodgings in a Swiss family, where French, Italian, Modern
+Greek, and some Turkish were spoken, but no English. American and
+English residents treated them kindly, and they were specially
+indebted to the Messrs. Van Lennep, Dutch merchants, to whom they
+were introduced by Captain Edes.
+
+In May they repaired to the Greek College in Scio, for the purpose
+of studying the Modern Hellenic, and there they made the
+acquaintance of Professor Bambas, a Greek gentleman of talent and
+learning, who entered into their plans with an intelligent and
+heartfelt interest.
+
+It was my privilege, eight years after this, to make the
+acquaintance of Professor Bambas at Corfu, in the Ionian Islands,
+where he was connected with the University, instructing in logic,
+metaphysics, and practical theology, and presiding over the
+theological seminary connected with the University. An intelligent
+and judicious friend, well acquainted with him, expressed a decided
+opinion in favor of his piety and preaching. Bambas appeared then to
+be about fifty years old; and his sweet countenance enlivened by a
+quick eye, and the deliberation, judgment, and kindness, with which
+he replied to inquiries, made a most favorable impression, which
+subsequent intercourse fully sustained.
+
+With such a specimen of a Greek before them, we cannot wonder that
+Messrs. Fisk and Parsons cherished strong hopes as to the future of
+the nation. They remained in Scio five months, and availed
+themselves of every opportunity to revive among the Greeks a
+knowledge of the Gospel. In November, they made a tour of about
+three hundred miles, visiting the places where once stood the Seven
+Churches of Asia, everywhere acquiring and imparting information.
+
+After mature deliberation they decided, that the object of their
+mission would be most effectually promoted by their temporary
+separation; and that Mr. Parsons should proceed at once to
+Jerusalem, preliminary to its permanent occupation, while Mr. Fisk
+should prosecute his studies at Smyrna, under the hospitable roof of
+Mr. Van Lennep. The war of the Greek revolution began in the
+following spring, and Mr. Fisk's journal makes frequent mention of
+cruel atrocities committed by the Turks on their opponents in the
+streets of Smyrna. Prudence required him to live much in retirement.
+In a few short excursions, however, he distributed Bibles,
+Testaments, and tracts; and, during a part of the year, he supplied
+the place of British chaplain.
+
+Mr. Parsons arrived at Jerusalem on the 17th of February, 1821, and
+was the first Protestant missionary ever resident there, with the
+intention of making it a permanent field of labor. His first object
+was to reach the multitude of pilgrims then about to congregate in
+the Holy City. He took with him the Scriptures in nine languages,
+and four or five thousand religious tracts. He had letters to
+Procopius, an assistant of the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem,
+president of the Greek monasteries, and agent of the British and
+Foreign Bible Society. Convenient rooms were assigned him near the
+so-called holy sepulchre. During the spring he visited the principal
+places of interest in Jerusalem and its vicinity, including the
+Jordan and Dead Sea, and had reason to believe that his labors were
+not fruitless. As he supposed it not safe to pass the hot months of
+the year at Jerusalem, he resolved to spend the summer on Mount
+Lebanon, but civil commotions obliged him to relinquish the idea. He
+then turned his attention to Bethlehem, but the influence of the
+Greek revolt had reached Palestine, and was putting the Greeks in
+constant fear of their lives. His only resort was to return to
+Smyrna. On the voyage he first saw the new Greek flag, and was
+informed, by the captain of a Greek vessel of war, that the college
+at Scio was closed, and that Professor Bambas had saved his life
+only by flight. He found a temporary home at Syra, under the
+protection of the British consul. There he had an attack of fever,
+from which he recovered so far as to reach Smyrna in December.
+
+As Mr. Parsons did not regain his health at Smyrna, the two brethren
+proceeded to Alexandria in Egypt, hoping much from a change of
+climate, and trusting that they should be able to reach Jerusalem in
+the spring. But such was not the will of their Heavenly Father. Mr.
+Parsons' disease assumed a dangerous form soon after their arrival
+at Alexandria, and he died early in the morning of February 10,
+1822. His last words, when parting with his beloved associate, late
+in the evening, were, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about
+them that fear him."
+
+The character of Mr. Parsons was transparent and lovely. Few of
+those distinguished for piety leave a name so spotless. Though
+scarcely thirty years of age, such was the impression he had made on
+the Christian community at home, that his death was widely lamented;
+the more, doubtless, because of the intimate association of his name
+with Jerusalem, Zion, Gethsemane, and the scenes of the crucifixion.
+His disposition, demeanor, and general intelligence inspired
+confidence, and gave him access to the most cultivated society. He
+united uncommon zeal with the meekness of wisdom. His powers were
+happily balanced, and his consecration to the service of his Divine
+Master was entire. Mr. Fisk's account of the closing scene was
+beautiful and touching in its simplicity.1
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_ for 1822, p. 218.
+
+Mr. Fisk went to Cairo soon after the death of his associate,
+intending to proceed to Jerusalem through the desert. But
+hearing that the Rev. Daniel Temple had arrived at Malta as a
+fellow-laborer, he deemed it prudent to confer with him, before
+venturing upon the then very disturbed state of Palestine. He
+arrived at Malta on the 13th of April. How natural, after the
+privations of his journeys by land and sea, the seclusion from
+Christian society, the scenes of plague and massacre he had
+witnessed, and especially after the sickness and death of his
+beloved colleague, that he should feel the need of Christian
+friends, with whom to renew his strength.
+
+Mr. Temple and his wife had embarked at Boston on the 2d of January,
+1822. He had brought with him a printing-press, designed for the
+mission at Malta, types had been ordered at Paris, and his
+connection with this establishment prevented his accompanying Mr.
+Fisk.
+
+An associate was provided, however, in an unexpected quarter. The
+Rev. Jonas King had been elected Professor of Oriental Languages in
+Amherst College, and was then pursuing the study of Arabic in Paris,
+under the celebrated orientalist De Sacy. Mr. Fisk lost no time in
+requesting him to become his associate. On receiving the letter, Mr.
+King wrote at once to the American Board, tendering his services for
+three years, and they were accepted. There were then neither
+steamers nor telegraphs, and the response of the Prudential
+Committee could not be received until after the favorable season for
+oriental traveling would have passed. Mr. King's friends in Paris
+and in some other European cities, therefore, advanced the needful
+funds to enable him to start at once, and he landed at Malta early
+in November. A few days later, the celebrated Joseph Wolff also
+arrived, for the purpose of going with Mr. Fisk to Jerusalem. The
+three started January 3, 1823, to go by way of Alexandria, Cairo,
+and the desert. During the three weeks spent in Egypt they ascended
+the Nile as far as Thebes, distributing Bibles and tracts at most of
+the villages along the river. They were able to communicate
+religious truths in several languages, and sold more than six
+hundred copies of the Bible, or parts of it. The whole number of
+copies distributed was eight hundred, in twelve languages, besides
+more than two thousand tracts.
+
+They left Cairo without waiting for a caravan, but were joined by
+Turks, Arabs, Greeks, and Armenians, before entering the desert,
+until they numbered seventy-four persons, with forty-four camels,
+and fifty-seven asses.
+
+This being their first visit to Jerusalem, it was full of interest.
+Here God had been pleased to dwell visibly in his temple. For many
+ages it was the earthly home of the Church. Here the chosen tribes
+came to worship. Here David tuned his harp to praise Jehovah, and
+Isaiah obtained enraptured visions of the future Church. Above all,
+here the Lord of the world became incarnate, and wrought out
+redemption for man. During the two months of their sojourn, they
+visited many places of interest to the Christian and to the Biblical
+student.1 For greater usefulness, they occupied separate rooms in
+the Greek Convent, where they received all who came unto them,
+preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which
+concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man
+forbidding them. Mr. Wolff had a room on the side of Mount Zion,
+near the residence of the Jews, with whom he labored almost
+incessantly. Impressions as to the unhealthiness of Jerusalem in
+summer were stronger, at that time, than subsequent experience
+justified, and the brethren decided, like Mr. Parsons, to pass the
+hot months on the heights of Lebanon. Accordingly they left the Holy
+City on the 27th of June, going by way of Jaffa and the coast to
+Beirut, where they arrived on the 10th of July. The southern portion
+of Lebanon, largely occupied by Druses, was then governed by the
+Emir Beshir, who was called Prince of the Druses, though himself a
+Maronite. Not long before, having offended the Sultan, he had fled
+into Egypt, and there became acquainted with the missionaries.
+Having made his peace with the Sultan and returned to Deir el-Kamr,
+his capital, the brethren visited him there, and were hospitably
+entertained, and furnished with a firman for travelling in all parts
+of his dominions.
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_, 1824, pp. 65-71, 97-101.
+
+Mr. King took up his residence there in order to study the Arabic
+language. Mr. Fisk spent the summer with Mr. Way, of the London
+Jews' Society, in a building erected for a Jesuits' College at
+Aintura, which that gentleman had hired for the use of missionaries
+in Palestine. In August, Mr. Wolff arrived from Jerusalem. Early in
+the autumn, Messrs. Fisk, Lewis of the Jews' Society, Wolff, Jowett
+and King, all met at Aintura, for the friendly discussion of some
+practical questions relating to missions, which were soon arranged
+to mutual satisfaction. How many dark and troubled ages had passed,
+since there was such a company of Christian ministers assembled on
+that goodly mountain! The journals of Mr. King, here and elsewhere,
+have a singularly dramatic interest, and were eagerly read, as they
+appeared in the "Missionary Herald." Those of Mr. Fisk are also rich
+in the information they contain. He was able to preach in both the
+Italian and Modern Greek. Mr. King's labors were chiefly in the
+Arabic language, in which he preached the Gospel with the utmost
+plainness. Yet he appears to have secured in a remarkable degree the
+good-will of the people. He thus describes the scene connected with
+his departure from Deir el-Kamr, on the 22d of September:--
+
+"A little before I left, the family appeared very sorrowful, and
+some of them wept. The mother wept much, and a priest with whom I
+had often conversed came in and wept like a child. I improved this
+occasion by telling him of his duty as a shepherd, and spoke to him
+of the great day of account, and the responsibility that rested upon
+him, and his duty to search the Scriptures. The family I exhorted to
+love the Lord Jesus Christ, to read the Word of God, and to be
+careful to keep all his commandments.
+
+"It was truly an interesting scene; and I was surprised to see the
+feeling exhibited by the Arabs on my departure. As I left the house,
+they loaded me with blessings, and, as I passed through the street,
+many commended me to the care and protection of the Lord."1
+
+1 Report for 1824, p. 121.
+
+In October, Messrs. Fisk and King rode to Tripoli, supposed then to
+contain fifteen thousand inhabitants. From thence they proceeded to
+the Maronite Convent of Mar Antonius Khoshiah, situated on the brow
+of an almost perpendicular mountain, where was a printing-press.
+Nearly all the inhabitants of that part of Lebanon are Maronites,
+acknowledging allegiance to the Pope. Thence they visited the Cedars
+of Lebanon; and then crossed the rich plain of Coelo-Syria to
+Baalbek, at the foot of Anti-Lebanon. Several of the places visited
+in this tour will come more properly into notice in the subsequent
+history.
+
+Mr. Fisk returned to Jerusalem in the autumn with Mr. Jowett. Just
+before leaving Beirut, they had the joy of welcoming the Rev.
+Messrs. William Goodell and Isaac Bird, and their wives, who arrived
+on the 16th of October. In January, Messrs. King and Bird also went
+to Jerusalem.
+
+The year 1824 was one of much activity. In February, Messrs. Fisk
+and Bird were the only missionaries at Jerusalem, Mr. King having
+gone to Jaffa. While successfully employed in selling the Scriptures
+to Armenian pilgrims in the city, they were apprehended, at the
+instigation of the Latins, and brought before Moslem judges on the
+strange charge of distributing books that were neither Mohammedan,
+Jewish, nor Christian. Holding up a copy of Genesis, the judge
+declared it to be among the unchristian books denounced by the
+Latins. Meanwhile their rooms were searched, and a crier was sent
+out into the city, forbidding all persons to receive their books,
+and ordering all that had been received to be delivered up. Their
+papers were examined, and some of them retained by the government.
+In a few days, however, through the prompt interference of the
+English Consul at Jaffa, their papers were all restored, and they
+were set at liberty. These proceedings becoming widely known, the
+result was, on the whole, favorable. Mr. Abbott, English Consul at
+Beirut, learning of the occurrence, wrote to the Pasha at Damascus,
+and the governor and judge at Jerusalem received an official order
+to restore to the missionaries whatever had been taken from them,
+and to secure for them protection and respectful treatment. The
+governor was shortly after superseded, for what cause was not
+certainly known; but many people, both Mussulmans and Christians,
+believed it was in consequence of his ill treatment of Messrs. Fisk
+and Bird.
+
+Mr. Damiani, son of the English Consul at Jaffa, had come to
+Jerusalem on their behalf, with a letter from his father to the
+governor. In company with this young gentleman, the missionaries
+visited Hebron in February, going by way of Bethlehem. About three
+miles south of Bethlehem, they came to what are called the Cisterns
+of Solomon, three in number, of large dimensions, on the side of a
+hill. Mr. Fisk was informed, that Jerusalem was supplied in part by
+an aqueduct, which carried its waters from those fountains.1
+
+1 Dr. Robinson says that the modern aqueduct was mostly laid with
+tubes of pottery; but, northeast of Rachel's tomb, he saw "the
+traces of an ancient aqueduct which was carried _up the slope of the
+hill_ by means of tubes, or perforated blocks of stone, fitted
+together with sockets and tenons, and originally cemented." This was
+in 1842. Dr. Eli Smith drew my attention in 1845 to the same thing.
+Such stones are said to be seen nowhere else in that region.
+
+The visit to Hebron had no important results. During the five months
+spent at Jerusalem, seven hundred copies of Scripture were sold. In
+the last six weeks, Mr. Fisk suffered from an attack of fever, with
+headache, restlessness, and tendency to delirium, and had no medical
+adviser. On the 22d of April, the two brethren went to Jaffa, from
+whence they proceeded, with Mr. King, to Beirut, where they arrived
+on the 4th of May. With Messrs. King, Bird, and Goodell around him,
+Mr. Fisk thus gives expression to his feelings: "These days of busy,
+friendly, joyous intercourse have greatly served to revive the
+spirits that drooped, to refresh the body that was weary, and to
+invigorate the mind that began to flag. I came here tired of study,
+and tired of journeying, but I begin to feel already desirous to
+reopen my books, or resume my journeys. We have united in praising
+God for bringing us to this land. I suppose we are as cheerful,
+contented, and happy, as any little circle of friends in our favored
+country. Dear brother Parsons! how would his affectionate heart have
+rejoiced to welcome such a company of fellow laborers to this land!
+But he is happier in union with the blessed above."
+
+On the 22d of June, 1824, Messrs. Fisk and King set out for
+Damascus, where they expected to find peculiar facilities for Arabic
+studies. Aleppo being still more advantageous for them, they
+proceeded to that city in July, with a caravan, notwithstanding the
+intense heat of midsummer. On the 19th, they suffered much from
+exposure to the heated air, filled with sand and dust. On the 25th,
+they encamped at Sheikhoon, a dirty Mussulman village of a thousand
+inhabitants. There was neither tree nor rock to shade them. The
+strong wind was almost as hot as if it came from a furnace, and they
+had nothing to eat but curdled milk, called _leben_, and bread that
+had been dried and hardened by the heat of eight or ten days. Yet it
+was the Sabbath, and they declared themselves to be happy. In the
+last day of their journey, which was July 28, they were joined by a
+large caravan from Latakia, much to their satisfaction, as that
+day's journey was considered the most dangerous.
+
+On the 25th of October the brethren started on their return to
+Beirut, going by way of Antioch, Latakia, and Tripoli, a journey of
+nineteen days. While traveling across the mountains, often in sight
+of the ruined old Roman road to Antioch, they were repeatedly
+drenched by the great rains of that season. No wonder the brethren
+of Mr. Fisk at Beirut were not a little anxious about him, amid such
+exposures, but his usual health seems to have returned with the cold
+season.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+PALESTINE.
+
+1824-1843.
+
+
+In February, 1824, the Grand Seignior, influenced, as it would
+appear, by Rome, issued a proclamation to the Pashas throughout
+Western Asia, forbidding the distribution of the Christian
+Scriptures, and commanding those who had received copies to deliver
+them to the public authorities to be burnt. The copies remaining in
+the hands of the distributors were to be sealed up till they could
+be sent back to Europe. But few copies were obtained from the
+people, and the Turks seemed to take very little interest in the
+matter.
+
+Messrs. Fisk and King made their third and last visit to Jerusalem
+in the spring of 1825, arriving there on the 29th of March. On their
+way, they had stopped a few weeks in Jaffa, where their labors gave
+rise to some very absurd reports, which yet appeared credible to the
+superstitious people. Some said, that the missionaries bought people
+with money; that the price for common people was ten piastres, and
+that those ten piastres always remained with the man who received
+them, however much he might spend from them. Others said, that the
+picture of professed converts was taken in a book, and that the
+missionaries would shoot the picture, should the man go back to his
+former religion, and he would of course die. A Moslem, having heard
+that men were hired to worship the devil, asked if it were true,
+saying that he would come, and bring a hundred others with him.
+"What," said his friend, "would you worship the devil?" "Yes," said
+he, "if I was paid for it."
+
+The brethren were cordially received by their acquaintances at
+Jerusalem. Two days afterwards, the pasha of Damascus sat down
+before the city, with three thousand soldiers, to collect his annual
+tribute. The amount to be paid by each community was determined
+solely by his own caprice, and what he could not be induced to remit
+was extorted by arrest, imprisonment, and the bastinado. Many of the
+inhabitants fled, and the rest lived in constant terror and
+distress. So great was the confusion and insecurity within and
+around the city, that the brethren decided to return to Beirut,
+where they arrived on the 18th of May. From 1822 to 1825 they and
+their associates had distributed nearly four thousand copies of the
+Scriptures, and parts thereof, in different languages, and about
+twenty thousand tracts. After staying a month at Beirut, Mr. King
+passed six weeks at Deir el-Kamr in the study of Syriac, with Asaad
+el-Shidiak for his teacher, a remarkable young Maronite, who will
+have a prominent place in this history. On returning to Beirut, Mr.
+King wrote a farewell letter to his friends in Palestine and Syria,
+which Asaad translated into excellent Arabic, and afterwards
+multiplied copies for distribution. It was a tract destined to exert
+an important influence.
+
+Mr. King's term of service had now expired; and on the 26th of
+August, 1825, after three years of active and very useful missionary
+labors, he left Syria homeward bound. He went first to Tarsus by
+ship, and thence, by what proved a tedious land journey, to Smyrna.
+His clothes, books, papers, and several valuable manuscripts were
+sent by a vessel, that was taken by a Greek cruiser, and only a part
+of them were returned. On his arrival at Smyrna, December 4, he
+received the painful intelligence of the death of his beloved
+associate at Beirut.
+
+Mr. King remained several months at Smyrna, waiting the recovery of
+his effects, making good progress, meanwhile, in the modern Greek
+language, and doing much service for the Greeks. He then visited
+Constantinople with the Rev. Mr. Hartley, of the Church Missionary
+Society, where he was received by several high Greek ecclesiastics
+with a kindness similar to that he had received from the Greeks of
+Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor. It was after his departure,
+that a copy of his Farewell Letter found its way into the hands of
+Armenians, who brought it before a council convened for the purpose,
+as will be related hereafter. He returned to France just four years
+from the time of his departure to enter upon his mission. Pious
+people were everywhere exceedingly eager to hear his statements.
+Enough was contributed by friends in Paris, to purchase a font of
+Armenian type for the press at Malta, which he ordered before
+leaving the metropolis. When in England he obtained funds for Arabic
+types, and left orders for a font in London. Mrs. Hannah More, then
+at an advanced age, was among the contributors. He returned home at
+the close of the summer of 1827, and soon after the annual meeting
+of the Board made a tour as agent through the Southern and Middle
+States, which occupied him till April of the following year. The
+Rev. Edward N. Kirk (now Dr. Kirk of Boston) was associated with him
+in this agency.
+
+Mr. Fisk had a good constitution, and would probably have endured
+the climate of Syria for many years, with no more strain upon it in
+the way of travel, than subsequent experience warranted. The reader
+of the preceding pages will be prepared to apprehend special danger
+from his return to Beirut in a season, that was sickly beyond the
+recollection of the oldest of the Franks. He first spoke of being
+ill on Tuesday, October 11, having had a restless night. His
+experience was similar on several succeeding nights, but during the
+day he seemed tolerably comfortable, enjoyed conversation, and
+frequently desired the Scriptures to be read, remarking on the
+importance of the subjects, and the preciousness of the promises.
+His devotional feelings were awakened and his spirits revived by the
+reading or singing of hymns, such as he suggested. On the 19th his
+mind was somewhat affected, and he fainted while preparations were
+being made for removing him to his bed. The next day, according to a
+request he had made some time before, he was informed of the
+probable issue of his sickness. He heard it with composure;
+remarking that he believed the commanding object of his life, for
+the seventeen years past, had been the glory of Christ and the good
+of the Church. During the day he dictated letters to his father, and
+to his missionary brethren King and Temple. On Thursday he asked for
+the reading of that portion of Mrs. Graham's "Provision for Passing
+over Jordan," where it is said, "To be where Thou art, to see Thee
+as Thou art, to be made like Thee, the last sinful motion forever
+past,"--he anticipated the conclusion, and said, with an expressive
+emphasis, "That's Heaven." As the evening approached, he was very
+peaceful, and in the midst he spoke out, saying: "I know not what
+this is, but it seems to me like the silence that precedes the
+dissolution of nature." Becoming conscious that the fever was
+returning, he said, "What the Lord intends to do with me, I cannot
+tell, but my impression is, that this is my last night." The fever,
+however, was lighter than usual, and the next forenoon there was
+some hope that it might be overcome. Yet it returned in the
+afternoon, with all its alarming symptoms. At six o'clock he had
+greatly altered, and the hand of death seemed really upon him. At
+eight a physician, who had been sent for, arrived from Sidon, but
+Mr. Fisk was insensible. Though the physician expressed little hope
+of saving him, he ordered appliances which arrested the paroxysm of
+fever, and restored him temporarily to consciousness. He was quiet
+during Saturday, the 22d, and there were no alarming appearances at
+sunset. But before midnight all hope had fled. "We hastened to his
+bedside," say his brethren, "found him panting for breath, and
+evidently sinking into the arms of death. The physician immediately
+left him, and retired to rest. We sat down, conversed, prayed, wept,
+and watched the progress of his dissolution, until, at precisely
+three o'clock on the Lord's day morning, October 23, 1825, the soul,
+which had been so long waiting for deliverance, was quietly
+released. It rose, like its great Deliverer, very early on the first
+day of the week, triumphant over death, and entered, as we believe,
+on that Sabbath, of eternal rest, which remaineth for the people of
+God."
+
+His age was thirty-three. As soon as the fact of his death became
+known, all the flags of the different consuls were seen at
+half-mast. The funeral was attended at four P. M., in the presence
+of a more numerous and orderly concourse of people, than had been
+witnessed there on a similar occasion.
+
+Mr. Fisk had a strong affinity, in the constitution of his mind and
+the character of his piety, to the late Miss Fidelia Fiske, of the
+Nestorian mission, who was his cousin, and whose praise is in all
+the churches. He was an uncommon man. With a vigorous constitution,
+and great capacity for labor, he possessed a discriminating
+judgment, an ardent spirit of enterprise, intrepidity, decision,
+perseverance, entire devotion to the service of his Master, facility
+in the acquisition of languages, and an equipoise of his faculties,
+which made it easy to accommodate himself to times, places, and
+companies. He was highly esteemed as a preacher before leaving home.
+"And who," said a weeping Arab, on hearing of his death, smiting on
+his breast, "who will now present the Gospel to us? I have heard no
+one explain God's word like him!" Aptness to teach was the prominent
+trait in his ministerial character, and in a land of strangers, he
+was esteemed, reverenced, and lamented.
+
+The following tribute to his memory is from the pen of Mr. Bird:--
+
+"The breach his death has made in the mission, is one which years
+will not probably repair. The length of time which our dear brother
+had spent in the missionary field, the extensive tours he had taken,
+the acquaintances and connections he had formed, and the knowledge
+he had acquired of the state of men and things in all the Levant,
+had well qualified him to act as our counselor and guide; while his
+personal endowments gave him a weight of character, sensibly felt by
+the natives. His knowledge of languages, considering his well-known
+active habits, has often been to us a subject of surprise and
+thanksgiving. All men who could comprehend French, Italian, or
+Greek, were accessible by his powerful admonitions. In the
+first-mentioned language he conversed with ease, and in the last
+two, performed with perfect fluency the common public services of a
+preacher of the Gospel. Even the Arabic he had so far mastered, as
+to commence in it a regular Sabbath service with a few of the
+natives. At the time of his death, besides preaching weekly in
+Arabic, and also in English in his turn, and besides his grammatical
+studies under an Arabic master, he had just commenced a work, to
+which, with the advice of us all, he was directing, for the time,
+his main attention. Having in a manner completed the tour of
+Palestine and Syria, and having become quite at home in Arabic
+grammar, he felt more than ever the need of a dictionary to
+introduce the missionary to the spoken language of the country. The
+ponderous folios of Richardson are for Persia; Golius, and the
+smaller work of Willmet, explain only the written language. We were
+therefore of the unanimous opinion, that a lexicon like the one in
+contemplation by Mr. Fisk, was needed, not only by ourselves, but by
+the missionaries who should succeed us. Our dear brother had written
+the catalogue of English words according to Johnson, and had just
+finished the catalogue (incomplete of course) of the corresponding
+Arabic, when disease arrested him. Had he lived, he hoped to visit
+his native country, and probably publish some account of his
+Christian researches in the Levant.
+
+"Such were some of the plans and employments of our brother and
+companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus
+Christ, when he was called off from all his labors of love among
+men. He is gone, but his memory lives. Never till called to sleep by
+his side, shall we forget the noble example of patience, faith, and
+zeal, which he has set us; and the churches at home will not forget
+him, till they shall have forgotten their duty to spread the
+Gospel."1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_ for 1827, pp. 101, 102.
+
+The station at Jerusalem was suspended for nearly nine years, when
+unsuccessful efforts were made to revive it. The Rev. William M.
+Thomson, and Asa Dodge, M. D., were sent for that purpose. Mr.
+Thomson was the first to remove his family to Jerusalem, which he
+did in April, 1834. Mr. and Mrs. Nicholayson, of the London Jews
+Society, went with them to commence a mission among the Jews.
+Everything looked promising for a few weeks, and Mr. Thomson went
+down to Jaffa to bring up his furniture. During his absence, the
+Fellahin, roused by an order to draft every fifth man into the army,
+rose against Mohammed Ali, the then ruler of Syria. Jerusalem was
+the centre of this sudden rebellion; and Mr. Thomson, for nearly two
+months, found it impossible even to communicate with his family, so
+closely was the city besieged by the rebels. The first sense of
+personal danger to the mission families, arose from an earthquake of
+unusual severity, which extended to the coast and shook their old
+stone habitation so roughly that they were compelled to flee into
+the garden, and sleep there. Here they were exposed to the balls
+from the muskets of the Fellahin outside the walls. At length the
+rebels within the city somehow let in their friends outside, and it
+was an hour of terror when they took possession of the mission
+house, which was near the castle, dug loopholes through its walls,
+and began to fire on the soldiers of the fortress. The fire was of
+course returned, and the building, already shattered by the
+earthquake, was torn by the Egyptian cannon; while both it and the
+garden were filled with a multitude of lawless and angry rebels. The
+families found refuge in a lower room of the house, where the walls
+were thick, and there listened to the cannon balls as they whistled
+above them. The arrival of Ibrahim Pasha at length quieted the city.
+
+Able to return to his family on the 11th of July, Mr. Thomson found
+his wife suffering from ophthalmia, with high inflammatory fever.
+Two days afterwards, Mr. Nicholayson was attacked with a fever, and
+the children were all sick. The case of Mrs. Thomson baffled all
+their skill. Convinced herself that she would not recover, the
+thought did not alarm her. For many weeks, she had been in the
+clearer regions of faith, enjoying greater nearness to God in prayer
+than ever before, with greater assurance of her interest in the
+covenant of grace through the Redeemer. She had indeed cherished the
+hope of laboring longer to bring some of the degraded daughters of
+Jerusalem to the Saviour; but the Lord knew best, and to His will
+she cheerfully submitted. She died peacefully on the 22d of July,
+1834. The bereaved husband was apprehensive of difficulty in
+obtaining a suitable place for her burial; but the Greek bishop gave
+permission, and took the whole charge of preparing the grave.
+
+Mr. Thomson now visited Beirut to confer with his brethren, and was
+advised to remove to that place. The Rev. George B. Whiting and wife
+and Dr. and Mrs. Dodge, were to occupy the station thus vacated,
+aided by Miss Betsey Tilden. Dr. Dodge accompanied Mr. Thomson on
+his return, and assisted him in removing his babe and his effects to
+Beirut; and on the 22d of October he and Mr. Whiting were on their
+way with their families to Jerusalem.
+
+Early in the winter, Dr. Dodge was called to Beirut to prescribe for
+Mrs. Bird, who was dangerously sick. Mr. Nicholayson returned with
+him to Jerusalem, arriving there on the 3d of January, 1835, cold,
+wet, and exhausted with fatigue, having traveled on horseback nearly
+seventeen hours the last day. The peril of such an exposure in that
+climate was not realized at the time. Both were soon taken sick, and
+Dr. Dodge rapidly sunk, though a physician from one of the western
+States of America arrived at the critical moment, and remained with
+him to the last. He died on the 28th of January, and Mrs. Dodge
+removed to Beirut. The arrival of Rev. John F. Lanneau in the spring
+of 1836, furnished an associate for Mr. Whiting. A school was
+opened, and numerous books were sold to the pilgrims. Early in the
+next year, Tannus Kerem of Safet was engaged as a native assistant.
+He was born and educated in the Latin Church, but in thought and
+feeling was with the mission, and enlarged their personal
+acquaintance and influence. In the summer the cholera appeared, and
+swept off four hundred victims in a month. Mr. Homes, of the mission
+to Turkey, was there at the time, and all devoted themselves to the
+gratuitous service of the sick, a thing unknown before in that
+region. They gave medical aid to many, nearly all of whom recovered,
+and thus gained many friends. Preaching was commenced in September
+to a small but attentive congregation. Mrs. Whiting and Miss Tilden
+had an interesting school, composed chiefly of Mohammedan girls.
+There was also a school for boys under a Greek teacher, with
+twenty-four pupils. In 1838, Mr. Whiting was obliged, by the
+protracted sickness of his wife, to visit the United States, and Mr.
+Lanneau was alone at Jerusalem, with Tannus Kerem, and suffering
+from extreme weakness of the eyes; but was encouraged by the arrival
+of Rev. Charles S. Sherman and wife in the autumn of 1839. The new
+missionary expressed his surprise at finding the different classes
+so little affected by the prejudices of sect in their intercourse
+with members of the mission. The illness of Mr. Lanneau became at
+length so distressing, as to require his absence from the field for
+nearly two years. Before his return to the East, which was early in
+1843, the Committee had expressed an opinion, that it was expedient
+to suspend further efforts at Jerusalem. Mr. Lanneau, however,
+resumed his abode there until the visit of the writer, with Dr.
+Hawes, in the spring of 1844, This was after there had been a
+protracted conference with the mission at Beirut, at which nothing
+appeared to affect the decision of the Prudential Committee, and Mr.
+Lanneau removed with his family to Beirut. Writing of Jerusalem to
+the Committee, Dr. Hawes says: "In regard to this city, viewed as a
+field for missionary labor, I saw nothing which should give it a
+special claim on our attention. It has indeed a considerable
+population, amounting perhaps to seventeen or eighteen thousand. But
+it is such a population as seemed to me to bear a near resemblance
+to the contents of the sheet which Peter saw let down from heaven by
+the four corners. It is composed of well-nigh all nations and of all
+religions, who are distinguished for nothing so much as for jealousy
+and hatred of each other. As to the crowds of pilgrims who annually
+visit the Holy City,--a gross misnomer, by the way, as it now
+is,--they are certainly no very hopeful subjects of missionary
+effort; drawn thither, as they are, chiefly by the spirit of
+superstition; and during the brief time they remain there, kept
+continually under the excitement of lying vanities, which without
+number are addressed to their eyes, and poured in at their ears."
+
+The burying-ground belonging to the Board, on a central part of
+Mount Zion, near the so-called "Tomb of David," and not far from the
+city, inclosed by a stone wall, was reserved for a Protestant
+burying-place, to be for the use of all sects of Protestant
+Christians.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1823-1828.
+
+
+The civil and social condition of Jerusalem and Palestine was such,
+on the arrival of Messrs. Bird and Goodell in 1823, that their
+brethren advised them to make Beirut the centre of their operations.
+The advice was followed; and this was the commencement of what took
+the name of the Syria Mission.
+
+The ancient name of Beirut was Berytus. The city is pleasantly
+situated on the western side of a large bay, and has a fertile soil,
+with a supply of good water, sufficient in ordinary seasons, from
+springs flowing out of the adjacent hills. Its population and wealth
+have greatly increased of late. The anchorage for ships is at the
+eastern extremity of the bay, two miles from the city. Lebanon rises
+at no great distance on the east, stretches far toward the north and
+the south, and is a healthful and pleasant resort for Franks in
+summer. There is a large and beautiful plain on the south, abounding
+in olive, palm, orange, lemon, pine, and mulberry trees. Damascus
+was then distant three days, but less time is required now, by
+reason of the new macadamized road. Sidon might be reached in one
+day, Tyre in two, and Tripoli in three. An additional motive, in
+those troublous times, for making Beirut a central station, was the
+protection afforded by Mr. Abbott, a friendly English Consul.
+
+The two brethren landed, with their wives, October 16th. During the
+nine mouths of their sojourn at Malta, they had made considerable
+progress in the Italian language, which was spoken extensively in
+the Levant; and now, without wholly neglecting the Italian, they
+applied themselves to the languages of Syria.
+
+Mr. Bird made the Arabic--spoken by the Maronites and Syrian Roman
+Catholics--his chief study; and Mr. Goodell the Armeno-Turkish,
+--Turkish written with the Armenian alphabet,--which was the
+language of the Armenians.
+
+Going to Sidon for aid in his linguistic studies, Mr. Goodell formed
+the acquaintance of Yakob Agha, an Armenian ecclesiastic, who had
+dared to marry, a privilege not allowed to him as a bishop. That he
+might be able to defend his course, he began the study of the New
+Testament, and thus became impressed with the wickedness around him.
+He was at that time acting British agent at Sidon. Mr. Goodell also
+became acquainted with Dionysius, another Armenian bishop, who had
+committed a similar offense, and engaged him as a teacher; giving
+him the name of Carabet, the "Forerunner." He was a native of
+Constantinople, and had lived thirty-six years in the Armenian
+convent at Jerusalem. During the last nine of these years, he was a
+bishop. On account of his age, his services and acquirements, he was
+regarded as having the standing of an archbishop. Though in darkness
+on many points, and giving no satisfactory evidence of piety, he
+made himself useful as a teacher and interpreter, and in his
+intercourse with the people.
+
+Several English missionaries were added to the Protestant force at
+that time, and the Papal Church became thoroughly alarmed. Letters
+were addressed from Rome to the Patriarchal Vicar of Mount Lebanon,
+the Maronite Patriarch, and the Vicar of Syria and Palestine, urging
+them to render ineffectual, in every possible manner, the impious
+undertaking of those missionaries. These letters were dated in the
+first month of 1824, and the firman against the circulation of the
+Scriptures was issued by the Grand Seignior very soon after. Though
+feebly enforced by the Turkish authorities this gave weight and
+influence, for a time, to the "anathemas," of the Maronite and
+Syrian Patriarchs against the "Bible men." Peter Ignatius Giarve,
+the Syrian Patriarch, some years before, while Archbishop of
+Jerusalem, had visited England, and there obtained, under false
+pretenses, a considerable sum of money from Protestant Christians,
+to print the Holy Scriptures according to the text of his own
+Church. He now issued a manifesto, first defending himself from the
+charge of deception, and then warning his flock "not to receive the
+Holy Scriptures, nor any other books printed and circulated by the
+Bible-men, even though given gratis, and according to the edition
+printed by the Propaganda under ecclesiastical authority."
+Notwithstanding all this, the brethren took a hopeful view of their
+prospects. "To get a firm footing," they say, "among a people of a
+strange speech and a hard language; to inspire confidence in some,
+and weaken prejudice in others; to ascertain who are our avowed
+enemies, and who are such in disguise; to become acquainted with the
+mode of thinking and feeling, with the springs of action, and with
+the way of access to the heart; to begin publicly to discuss
+controversial subjects with the dignitaries of the Church, and to
+commence giving religious instruction to the common people; to be
+allowed to have a hand in directing the studies and in controlling
+the education of the young; and to begin to exert an influence,
+however circumscribed at first, yet constantly extending and
+increasingly salutary,--all this, though it be not 'life from the
+dead,' nor the song of salvation, yet is to be regarded as truly
+important in the work of missions."
+
+In the year 1824, the schools were commenced at Beirut, which have
+since grown into an influential system. The first was a mere class
+of six Arab children, taught daily by the wives of the missionaries.
+Soon an Arab teacher was engaged, and before the end of the year the
+pupils had increased to fifty. In 1826 the average attendance in the
+free schools of Beirut and vicinity, was more than three hundred; in
+the following year it was six hundred in thirteen schools, and more
+than one hundred of these pupils were girls. The Arabs were thought
+to have less quickness than the Greeks, to be less studious and
+ambitious, and more trifling, inconstant, and proud of little
+things; but many of them were lively and promising, and did
+themselves honor by their punctuality and application. The Romish
+ecclesiastics were very hostile to all these schools.
+
+It was in the summer of 1825, that Asaad el-Shidiak became first
+personally known to the mission, as the instructor of Mr. King in
+the Syriac language. His case soon acquired an extraordinary
+interest, and will occupy a separate chapter.
+
+In March, 1826, several Greek vessels entered the port of Beirut,
+and landed five hundred men. They were unable to scale the walls,
+but plundered the houses of natives on the outside. The wild
+Bedawin, whom the Pasha of Acre sent to drive them away, were worse
+than the Greeks. They plundered without making any distinctions, and
+among other houses the one occupied by Mr. Goodell, but Consul
+Abbott obliged the Pasha to pay for what they took from the
+missionaries. It was afterwards ascertained, that the Maronite
+bishop, having learned that the leases of the missionaries would
+soon expire, came to Beirut just before this invasion, with an
+excommunication for every Maronite who should permit his house to be
+hired by a missionary; and prepared by bribery and intrigue to bring
+also the Greek bishop and the Moslem rulers to act in concert with
+himself, in driving Protestant missionaries from the country. The
+sudden landing of the Greeks obliged him to flee in the night,
+leaving his wicked devices unaccomplished, while the Maronites were
+glad to place their best houses in the hands of the missionaries.
+
+In 1827, the missionaries hoped that about twenty of those among
+whom they labored, had been created anew in Christ Jesus. Among them
+were Asaad and Phares Shidiak, from the Maronite Church; a lady from
+the Latin Church; Dionysius, Gregory Wortabet, Jacob, and the wife
+of Dionysius, of the Armenian Church; the wife of Wortabet and
+Yooseph Leflufy, of the Greek Catholic Church; and Asaad Jacob and
+Tannus el-Haddad, of the Greek Church. Leflufy was described as a
+youth of great boldness and decision, and as thoroughly convinced of
+the errors of his Church. In April of this year, Dionysius revisited
+Jerusalem, as the interpreter of German missionaries. The Armenian
+Convent owed him a sum of money, which it refused to pay, and
+forbade any Armenian in the city to speak to him. The Greeks, on the
+other hand, treated him with attention, and so did the Moslem
+governor. He returned to Beirut in company with three hundred of the
+Armenian pilgrims, who were no sooner out of Jerusalem than they
+began to treat him with kindness and respect, while they were full
+of inquiries as to what he and the Protestants believed, what
+ordinances they had, and how they observed them, with many more such
+questions. He was engaged in conversation with them day and night,
+and had full opportunity to explain his religious views, and to show
+them the difference between the Christianity of the New Testament,
+and that of the Oriental Churches; and they expressed much
+astonishment at his statements. Some of them were persons of
+respectability and influence, and declared their indignation at the
+treatment he had received from the convent. It is probable that
+these conversations had some connection with the spirit of
+reform among the Armenians, which not long after appeared at
+Constantinople.
+
+The Rev. Eli Smith reached Beirut early in 1827. At the monthly
+concert in March, kept as a day of fasting and prayer, and closed
+with the Lord's Supper, sixteen persons were present, who were all
+regarded as hopefully pious. They were from America, Europe, Asia,
+and Africa, and were members of nine churches,--Congregational,
+Episcopal, Lutheran, Reformed Lutheran, Moravian, Latin, Armenian,
+Greek Catholic, and Abyssinian. Dionysius Carabet, Gregory Wortabet,
+and their wives were then received into the mission church, as was
+also the wife of Mr. Abbott, the English Consul, a native of Italy.
+This admission of converts into a church, without regard to their
+previous ecclesiastical relations, was a practical ignoring of the
+old church organizations in that region. It was so understood, and
+the spirit of opposition and persecution was roused to the utmost.
+In the Maronite and Greek Catholic churches, severe denunciations
+were uttered against the missionaries, and all who should render
+them any service.
+
+Messrs. Goodell and Bird gave more or less time, with the help of
+their native assistants, to preparing useful works in the native
+languages. These, with Mr. King's "Farewell Letter," were copied by
+the pen, and were eagerly sought and gladly transcribed, and the
+need of a printing-press on the ground began to be felt.
+
+Beirut was visited by the plague in the spring of 1827, but the
+deaths were not numerous. In August Mr. Bird, finding it needful to
+take his family to the mountains, ascended to Ehden by way of
+Tripoli, from which Ehden was distant seven hours. He went by
+special permission of the Emir Beshir, and was received in the most
+friendly manner by the Sheikh Latoof, and his son Naanui. The
+"Patriarch of Antioch and all the East," who resided at Cannobeen,
+hearing of this, proceeded at once to excommunicate the sheikh and
+his family, who had dared to associate "with that deceived man, and
+deceiver of men, Bird, the Bible-man." An infernal spirit appears in
+the excommunications of the Romish Church. This of Latoof and family
+ran thus: "They are accursed, cut off from all the Christian
+communion; and let the curse envelope them as a robe, and spread
+through all their members like oil, and break them in pieces like a
+potter's vessel, and wither them like the fig tree cursed by the
+mouth of the Lord himself; and let the evil angel reign over them,
+to torment them by day and night, asleep and awake, and in whatever
+circumstances they may be found. We permit no one to visit them, or
+employ them, or do them a favor, or give them a salutation, or
+converse with them in any form; but let them be avoided as a putrid
+member, and as hellish dragons. Beware, yea, beware of the wrath of
+God." With regard to Mr. Bird and his family, the Patriarch said:
+"We grant no permission to any one to receive them; but, on the
+contrary, we, by the word of the Lord of almighty authority, require
+and command all, in the firmest manner, that not one visit them, nor
+do them any sort of service, or furnish them any sort of assistance
+whatever, to protract their stay in these parts or any other. Let no
+one receive them into his house, or into any place whatever that
+belongs to him, but let all avoid them, in every way, in all things
+temporal as well as spiritual. And whoever, in his stubbornness,
+shall dare to act in opposition to this our order with regard to
+Bird, and his children, and his whole family, shall fall, _ipso
+facto_, under the great excommunication, whose absolution is
+reserved to ourself alone."
+
+A copy of this document was furnished to Mr. Bird, by the Bishop of
+Ehden; who, though feeble in health, was second to no prelate of his
+sect in knowledge, prudence, and evangelical sentiment. On hearing
+the Patriarch's proclamation read in church, he is said to have
+fainted, and did not recover his health for weeks afterwards. As a
+consequence of this proclamation of the Patriarch, a rival sheikh
+was encouraged to make a violent assault upon Latoof, in which the
+latter received a severe contusion on the head, and his wife's
+mother had her wrist broken. Being warned of a still more determined
+effort to drive the missionary away, Mr. Bird thought it due to his
+friend to leave the place; which he did, accompanied by Naanui,
+leaving his wife and children, and descending to the Greek convent
+of Hantura, and from thence to Tripoli. Thither the Patriarch
+followed him with his maledictions. He however obtained a quiet
+residence at Bawhyta, under Moslem protection, where he was rejoined
+by his family, and afterwards in the convent of Belmont. Naanui was
+his faithful companion through all his wanderings and sojourning on
+the mountains.
+
+Mr. Bird returned to Beirut on the 22d of December, and was received
+by his Maronite acquaintances with unwonted cordiality.
+
+The battle of Navarino was not the immediate cause of the suspension
+of the mission; but, in all the ensuing five months, there was
+constant apprehension of war between Turkey and the allies engaged
+in that battle, which was so destructive to the naval power of the
+Turks. The British Consulate was closed, and Mr. Abbott, their
+friend and protector, was obliged to withdraw privately. No reliance
+could be placed on the Pasha; and the Prince of the mountains had
+sent word, that no Frank refugees would be received in his
+dominions, in case of war. In the utter stagnation of trade, the
+missionaries could obtain no money for their bills, and no European
+or American vessels of war visited the port. Messrs. Goodell, Bird
+and Smith, in view of all these facts, thought it their duty to
+avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by an Austrian vessel
+to remove, for a season, to Malta.
+
+They accordingly embarked on the 2d of May, 1828, taking with them
+Carabet, Wortabet, and their wives, and arrived at Malta on the
+29th. No opposition was made. "The parting scene at our leaving, was
+more tender and affecting than we could have expected, and afforded
+a comforting evidence that, whatever may be the impression we have
+left on the general population, there are _some_ hearts in Syria,
+which are sincerely attached to us. Many, as we passed them, prayed
+that God would protect us on our voyage. And others, notwithstanding
+the plague, came to our houses to bid us farewell. One thoughtful
+youth, who was with us daily, belonging to one of the first Greek
+families, was full of grief, and earnestly begged us to take him
+with us, though contrary to the will of his parents."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+THE MARTYR OF LEBANON.
+
+1826-1830.
+
+
+The conversion, life, and martyrdom of Asaad Shidiak,1 so very early
+in the history of this mission, is a significant and encouraging
+fact. He not only belonged to the Arab race, but to a portion of it
+that had long been held in slavish subjection to Rome. His fine mind
+and heart opened to the truths of the Gospel almost as soon as they
+were presented; and when once embraced, they were held through years
+of suffering, which terminated in a martyr's death. With freedom to
+act, he would have gone forth an apostle to his countrymen. The
+Arab-speaking race is estimated at sixty millions, and they must
+receive the gospel mainly from those to whom the language is
+vernacular. It will tend greatly to strengthen the faith of
+Christians as to this result, to contemplate the grace of God as
+seen in the case of this early convert. Space cannot be afforded to
+do full justice to the facts, which were chiefly recorded by the
+Rev. Isaac Bird, but the reader is referred in the margin to more
+ample sources of information.2
+
+1 Written also Asaad el-Shidiak, and Asaad esh-Shidiak.
+
+2 See _Missionary Herald_ for 1827, pp. 68, 71-76, 97-101, 129-136,
+169-177, 268-271, 369-372; for 1828, pp. 16-19, 115-119, 165, 373,
+375; for 1829, pp. 15, 47, 111, 115; and _The Martyr of Lebanon_, by
+Rev. Isaac Bird, Boston, 1864, pp. 208.
+
+Asaad Shidiak was the fourth son of a respectable Maronite, and was
+born about the year 1797, at Hadet, a small village a few miles from
+Beirut. His early training was among the Maronites. Such was his
+ability and fondness for learning, that his family aided him in
+preparing for the Maronite college at Ain Warka, the most noted
+seminary on the mountains. He entered the college at the age of
+sixteen, and remained nearly three years, applying himself
+diligently to rhetoric, and to natural and theological science, all
+of which were taught in the Arabic and Syriac languages.
+
+Having completed his college course with the highest honor, he
+became a teacher, first of a common village school, and then of
+theology and general science in a convent. Occasionally he was
+permitted to deliver public lectures. His text-book in the
+instruction of the monks, was the theological treatise of St.
+Anthony of Padua, translated into Arabic; of which he made an
+abridgment, that is still used among the Maronites.
+
+From about the year 1820 to 1824, Asaad was successively in the
+employ of the Maronite bishop of Beirut, and of several Arab chiefs.
+These frequent changes were apparently not for his advantage.
+
+He next made application in person to his old college instructor,
+who had been elevated to the Patriarchal chair. His holiness gave
+him a cool reception, and reproached him for having preferred the
+service of sheikhs and princes to that of his bishop. Yet so
+valuable were his services, that he remained a while with the
+Patriarch, copying, illustrating, and arranging certain important
+documents of the Patriarchate, and making out from them a convenient
+code of church-laws for the Maronite nation, which has since been
+adopted for general use. But for some reason Asaad felt himself
+unwelcome, and returned home dissatisfied.
+
+At this time the Maronite priesthood began to be alarmed by the
+distribution of the Scriptures, and the spread of Protestantism. The
+Patriarch issued a proclamation against the missionaries, and they
+replied. Asaad set himself to answer their reply. It was in this
+connection that his name first became known to the missionaries, to
+whom he was reported as a man of talent and high education. The
+dignitaries of the church did not see fit to allow his essay to be
+published.
+
+In March, 1825, a well-dressed young man, of easy manners and sedate
+countenance, came to Beirut and asked to be employed by the mission
+as a teacher of Arabic. As soon as he gave his name, he was
+recognized as the man who was to have answered their reply to the
+Patriarch. He took no pains to conceal his agency in the matter, and
+even frankly begged the liberty of examining the original book,
+containing one of the most important quotations in the reply by the
+mission.
+
+There was then no special need of another teacher; and though his
+very gentlemanly appearance and apparent frankness, and his good
+sense pleaded in his favor, it was thought prudent to decline his
+proposal. Little did those excellent brethren think, as this young
+man turned to go away, how soon they would welcome him to their
+hearts and homes, and how many thousands of Christian people, even
+across the ocean, would thrill in sympathy with his sufferings as a
+martyr for Christ.
+
+Providence so ordered it, that Mr. King arrived from Jerusalem just
+in time to secure the services of Asaad before he went elsewhere. He
+was for several weeks Mr. King's instructor in Syriac. The two were
+well met, and in their frequent discussions, on the differences
+between the doctrines of the Gospel and those of the Papacy, Mr.
+King found him one of the most intelligent and skillful reasoners in
+all the mountains. He was shrewd, sensible, and inquisitive, candid
+and self-possessed, and was always as ready to hear as to speak. His
+age was then twenty-nine. There is no good reason to believe that
+Asaad was actuated, at this time, by higher than worldly motives.
+
+At the close of his connection with Mr. King, he made another effort
+to secure employment from his Patriarch. Not succeeding, he became
+Arabic teacher to Mr. Fisk; at the same time assisting Mr. King,
+then about leaving the country, in preparing his celebrated
+"Farewell Letter" to his Arab friends. After having put this into
+neat Arabic style, he made a large number of copies, to be sent to
+different parts of the country.
+
+On the day of Mr. King's departure from Beirut, Asaad, at the
+request of the mission, commenced an Arabic grammar-school for
+native boys. His leisure hours were devoted to composing a
+refutation of the doctrines contained in Mr. King's "Farewell
+Letter." This is his own account: "When I was copying the first
+rough draught of my reply, and had arrived at the last of the
+reasons, which, he said, prevented his becoming a member of the
+Roman Catholic Church; namely, their teaching it to be wrong for the
+commom people to possess or to read the Word of God, I observed that
+the writer brought a proof against the doctrine from the prophet
+Isaiah; namely, that if they spoke not according to the law and to
+the testimony, it was because there was no light in them.
+
+"While I was endeavoring to explain this passage according to the
+views of the Roman Catholic Church, with no other object than the
+praise of men and other worldly motives, I chanced to read the
+twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah from the fifteenth verse to the end.
+I read and was afraid. I meditated upon the chapter a long while,
+and feared that I was doing what I did with a motive far different
+from the only proper one,--the glory and pleasure of God. I
+therefore threw my paper by without finishing the copy, and applied
+myself to the reading of Isaiah.
+
+"I had wished to find in the prophet some plain and incontrovertible
+proofs of the Messiahship of Christ, to use against Moslems and
+Jews. While thus searching, I found various passages that would
+_bear_ an explanation according to my views, and read on till I came
+to the fifty-second chapter, and fourteenth verse, and onward to the
+end of the next chapter.
+
+"On finding this testimony, my heart rejoiced and was exceeding
+glad, for it removed many dark doubts from my own mind. From that
+time, my desire to read the New Testament was greatly increased,
+that I might discover the best means of acting according to the
+doctrines of Jesus. I endeavored to divest myself of all selfish
+bias, and loved more and more to inquire into religious subjects. I
+saw, as I still see, many doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church,
+that I could not believe, and which I found opposed to the truths of
+the Gospel, and I wished much to find some of her best teachers to
+explain them to me, that I might see how they proved them from the
+Holy Scriptures. As I was reading an appendix to a Bible printed at
+Rome by the Propaganda, and searching out the passages referred to
+for proving the duty of worshipping saints, and the like, I found
+that these proofs failed altogether of establishing these doctrines,
+and that to infer them from such Scripture texts was even
+ridiculous. Among other things, I found in this appendix the very
+horrible Neronian doctrine, 'that it is our duty to destroy
+heretics.' Now every one knows, that whoever does not believe that
+the Pope is infallible, is, in the Pope's estimation, a heretic. And
+this doctrine is not merely that it is allowable to kill heretics,
+but that we are in duty bound to do it.
+
+"From this I was the more established in my convictions against the
+doctrines of the Papacy, and saw that they were the doctrines of the
+ravenous beast, and not of the gentle lamb. After I had read this, I
+asked one of the priests in Beirut about this doctrine, and he
+assured me that it was even as I had read. I then wished to go even
+to some distant country, that I might find a Roman Catholic
+sufficiently learned to prove the doctrine above alluded to."
+
+Receiving two letters from the Patriarch, requiring him to leave the
+missionaries on pain of the greater excommunication, and promising
+to provide him a situation, he went to his friends at Hadet. But his
+thoughts were drawn to the subject of religion, and finding nothing
+in which he could take delight, he returned to Beirut, and engaged
+himself to Mr. Bird for a year. This was in December, 1825. For
+greater security, a consular protection was now obtained for him
+from Mr. Abbott, which ensured him, while in the employ of the
+mission, all the liberty and safety of an English resident. There
+was no American Consul in the country at that time. He now applied
+himself to searching the Scriptures, and discussing religious
+doctrines. Discarding all unwritten traditions, the Apocryphal
+books, and all implied dependence on the fathers and councils, he
+found himself standing, in respect to his rule of faith, on
+Protestant ground.
+
+With all his strong points of character, Asaad had the
+constitutional weakness of being artless and confiding. In January,
+1826, the Patriarch sent his own brother, as a special messenger,
+inviting Asaad to an interview, and making him flattering promises.
+The consultation with the priest was private, but it soon appeared,
+that Asaad was disposed to comply with the patriarchal invitation.
+It was suggested to him, that the Patriarch was meditating evil
+against him; but his reply was that he had little fear of it, that
+the Maronites were not accustomed to take life, or to imprison men,
+on account of religion. So confident was he that good would result
+from the visit, that the brethren in the mission ceased to urge
+their objections. On reaching the Patriarch's convent, he thus
+wrote:--
+
+"I am now at the convent of Alma, and God be thanked, I arrived in
+good health. As yet, however, I have not seen his blessedness.
+
+"I pray God, the Father, and his only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
+that He will establish me in his love, and that I may never exchange
+it for any created thing; that neither death, nor life, nor things
+present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor riches, nor
+honor, nor dignity, nor office, nor anything in creation, shall
+separate me from this love. I beg you to pray to God for me, which
+request I make, also, to all the believers."
+
+Several weeks brought no farther direct intelligence, and there were
+conflicting reports, which awakened apprehension as to his safety.
+In the latter part of February, a messenger was sent to obtain
+accurate knowledge of his situation. The man saw him at the convent
+of Alma, and had a short private interview. Asaad said, that three
+things were before him; either to be regarded as mad, or to commit
+sin, or to offer up his life; but he was ready, he said, to go to
+prison, or to death. He was engaged in daily controversy with the
+Patriarch, the Bishop, and others. The main topics on which he
+insisted, were the necessity of a spiritual religion in distinction
+from mere forms, the sufficiency of Scripture, and the absurdity of
+holding the Pope to be infallible. The Patriarch was highly
+displeased with these bold sentiments, and gave utterance to cruel
+threats, though at other times offering promotion and money.
+
+Asaad objected to the plan of rescuing him by consular authority, as
+it might endanger his life. He thought it best to await some
+providential opening for his escape. One soon occurred. After a
+week, he left the convent at midnight. The mountain paths were
+narrow, stony, and crooked, and he often found himself astray,
+stumbling over rocks and hedges, wading in brooks, or miring in mud.
+Reaching the sea-shore, he found a shelter under which he rested for
+a while, and then walked on to Beirut, where he was received most
+joyfully. The Patriarch and his train were engaged in morning
+prayers when Asaad's escape was announced. There was great
+excitement. One man among them, who had sympathized with Asaad,
+ventured to speak out in his justification. "You had reason," he
+said, "to expect nothing else. Why should he stay with you here?
+What had he here to do? What had he to enjoy? Books he had none;
+friendly society none; conversation against religion abundant;
+insults upon his opinions and feelings abundant. Why should he not
+leave you?" Messengers were sent in quest of him in every direction,
+but in vain.
+
+Asaad's written account of his experiences during his absence on the
+mountains, is very interesting, but there is not room for even an
+abridgment of it.1 A few of the incidents may be noted. The chief
+object of the Patriarch was to induce him to say, that his faith was
+like that of the Romish Church. This he declined doing, as it would
+be a falsehood. The Patriarch offered to absolve him from the sin of
+falsehood, to which Asaad replied, "What the law of nature condemns,
+no man can make lawful." Accompanied by a priest, he visited his own
+college of Ain Warka, but gained no light; and the same was true of
+his visit to the superior of the convent of Bzummar, who desired to
+see him. It is a suggestive fact, that the infallibility of the
+Pope, even then, was everywhere a controverted point between him and
+the priesthood. The weakness of the reasoning on the papal side was
+everywhere so apparent to him, as greatly to strengthen his
+evangelical faith. In one of his interviews with the Patriarch he
+said: "I would ask of you the favor to send from your priests two
+faithful men to preach the Gospel through the country; and I am
+ready, if necessary, to sell all I possess and give it towards their
+wages." He afterwards offered to go himself and preach the Gospel.
+But neither of these proposals was accepted.
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_ for 1827, pp. 71-76, 97-101.
+
+He was at length deprived of his books, and severely threatened by
+the Patriarch. "Fearing," he says, "that I should be found among the
+fearful (Rev. xxi. 8), I turned, and said to him, 'I will hold fast
+the religion of Jesus Christ, and I am ready, for the sake of it, to
+shed my blood; and though you should all become infidels, yet will
+not I;' and so left the room."
+
+Asaad says, in his narrative: "A friend told me, that the Patriarch
+wondered how I should pretend that I held to the Christian religion,
+and still converse in such abusive terms against it. And I also
+wondered, after he saw this, that he should not be willing so much
+as to ask me, in mildness and forbearance, for what reasons I was
+unwilling to receive the doctrines of the Pope, or to say, that I
+believed as he did. But, so far from this, he laid every person, and
+even his own brother under excommunication, should they presume to
+dispute or converse with me on the subject of religion. Entirely
+bereft of books, and shut out from all persons who might instruct
+me, from what quarter could I get the evidence necessary to persuade
+me to accept the Patriarch's opinions?
+
+"Another cause I had of wonder was, that not one of all with whom I
+conversed, when he thought me heretical, advised me to use the only
+means of becoming strong in the faith, namely, prayer to God Most
+High, and searching his Holy Word, which a child may understand. I
+wondered, too, that they should ridicule and report me abroad as
+insane, and after all this, be afraid to engage in a dispute with
+the madman, lest he should turn them away from the truth."
+
+As the Patriarch, and the Bishop of Beirut, whose diocese included
+Hadet, were determined to shut him out from the people, and even
+threatened his life, Asaad resolved on escaping to Beirut, which he
+accomplished, as already stated, on the morning of Thursday, March
+2, 1826.
+
+Asaad's statement was forthwith copied and sent in various
+directions through the mountains, and afterwards it had a much wider
+circulation in a printed form.
+
+The Patriarch's first effort to recapture the fugitive, was by means
+of a Turkish sheriff, and it failed. On the following Monday, an
+uncle and the two elder brothers of Asaad came to see what they
+could do; and they were followed by another brother, and then by the
+mother and her youngest son. The older brothers were loud and
+violent in their denunciations. All these the persecuted young
+Christian met with a calm firmness, but he was at one time almost
+overcome by the distress of his mother. She was at length pacified
+by the declarations, that he was not a follower of the English, that
+he derived not his creed from them, that he believed in the Trinity,
+that Jesus was God, and that Mary was his mother. Phares, the
+youngest brother, consented to receive a New Testament, and was
+evidently affected and softened by the interview.
+
+On the 16th of March, Asaad received a kind and fatherly epistle
+from the Patriarch, begging him to return home, and relieve the
+anxieties of his mother and family, and giving him full assurance,
+that he need not fear being interfered with in his freedom. He was
+thus approached on his weak side. Too confiding, he really believed
+this insidious letter, and that he might now go home and live there
+with his religion unshackled. He wrote a favorable reply. The family
+was doubtless urged to make sure of the victim before anything
+occurred to change his mind, and the very next day four of his
+relations, including Phares, came to escort him to Hadet. The
+missionaries all believed it perilous, and so he thought himself,
+but he believed, also, that there was now a door opened for him
+prudently to preach the Gospel. At Beirut, he said, he could only
+use his pen, "but who is there in this country," he asked, "that
+reads?" One of the sisters of the mission said, as she took him by
+the hand, that she expected never to see him again in this world. He
+smiled at what he regarded her extravagant apprehension, returned
+some quiet answer, and proceeded on his way, never to return.
+
+Asaad was treated harshly by his older brothers, and had reason to
+regard his life as imperiled: "I am in a sort of imprisonment," he
+said, "enemies within, and enemies without," Towards the last of
+March, twenty or more of his relations assembled, to take him to the
+Patriarch by force. He expostulated with Tannus, the eldest of the
+family except one, as the chief manager in the affair, and besought
+him to desist from a step so inconsistent with their fraternal
+relations. The unnatural brother turned from him in cold
+indifference, which so affected Asaad that he went aside, and prayed
+and wept.
+
+In the evening, he at one time addressed the whole assembled company
+in this manner: "If I had not read the Gospel, I should have been
+astonished at this movement of yours; but now I see through it all.
+It is just what the Gospel has told me to expect; 'The brother shall
+deliver up the brother to death, and a man's foes shall be they of
+his own household.' Here you see it is just so. You have assembled
+together here to fulfill this prophecy of the Gospel. What have I
+done against you? What is my crime, that it should have called
+together such an assemblage? Be it that I take the blessed Bible as
+my only guide to heaven, does that injure you? Is it a crime that
+renders me worthy of being taken as a malefactor, and sent into
+confinement?"
+
+Surrounded, as he was, by men insensible to pity, the mother's heart
+was deeply moved seeing him arrested and borne away as if he had
+been a murderer. She wept, and Asaad sympathized with her, and
+turned his back on the home of his childhood, weeping and praying
+aloud.
+
+He was first taken to the convent of Alma, and then to Canobeen.
+That convent, where he was destined to wear out the miserable
+remainder of his life, was in one of the wildest and least
+accessible recesses of Lebanon.
+
+More than a mouth passed without intelligence, when the Mission
+received reliable information, that Asaad was in prison, and in
+chains, and that he was beaten a certain number of stripes daily. A
+cousin was afterwards permitted to visit him, and reported that he
+found him sitting on the bare floor, his bed having been taken from
+him, with a heavy chain around his neck, the other end of which was
+fastened to the wall. He had also been deprived of all his books and
+writing utensils. Fruitless efforts were made to effect his
+deliverance, and his family at last relented, and joined in the
+efforts. The mother accompanied one of the older sons to Canobeen,
+and found him in chains, which she had not been willing to believe
+till she saw it for herself. So decided were the two younger
+brothers in their movements on his behalf, that they had to consult
+their own safety in flight. Once they almost succeeded. Asaad
+himself, under the pressure of his sufferings, made several attempts
+to flee, but not knowing the way, he was easily apprehended, and the
+only effect was an aggravation of his misery. A priest gives the
+following account of his treatment, after one of these failures. "On
+his arrival at the convent, the Patriarch gave immediate orders for
+his punishment; and they fell upon him with reproaches, caning him,
+and smiting him with their hands; yet as often as they struck him on
+one cheek, he turned to them the other. 'This,' said he, 'is a
+joyful day to me. My blessed Lord and Master has said, Bless them
+that curse you; and if they strike you on the right cheek, turn to
+them the other also. This I have been enabled to do; and I am ready
+to suffer even more than this for Him who was beaten, and spit upon,
+and led as a sheep to the slaughter on our account.' When they heard
+this, they fell to beating him anew, saying, 'Have we need of your
+preaching, you deceiver? Of what avail are such pretensions as
+yours, who are in the broad road to perdition?' He replied, 'He that
+believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, hath eternal life.'
+'Ah,' said they, 'this is the way you are blinded. Your salvation is
+by faith alone in Christ; thus you cast contempt on his mother, and
+on his saints. You believe not in the presence of his holy body on
+the earth.' And they threw him on the ground, and overwhelmed him
+with the multitude of their blows."
+
+For three successive days he was subjected to the bastinado, by
+order of the Patriarch. Remaining firm to his belief, he was again
+put in chains, the door barred upon him, and his food given him in
+short allowance. Compassionate persons interceded, and his condition
+was alleviated for a time, but no one was allowed to converse with
+him. After some days, aided, it is supposed, by relatives, he again
+fled from the convent, but was arrested by soldiers sent out in
+search of him by the Emeer Abdallah, and delivered to the Patriarch.
+"On his arrival," says a priest who was with him at Canobeen, "he
+was loaded with chains, cast into a dark, filthy room, and
+bastinadoed every day for eight days, sometimes fainting under the
+operation, until he was near death. He was then left in his misery,
+his bed a thin flag mat, his covering his common clothes. The door
+of his prison was filled up with stones and mortar, and his food was
+six thin cakes of bread a day, and a cup of water."
+
+To this dungeon there was no access or outlet whatever except a
+small loop-hole, through which they passed him his food. Here he lay
+several days, and its ever-increasing loathsomeness need not be
+described. No wonder he cried: "Love ye the Lord Jesus Christ
+according as He hath loved us, and given himself to die for us.
+Think of me, O ye that pass by; have pity upon me, and deliver me
+from these sufferings."
+
+A certain priest, who had been a former friend of Asaad, was touched
+with compassion, and by perseverance succeeded in once more opening
+his prison doors, and taking off his chains. But he also became
+suspected in consequence of his kindness to Asaad, and it is not
+known how long the sufferer was allowed this partial freedom. One of
+his brothers visited him in 1828, and found him inclosed within four
+solid stone walls, as in a sepulchre "full of all uncleanness." In
+1829, there appears not to have been any mitigation of his
+sufferings. For three years or more, the priestly despot had him
+under his heel, and inflicted upon him the greatest amount of
+suffering compatible with the continuance of life.
+
+His death is supposed to have occurred in October, 1830. Public
+opinion was divided as to the cause and manner of it. The Patriarch
+said it was by fever. There is the same uncertainty as to the manner
+of his burial. But though thrown down into the ravine and covered
+with stones, as was alleged, his dust will ever be precious in the
+eyes of the Lord.
+
+Asaad maintained his Christian profession to the last, and he must
+ever have an honorable place among the Christian martyrs of modern
+times.
+
+Soon after the capture of Acre by Ibrahim Pasha, in 1832, Mr. Tod,
+an English merchant, accompanied by Wortabet, obtained an audience
+with him, and made known the case of Asaad. The Pasha directed the
+Emir Beshir to furnish ten soldiers to Mr. Tod, with authority to
+search the convent of Canobeen by force, if necessary. He was
+received by the Patriarch and priests of the convent with dismay.
+They asserted that Asaad had died two years before, pointed out his
+grave, and offered to open it. The convent was thoroughly searched,
+but he was not found, and Mr. Tod was convinced that he was really
+dead.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_ for 1833, pp. 51-57.
+
+When it is considered how severely and in how many ways Asaad was
+tried, his faith and constancy appear admirable. His pride of
+intellect and authorship, and his reputation for consistency, were
+opposed, at the outset, to any change in his religious opinions.
+Then all his reverence for his ecclesiastical superiors and his
+former tutors, some of whom were naturally mild in their tempers,
+and his previous habits of thought, withstood his yielding to the
+convictions of conscience and the authority of Scripture. Next, the
+anathemas of the Church, the tears of a mother appalled by the
+infamy of having an apostate son, the furious menaces of brothers,
+and the bitter hatred of masses stirred up by an influential
+priesthood, combined to hold him back from the truth. All these
+things were preparatory to being seized by indignant relatives,
+chained to his prison walls, deprived of the New Testament and other
+books, and of every means of recreation, refused even those bodily
+comforts which nature renders indispensable; in such a forlorn
+condition, exposed to the insults of a bigoted populace and the
+revilings of a tyrannical priesthood, beaten till his body became a
+mass of disease, and held in this variety of grief for years,
+without one ray of hope, save through the portals of the tomb, who
+expected that he would endure steadfastly to the end?
+
+On the other hand, if he would only recant, promotion awaited him,
+and wealth, indeed everything that could be offered to prevent a
+dreaded defection. How many are there, with all our knowledge and
+strength of religious principle, who, in his situation, would like
+him be faithful unto death?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE PRESS AT MALTA.
+
+1822-1833.
+
+
+The location of the press at Malta, was not the result of design,
+but because printing could not be done safely, if at all, either at
+Smyrna or at Beirut. Its operations were begun under the impression
+of a more extended taste for reading and reflection in the several
+communities of the Levant, than really existed; and it is doubtful
+whether the larger part of the earlier publications were well suited
+to the apprehension of the Oriental mind. However this may be, it
+was decided, in the year 1829, to make it a leading object, for a
+time, to furnish books for elementary schools; making them, as far
+as possible, the vehicles of moral and religious truth. The wisdom
+of this course was seen among the Greeks. A first book for schools
+of sixty pages, called the Alphabetarion, went into extensive use.
+Twenty-seven thousand copies were called for in Greece before the
+year 1831.
+
+There had been more or less of printing since 1822; but it was not
+until the close of 1826, that the arrival of Mr. Homan Hallock
+furnished a regular and competent printer. In the year following,
+Mr. Temple was bereaved of his excellent wife and of two children,
+and at the invitation of the Prudential Committee he visited the
+United States. Meanwhile the presence of Messrs. Bird, Goodell,
+Smith, and Hallock kept the press in operation. Mr. Temple returned
+in 1830.
+
+The establishment consisted of three presses, with fonts of type in
+English, Italian, Modern Greek, Greco-Turkish, Armenian,
+Armeno-Turkish, and Arabic, but the greater part of the printing was
+in the Italian, the Modern Greek, and Armeno-Turkish. The most
+important work was the translation of the New Testament in the
+Armeno-Turkish, which was printed at the expense of the British and
+Foreign Bible Society. It was prepared from two translations, one by
+Mr. Goodell, with the efficient aid of Bishop Carabet, the other by
+an Armenian priest at Constantinople, in the employ of Mr. Leeves,
+agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Mr. Goodell's
+version was made conformable to the original Greek, and the last
+sheet was printed in January, 1831. During that year, there were
+printed seventy-eight thousand copies of fourteen works, amounting
+to nearly five millions of pages, all in modern Greek. The whole
+amount of printing at Malta, from the establishment of the press in
+July, 1822, to December, 1833, the time of its removal to Smyrna,
+was about three hundred and fifty thousand volumes, containing
+twenty-one millions of pages. Nearly the whole were put in
+circulation, and additional supplies of some of the books were
+urgently demanded. The Roman Catholics opposed this work from the
+first, and anathematized the books issued.
+
+The labor and expense were increased by the singular use of
+alphabets in the Levantine regions. The Maronites and Syrians spoke
+the Arabic language, but employed the Syriac alphabet in writing.
+The Armenians, to a large extent, spoke the Turkish language, but
+wrote it with the Armenian alphabet. The Greeks in Asia generally
+spoke the Turkish language, but used the Greek alphabet. The Grecian
+Jews spoke the Grecian language, the Spanish Jews the Spanish, the
+Barbary Jews the Arabic, but all three used the Hebrew alphabet.
+Then, too, the worship of the Syrians, Greeks, and Armenians was in
+the ancient languages of those nations, which were for the most part
+unintelligible to the common people.
+
+Mr. Temple began preaching in Italian early in 1826, and during his
+whole residence on the island he preached every Sabbath, either in
+Italian or English. The rule he prescribed for himself, whether
+preaching to Gentiles or Jews, was to preach the great truths of the
+Bible plainly and faithfully, appealing as little as possible to
+Fathers, Councils, or Rabbins. Contemporary with him were Mr.
+Jowett, of the Church Missionary Society, Mr. Wilson, of the London
+Missionary Society, and Mr. Keeling, of the English Wesleyan
+Society, and all were on the best terms of Christian fellowship.
+
+In December, 1833, Messrs. Temple and Hallock removed to Smyrna,
+with the printing establishment, and Dionysius Carabet accompanied
+them as a translator. Wortabet had previously returned to Syria.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+PRELIMINARY EXPLORATIONS.
+
+1828-1831.
+
+
+Enough was known, in the year 1828, to encourage the belief, that
+Greece and Western Asia would soon demand a more extensive
+prosecution of the missionary work; but more specific information
+was indispensable to an intelligent enlargement. The temporary
+suspension of the Syrian mission had brought the whole of the
+missionary force of the Board in that part of the world to Malta
+(except that Mr. Temple was on a visit to the United States), thus
+making consultation easy. Other reasons called for a more free and
+extended official intercourse than could be held by letter.
+Accordingly the author, then Assistant Secretary of the Board, was
+sent to Malta at the close of 1828, with instructions to confer with
+the brethren, and afterwards to visit Greece and other parts of the
+Levant. The conferences at Malta occupied two months, and aided much
+in determining subsequent measures. When these were over, the
+author, in company with the Rev. Eli Smith, afterward so favorably
+and widely known in the Christian world, visited the Ionian Islands,
+the Morea, and the Grecian Archipelago. Count John A. Capodistrias
+was then President of Greece, and had his residence on the island of
+AEgina. Athens was still held by the Turks. It was made incumbent on
+the author to propose inquiries to the President on certain points,
+and this was rendered easy by his urbanity and his frank and
+explicit answers. The inquiries were mainly for gaining the needed
+information; and they elicited some facts which deterred the
+Committee from a class of expenditures, that would have been in
+accordance with the popular feeling at that time, but might have
+proved a fruitful source of disappointment. Mr. King was then in
+Greece as a philhellene, in charge of supplies sent by ladies in New
+York to be distributed among the impoverished people. Perhaps the
+most important result of this negotiation with the Greek government,
+besides facilitating Mr. King's protracted and useful connection
+with the Greek mission, was a written assurance by the chief ruler
+of the nation, that among the books to be used in the schools of
+Greece should be the Bible, the New Testament, and the Psalms, all
+translated and printed in modern Greek.
+
+Among the results of the consultations at Malta, was Mr. Bird's
+visit to Tripoli and Tunis on the African coast, for which he was
+specially qualified by his free use of the Arabic language. He had
+opportunities at Tripoli for conversing with Jews, Moslems, Papists,
+and persons of no religion. His books and tracts were chiefly in the
+Hebrew and Arabic languages. At Tunis, he distributed copies of the
+Scriptures, but in neither place did there seem to be a sufficient
+opening for instituting a mission.
+
+Another result of the Malta conferences was the distribution of the
+mission forces; Mr. Bird to Syria, Mr. Goodell to Constantinople,
+and Mr. Smith for an exploring tour among the Armenians of Turkey.
+Soon after the return of the Assistant Secretary, the Rev. H. G. O.
+Dwight was designated to accompany Mr. Smith in his proposed tour of
+exploration, and the Rev. George B. Whiting as the companion of Mr.
+Bird on his return to Syria. Mrs. Dwight was to remain at Malta
+during her husband's absence.
+
+The two explorers sailed for Smyrna in March, 1830, in the same
+vessel which had brought Mr. Dwight from Boston. After some days at
+Smyrna, in the family of Mr. Brewer, who had returned to that place
+in connection with a society of ladies in New Haven, they went
+overland to Constantinople. This was a journey of eight days, and
+was made necessary by the long detention, to which sailing vessels
+were liable from north winds at the mouth of the Dardanelles. The
+time for steamers had not yet come in these regions.
+
+The departure from Constantinople was near the close of May, in the
+most charming season of the year. As in the journey from Smyrna,
+they put themselves under a Tartar, who, for their greater security,
+had set his seal to a written contract in presence of the Tartar
+aghasy. The government became thus responsible for their persons and
+property. Instead of trunks, they had two large bags, two
+saddle-bags, and two valises, all of thick Russian leather, fastened
+with padlocks, and impermeable to water. Instead of mattresses, each
+had a carpet and coverlet rolled in painted canvas, that served as a
+floor at night, when it was their lot to lie on the ground. Each had
+an ample Turkish pelisse, lined with the fur of the Caucasian fox.
+Four copper pans, a mill for grinding coffee, a pot, cups, and a
+knife, fork, and spoon for each, were their utensils for cooking and
+eating. A circular piece of leather served for a table when spread
+upon the ground, and when drawn together like a lady's reticule, and
+suspended from the saddle, it formed a bag to carry their bread and
+cheese. The whole was so compact as to require, on ordinary
+occasions, but a single extra horse. As the Turkish post furnished
+only horses, they were obliged to add saddles and bridles to their
+other accoutrements; and to their saddles, as was usual, were
+attached holsters, to deter from hostile attacks upon them. To avoid
+unnecessary notice, expense, and trouble, if not insult, they wore
+loose Turkish robes, the Oriental turban, and the enormous Tartar
+stockings and boots. Of course they had also the needful firmans,
+passports, and letters of introduction.
+
+Their route lay along what at that time might be called, for the
+most part, the high road to Tabriz, and passed through Tokat,
+Erzroom, Kars, Tiflis, Shoosha, Nakhchevan, Echmiadzin, and Khoy, a
+distance of more than fifteen hundred miles. At Tokat, the
+travellers visited the grave of Henry Martyn, who died there in
+1812. On the 13th of June, they entered Erzroom, then in possession
+of an invading army of Russians; which soon retired, and was
+accompanied by a large portion of the Armenian population in that
+district. The Turks of Erzroom found it hard to comprehend from what
+country the travellers came. Kars, Tiflis, Shoosha, and Echmiadzin
+had been subjected to Russian rule. Tiflis was the capital of
+Georgia. Shoosha, where they arrived about the middle of August,
+worn down by fatigue in descending the insalubrious valley of the
+Koor, or Cyrus, was then the seat of a German mission, which gave a
+cordial reception to their American brethren. The cholera prevailed
+in all that region, and it was estimated that as many as seventy
+thousand people died of it, during the two months and a half our
+travellers spent in Shoosha. They gave an interesting account of the
+German colonies in Georgia, which had their origin in extravagant
+views concerning the millennium. "Previous to 1817, several popular
+and ardent ministers in the kingdom of Wuertemberg maintained, in
+commentaries on the Apocalypse and other publications, that the
+wished-for period would commence in 1836, and would be preceded by a
+dreadful apostasy and great persecutions. These views, in addition
+to the fascinating interest always connected with prophetical
+theories, being enforced with much pious feeling, acquired so great
+credit as to be adopted by nearly all the religious people in the
+kingdom, and by many others. At the same time, the advocates of the
+neological system, being the predominant party in the clergy,
+succeeded in effecting some alterations in the prayers and hymns of
+the Church in accommodation to their errors. This grieved
+exceedingly all who were attached to evangelical principles, and was
+taken to be the apostasy they expected. Their prophetical teachers
+had intimated that, as in the destruction of Jerusalem the
+Christians found a place of refuge, so would there be one now, and
+that, somewhere in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea. Many, therefore,
+of the common people determined to seek the wished-for asylum, that
+they and their children (for whom the better sort were particularly
+anxious) might escape the impending storm, and also be able to form
+an independent ecclesiastical establishment according to their own
+notions. To these were joined others desirous of change, or in
+straitened circumstances, who though not at heart pious, professed
+for the time to be influenced by the same principles and motives. In
+fact the latter became the most numerous. The company, when it left
+Wuertemberg, consisted of fifteen hundred families. But no adequate
+arrangement having been made for the journey, and the sinister
+motives of the majority contributing to create disorder, they
+suffered exceedingly on the way, and before they reached Odessa, two
+thirds had died."1 The number of the colonists, in 1832, was about
+two thousand, but their enterprise had not been successful.
+
+1 _Missionary Researches in Armenia_, vol. i. p. 264.
+
+On the way from Echmiadzin to Tabriz, a distance of nearly two
+hundred and fifty miles, Mr. Smith suffered greatly from illness.
+When seventy miles from that city, his strength gave out entirely,
+so that he could go no farther with the conveyances then at command.
+His life was probably saved by Mr. Dwight's sending a messenger to
+the gentlemen of the English embassy at Tabriz, requesting the aid
+of a takhtirewan, the only native carriage known to the Persians. It
+resembles a sedan-chair, except in being borne by two mules or
+horses, and closed from the external air, and in requiring a lying
+posture. The vehicle soon arrived; but was preceded by Dr. McNeill,
+the physician and first assistant of the embassy, who then commenced
+those acts of kindness which ever endeared him to the Nestorian
+mission. Colonel McDonald, the ambassador, had lately died, and Dr.
+McNeill was soon obliged to leave for Teheran. Dr. Cormick, who had
+healed Henry Martyn of a similar disease, then took the medical
+charge of Mr. Smith. After their long experience of filthy stables,
+the comfortable, well-furnished apartments provided for them at
+Tabriz, through the generous hospitality of Major Willock, former
+commander of the English forces in Persia, and Captain Campbell, the
+acting Envoy, were more grateful to the weary travellers than can
+well be conceived. Mr. Nisbit, an officer in the commissariat
+department, together with his wife, entered fully into their
+feelings as missionaries, and sympathized with them in their views
+of the spiritual wants of the country.
+
+Messrs. Smith and Dwight were required by their instructions, to
+investigate and report on the condition of the Nestorians inhabiting
+the northwestern province of Persia. In former ages, this people had
+been distinguished beyond any other Christian people--except
+perhaps, their contemporaries in Ireland--for missionary zeal and
+enterprise. From the seventh to the thirteenth centuries, they had
+missions both in central and eastern Asia. Previous to the overthrow
+of the Califate, A. D. 1258, their churches were scattered over the
+region forming modern Persia, and were numerous in Armenia,
+Mesopotamia, and Arabia. They had churches in Syria; on the island
+of Cyprus; among the mountains of Malabar; and in the extended
+regions of Tartary, from the Caspian Sea to Mount Imaus, and beyond
+through the greater part of what is now known as Chinese Tartary,
+and even in China itself. The names of twenty-five metropolitan sees
+are on record, embracing of course a far greater number of
+bishoprics, and still more numerous congregations.
+
+These facts, though known to learned historians, had fallen out of
+the popular mind. Indeed, they were not in the recollection of the
+executive officers of the American Board, when the author drew up
+the instructions to Messrs. Smith and Dwight. But while preparing
+them, his attention was incidentally drawn to a brief article in a
+Virginia publication, from the pen of Dr. Walsh, British chaplain at
+Constantinople, entitled "Chaldees in Persia;" and it was the
+impression made by that article, which led to a positive direction
+to visit that people, should it be found practicable, and see
+whether the churches in this western world had any duty to perform
+to them. The English at Tabriz confessed to an almost entire
+ignorance of the religious doctrines and character of the
+Nestorians. The only important fact our brethren could learn there
+was, that a considerable body of them were accessible in the
+provinces of Oroomiah and Salmas, at the distance of somewhat more
+than a hundred miles.
+
+Our travellers remained at Tabriz from the 18th of December to
+March, 1831, when restored health and the opening season permitted
+them to resume their journey. In Salmas, they first came in contact
+with the Chaldeans, as those Nestorians were called who had been won
+over by Roman Catholic missionaries since the year 1681. The name
+means no more than papal Syrians, or papal Armenians. Some of their
+bishops and priests had been educated in the college of the
+Propaganda at Rome, and spoke Italian fluently. The Chaldeans were
+reported, at that time, as a neglected and declining sect.
+
+Passing from Salmas into the province of Oroomiah, the travellers
+were received by the Nestorians in the most friendly and
+confidential manner, and the week passed among them was intensely
+interesting. While showing very clearly the need the people were in
+of religious instruction, they gave as additional considerations in
+favor of sending missionaries to them, their extreme liberality
+towards other sects, their ideas of open communion, and their entire
+rejection of auricular confession.
+
+The return of Messrs. Smith and Dwight was by way of Erzroom and
+Trebizond, thence by sea to Constantinople and Malta, at which last
+place they arrived on the 2d of July, 1831, after an absence of
+fifteen months and a half. In this time, their land travel exceeded
+two thousand and five hundred miles.
+
+The results of their inquiries were embodied by Mr. Smith, during a
+visit to his native land, under the title of "Researches in Armenia,
+including a Journey through Asia Minor and into Georgia and Persia,
+with a Visit to the Nestorian and Chaldean Christians," and were
+published in two volumes in Boston, and republished in London.
+Though nearly forty years have since elapsed, there is still a
+freshness of interest in the entire work, which makes it matter of
+regret that it is now out of print. The religious condition of the
+Armenians at that time, is comprehensively stated in the following
+paragraphs:--
+
+"The slightest acquaintance with ecclesiastical history may convince
+one, that before the commencement of the fourth century,
+Christianity had extensively degenerated from its original purity as
+a religion of the heart, into a mere profession of theoretical
+dogmas, and the observance of external rites. Such, it is natural to
+suspect, was the form of it to which the Armenians were at that
+period converted; and the circumstances of the event, if national
+tradition has correctly preserved them, confirm the suspicion, that
+they have from the beginning known extremely little of true
+conversion. We are told that immediately upon King Durtad's
+embracing the faith, the nation followed his example in a body, and
+were baptized. To say nothing of the doubtfulness of all national
+conversions, the very hastiness of this proceeding, by allowing no
+time for competent instruction, shows that the Armenians could not
+have been enlightened converts; the fact that the Scriptures were
+not translated into their language until a century afterward, is an
+additional indication of the scantiness of their religious
+knowledge; and the confessed backsliding of many of the nobility
+into the most scandalous immoralities and the blackest crimes, even
+during the lifetime of Durtad, proves how superficial was their
+conversion.
+
+"Thus the Armenian Church was a soil well adapted to the rapid
+growth of all the corruptions, which from that time sprang up, in
+such speedy succession, in different parts of the Christian world.
+Even those which then existed were, it would seem, not sparingly
+introduced by St. Gregory. For, by the immediate consecration of
+four hundred bishops, and a countless number of priests, he betrayed
+a disposition to multiply an idle and unqualified priesthood; and by
+the construction of convents and nunneries, and spending the last of
+his days in a solitary cave, he showed that he was ready to foster
+the monastic spirit of his age. So deeply, indeed, was the taste for
+monkhood implanted, that his fifth successor is said to have built
+two thousand convents.
+
+"Of the rites and dogmas subsequently adopted by other bodies of
+Christians, there was a free importation for the two centuries that
+the Armenians formed a regular branch of the General Church. A
+special messenger was sent to Jerusalem for the ceremonies observed
+in that church, and brought thence eight canons regulating the
+sacraments and other rites. For a similar object, a correspondence
+was carried on with the Bishop of Nisibis. One Catholicos, who had
+been educated at Constantinople in the influence of all the secular
+ideas and regulations introduced into the Church under the patronage
+of Constantine and his successors, brought from thence 'various
+observances, which, like precious stones, he inlaid into the old.'
+And several who followed him distinguished themselves by their
+_improvements_ in the services and laws of the Church. So that when,
+by rejecting the Council of Chalcedon, A. D. 491, the Armenians cut
+themselves off from the communion of the great body of Christians,
+they were doubtless in possession of all the legendary dogmas and
+observances which had then been adopted by the Christian world."1
+
+1 _Researches in Armenia_, Amer. Edition, vol. ii. pp. 290-292.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1827-1835.
+
+
+Mr. King's "Farewell Letter to his Friends in Syria and Palestine"
+was translated into the Armenian language by Bishop Dionysius, and a
+manuscript copy was sent by him, in the year 1827, to some of the
+more influential Armenians in Constantinople. Its effect was
+extraordinary. A meeting was called in the Armenian patriarchal
+church, at which the letter was read, and the marginal references to
+Scripture were verified. It was then agreed, by common consent, that
+the Church needed reform. The famous school of Peshtimaljian grew
+out of this meeting, at which it was decided, that no person should
+be ordained in the capital to the priest's office, who had not
+completed a regular course of study at this school. In the year
+1833, the missionaries were invited to be present at the ordination
+of fifteen Armenian priests in the patriarchal church; and they were
+then informed, that no one had received ordination in the metropolis
+since the adoption of the rule above stated, and that only such as
+had received a regular education at that school were regarded as
+eligible for ordination. As the result of this, nearly all the
+candidates were comparatively well-educated men, and one of them,
+hereafter to be more specially noted, had a high reputation for
+learning.
+
+Peshtimaljian, the head of the school, was an uncommon man. His
+inquisitive mind was ever gaining knowledge, and what he acquired
+his memory retained. He was a critical and accurate scholar in the
+language and literature of his nation, and made himself familiar
+with the theology and history of the Eastern and Romish Churches,
+and with the general history of the Church from the earliest ages.
+He was able to quote from the Scriptures with wonderful facility and
+accuracy. His confidence in the Bible, as the true Word of God and
+the only standard of faith, had indeed been shaken for a while by
+his disgust with the superstitions of his Church, and by the low
+character of many of its clergy, but he had recovered from this.
+Though timid and cautious to a fault, like Erasmus, and sometimes
+open to the charge of time-serving, he gradually led his pupils into
+new paths of inquiry, until they came to believe that the Church not
+only may err, but that it had actually erred in many of its
+teachings.
+
+Peshtimaljian became convinced at length, that his pupils were
+consistently carrying out the principles they had learned from him,
+and he strongly, though still privately, encouraged them in their
+labors for the spiritual good of their countrymen. Until his death,
+which occurred in 1837, he was the friend of the missionaries, and
+had much intercourse with them; though he never acquired the courage
+distinctly to avow himself an evangelical man. Up to that time,
+however, there had been no open persecution of the followers of
+Christ, and consequently no formal separation of the evangelical
+brethren from the Armenian community. All the first converts in
+Constantinople, and many of the later ones, were from his school.
+
+There can be no doubt that, owing to these and other less apparent
+causes, there was a preparation in the Armenian mind of Turkey for
+the reception of divine truth, before the arrival of the American
+missionaries. Though more evident at the capital than in the
+provinces, there seems to have been some degree of this preparation
+wherever Armenians were found. In this respect, there was a marked
+difference among that people, as compared with Jews and Greeks. The
+common people, where not intimidated by the clergy, almost
+everywhere heard the Word with gladness; and it was so with many of
+the parochial priests, when not dreading the wrath of their
+superiors. In all this we should gratefully acknowledge an
+overruling Providence in the ordering of events, and the divine
+agency of the Holy Spirit, making it apparent that the "fullness of
+time" had come for the entering in of evangelical missionaries.
+
+Messrs. Smith and Dwight, before leaving Constantinople on their
+eastern tour, earnestly recommended the forming of a station at the
+metropolis, with special reference to the Armenians. In April, 1831,
+Mr. Goodell, then at Malta, received instructions from the
+Prudential Committee to remove to that city. This he did, after
+having carried the Armeno-Turkish New Testament through the press.
+
+The splendid scene which opened to Mr. Goodell as he drew near the
+city on the 9th of June, he thus describes: "As we approached
+Constantinople, the most enchanting prospect opened to view. In the
+country, on our left, were fields rich in cultivation and
+fruitfulness. On our right, were the little isles of the Sea of
+Marmora; and beyond, the high lands of Broosa, with Olympus rearing
+its head above the clouds and covered with eternal snow. In the
+city, mosques, domes, and hundreds of lofty minarets, were starting
+up amidst the more humble abodes of men, all embosomed in groves of
+dark cypresses, which in some instances seemed almost like a forest;
+while before, behind, and around us, were (besides many boats of the
+country) more than twenty square-rigged vessels, bearing the flags
+of different nations, all under full sail, with a light but
+favorable breeze,--all converging to one point, and that
+CONSTANTINOPLE. When we first caught a glimpse of Top-Hana, Galata,
+and Pera, stretching from the water's edge to the summit of the
+hill, and began to sweep round Seraglio Point, the view became most
+beautiful and sublime. It greatly surpassed all that I had ever
+conceived of it. We had been sailing along what I should call the
+south side of the city for four or five miles, and were now entering
+the Bosphorus, with the city on our left, and Scutari on our right.
+The mosque of St. Sophia, with the palaces and gardens of the Sultan
+Mahmoud, were before us in all their majesty and loveliness.
+Numerous boats were shooting rapidly by us in all directions, giving
+to the scene the appearance of life and business. The vessels before
+us had been retarded, and those behind had been speeded, and we were
+sweeping round the Golden Horn in almost as rapid succession as was
+possible,--every captain apparently using all his skill to prevent
+coming in contact with his neighbor, or being carried away by the
+current; and every passenger apparently, like ourselves, gazing with
+admiration on the numerous objects of wonder on every hand."
+
+Mr. Goodell took a house in Pera, one of the suburbs of
+Constantinople, where the European ambassadors and most of the
+foreign Christians resided. Scarcely two months elapsed, before that
+populous section of the metropolis was almost wholly destroyed by
+fire. The missionary lost house, furniture, library, papers, and
+nearly all the clothing of himself and family; and was obliged to
+remove fifteen miles up the Bosphorus, to Buyuk-Dereh, and to remain
+there the rest of the year.
+
+The fire had separated the missionary almost entirely from the
+Armenians, and being thrown into the midst of the Greeks, he
+established several Greek Lancasterian schools, with the New
+Testament for a class-book. In most instances the copies were
+purchased by the parents. To furnish himself with competent
+instructors, he made arrangements for a normal school among the
+Greeks of Galata, a central place in which many children were
+begging for instruction, and he was evidently encouraged by the
+smiles of heaven upon his labors.
+
+Not long after, he called upon the Armenian Patriarch, a man of
+dignified manners and venerable appearance, and asked his
+cooeperation in establishing schools among his people on an improved
+plan. The Patriarch declared, with even more than Oriental
+politeness, that he loved Mr. Goodell and his country so much, that
+if Mr. G. had not come to visit him, he must needs have gone to
+America. After numerous inquiries, he assented to the introduction
+of the new system of instruction, and promised to furnish suitable
+persons to learn it; which promise, however, he failed to remember.
+
+Mr. Dwight joined Mr. Goodell, with his family, on the 5th of June,
+1832, intending to devote himself wholly to the Armenians, and to
+labor for them chiefly through the Armenian language, though he
+afterwards acquired also the Turkish. The Rev. William G. Schauffler
+arrived in the following month, as a missionary to the Jews.
+
+The Armenians at Constantinople were estimated at one hundred
+thousand. As a body, they were intelligent, ingenuous, and frank;
+and many were found who regarded the ritual of their Church as
+encumbered with burdensome ceremonies, unsustained by the
+Scriptures, and of no practical advantage. The outset of the
+Armenian mission was in some respects unlike that to the Maronites
+of Syria, among whom the converts were at once excommunicated, and
+treated as outlaws. The object of the missionaries was not to break
+down the Armenian Church, but, if possible, by reviving the
+knowledge and spirit of the Gospel, to reform it. They were content
+that the ecclesiastical organization remain, provided the spirit of
+the Gospel could be revived under it. They regarded the ceremonies
+of the Church as mere outworks, not necessarily removed before
+reaching the citadel; and believed that assaults upon these would
+awaken more general opposition, than if made upon the citadel
+itself, and that, the citadel once taken, the outworks would fall of
+course. They felt, therefore, that as foreigners their main business
+was to set forth the fundamental doctrines and duties of the Gospel,
+derived directly from the Holy Scriptures.
+
+This early position of the mission is stated merely as historical
+truth. When their converts were excommunicated, after some years,
+the case became changed, and of course their methods of proceeding
+were greatly modified, so far as the hierarchy was concerned.
+
+Obstacles soon arose that had not been anticipated. First, the
+plague, with terrific violence, then, the cholera; and lastly, the
+Egyptian civil war, which shook the capital, and endangered the
+throne. There could be little intercourse with the people in these
+circumstances; and during the latter part of 1832, the missionaries
+were employed chiefly in their own houses, studying the languages,
+and preparing elementary cards and books for the schools.
+
+It would seem from the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, that his
+affections were early drawn to certain favored individuals among
+those first awakened by the Holy Spirit. It was so with the brethren
+at Constantinople. Among the earliest students of Peshtimaljian, was
+Hohannes Sahakian, who had been fond of books from childhood, and
+for some time had longed to see his countrymen better furnished with
+the means of education. Before entering the school, which he did in
+1829, he had commenced reading the New Testament, a cheap copy of
+which his father had purchased, and he was delighted to find his
+preceptor so ready to sympathize with his views, and to aid him in
+his investigations. In 1830, he began to converse on religious
+subjects with his friend Senekerim, the teacher of a school in the
+Patriarch's palace. Senekerim was startled on hearing sentiments
+avowed, that were not taught in their churches; but his mind became
+gradually enlightened, and they both painfully saw how much their
+nation needed to be brought to a knowledge of the Gospel. They had
+no funds for establishing schools and publishing tracts and books.
+As their zeal and fervor increased, they made a formal consecration
+of everything pertaining to them to the Lord Jesus Christ, declaring
+their purpose to execute his will. One day Senekerim made a
+discovery of the words, "If two of you shall agree on earth, as
+touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of
+my Father which is in heaven." Rejoicing over this, they both
+prayed: "O God, we agree to ask, that our nation may awake, may know
+the Gospel, and may understand that it is the blood of Jesus Christ
+alone which purgeth away sin." Yet neither of them was at this time
+fully aware of the great doctrine of salvation by grace, nor did
+they know of the existence of any nation having a knowledge of the
+pure Gospel. In this isolation they continued their prayerful study
+of God's Word, making gradual progress in knowledge of the Gospel.
+
+At length it became noised abroad, that two Americans were residing
+in a village on the Bosphorus, ostensibly for a good purpose, but
+really to spread infidelity. The young men heard the report, and
+their curiosity was awakened. Hohannes visited them alone at first,
+and afterwards with his friend, to find out what kind of persons
+they were. They soon perceived, that the great object of their
+pursuit was attained, and earnestly requested to be taken under the
+care and instruction of the mission. As a means of support,
+Senekerim was to open an Armenian school at Pera, to which place the
+missionaries intended to remove, and Hohannes was to translate the
+Psalms from ancient into modern Armenian. These were labors for only
+part of each day, and the remainder was devoted to the study of the
+English language and of the Bible. As they gained an insight into
+the nature of true religion, they had fears lest they were building
+on a wrong foundation; but by the grace of God they were soon
+brought into the clear light of the Gospel, and led joyfully to
+trust in Jesus Christ as the all-sufficient Saviour.
+
+An Armenian jeweler of wealth and influence was wrought up to a
+state of great alarm in reference to the course of these two young
+men, by the secret insinuations of a Romish priest. Having persuaded
+Peshtimaljian to summon the delinquents, he severely charged them
+with violating their obligations to the Church, and dishonoring God.
+They were about to vindicate themselves, when Peshtimaljian took the
+business wholly out of their hands, and poured a flood of light from
+Scripture and history upon the astonished jeweler; and when the
+young men afterwards spoke for themselves, Peshtimaljian aided them
+in their references to the Scriptures. The result was, that the
+jeweler became himself an open and strong advocate of the
+evangelical doctrines.
+
+The conversion of Sarkis Vartabed, teacher of grammar in the school
+of Peshtimaljian, may be dated from this period. He was in high
+repute as a scholar in the ancient language of the Armenians, had
+many amiable and valuable qualities, and became highly useful as a
+translator in connection with the mission.
+
+Among the fifteen alumni from the school of Peshtimaljian, who were
+ordained as priests in the autumn of 1833, was one highly respected
+for learning. His appearance was peculiarly devout, and when the
+missionary brethren called upon him, some days afterwards, in one of
+the cloisters of the patriarchate, he was deeply impressed by what
+they said to him as to the responsibilities of office-bearing in the
+Church of Christ. This was Der Kevork,1 whose subsequent influence
+in promoting the reformation was by no means unimportant.
+
+1 _Der_ means Priest.
+
+The removal of the press from Malta to Smyrna, at the close of 1833,
+was eminently seasonable. The importance of the measure was well
+understood by the enemy, and a combination of Roman and Armenian
+influences induced the Pasha to order Mr. Temple's departure from
+Smyrna, with only ten days' notice. The Romanists opposed, because
+of their settled hostility to Protestantism, and a free Protestant
+press. The Armenians were specially scandalized by the presence of
+Bishop Dionysius as a Protestant, after he had broken the rules of
+the Church by taking a wife. The opposition was increased by an
+ex-patriarch of the Armenians then residing at Smyrna, who was a
+personal enemy of Dionysius, and took part in these proceedings. The
+Pasha had acted under misapprehension, and revoked his order, on
+hearing the explanations of the American consul; but it was thought
+best for the bishop to return to his former home at Beirut.
+
+The Armenians were found to be well supplied with spelling-books,
+reading-books, arithmetics, and grammars in the modern language,
+also with works on geometry and trigonometry. There was, therefore,
+much less preparatory work to be done for them in the way of
+education, than was supposed. A geography was needed, and the part
+relating to ancient Armenia was prepared by Peshtimaljian. A high
+school for the Armenians was opened at Pera in October, 1834, under
+the superintendence of Mr. Paspati, a native of Scio, who had been
+educated in America, and was regarded as well fitted for the post.
+The next year, however, he went to Paris to study medicine, and
+Hohannes was appointed his successor. The school had its full number
+of scholars, which was thirty. There were classes in the English,
+French, Italian, Armenian, Turkish, Ancient Greek, and Hebrew
+languages, and lectures on various branches of natural science,
+illustrated by apparatus.
+
+In 1834, the Rev. Messrs. John B. Adger, Benjamin Schneider, and
+Thomas P. Johnston, and their wives, joined the mission; the first
+taking up his abode at Smyrna, the second at Broosa, and the third
+at Trebizond. In the following year the Rev. Philander O. Powers
+joined Mr. Schneider, and the Rev. Henry A. Homes arrived at
+Constantinople. Such was the beginning of missionary efforts among
+the Armenians of Asia Minor. Broosa is situated in Bithynia, at the
+western base of Mount Olympus, and was the capital of the Turkish
+empire for one hundred and thirty years previous to the taking of
+Constantinople. Trebizond is situated on the southeastern shore of
+the Black Sea, and competes with Constantinople on the score of
+natural scenery. The author retains a vivid impression of it, as
+seen in the winter of 1844. The city, half surrounded by verdant
+trees, had cultivated fields rising gently behind it, and beyond
+were forest-clad hills, looking green as in midsummer. And back of
+all, far in the distance, rose a lofty range of snow-clad mountains,
+as if to guard this earthly paradise, stretching from sea to sea,
+and forming a magnificent amphitheatre.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1836-1840.
+
+
+The first visit of Mr. Johnston to Trebizond was in 1834. Through
+priestly interference, he failed in three successive attempts to
+procure a house, and at last secured a contract for one only on
+condition of obtaining a firman from Constantinople. The United
+States Minister at the Porte procured a vizierial letter, directing
+that Mr. Johnston suffer no further molestation, and he removed his
+family thither in the spring of 1835. The breaking out of the plague
+prevented him for a time from having much intercourse with the
+people. In August of the next year, he had the pleasure of welcoming
+the Rev. William C. Jackson and wife as associates.
+
+The Patriarch of the Armenian Church at this time was Stepan, who
+was averse to severe measures; and Boghos, his vicar, though
+inclined to oppose the spreading reformation, thought it prudent to
+do nothing openly. Several high ecclesiastics were on terms of
+intimacy with the missionaries, and some of them seemed on the point
+of yielding to the influence of the truth. But generally they were
+without fixed religious principles, and were ready to follow the
+lead of the men most able to favor their own advancement in office
+or emolument. Matteos, the newly appointed bishop of Broosa, was one
+of these. While residing on the Bosphorus, he was a professed friend
+of the mission; and after his removal to Broosa, he expressed by
+letter the most friendly sentiments, and assured Mr. Schneider of
+his approbation of the school then recently established in that
+city. But this school, after a few months, was entirely broken up
+through the agency of this same prelate, who also sought in other
+ways to weaken and destroy the influence of the missionaries.
+Somewhat later, having been elevated to the Patriarchate, he became
+a reckless persecutor of the Protestants of Turkey, as will appear
+in its proper place.
+
+The beautiful type used by the Catholic-Armenians at Venice, made it
+necessary for the mission to procure new fonts of type adapted to
+the taste of the Armenians. The monks of Venice refusing to sell to
+the mission, Mr. Hallock, the printer, visited the United States,
+and superintended the cutting of the needful punches. The Prudential
+Committee, appreciating the new demands, authorized an expenditure
+of five thousand dollars for punches and types in the Armenian,
+Greek, and Hebrew languages, and for foundries of types and
+stereotype plates. After Mr. Hallock's departure, the mission
+succeeded in procuring two Armenian fonts of great beauty from
+Vienna.
+
+Meanwhile the Turks were making some advance in civilization.
+Lancasterian schools were established by them in the barracks of
+Dolma Baktche and Scutari, which were carried on with remarkable
+success. The missionaries being present by invitation at a public
+examination, Azim Bey publicly declared, that the Turks were
+indebted to them for everything of the kind. Travellers were no
+longer obliged to depend on slow sailing vessels, since steamers ran
+every week from Constantinople to Smyrna and Trebizond, and every
+fortnight to Galatz on the Danube. A road for carriages was
+constructed from Scutari to Nicomedia, a distance of sixty miles;
+and as a means of arresting the ravages of the plague, the European
+style of quarantine was extensively introduced.
+
+The most determined opposers of the mission at this time were the
+Papists, who spared no pains in exciting prejudice among the
+Armenians. The Papal Armenians were estimated at from fifteen to
+twenty thousand, and according to usage in Turkey they had a
+Patriarch of their own. This functionary came out with a public
+denunciation of all Protestant books, including the New Testament.
+He even forbade the receiving of copies of the Armenian Scriptures
+in the ancient language, which had been printed at their own press
+in Venice, and were purchased, several years before, by the British
+and Foreign Bible Society for sale at a reduced price or gratuitous
+circulation.
+
+There was so much desire for religious instruction among the
+Armenians, that two weekly meetings, in the Turkish language, were
+established in Constantinople, one conducted by Mr. Goodell, the
+other by Mr. Schauffler. Their houses were frequented by
+ecclesiastics as well as by laymen, and some of the former seemed to
+be sincere inquirers after the truth. One of them, attached to the
+patriarchal church, proposed that they publish a revised edition of
+the modern Armenian New Testament; and offered to subscribe five
+hundred piastres, or somewhat more than twenty dollars, towards the
+object, and also to procure aid from others. It was a favorable
+sign, that bishops and vartabeds began now to give instructions from
+the sacred Scriptures, instead of the legends of the saints. It
+subsequently appeared, indeed, that most of them were influenced in
+this more by public opinion, than by personal interest in the
+subject. They probably had exaggerated notions as to the actual
+prevalence of evangelical sentiments.
+
+Female education, which had been almost entirely neglected, began
+now to receive attention, both at Constantinople and at Smyrna. No
+regular school, indeed, had as yet been opened for females in the
+former place, but a few parents were providing means for the
+instruction of their daughters, and one of the evangelical brethren
+had a class of twelve Armenian girls. In Smyrna, a school for
+Armenian girls was opened by the mission in a commodious room, with
+desks, benches, and cards, and was commenced with the express
+approval of influential men in the community. More than forty girls
+attended it the first week. But an influential Armenian made such an
+appeal to the national pride of his countrymen, that the community
+assumed the charge of the school, and refunded what the mission had
+expended on it.
+
+At Constantinople, Der Kevork, the most learned of the fifteen
+priests ordained in 1833, was at the head of a school of four
+hundred boys, supported by his countrymen and having no connection
+with the mission. Kevork boldly introduced the custom of daily
+reading and explaining the Scriptures. He also selected twenty of
+his most promising scholars for the critical study of the New
+Testament.
+
+The learned and amiable Peshtimaljian died in the year 1837. In the
+same year, Mrs. Dwight and one of her children became victims of the
+plague. Her husband escaped the contagion, though of course greatly
+exposed. This terrible disease had been almost an annual visitation
+at Constantinople, and was believed to be imported from Egypt. As
+soon as it made its appearance, schools must be closed, public
+worship suspended, and the giving and receiving of visits in great
+measure interrupted. The quarantine appears to have been an
+effectual preventive.
+
+In the course of this year, the missionaries had a meeting at
+Smyrna, at which Messrs. King, Temple, Goodell, Bird, Adger, and
+Houston were present. Its results were important and interesting.
+During the sessions, Mr. King preached two sermons to a Greek
+audience in the chapel of the Dutch Consulate. This was seven years
+after the commencement of his mission in Greece. Mr. Bird was there,
+on his way from Syria to his native land, and wrote, on hearing Mr.
+King preach and seeing the apparent effect, that he became quite
+reconciled to his laboring among the Greeks, rather than the Arabs.
+
+In the same year Boghos, vicar of the Patriarch, encouraged by
+certain bankers, resolved to break up the mission High School for
+Armenians in Pera, of which Hohannes was the principal. In
+preparation for this, a College had been built at Scutari, some
+months before, on an extended scale; and the public school in Has
+Keuy, superintended by Kevork, had been committed to the general
+supervision of one of the great bankers residing there, that it
+might be remodeled according to his own wishes, and made a
+first-rate school. This was deemed a needful preliminary to shutting
+up the mission High School. Early in the year, the parents were
+summoned before the vicar, and ordered to withdraw their sons from
+that school. The plan of the opposing party was, in this case, after
+breaking up the school, to procure from the Turkish government the
+banishment of Hohannes. But they had misapprehended the banker, and
+great was their astonishment when they heard that Hohannes was no
+sooner released, by their own act, from his connection with the
+mission school, than he was engaged by the banker of Has Keuy to
+take the superintendence of the national school they had placed in
+his hands. In vain they remonstrated. To their assertion, that it
+was the American system he had adopted he replied, that he knew
+nothing of the Americans, but had adopted the system because it was
+good. To their objection, that the principal was evangelical, he
+responded, "So am I." He at length declared, that unless they
+permitted him to manage the school in his own way, he would withdraw
+from the Armenian community. They could not afford to lose one of
+the leading bankers; and one of the principal opposers, finding it
+necessary, in a business transaction, to throw himself on his
+clemency, opposition ceased for a time, and a school of six hundred
+scholars went into successful operation, with Hohannes for its
+superintendent, and Der Kevork, the active priest, for one of its
+principal teachers.
+
+It is worthy of special note, that up to this time, the banker was
+wholly unknown to the missionaries, and to the evangelical brethren
+generally. He was evidently raised up by divine Providence for the
+occasion. Not only did the Has Keuy school greatly exceed the
+mission school at Pera in the number of its pupils, but it was
+formally adopted as the school of the nation, and Hohannes was
+appointed its principal by the Armenian Synod. Having liberty of
+action, he devoted an hour each day to giving special religious
+instruction to a select class of sixty of the more advanced pupils,
+besides his more general teaching, and the daily good influence
+exerted by Der Kevork and himself. The course of study was liberal,
+the philosophical apparatus of the mission was purchased by the
+directors, lectures were given on the natural sciences, and the
+school obtained a temporary popularity.
+
+Yet there were secret opposing influences too powerful to allow this
+state of things long to continue. In the middle of the year 1838,
+the distinguished patron understood, not only that there was a
+growing dissatisfaction among the leading Armenians with the school,
+and especially with its principal, but that his munificence was
+attracting the attention of the Turks; and he deemed it prudent to
+withdraw his patronage. Before the close of the year, the teachers
+were dismissed, and the school was reduced to its former footing.
+The leading men of Has Keuy sent a delegation to the Patriarch
+deprecating the disaster, but obtained only fair promises. Hohannes
+now renewed his connection with the mission, and was placed in
+charge of the book distribution. Der Kevork spent much time in going
+from house to house, reading the Scriptures to the people, and
+exhorting them to obey the Gospel.
+
+At Broosa, the number of visitors at the house of the missionaries
+was increasing, and among them were two young teachers in the
+Armenian public school, who were specially interested in the subject
+of personal religion. They were among the first to make the
+acquaintance of Mr. Powers, on his coming to take up his residence
+in their quarter of the city. One of these young men, named Serope,
+had the sole charge of about fifty of the most advanced scholars,
+whom he instructed daily in the Word of God. The principal men in
+the Armenian community at Broosa soon decided to place a select
+class of boys under his instruction, to be trained for the priest's
+office, and eight were thus set apart. Before the end of the year
+both of these teachers gave hopeful evidence of piety.
+
+Very interesting cases of conversion occurred at Nicodemia, at the
+head of the gulf bearing that name. Mr. Goodell, when passing
+through this place in 1832, gave several tracts to some Armenian
+boys. One of these, a translation of the "Dairyman's Daughter," came
+into the hands of a priest, whom Mr. Goodell did not see. This led
+him to study the Word of God. A brother priest, on intimate terms
+with him, was induced to join in the study, and the result was the
+hopeful conversion of both. Their united efforts were now directed
+to the conversion of their flock, and a spirit of inquiry was
+awakened. In the spring of 1838, Mr. Dwight found sixteen at
+Nicomedia, who appeared to be truly converted men. He was surprised
+at the seriousness and intelligence with which they conversed on the
+great truths of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit had evidently been their
+teacher, and the doctrine of justification by grace through faith
+alone, was the foundation of their hopes. The joy with which they
+greeted the missionary of the cross for the first time, was most
+gratifying to him, as was the earnest attention they gave to his
+instructions. Compared with their countrymen in the same place, they
+might be called intelligent men, and some of them were in very easy
+circumstances. The two converted priests, Der Vertanes and Der
+Haritun, became afterwards well known in the mission. Of their own
+accord they removed to Constantinople, and were placed together in
+charge of a village church on the Bosphorus; and the Patriarch
+Stepan, being an old acquaintance, spent several weeks with them,
+and generally assented to the views advanced by them in their free
+conversations.
+
+We now enter the year 1839, which was a year of severe persecution.
+Of this persecution, in which the Porte itself became a party, I am
+now to give a brief account.
+
+The missionary force at Constantinople had become unusually small.
+Mr. Dwight was absent until September, on a visit to the United
+States. Mr. Schauffler left in May for Vienna, to superintend the
+printing of the Hebrew Spanish Old Testament. He went by way of
+Odessa, and both there, and among the German churches in that part
+of Russia, he did much to sustain a religious revival that had been
+long in progress. Mr. Homes left in the spring to join Dr. Grant in
+exploring Kurdistan. Mr. Hamlin arrived early in the year, but was
+occupied in the study of the language. Mr. Goodell was, therefore,
+almost alone in this trying season.
+
+The extent and violence of the persecution were convincing proof of
+the progress of the reformation. A corrupt priesthood dreaded its
+tendency to deprive them of their sinful gains. Certain persons no
+longer enjoyed a monopoly of Armenian printing. Education ceased to
+be exclusively in the hands of a few bankers. And the popularity of
+Hohannes and Boghos Fizika was thought to operate against the great
+Armenian college at Scutari. Nor were the members of the Romish
+Church idle.
+
+The patriarchs were elected by the primates, who were chiefly
+bankers, and were in an important sense their creatures. The bankers
+were divested of much of their power in 1839, by the rise of three
+men of the artisan class, who suddenly stood before the nation as
+its guides and dictators, and more especially as extirpators of
+heresy. These were the two chief architects of the Sultan, and the
+superintendent of the government powder works. The two first, being
+employed in erecting the most splendid of all the imperial palaces,
+were often in contact with the Sultan. The expulsion of
+Protestantism lay near their hearts, and they resolved to make use
+of the strong arm of Mahmood to effect it. What were the
+representations made to him is not known; but it is known that the
+three favorites were authorized to call on the civil power to aid
+them in extirpating the dangerous heresy.
+
+The first thing was to get the tolerant Patriarch out of the way.
+For some reason they did not at once remove him from office, but
+procured from the interior a man named Hagopos, notorious for his
+bigotry and sternness, whom they appointed Assistant Patriarch. A
+month later, Stepan was deposed, and permitted to retire to his
+convent near Nicomedia, and Hagopos was installed in his place.
+Before this, Hohannes had been thrown into the patriarchal prison,
+without even the form of an accusation; but every one knew that his
+crime consisted in following the Bible, rather than the Church.
+Boghos Fizika was arrested, and cast into the same prison; and four
+days after, they were both banished by an imperial firman. Their
+place of exile was a convent near Cesarea, four hundred miles
+distant. Stepan took leave of them with tears, well knowing the deep
+injustice of the act. This was in the month of February, and the
+Turkish police-officer sent back word from Scutari, that Boghos,
+being an invalid, was too feeble to bear the fatigues and exposures
+of such a journey in that inclement season; but positive orders were
+returned to carry him to Cesarea, either dead or alive. Nicomedia
+lay on their route; and the brethren of that place hastened in a
+body to the post-house, and had a season of prayer with the exiles,
+which greatly comforted them. This intercourse was kept up during a
+delay of several days authorized by the Nicomedia primate. When the
+Armenians of Cesarea were told, on their arrival at that place, that
+their banishment was for receiving the Bible as the only infallible
+guide in religious matters, they said the Patriarch might as well
+banish them all, for they were all of that opinion.
+
+It was reported in Constantinople, that the Patriarch had a list of
+five hundred persons suspected of heresy, and that among them were
+bishops, priests, and bankers, some of whom were to be banished
+immediately. Few dared to visit the missionaries, and those only
+under cover of the night. A proclamation was issued by Hagopos,
+forbidding the reading of books printed or circulated by the
+missionaries, and all who had such books were required to deliver
+them up without delay. On the 14th of March, Der Kevork was arrested
+and thrown into prison; and when respectable Armenians of Has Keuy
+made application for his release, they were rudely told to mind
+their own business. After lying in prison for more than a month, he
+and several others were banished into the interior. A rich banker,
+who had long been on friendly terms with the missionaries, was
+arrested and imprisoned in a hospital as an insane person,--a method
+of persecution not unfrequently resorted to in Turkey. He was
+released after a week's confinement, on paying a large sum for the
+college at Scutari.
+
+Nor were the Greek ecclesiastics behind the Armenian in hostility to
+the reformation. The Greek Synod and Patriarch issued a decree,
+excommunicating all who should buy, sell, or read the books of the
+"Luthero-Calvinists;" and condemning in like manner the writings of
+Korai, the illustrious restorer of learning among the Greeks, and of
+the learned Bambas, the friend of Fisk and Parsons. An imperial
+firman was also published, authorizing, and even requiring, the
+several Patriarchs to look well to their several communions, and to
+guard them from infidelity and foreign influence; thus connecting
+the Porte itself with the persecution.
+
+A strong effort was made to procure the expulsion of the
+missionaries. Multitudes were active, from diverse motives, to
+secure this end. One of the most conspicuous of these was a renegade
+Jew, once baptized by an English missionary, but now an infidel who
+seemed to have satanic aid in the invention of slanders against
+Protestants and Protestantism. Another was a disappointed infidel
+teacher, whose malice and bitterness made him a fit ally for the
+Jew. The enemy seemed to be having everything in his own way, and
+strong was his confidence of success.
+
+At this crisis, Divine Providence interposed. The army of the
+Egyptians was on the march towards Constantinople, and the Sultan
+deemed it necessary to call upon all the Patriarchs and the chief
+Rabbi of the Jews, each to furnish several thousand men for his
+army. It was an unprecedented demand, and occasioned great
+consternation, but must be obeyed. The army was raised, and was
+estimated at eighty thousand. It encountered an Egyptian army of
+about the same number on the plains of Nezib near Aleppo, on the
+24th of June, and the Turkish troops were scattered in all
+directions. The tidings of this disaster never reached Mahmood, as
+he died in his palace on the first day of July. A few days after,
+the Capudan Pasha surrendered the Turkish fleet to Mohammed Ali; and
+on the 11th of July, Abdul Medjid, a boy of seventeen, was placed
+upon the throne. The news of the entire loss of his army and navy
+arrived in a few days, and the empire seemed on the verge of
+dissolution. It was saved by the intervention of the great powers of
+Europe. The apostate Jew, to avoid punishment for various crimes,
+professed himself a Mohammedan; and for crimes subsequently
+committed, he was strangled by the Turks, and thrown into the
+Bosphorus. On the 12th of August, between three and four thousand
+houses in Pera were consumed by fire, with the loss of several lives
+and an immense amount of property.
+
+The persecution had extended to Broosa and Trebizond; and at
+Erzroom, in ancient Armenia, where Mr. Jackson had commenced a new
+station, a letter was read from the patriarchate, warning the people
+against the Americans, and their schools and books.
+
+The Egyptian war and its consequences broke the power of the
+persecution. The Armenian Synod voted to recall all the exiles,
+except Hohannes, whom they adjudged to perpetual banishment as the
+ringleader of the "Evangelicals." At length an English physician, of
+humane feelings, being informed as to the facts in the case, stated
+them to one of the sisters of the late Sultan. The result was that,
+on the fourteenth of November, an imperial _request_ for Hohannes's
+release was sent to the Patriarch. He resorted to various devices,
+first to procure the reversal, and then to delay the execution of
+the order, which was addressed by the Turkish minister of foreign
+affairs to the governor of Cesarea, and had on it the Sultan's
+sign-manual, and the seals of several high offices of state. Not
+daring to delay longer, on the tenth of February, 1840, he placed
+the imperial requisition in the hands of the father of Hohannes, by
+whom it was immediately forwarded to Cesarea, and Hohannes arrived
+at Constantinople on the twenty-fourth of May.
+
+The persecutors, one after another, were brought low. A change was
+made, about this time, in the mode of collecting the revenue of the
+empire, rendering the board of Armenian government bankers useless,
+and they were directed to settle up their accounts and close their
+offices. This reduced some of them to poverty, and stripped them all
+of a great part of their power. The Greek Patriarch was deposed, on
+complaint by the British Ambassador of his interference with matters
+in the Ionian Islands; and the Armenian Patriarch found himself in
+trouble with his own people. He was too overbearing, and was
+obliged, in November, 1840, to resign his office, to avoid a
+forcible deposition; and it was a significant sign of the times,
+that Stepan, who had been ejected from office on account of his
+forbearance towards the Protestants, was now re-elected; first, by
+the vote of the principal bankers, and afterwards by acclamation in
+an immense popular assembly convened for the purpose. He was
+immediately recognized by the Turkish government.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1840-1844.
+
+
+The young Sultan, soon after coming to the throne, pledged himself;
+in the presence of all the foreign ambassadors, to guard the
+liberty, property, and honor of his subjects equally, whatever their
+religious creed. No one was to be condemned without trial, and none
+were to suffer the penalty of death without the sanction of the
+Sultan himself. No person at all conversant with Turkey, would
+expect such a change in the administration of the government to be
+effected at once, nor indeed for a long course of years. Yet this
+was the beginning of changes, which were momentous in their
+influence on the Christian and Jewish population of Turkey.
+
+There was now such a number of Armenian boys and young men around
+the mission thirsting for knowledge, both religious and secular,
+that a boarding-school for such could no longer be properly delayed.
+Mr. Hamlin accordingly opened such a school at Bebek, on the
+European side of the Bosphorus, six miles above Constantinople.
+
+Mr. Jackson commenced a station at Erzroom in 1840. At first he was
+almost disheartened when he saw how confidently the people rested
+their hopes of heaven on saint-worship, and the rigor of their
+fasts; but he soon saw reason to expect a better state of things.
+
+Messrs. Dwight and Hamlin made a visit, about this time, to
+Nicomedia. Their intercourse with the native brethren there was
+generally private because of persecutors, but it was in the highest
+degree satisfactory. The first meeting was on the Sabbath, in a
+retired garden, where they sat four successive hours, in the middle
+of a circle of hungry souls, expounding to them the Gospel. After
+partaking of some refreshment, they sat three hours more in an
+adjacent house. Later in the day, they spent three hours in the same
+manner, in another garden; making in all ten hours of preaching and
+conversation in the course of one Sabbath; besides an hour more in
+their own room, with transient visitors from abroad. Many of the
+questions asked were of a highly practical nature. During this
+visit, a stranger called upon them, whose curiosity had been excited
+by the Patriarch's letter of warning against the American
+missionaries. He, in common with many of his brethren, was anxious
+to know more about this new way. Considerable time was spent with
+him in needful explanations, and with these, and a copy of the New
+Testament in modern Armenian and several tracts, he departed highly
+delighted. It was thus that a knowledge of the Gospel was first
+carried to Adabazar where this man resided, twenty-seven miles east
+of Nicomedia.
+
+The papists took advantage of the religious interest awakened in the
+Armenian Church; and there was reason to apprehend, that dark,
+dissatisfied minds, if not made acquainted with the Gospel, were in
+danger of falling into the iron embrace of the Romish Church. The
+papal missions had been roused to activity in all the Levant, and
+their numerous adherents enabled them to come extensively into
+contact with the native mind. Nor were they scrupulous as to their
+manner of exciting the jealousies of the people against Protestant
+missionaries. There is evidence also, that, after the Greek
+revolution, they took advantage of the fact that nearly all the
+dragomen of foreign ministers at the Turkish court were Roman
+Catholics.
+
+The obstacles in the way of preaching the Gospel at Broosa, became
+so great as to make it a question whether the preachers ought not to
+go elsewhere. Just then there began to be indications of the
+presence of the Holy Spirit. Individuals came to Mr. Schneider,
+almost every Sabbath, deeply affected by the truth, and there were
+several hopeful conversions. Not only there, but elsewhere and
+especially at Constantinople, during the year commencing May, 1840,
+there was a manifest reaction, caused by the persecutions of 1839,
+which became more and more decided during the year. Minds were
+awakened, which, but for the banishments, anathemas, burning of
+books, and shutting up of schools, might have been aroused only by
+the angel of death. Some of these became hopeful converts, and one a
+preacher of the faith he had endeavored to destroy. The spirit of
+freedom and Christian boldness was increased. Priest Kevork and
+Priest Vertanes were more active than ever. Attempts to break up the
+mission seminary failed, because neither scholars nor parents would
+obey the mandate of the vakeel to withdraw from connection with the
+missionaries.
+
+The Rev. Henry J. Van Lennep and wife joined the mission in April,
+1840, and were stationed at Smyrna. Mrs. Van Lennep lived only till
+the following September. The Rev. Josiah Peabody and wife became the
+associates of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, at Erzroom, in the following
+year; and in that year Mr. Ladd was transferred from Cyprus to
+Broosa. Mr. Hallock, the missionary printer at Smyrna, returned to
+the United States, but continued to manufacture Arabic and Syriac
+types for the printing establishments in the Syrian and Nestorian
+missions. The printing at Smyrna, during this year, was equivalent
+to 10,843,704 pages duodecimo; and the pages printed at that
+establishment from the beginning, had been 51,910,260. Two
+printing-presses and seven fonts of native type were in use. An
+"Armenian Magazine" was edited by Mr. Adger; and a Greek "Monthly
+Magazine" by Mr. Temple, with the efficient aid of Mr. Petrokokino.
+In November, Mr. Goodell completed the translation of the Old
+Testament into Armeno-Turkish, and immediately commenced revising
+the New Testament, which he finished in a few months. The Old
+Testament had now been translated into Armeno-Turkish from the
+Hebrew, and the New Testament from the Greek. The Armenians had,
+also, Zohrab's popular translation of the New Testament in their
+modern tongue, revised by Mr. Adger, and published under his
+superintendence, at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible
+Society. The ancient Armenian translation, which is said to be a
+good one, and to be much valued by the people, was made about
+fourteen hundred years ago.
+
+Mr. Dwight began a course of lectures on systematic theology,
+commencing with a class of three Armenians, one of them a priest.
+The Armenian college at Scutari was closed by the bankers in
+October, after having been in operation three years, at great
+expense to the community. But the seminary at Bebek was so full of
+promise, that grants were made to place it on a broader and firmer
+basis.
+
+The change in the Armenian community, in the course of five or six
+years, had been very encouraging. At the beginning of that time,
+some were truly interested in the things of religion, and the
+missionaries had religious conversation with many. But by far the
+greater part then came for the purpose of general inquiry, or to see
+the philosophical apparatus, or hear a lecture on the sciences; and
+it was matter of joy, if mere human knowledge could be made the
+entering wedge to their minds for the knowledge which is divine. How
+marked the change! They now came in large numbers, drawn by the
+power of the truth of God alone, not to inquire about electricity,
+or galvanism, as before, but about the eternal destiny of the soul,
+and the way by which it might be saved. There had been, also, a
+favorable change in the general style of preaching at the capital;
+and among the people there was a growing disposition to compare
+every doctrine and practice with the Scriptures. This the vartabeds,
+or preachers, could not disregard. It was not an uncommon thing to
+hear of sermons on Repentance, the Sabbath, the Judgment-day, etc.;
+and sometimes the preachers were largely indebted for their
+materials to the publications of the mission. Indeed, one of the
+most respectable vartabeds in Constantinople made repeated
+applications to the missionaries to furnish mutter for his sermons.
+Instances of pungent convictions of sin became more common. Some who
+had been drunkards, gamblers, adulterers, and downright infidels,
+were thoroughly converted, and exhibited that humility, purity,
+spirituality, and Christian zeal, which are the fruits of the Spirit
+alone. The older converts, also, appeared to grow in the knowledge
+of Christ, and one striking characteristic was an active zeal for
+the salvation of others.
+
+Vertanes was full of hope and activity. It is mentioned by Mr.
+Dwight, in his excellent "History of Christianity in Turkey," that a
+report reached Constantinople, in the spring of 1841, that a
+considerable number of Armenians in Nicomedia, members of the old
+Church, had become disaffected, and were about going over to the
+Jesuits; and that the Patriarch commissioned this same Vertanes to
+go thither with all speed, and endeavor to bring them back to their
+Mother Church. He was successful in the object of his visit; and
+while he heartily and faithfully obeyed the Patriarch, and
+endeavored to persuade men not to suffer themselves to fall into the
+snares of Rome, he also labored zealously to bring them to a sense
+of their sins against God, and to a hearty reception of Christ alone
+as the Saviour of their souls. His visit was very comforting and
+useful to the brethren in Nicomedia.
+
+The intelligence received from Adabazar early in this year, was most
+cheering. An attempt had been made to raise a storm of persecution,
+and one of the brethren was thrown into prison, but he was soon
+liberated by a powerful friend, and afterwards the truth spread more
+rapidly. Meetings for prayer and reading the Scriptures were held
+every Sabbath, at which from twenty-five to fifty were present, and
+one of the priests seemed to have become obedient to the faith. No
+missionary had yet been among these brethren, and the issues from
+the press were almost the only instrumentality employed among them
+by the Holy Spirit. One year previously, it is believed, not a
+single soul could have been found among the four thousand
+inhabitants of Adabazar, who was not groping in the deepest
+spiritual darkness. Now, some forty or more were convinced of the
+errors of their Church, and ready to take the Bible as their only
+religious guide, of whom several appeared to be truly converted men,
+and even willing to lay down their lives for Christ. It was not
+until the autumn of 1841, that a missionary was able to visit them.
+Mr. Schneider, of Broosa, was then hailed with joy by all the
+evangelical brethren, and returned with the most delightful and
+cheering impressions. A spirit of inquiry had extended into many of
+the neighboring villages.
+
+The Rev. George W. Wood1 was transferred to this mission from
+Singapore in 1842, and was associated with Mr. Hamlin in the
+Seminary. The Rev. Simeon H. Calhoun, for some time resident at
+Smyrna as agent of the American Bible Society, received now an
+appointment as a missionary of the Board; the Rev. Edwin E. Bliss,
+designated to the mountain Nestorians, having been refused a firman
+to go thither by the Turkish government, was associated with Mr.
+Johnston at Trebizond; and Mr. Schauffler devoted himself to the
+Jews. Mr. Homes had the special charge of the book distribution at
+Constantinople.
+
+1 Afterwards one of the Corresponding Secretaries of the Board.
+
+There being so little to impart peace to a really awakened
+conscience in either the Roman or the Oriental Churches, individuals
+were often found wandering to and fro, as in pagan India, vainly
+seeking for rest. One of the most noted cases of this kind was that
+of an Armenian. To pacify the clamors of conscience, he became an
+inmate of a monastery far in the interior, where he undertook to
+perform the most menial services for the monks. Failing to find
+peace in this, he penetrated into the depths of a wilderness,
+clothed himself in sackcloth, and lived on the coarsest fare, away
+from the abodes of man. Here also he was disappointed. Returning to
+Constantinople, he united himself to the papal Armenians, hoping in
+their communion to find the relief he sought. He became chief singer
+in one of the churches near the capital, and endeavored to derive
+comfort, but found nothing to impart peace in the strictest forms of
+papal worship. A friend now advised him to visit the American
+missionaries. He had heard of them only as heretics and enemies of
+the Christian faith, but was at length persuaded to accompany some
+friends to Mr. Hamlin's house. Taking a seat as near the door as
+possible, he listened in silence; then proposed some objections; but
+gradually became interested, and drew his chair nearer and nearer to
+his newly found teacher; until at length he seated himself on the
+floor, literally at the very feet of Mr. Hamlin, and there drank in,
+with mute astonishment, those divine truths which he had never heard
+before, but which revealed to him the only sure foundation for peace
+of mind. There was an instantaneous change in his whole character;
+and we hear of him twelve years afterwards, as a living witness of
+the truth, and a faithful laborer in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.1
+
+1 Dwight's _Christianity Revived in the East_, p.118.
+
+In October of this year, it was deemed advisable to suspend the
+preaching service at Constantinople for a few Sabbaths, in
+consequence of violent opposition on the part of some Armenians,
+formerly reckoned as brethren. This unexpected and painful change
+was owing to their forming an acquaintance with individuals who had
+imbibed the errors, which threaten the unity of the Episcopal
+Churches of England and America. Just before the outbreaking of this
+opposition, Mr. Dwight thus gives utterance to his feelings: "How
+wonderful are the ways of Providence in regard to the Armenians! In
+one way or another, men are continually brought from distant places
+to the capital, and here they become acquainted for the first time
+with the Gospel; and returning to their homes, they spread abroad
+that which they have seen and heard. There is something quite
+wonderful in the state of the Armenian mind at the present time."
+The persecuting spirit above noted was directed more especially
+towards Hohannes, and this induced him to go to the United States to
+prepare himself for preaching the Gospel.
+
+In the early part of this year, the Armenian brethren met in a
+retired part of the hills adjacent to the capital, and there, after
+united prayer, agreed to send one of their own number, at their own
+expense, on a missionary tour among their countrymen in the interior
+of Asia Minor. Of their own accord they also agreed to set apart the
+first Tuesday in each month, for special prayer to God in behalf of
+their nation, and for his blessing on the means used for their
+spiritual illumination. Not unfrequently they remained after Mr.
+Dwight's preaching, to have a prayer meeting by themselves for the
+outpouring of the Holy Spirit; and if there was any one present at
+the meeting who was particularly anxious about his soul, they kept
+him with them, and talked and prayed with him. It is recorded also,
+that at one time as many as thirty Armenian men were present at the
+monthly concert for prayer, which was necessarily held in the middle
+of the day, and that some of them prayed as if they felt true
+longings of heart for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
+
+About forty different works, and more than forty-four thousand
+volumes and tracts, were issued from the Smyrna depot during the
+year 1842. Eight or ten booksellers at the capital were kept
+constantly supplied, and the products of the press were sent into
+almost every part of the interior.
+
+It is worthy of note that Mr. Dwight's first formal sermon to
+Armenian women, was in May, 1843. It was in Pera, and four of them
+had walked not less than three miles to attend the service. One was
+forty-five or fifty years old, and her sentiments were decidedly
+evangelical. The religion of the Gospel shone beautifully in some of
+the Armenian families. Mr. Hamlin had an interesting experience at
+Bebek. On the 13th of August, on returning from Constantinople, he
+found nine women and one man waiting his return to preach to them
+the Gospel. On the 21st, sixteen listened with breathless attention
+to a sermon on the unsearchable riches of Christ, and nine of these
+were women. On the 25th, another company of men and women called.
+Mr. Hamlin was at work upon some philosophical apparatus, when one
+of the men put his head through the door, and said, "Good-morning,
+reverend sir, come here, and preach to us the Gospel." September
+22d, a company of Armenian men and women, four of them from
+Nicomedia, came and asked him "to teach them out of the Gospel." On
+the 24th eight, besides the students, were present at the services,
+forenoon and afternoon; two from Galata, one from Constantinople,
+three from Nicomedia, and two from Adabazar. On the day following,
+thirteen were present, most of whom had heard the maledictions of
+the Armenian Patriarch pronounced, the day before, on all who should
+visit the missionaries. On a day in December devoted to family
+visitations, Mr. Dwight preached the Gospel to more than thirty
+women.
+
+It was not the missionaries alone, who labored in word and doctrine.
+Several priests were "obedient to the faith," and preached it more
+or less formally; and intelligent lay brethren,--scattered abroad,
+some by persecution, some in the prosecution of their worldly
+business,--like the primitive disciples, preached the Word; that is,
+they took such opportunities as they could get, to make known the
+truth to those of their countrymen who were disposed to hear it.
+Vertanes, who had suffered imprisonment and banishment for the sake
+of Christ, made an extensive missionary tour through Armenia.
+
+In the summer of 1843, a body of Turkish police was seen conducting
+a young man, under twenty years of age, in the European dress,
+through the streets of Constantinople. His face was pale, and his
+arms were pinioned behind him. Arriving at a place of public
+concourse, they suddenly halted, the prisoner kneeled, and a blow of
+the yatagan severed his head from the body. His crime was apostasy
+from the Mohammedan faith. He was an obscure Armenian, and while
+under the influence of alcohol had abjured the faith of his fathers,
+and declared himself a Mohammedan. He had not submitted, however, to
+the rite of circumcision before he repented of his rashness. The
+penalty of apostasy being death, he fled to Greece. In about a year,
+impatient to see his widowed mother, he returned in a Frank dress,
+but was soon recognized, imprisoned, tortured to induce him to
+reabandon his original belief, and even paraded through the streets
+with his hands tied behind his back, as if for execution; but upon
+his proclaiming aloud his firm belief in Christianity, he was
+sentenced to decapitation. The British ambassador, Sir Stratford
+Canning, impelled by motives of humanity, made an earnest effort to
+procure his release, and the Grand Vizier promised that the young
+man should not be beheaded. On learning that he had been, the
+ambassador declared it to be an insult to the Established Religion
+of England, as well as to all Europe, and insisted that no similar
+act of fanaticism should ever again occur. In this he was said to be
+warmly seconded both by the French and Prussian ministers. The Grand
+Vizier, as before, was ready to give a verbal pledge; but soon a
+second act of treachery was discovered. A Greek, in the interior of
+Asia Minor, had declared himself it Mohammedan, and afterwards
+refused to perform the rites of that religion, and the Turkish
+minister was preparing the death-warrant for him, at the very time
+when he was making these promises to the ambassador. Sir Stratford
+now very peremptorily demanded, that a written pledge be given by
+the Sultan himself (as his ministers could no longer be trusted),
+that no person embracing the Moslem religion and afterwards
+returning to Christianity, should on that account be put to death;
+and the Earl of Aberdeen, on the part of the home government,
+instructed him in a noble letter not to recede from the demand. The
+Prussian and French governments were equally decided; and after some
+hesitancy, even Russia threw the weight of her influence into the
+scale. After a struggle of some weeks the required pledge was given,
+signed by the Sultan himself, that henceforth NO PERSON SHOULD BE
+PERSECUTED FOR HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS IN TURKEY. The British
+ambassador distinctly acknowledged the finger of God in this
+transaction, which he said seemed little less than a miracle.
+
+It will hereafter appear, that the pledge had a wider range, than
+was thought of at the time by the governments of Europe, by their
+representatives, or even by the Turks. God was setting up a
+spiritual kingdom, and his people must have freedom to worship Him
+in his appointed way. The battle for religious freedom in Turkey was
+fought over the mutilated remains of the Armenian renegade, and the
+Sultan's pledge secured to the Protestant native Christians the full
+enjoyment of their civil rites, while openly practicing their own
+religion.1
+
+1 This brief statement is compiled from the _Correspondence relating
+to Executions in Turkey for Apostasy from Islamism_, published by
+the British Parliament in 1844, occupying forty folio pages. The
+correspondence is highly honorable to the great men who were then
+controlling the political affairs of Europe, and to a large extent
+also of Western Asia.
+
+But before this comprehensive meaning of the pledge could be
+understood, and the benefit of it actually enjoyed by the people of
+God, they were subjected to more grievous sufferings for their faith
+than any yet endured. From 1843 to 1846, there was no long respite
+from persecution; yet in all this time the spirit of inquiry
+wonderfully spread, and believers were the more added to the Lord.
+
+In 1843, Priest Vertanes was rudely deposed from office, and thrown
+into prison. Finding he could not be induced to sign a paper of
+recantation, drawn up for him by the Patriarch, he was hurried by
+the Patriarch's beadles, with great violence, into an open
+sail-boat, without opportunity to obtain even an outer garment from
+his house, although it was midwinter, and sent across the sea of
+Marmora to the monastery of Ahmah, near Nicomedia.
+
+The Foreign Secretary of the Board spent eleven weeks in this
+mission, in the winter of 1843-44, accompanied by Dr. Joel Hawes, of
+Hartford. At that time it was arranged by the mission, in full
+accordance with the views of their visiting brethren, to discontinue
+the Greek department, to give distinct names as missions to the
+Jewish department and to the work among the Armenians, to open a
+female high school at Constantinople, and to associate Mr. Wood with
+Mr. Hamlin in the seminary at Bebek. It was also decided, that
+Messrs. Riggs and Ladd, turning from the Greeks to the Armenians,
+should acquire the use of the languages spoken by the latter people;
+that Mr. Calhoun should be authorized to visit Syria, with a view to
+an opening for him in connection with the projected seminary on
+Mount Lebanon; that Mr. Temple, then too old to learn either the
+Armenian or Turkish languages, ought to be authorized, in view of
+the discontinuance of the Greek department, to return to the
+churches whose faithful messenger he had been so long; and that the
+native Armenian agency should be put upon a footing on which it
+would be more likely to be sustained ultimately by the people.
+
+There was reason afterwards to believe, that it would have been
+better for Mr. Temple to remain in Turkey, in the exercise of his
+eminently apostolic influence upon his brother missionaries and the
+native Protestant community, Greek and Armenian. Yet his own opinion
+was in favor of the course he pursued. "I am too old," he said, "to
+think for a moment of learning a new language, and no opening
+invites me here in any language I can command." After a farewell
+visit to his brethren in Constantinople, he set his face homeward,
+and arrived in Boston in the summer of 1844. He was usefully
+employed as an agent of the Board, or in the pastoral relation,
+until his health broke down. In January, 1851, through the kindness
+of a friend, he made a voyage to Chagres, and another to Liverpool.
+But he returned from the last of these voyages enfeebled by the
+roughness of the passage; and his strength gradually declined, until
+the 9th of August, 1851, seven years after his return to America,
+when he died at Reading, Massachusetts, his native place, in the
+sixty-second year of his age. It may be truly said, that few men
+have borne more distinctively than he, the impress of the Saviour's
+image.1
+
+1 See _Life and Letters of Rev. Daniel Temple_, for twenty-three
+years a Missionary in Western Asia. By his son, Rev. Daniel H.
+Temple, Boston, 1855.
+
+A daughter of Dr. Hawes accompanied him on his voyage to Smyrna as
+the wife of Mr. Van Lennep, but was permitted only to enter upon the
+work to which she had devoted herself in Asia. She died at
+Constantinople of fever, within less than a year from the time of
+her embarkation. The health of Mrs. Benjamin was such as to oblige
+her and her husband to return home. A similar cause occasioned also
+the return of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+GREECE AND THE GREEKS.
+
+1824-1844.
+
+
+When the missions to the Oriental Churches were commenced, Greece
+was suffering under the oppression of the Turks, and the people were
+glad of sympathy from any quarter. In the department of education,
+they seemed even to welcome Protestant missionaries. They compared
+favorably with the Roman Catholics, in their reception of the
+Scriptures, and in the matter of religious toleration. But an
+unfavorable change came over them after they had achieved their
+national independence.
+
+Mr. Gridley was the first missionary to labor among the Greeks of
+Turkey, though he was not sent with special reference to them. He
+arrived at Smyrna in December, 1826. After acquiring the modern
+Greek, he visited Cesarea, four hundred miles to the eastward,
+hoping for better advantages in acquiring the Greco-Turkish
+language, and also to learn the condition of the Greeks in the
+interior. He was accompanied by Abraham, his teacher, a
+well-informed native of Cappadocia, and for two months applied
+himself to his studies, until admonished of danger by the frequent
+recurrence of headaches. Finding that these yielded to exercise, he
+deemed it prudent to execute a purpose he had long cherished of
+ascending Mount Argeus, from the top of which, according to Strabo,
+the Black and Mediterranean Seas might both be discerned in a clear
+day. Outstripping his attendants, Mr. Gridley mounted with great
+agility till he reached an elevation within three or four hundred
+feet of the highest summit, when he was prevented from advancing
+farther by the steepness of the ascent. There, in the region of
+perpetual snow, he remained a quarter of an hour, but could not
+discover the objects he had specially in view. The height of the
+mountain he estimated at thirteen thousand feet. Descending rapidly,
+he was overpowered with fatigue when he reached his companions, and
+they were soon after exposed to a violent storm of hail and rain.
+The headache soon returned with increasing violence, and was
+followed by fever, so insidious in its progress as at no time to
+suggest to him his danger. His death occurred on the 27th of
+September, fifteen days after the ascent, and a year after leaving
+his native land.
+
+Thus he fell at the age of thirty-one, and at the very commencement
+of his career. The predominant characteristics of Mr. Gridley were
+resolution, promptness, and generosity. In all the duties of a
+Christian missionary, he was indefatigable in no ordinary degree,
+and his early removal was very trying.
+
+The cause of education naturally became prominent at the outset of a
+mission among the Greeks. Scio was the seat of their most favored
+college, and when the people of that ill-fated island fled from the
+murderous sword of the Turks, some of the families sought refuge in
+Malta. There were bright youths among them, and six of these, and
+two from other Greek islands, so interested Messrs. Fisk and Temple,
+that they obtained permission to send them home, to be educated
+chiefly at the expense of the Board. This was before the results of
+the Foreign Mission School at Cornwall had become manifest. Three
+others arrived in 1826, and one in 1828; and nearly all received a
+liberal education, either at Amherst or Yale. Evangelinos Sophocles,
+from Thessaly, who came last, has long held the honorable position
+of a Professor in Harvard University. Four others,--Anastatius
+Karavelles, Nicholas Petrokokino, Alexander G. Paspati, and Gregory
+Perdicaris, were useful to the mission at different times after
+their return to the East. Several young men from the Armenian nation
+were likewise educated in the United States, and one of these,
+Hohannes, was until his death, a useful minister of the gospel among
+his countrymen. But the conclusion on the whole, to which the Board
+came, both in respect to Greeks and Armenians, was that a native
+agency must be trained in the country where it is to be employed.
+
+The return of Mr. King to Greece, in 1829, has been mentioned.
+During the visit of Mr. Smith and myself to the island of Poros, in
+July of that year, he was united in marriage to a young Smyrniote
+lady, whose acquaintance he had formed some years before, while
+detained there on his return from Syria. Though Tenos was one of the
+more bigoted of the Greek islands, nearly every person of standing
+in the place called upon the newly married couple. A Greek priest
+sent a pair of doves, and soon followed with his blessing. It was
+this marriage which, in the providence of God, kept Mr. King in
+Greece until the close of his long and useful life.
+
+Mr. King opened a school for girls in Poros, and the chief men sent
+their daughters to it. The town was noted for a modern church,
+called the Evangelistria, which, though built during the revolution,
+was the most showy edifice in Greece. It was the annual resort of
+hundreds of pilgrims, chiefly the lame, sick, and lunatic, who were
+brought there to be cured. It was the centre of modern Grecian
+superstition; as Delos, in full view of the church, had been in
+ancient times.
+
+After some months, the trustees of the church became alarmed for
+their craft, and made vigorous efforts to destroy the school. Some
+of the scholars were withdrawn, one of the teachers was compelled to
+leave, and the school-books were denounced as heretical. Through the
+whole commotion Mr. King held on his way with characteristic
+calmness, teaching and praying in the school as aforetime, and
+freely expounding the Scriptures, every Lord's day, to more than
+fifty of his pupils and a number of their friends. Two of the most
+prominent inhabitants espoused his cause; and, just in the crisis of
+the difficulty, he received a box of ancient Greek books from the
+government, as a present to the school. Soon after, there appeared
+in the government gazette a commendation of the school and of its
+course of instruction. From that time, opposition from members of
+the Greek Church seems to have ceased. A handsome donation of
+school-books, slates, and pencils was made by the Greek School
+Committee in New York, and forwarded to the President of Greece,
+through the American Board. It was gratefully acknowledged by the
+government.
+
+In the autumn of 1830, Mr. King, anticipating the evacuation of
+Athens by the Turks, made a visit to that city, then a ruin, and
+arranged for his future residence. In April of the next year, having
+resumed his connection with the American Board, he made a second
+visit, and opened a Lancasterian school for both sexes; placing a
+Greek, named Nikotoplos, at the head of it, who was author of an
+epitome of the Gospels. The school was soon filled. He purchased
+from a Turk, with private funds and at a nominal cost, the ruins of
+a stone edifice with a garden, and there built himself a home, to
+which he removed his family. He also purchased for a few hundred
+dollars, while the city was still in Turkish hands, about an acre of
+land delightfully situated, on which he subsequently erected a
+building for a young ladies' school of a high order.
+
+Capodistrias, the President, was assassinated about this time by two
+men belonging to one of the first families in Greece. The protecting
+powers required that his successor be a king, and a Bavarian prince
+named Otho was put upon the throne of the new kingdom in 1833. The
+Acropolis of Athens was soon after delivered up to its rightful
+owners, and that event consummated the emancipation of Greece from
+Turkish rule. A cabinet was formed, of which Tricoupis, a Greek
+gentleman of patriotic and enlightened views, was the president.
+Athens became the seat of government in 1834.
+
+The Rev. Elias Riggs arrived as a missionary, with his wife, in
+January, 1833, and was cordially welcomed not only by his associate,
+but also by the brethren of the American Episcopal mission. Mr.
+Riggs had paid much attention to the modern Greek, and was pleased
+with Dr. King's manner of preaching on the Sabbath, and with his
+familiar exposition of the Scriptures in his flourishing Hellenic
+school.1 There were now two schools, called the "Elementary School"
+and the "Gymnasium;" the latter having a well-arranged course of
+study for four years, corresponding, as far as circumstances would
+permit, with the studies of a New England college. The subsequent
+removal of the government gymnasium from AEgina to Athens,
+necessarily interfered with this, but until that removal it was a
+popular institution, with sixty scholars. An examination was held in
+1834 for three days in Ancient Greek, Geography, History, Geometry,
+Algebra, the Philosophy of Language, and the Holy Scriptures; the
+King and the bishop of the city being among the persons present.
+
+1 Nassau College, in Princeton, N. J., had conferred the degree of
+D. D. on Mr. King.
+
+Mr. Riggs, after visiting the more important places in the
+Peloponnesus, decided upon commencing a station at Argos, which he
+did in 1834. The great body of the Greek people at that time, were
+kindly disposed toward the missionaries and their efforts; but it
+was becoming evident, that the jealousy of the clergy was on the
+increase, and that the hierarchy had great facilities for exerting
+an adverse influence. The Church in Greece, no longer subject to the
+Greek Patriarch at Constantinople, was under the government of the
+"Holy Council of the kingdom of Greece;" which was required to guard
+the clergy and schools against heresy, and report to the government
+any attempt at proselyting. No school could be established without
+permission from the government, nor without such permission could
+any teacher instruct, even in private families. No books could be
+sold or given away in any place, without obtaining a license for
+that place, and strong guards were thrown around the press. But
+whatever the restrictions on schools and the press, the way was open
+for circulating the Scriptures, and for enforcing repentance towards
+God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. In the three years from 1834
+to 1836, Dr. King sold and gratuitously distributed nearly nine
+thousand New Testaments in modern Greek, and eighty-seven thousand
+school-books and religious tracts.
+
+The "Holy Council" now took decided ground against the version of
+the Old Testament from the Hebrew, declaring that the Septuagint
+alone was to be regarded as the canonical translation, to be read in
+the churches and used for religious instruction. This did not forbid
+nor prevent the free circulation of the Old Testament in modern
+Greek among individuals for their private use.
+
+Dark intrigues were employed to arouse the popular feeling. A letter
+against "the Americans," as all missionaries were called, purporting
+to have been written from Syra, was printed in pamphlet form at
+Paris and sent to Greece, where it attracted much attention. This
+was followed by repeated attacks from a newspaper edited by one
+Germanos. Pretended revelations and miracles at Naxos inflamed the
+zeal of the ignorant and superstitious. Professed eye-witnesses
+circulated absurd stories, of girls in the school at Syra being made
+"Americans" by sealing them on the arm; that one of them refused to
+be sealed, and two horns grew out of her head; and of a boy taken
+into a dark room to catechize him, where he saw the devil, and was
+frightened out of his senses. It was said, moreover, that the object
+of the missionaries was to change the religion of the country, while
+they hypocritically professed the contrary; though neither word nor
+deed of any missionary of the Board was made the pretext for any of
+these accusations. By such means mobs were raised, and the schools
+of Syra were, for a time, broken up. Yet the local authorities were
+generally prompt in putting down riots, and Germanos was arrested,
+and sent to a distant monastery. Dr. King's congregation on the
+Sabbath, gradually increased, and there was never a time when he
+disposed of more New Testaments, school-books, and tracts.
+
+In 1835, a station was commenced by the Rev. Samuel R. Houston on
+the island of Scio. He found the people friendly, and the island
+slowly recovering from its ruins. Professor Bambas subsequently
+expressed the opinion to Dr. King, that Samos was a more desirable
+place, since the better class of Sciotes would never return to Scio
+to live under Turkish rule. The station was not continued. In 1837,
+Mr. Houston, with the Rev. George W. Leyburn, who had been sent out
+to join him, made a tour of observation in Mane, the ancient Sparta,
+to see if a station ought not to be formed there, in compliance with
+repeated solicitations from Petron Bey, the hereditary chief in that
+region. Indeed, in view of causes beyond the control of missionary
+societies, the Prudential Committee began to feel themselves
+compelled to pass by the Grecian Islands in great measure, and
+concentrate their efforts on the main lands.
+
+The station at Argos was strengthened in 1836, by the arrival of
+Rev. Nathan Benjamin and wife. The two girls' schools in that place
+contained from seventy to one hundred pupils. In the following year,
+as Argos was declining in population and intelligence in consequence
+of the removal of the seat of government from Napoli, it was decided
+that Mr. Benjamin should remove to Athens, and Mr. Riggs to Smyrna.
+
+The district, which the brethren from Scio had specially in view,
+was exceedingly uninviting to an observer from the sea; where it
+seemed to be only a mass of rocky cliffs and mountains, gradually
+rising from the sea to St. Elias, the highest peak of Taygetus. Yet
+among these rocks were upwards of a hundred villages, containing
+from thirty to forty thousand souls. Many of these were probably of
+true Spartan descent, and they had always maintained a degree of
+independence. The old Bey of Mane had prepared the way for the two
+brethren by letters from Athens, where he then resided, and they
+were gladly received, and soon decided on removing their families to
+Ariopolis; situated on the western slope of the mountain ridge, and
+the chief town of the province of Laconia. The two families arrived
+in May, 1837, and were soon joined by Dr. Gallatti, who had been a
+faithful friend and helper at Scio. A large house was immediately
+erected for a Lancasterian school; but no teacher for such a school
+could be found, since no one was allowed to teach in Greece, except
+in Ancient Greek, without a diploma from the government; and all was
+under the superintendent of public schools, who would allow no one
+to serve the mission. Yet there were hundreds of boys playing about
+in the streets, who at a moment's notice would have rushed in for
+instruction, and whose parents would have rejoiced to see them
+there. A teacher was not obtained until October, 1839, and then only
+with the aid of Mr. Perdicaris, the American consul; but before the
+end of the year, the pupils numbered one hundred and seventy,
+filling the house. Among them was a youth named Kalopothakes, a
+native of the place, who afterwards became the bold friend and
+efficient helper of Dr. King. A school for teaching ancient Greek
+with thirty scholars, had been in operation a year or more. King
+Otho visited the place early in 1838, and commended the school. The
+descendants of the ancient Spartans boasted that he was the first
+monarch they had ever permitted to tread their soil.
+
+Mrs. Houston being threatened with consumption, her husband took her
+to Alexandria, and afterwards to Cairo, where she died peacefully,
+on the 24th of November, 1839. After depositing her remains in the
+Protestant burying-ground at Alexandria, the bereaved husband and
+father returned, with his child, to his station in Greece, and in
+the following year visited his native land.
+
+The Greek mission was always affected more or less by the changes of
+political parties. The missionaries carefully refrained from
+intermeddling with politics, but every political party had more or
+less of a religious basis, having something to do with the question,
+whether a religious reform should be permitted. Early in 1840 the
+government discovered the existence of a secret association, called
+the "Philorthodox," one object of which was to preserve unchanged
+all the formality and superstition which had crept into the Greek
+Church. It had both a civil and a military head, and was believed to
+be hostile to the existing government, and on the eve of attempting
+a religious revolution, by which all reform should be excluded.
+Several of the leaders were arrested; and the Russian Ambassador and
+Russian Secretary of Legation were both recalled, because of their
+connection with it. The leaders were brought to trial, but the
+society had influence enough to procure their acquittal. Its civil
+head was banished, and its military head was sent to AEgina for a
+military trial. The king then changed most of the members of the
+Synod, and more liberal ideas seemed to be gaining the ascendency.1
+
+1 Tracy's _History_, p. 414.
+
+This reform was only partial and temporary. An order was issued by
+the government in the next year, requiring the Catechism of the
+Greek Church to be taught in all the Hellenic schools, and Mr.
+Leyburn was informed that this order applied to his school. The
+catechism inculcates the worship of pictures and similar practices,
+and the missionary decided, that he could not teach it himself, nor
+allow others to teach it in his school. A long negotiation followed,
+principally conducted by Dr. King. It was proposed that the
+government employ catechists to teach the catechism to the pupils in
+the church. The government assented on condition, that no religious
+instruction should be given in the school, meaning thereby to
+exclude even the reading of the New Testament; but the missionaries
+would neither consent to teach what they did not believe, nor to
+maintain a school from which religious instruction must be excluded.
+The school was therefore closed, and the station abandoned. It
+should be noted, that the school was not supported by the
+government, but by the friends of Greece in the United States, and
+that no impropriety was alleged on the part of the resident
+missionary.
+
+As Mr. Leyburn must now leave Greece, and had not health to learn
+one of the languages of Western Asia, he returned home, with the
+consent of the Prudential Committee. His former associate, Mr.
+Houston, was then preparing to join the mission to the Nestorians in
+Persia, but the sudden failure of his wife's health prevented, and
+the two brethren afterwards became successful ministers of the
+Gospel in the Southern States, from which they had gone forth.
+
+A station was commenced among the Greeks on the island of Cyprus in
+1834, a year earlier than that on Scio. The Greek population of the
+island was reckoned at sixty thousand, and the pioneer missionary
+was the Rev. Lorenzo W. Pease, who arrived, with his wife, in the
+last month of the year. As it was proposed to make this a branch of
+the Syrian mission, Mr. Thomson came over from Beirut, and with Mr.
+Pease explored the island. They found no serious obstacles in the
+way of distributing the Scriptures and diffusing a knowledge of the
+Gospel, except in the unhealthiness of the climate. The most
+healthful location seemed to be Lapithos, a large village on the
+northwestern shore, two days' journey from Larnica. The village had
+a charming location, rising from the base of the mountain, and
+ascending the steep declivity a thousand feet. From thence
+perpendicular precipices arose, which sheltered it from the hot
+south winds. The coast of Caramania was in full view on the north,
+and refreshing breezes crossed the narrow channel which separated
+Cyprus from the main land. A magnificent fountain burst from the
+precipices above, the stream from which foamed through the village,
+and found its way across the narrow but fertile plain to the sea.
+This stream turned a number of mills in its descent, and a portion
+of it was distributed through the gardens, and there, tumbling from
+terrace to terrace, formed numerous beautiful and refreshing
+cascades.1
+
+1 For the extended journal of Messrs. Thomson and Pease, see
+_Missionary Herald_ for 1835, pp. 398-408, 446-452.
+
+The Archbishop of Cyprus being independent of the Patriarch of
+Constantinople, the encyclical letter against Protestant missions
+known to have been received from the metropolis, produced no decided
+hostility. The mission was reinforced in 1836 by the arrival of Rev.
+Daniel Ladd and wife, and Rev. James L. Thompson. A Lancasterian
+school had been opened at Larnica with seventy pupils, and a school
+for educating teachers with fourteen. There was very great need of
+schools, it being ascertained that, in thirty-six villages between
+Larnica and Limasol, containing more than a thousand families and a
+population of more than five thousand, only sixty-seven, besides the
+priests, could read at all, and the priests not fluently. Among the
+reasons assigned for this were the burdensome taxes imposed upon the
+people, and especially on boys at the early age of twelve years, and
+the general poverty of the parents, constraining them to employ
+their sons on their farms, or in their oil-mills or wine-presses.
+Considering that not a place had yet been found, which was
+salubrious all the year round, and that the people were scattered in
+eight or nine villages, the missionaries began to despair of a
+vigorous concentration of their labors, and came to the conclusion,
+in the year 1837, that it was expedient to go to some more
+manageable field. The opposition from Constantinople made it
+expedient to disconnect the schools from the mission. There was,
+however, from the beginning, a friendly intercourse between the
+people, including the ecclesiastics, and the missionaries and books
+and tracts were received without hesitation. This with other
+considerations induced the missionaries to delay their departure.
+The funeral of a child of Mr. Pease was attended in one of the Greek
+churches, and the Greek priests led the way in the procession,
+chanting the funeral dirge, in which there was nothing exceptionable;
+leaving at home, out of deference to the father, the cross, the
+cherubim, and the incense.
+
+In August, 1839, in consequence of remaining too long at Larnica,
+Mr. Pease was suddenly prostrated by fever, and soon closed his
+earthly career, at the early age of twenty-nine. He had made great
+proficiency in the modern Greek language, and looked forward with
+delight to its use in proclaiming the Gospel to the Greek people.
+Every month had raised him in the estimation of his brethren, and
+given new promise of his usefulness. Mrs. Pease returned to the
+United States, with her two children, in the spring of 1841. Mr.
+Thompson also returned at the close of the same year. Mr. and Mrs.
+Ladd were transferred to Broosa, in Turkey, where a large number of
+people spoke the Greek language.
+
+Dr. King and Mr. Benjamin were the only remaining members of the
+mission in Greece in 1842, and they were residing at Athens. Though
+for some time without schools, the missionaries were usefully
+employed. The former preached regularly to a congregation of from
+thirty to one hundred attentive hearers, with a ready command of the
+Greek language, and in the manner of the most effective preaching in
+this country. He preached, also, by the wayside, at the same time
+distributing books and tracts. Writing in 1843, after stating that
+fifteen hundred young men, from all parts of Greece and Turkey, were
+in the schools and university of Athens, Dr. King adds: "And yet
+God, in his wonderful providence, has permitted me to stand here,
+and preach in the plainest manner, even to the present hour, without
+let or hindrance, and that, too, in the midst of a dreadful strife
+of tongues. I have heard it remarked by Greeks, how truly wonderful
+it is that my preaching should never have been attacked. I see many
+students and others, and converse with the greatest plainness, and I
+think some are persuaded of the truth." Mr. Benjamin was also doing
+much good in the department of Christian literature. The books
+prepared by himself and Dr. King were printed at Athens, and were
+more acceptable and influential for that reason, than if printed
+elsewhere and by mission presses. The number of copies printed
+previous to 1843, was 118,465, and of pages, 6,525,500.
+
+The relinquishment of the station at Ariopolis was regarded by the
+Greeks as a public testimony against the errors of the Greek Church,
+and as an honest and consistent movement. Mr. Benjamin took the
+place of Dr. King in his absence, as a preacher, and found
+unexpected facility in so doing. It was a tribute to the Greek mind,
+that Mr. Benjamin commenced translating Butler's "Analogy" into the
+modern language.
+
+In Turkey, Mr. Temple, Mr. Schneider, Mr. Riggs, and Mr. Ladd
+continued to labor mainly in the modern Greek language. Mr. Temple
+had charge of the press, with the efficient aid of Mr. Riggs in the
+Greek and Greco-Turkish. Mr. Van Lennep divided his time between the
+Greek and the Turkish. Mr. Temple edited the Greek "Monthly
+Magazine," aided by Mr. Petrokokino, one of the young men educated
+by the Board, to whose taste, talent, and zeal much of its
+popularity and usefulness were to be attributed. The periodical
+nearly paid for itself. The amount of printing in modern Greek will
+be fully stated at the close of these histories. In 1843, it was one
+million five hundred and fifty-six thousand pages. Several of the
+schools in Western Turkey were more or less open to Greek youth of
+both sexes. Mr. Schneider was able to preach with great facility and
+propriety in the modern language.
+
+In the year 1844, the author made an official visit to Athens,
+accompanied by Dr. Joel Hawes, and a week was spent by them in free
+conference with Messrs. King and Benjamin. The conclusion was
+reached, that Mr. Benjamin should seek a wider sphere of usefulness
+among the Armenians of Turkey.
+
+As the result of subsequent discussions with the missionaries
+residing at Smyrna, Broosa, and Constantinople, it was decided to
+cease in great measure from labor among the Greeks; but that Dr.
+King ought to remain at Athens, his position and relations being
+peculiar, as will appear in the subsequent history. From that time,
+Dr. King was the only missionary of the Board in Greece, until his
+lamented death in the year 1869.1 Messrs. Temple, Riggs, and Calhoun
+at Smyrna, and Messrs. Schneider and Ladd at Broosa, had made the
+Greek language their principal medium of intercourse with the
+people. Mr. Riggs having a rare aptitude for acquiring languages,
+had begun to edit works in the Bulgarian, Armenian, and Turkish
+languages.
+
+1 During nearly the whole of Dr. King's life in Athens, Dr. Hill, an
+American Episcopal missionary, was resident there.
+
+The American Baptist Missionary Union placed two missionaries at
+Patras, on the Gulf of Corinth, in 1838. That station was
+discontinued in 1845, when Mr. Buel removed to the Piraeus, the port
+of Athens, where he labored, in the most friendly relations with Dr.
+King, until 1855 or 1856, when the unsatisfactory results of the
+mission led to its discontinuance.
+
+A like result had been practically reached by both the London and
+Church Missionary Societies of England. A deplorable change had come
+over the Greeks, both in Greece and Turkey, since the freedom of
+Greece from Turkish rule; and money, time, and labor could be more
+profitably expended on other equally needy populations in that part
+of the world. The old ambition for the recovery of Constantinople
+and the restoration of the Eastern Empire, had been quickened into
+life; and the unity of the Greek Church as a means to this end, was
+craftily kept before the minds of the people by Russian agency, and
+had a wonderful influence, especially among the higher classes. The
+national pride of the Greeks had also created an aversion to
+foreigners, and made it difficult for such to gain their confidence,
+or awaken their gratitude by acts of benevolence. Then there were
+the arrogant assumptions of the Greek Church, more exclusive than
+the Roman, claiming for her clergy the only apostolical succession,
+and that her trine immersion, performed by her clergy, was the only
+baptism, while all not thus baptized were beyond the hope of
+salvation. Of course all Protestant preachers, whether episcopal or
+non-episcopal, were regarded by the Greeks as unbaptized heretics.
+The Greek Church held the worst errors of Popery, such as
+transubstantiation, worshipping the Virgin Mary, praying to saints,
+baptismal regeneration, and the inherent efficacy of ordinances to
+save the soul. The power of excommunication in the hands of the
+priests, was regarded by the people with extreme dread, as sealing
+the soul over to perdition; and believing, as they did, that
+salvation is certain in the Church, and nowhere else, they regarded
+every attempt at innovation as an attack upon their dearest
+interests, and resisted it with persecution, or turned away with
+disgust and scorn. There were persons both among the ecclesiastics
+and laymen, to whom this would not apply; but the inflexible
+opposition of the hierarchy, as a body, to all efforts for
+propagating the evangelical religion, was matter for profound
+lamentation.
+
+Yet labors in Greece had not been expended in vain. There had been
+very few hopeful conversions; but as many as two hundred thousand
+copies of the New Testament and parts of the Old had been put in
+circulation in the modern Greek language; a million copies of books
+and tracts had been scattered, by different missionary societies,
+broad-cast over the Greek community; perhaps a score of Greek young
+men had been liberally educated by benevolent societies and
+individuals in America and England; and more than ten thousand Greek
+youths had received instruction in Greece and Turkey, at the schools
+of various missions. Of the good seed thus sown, though not often on
+good ground, there may yet be a harvest to gladden future
+generations. The labor had not been fruitless. The Greek government
+was not what it would have been, and the same may be said of the
+social state. Nor were the same old ideas prevalent among the people
+as to the authority of councils and of the ancient fathers, and the
+authority of God's Word stood higher than before. The same low
+estimate was no longer put upon knowledge and education, nor upon
+religious tolerance, nor were there the same impressions concerning
+Protestantism, and Protestant nations, and the Christian world at
+large. In all these respects, there had been progress. Infidelity
+had received a check, and so had its influence on surrounding
+peoples. The Word of God, printed in the spoken language, was in
+very many habitations of the people; and the elements of their
+intellectual, moral, and social being were not, and can never again
+be, as if missionaries had not been among them.
+
+The efforts made by Dr. King in Greece, for nearly a quarter of a
+century after this time, to secure freedom in the worship of God and
+in the preaching of the Gospel, will form the subject of future
+chapters. And in the histories of the Syrian and Armenian missions,
+the reader will occasionally notice hopeful outbreaks of the spirit
+of religious inquiry among the people bearing the Grecian name.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1833-1836.
+
+
+The facts brought to light by Messrs. Smith and Dwight respecting
+the Nestorians, made it the duty of the American Board to commence a
+mission among them. Accordingly in January, 1833, the Rev. Justin
+Perkins, then a tutor in Amherst College, was appointed the first
+missionary to that people; and Mr. Smith, being ready to return to
+the Mediterranean, having published his "Researches in Armenia and
+Persia," it was decided that Mr. Perkins should accompany him as far
+as Malta. They received their official instructions together, in the
+chapel of the Theological Seminary at Andover, on a Sabbath evening
+in September, and the two brethren embarked, with their wives, on
+the 21st of that month. Mr. Perkins, in the interval, had been
+prostrated by a fever, but it was deemed safe for him to proceed,
+and his recovery was so rapid that he was soon able to administer to
+the comfort of his associates at sea.
+
+"Your first duty among the Nestorians," said the Prudential
+Committee in their instructions to Mr. Perkins, "will be to
+cultivate an intimate acquaintance with the religious opinions and
+sentiments of the Nestorians. You are aware that, excepting the
+information collected by Messrs. Smith and Dwight, during the few
+days they were at Oroomiah, almost all we know concerning that sect
+in modern times, is derived from papal writers. The learned
+investigations of some of these entitle them to high honor, and may
+be of great use to you, in the way of furnishing topics for inquiry,
+but the Committee wish the information which you communicate
+concerning the present state of the Nestorian Church, to be the
+result of your own personal investigations; at least to be thus
+corroborated. The churches of this country ought to be accurately
+informed as to the number of the Nestorians, their places of
+residence, their doctrines, rites, morals, education, etc. Whether
+you will be able at present, with a due regard for personal safety,
+to penetrate the Koordish mountains, and visit the Nestorian
+Patriarch, is very doubtful. But the journey should be performed as
+soon as may be, lest interested and perverse men should prejudice
+his mind against you."
+
+After stating that they should take pains to show the Nestorians,
+that they had no intention of subjecting them to any foreign
+ecclesiastial power; and showing that the acknowledgment of the New
+Testament, as the only authoritative standard of religious truth,
+made them stand on common ground with the people to whom they were
+sent; it was stated, that their main object would be to enable the
+Nestorian Church, through the grace of God, to exert a commanding
+influence in the regeneration of Asia.
+
+"Concentrated effort," it was added, "is effective effort. There is
+such a thing as attempting too much. Many a missionary has attempted
+such great things, and so many, in a new field, that he has
+accomplished little, and perhaps nothing as he ought. Your surveys
+may extend over a great surface; but a richer and speedier harvest
+will crown your labors, if your cultivation is applied to a single
+field."
+
+The Nestorians are a branch of the ancient Christian Church, and
+derive their name from Nestorius, a native of Syria and Bishop of
+Constantinople, who was excommunicated by the third General Council
+at Ephesus, in the year 431. The cause of his condemnation was
+probably the desire to humble the occupant of the see of
+Constantinople, which had begun to eclipse its sister patriarchates,
+rather than any real doctrinal errors. He was banished to Arabia
+Petraea, then to Libya, and finally died in Upper Egypt. But his
+cause was the cause of his countrymen, and he had influential
+friends in the patriarchate of Antioch, who denied the fairness of
+his trial and the justice of his condemnation. His case was ardently
+espoused by many young men from Persia in the famous school of
+Edessa (now Oorfa), and though these were expelled, and the school
+itself was destroyed in the year 489, by order of the Emperor Zeno,
+the banished youths carried home with them a warm sympathy for
+Nestorius, and various causes combined to extend it among the
+Persian ecclesiastics. In the year 498, the sect had so multiplied,
+as to have the appointment of the Archbishop of Seleucia and
+Ctesiphon, who then declared himself Patriarch of the East.
+
+"This sect continued to flourish, though occasionally persecuted,
+under the Persians, the Saracens, and the Tartars. They had
+celebrated schools for theology and general education. For centuries
+they maintained missions in Tartary, China, and other eastern
+regions. Their churches were scattered from Syria and Cyprus to
+Pekin, and from the coast of Malabar and Ceylon to the borders of
+Siberia. Early in the eleventh century, Unkh Khan, a Tartar prince
+on the northern borders of China, invited Nestorian missionaries
+among his people, and himself became the famous Prester John. Gengis
+Khan and several of his sons and grandsons, who conquered China and
+almost all Asia and a part of Europe, were connected with Prester
+John by marriage. Several of them had Christian wives, and one of
+them at least professed himself a Christian. Under some of this
+dynasty, Central Asia was comparatively a civilized country; and
+Christian travellers passed with safety from the banks of the
+Euphrates to Samarcand and Pekin. Some of the Chinese emperors
+favored Christianity, and ordered the erection of numerous churches.
+Meanwhile the sword of Moslem fanaticism was advancing eastward.
+Bagdad fell before it, and all the country on the Euphrates; then
+Persia, then Cabul, and the regions of the north. The Nestorian
+Church being thus crushed at home, its missions languished. And
+finally, about the year 1400, Tamerlane, who has been called 'the
+greatest of conquerors,' swept like a whirlwind over the remains of
+Nestorian Christianity, prostrating everything in his course."1
+
+1 Tracey's _History_, p. 312. See also _Missionary Herald_ for 1838,
+pp. 289-298. Narses on being expelled from Edessa, opened a school
+at Nisibis, A. D. 490, which became celebrated. About the same time,
+Acacius, also from Edessa, established a school at Seleucia. It was
+revived in 530, and was in existence as late as 605. A school was
+established at Dorkena, A. D. 585. At Bagdad were two schools in
+832, and two others were in its neighborhood. Schools existed at
+Terhana, Mahuza, Maraga, and Adiabene, in Assyria, and at Maraga, in
+Aderbijan. There were also schools in Elam, Persia, Korassan, and
+Arabia. The school at Nisibis had a three years' course of study.
+The studies to a great extent were theological; but to the study of
+the Bible, they added, in the schools generally, the study of
+grammar, rhetoric, poetry, dialetics, arithmetic, geometry, music,
+astronomy, medicine, etc.
+
+From Malta, Mr. and Mrs. Perkins proceeded to Constantinople, where
+they were cordially welcomed by Messrs. Goodell and Dwight, near the
+close of the year. After a sojourn of five months, awaiting the
+proper season for travelling, they took passage, in an English
+vessel, for Trebizond; and there they commenced their long land
+travel of seven hundred miles to Oroomiah.
+
+Mrs. Perkins was the first American lady to visit Trebizond, and the
+inhabitants thronged the streets to gaze upon her as she passed
+through the city. On the day of their entrance into Erzroom, they
+crossed the Euphrates, which is there only a few rods wide, and
+easily forded on horseback. The city is on an elevated plain,
+cultivated through almost its whole extent, with numerous villages
+everywhere in sight.
+
+They were now in one of the oldest cities in the world, founded, as
+tradition says, by a grandson of Noah, and had gone over a third of
+the distance to Tabriz, and the most difficult part of the journey.
+Here they were detained nearly a month by the incursions of Koordish
+robbers along the direct road to Tabriz. The Pasha having gone with
+his troops to drive back the marauders, Mr. Perkins resumed his
+journey on the 15th of July. Next day he overtook the Pasha, who
+assured him that he could not safely go in advance of his army. The
+only alternative was to return to Erzroom for several weeks, or take
+a circuitous route through the Russian provinces. He thought it best
+to choose the latter course, and the Pasha kindly furnished him with
+a guard of horsemen as far as the frontier. On the 22d they crossed
+into Georgia, and soon found themselves subjected to a most annoying
+quarantine of fourteen days. The laws of the empire in that province
+were very oppressive, particularly in their operation upon
+travellers. The ukase of the Emperor Alexander, favoring the
+introduction of foreign goods for ten years subsequent to 1822, had
+expired. Consequently Mr. Perkins was not allowed to take any of his
+baggage with him, except wearing apparel, not even medicines; he was
+required to send all back into Turkey. Resuming his journey on the
+7th of August, Mr. Perkins passed on rapidly to the Arras, which
+divides Georgia from Persia. Here he was needlessly and wantonly
+detained six days, for his passports. The hardships resulting from
+such treatment, with other causes, had now brought Mrs. Perkins into
+a very critical state of health. As a last resort, Mr. Perkins
+addressed a letter to Sir John Campbell, British ambassador at
+Tabriz, describing their situation, and enclosing his letters of
+introduction to that gentleman. Scarcely had he crossed into Persia,
+three days after, although his distance from Tabriz was not less
+than a hundred miles, when he was met by a courier from the
+ambassador, with a letter written in the kindest terms, and the
+duplicate of another which he had procured from the Russian
+ambassador to the officials on the frontier, with a view to put an
+immediate stop to Mr. Perkins' detention. The kindness of the same
+gentleman led him to send a takhtrawan for Mrs. Perkins, together
+with delicacies for her comfort on the way.
+
+A providential escape occurred during the first night after crossing
+the Arras. Their road led up a high mountain. As they were ascending
+it, the forward mule of the takhtrawan became obstinate, and
+suddenly ran back, forcing the one behind upon the very brink of the
+precipice, along which the road ran; and had not divine mercy stayed
+them just there, takhtrawan, bearers, and occupant would have been
+dashed down the precipice together.
+
+The following day, they had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Riach,
+physician of the embassy, whom they had seen at Constantinople, and
+who had come, with a Russian travelling passport, determined to
+cross the frontier, if necessary, and remain with them until their
+liberation. The medical skill of Dr. Riach did much to aid Mrs.
+Perkins in completing the journey to Tabriz, where they arrived on
+the 23d of August, seventy-four days after their departure from
+Trebizond. Three days after, Mrs. Perkins became the mother of a
+daughter, of whose existence she was unconscious for several days.
+Her life was probably saved, under God, through the combined skill
+and kind attentions of three English physicians, who were then
+providentially at Tabriz. The Ambassador was exceedingly kind; so
+were Mr. and Mrs. Nesbit, who have been already introduced to the
+reader. Dr. Riach, afterwards at the head of the embassy, stayed
+five days and nights with Mrs. Perkins, not retiring from the house
+till he saw some hope of her recovery. "The treatment we received
+from them on our first arrival," writes the missionary nine years
+after, "is but a specimen of their kindness to us from that period
+to the present."
+
+
+The field about to be occupied was of limited extent. The Nestorians
+numbered not more than one hundred and fifty thousand souls. Their
+territory extended from Lake Oroomiah three hundred miles westward
+to the Tigris, and two hundred miles from north to south, embracing
+some most rugged mountain ranges, and several very beautiful and
+fertile plains, the largest of which formed the district of
+Oroomiah. Education was then at the lowest ebb among the people,
+hardly a score of men being intelligent readers, while only one
+woman, the sister of Mar. Shimon, was able to read at all. They had
+no printed books, and but very few manuscripts of even portions of
+the Bible, and these were in the ancient Syriac, which was an
+unknown tongue to almost all of them. Their spoken language was an
+unwritten dialect of the Syriac. Still deeper was their moral
+degradation, almost every command of the decalogue being
+transgressed without compunction, or even shame when detected. Yet
+they were entirely accessible to the Protestant missionary, and were
+more Scriptural in their doctrines and ritual, with far less of
+bigotry, than any other Oriental sect; so much so, indeed, that the
+Nestorians were sometimes called the "Protestants of Asia."
+
+Mr. Perkins wisely determined upon acquiring a knowledge of the
+Syriac before going to reside among them. To obtain a teacher, he
+visited Oroomiah in October, accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Haas, of
+the Basle Missionary Society, then residing at Tabriz. The manner in
+which he was everywhere received by the Nestorians was exceedingly
+encouraging, and he obtained the services of Mar Yohannan, one of
+their most intelligent bishops, as a teacher, who brought with him a
+young priest, scarcely less promising than the bishop himself.
+
+Asahel Grant, M. D., and wife, left Trebizond for Persia September
+17, 1835, accompanied by Rev. James L. Merrick, who was to commence
+a mission to the Mohammedans of Persia. Mr. Perkins met them at
+Erzroom, to assist on their journey through the inhospitable region
+of the Koords.
+
+The province called Oroomiah is situated in the northwestern part of
+modern Persia. It is the northwestern part of ancient Media. A
+beautiful lake, eighty miles long and thirty broad, and four
+thousand feet above the level of the sea, is its boundary on the
+east, and a chain of snow-covered mountains bounds it on the west.
+The water of the lake is so salt and bituminous that fish cannot
+live in it, while its shores are enlivened by numerous water-fowl,
+of which the beautiful flamingo is most conspicuous.1 The plain
+contains about three hundred villages and hamlets, and is covered
+with fields, gardens, and vineyards, which are irrigated by streams
+from the mountains. The landscape is one of the most lovely in the
+East, and its effect is heightened by its contrast with the adjacent
+heights, on which not a solitary tree is to be seen. Along the
+water-courses are willows, poplars, and sycamores; and the peach,
+apricot, pear, plum, and other fruits impart to large sections the
+appearance of a forest. Near the centre of the plain, four hundred
+feet above the lake, stands the city of Oroomiah. It dates from a
+remote antiquity, and claims to be the birthplace of Zoroaster. It
+is built chiefly of unburnt brick, is surrounded by a high mud wall
+and a ditch, and has a population of twenty-five thousand, of whom
+the larger part are Mohammedans. The Nestorians of the plain were
+estimated at twenty thousand.
+
+1 An analysis of the water of the lake is said to have proved it to
+be highly charged with sulphureted hydrogen.
+
+Dr. Grant left Tabriz six days in advance of his associates, to
+prepare for their coming. But so tardy had been the carpenters, that
+Mr. Perkins and the ladies found things in a very sorry condition.
+It was late in November, and after facing a driving rain all day,
+they had to content themselves with unfinished and unfurnished
+rooms; and as the muleteers did not arrive with their baggage, they
+had neither bedding, nor a change of clothing. But they had a
+blazing fire, and provisions from the market, with a sharpened
+appetite, and slept comfortably on piles of shavings, covered with
+the clothes they had dried by the fire.
+
+Dr. Grant awakened great interest as a physician. He was continually
+thronged with patients sick with all manner of diseases, real and
+imaginary. Moslems and Nestorians came together. Children brought
+their aged parents, and mothers their little ones. Those blinded by
+ophthalmia were led by the hand. Those relieved from suffering were
+ready to kiss his feet, or even his shoes at the door. But it was a
+laborious and trying position. A thousand silly questions must be
+answered. Nor was there any certainty that the prescriptions would
+be followed, even if understood; and every Nestorian, though
+suffering under the most alarming disease, would sooner die than
+touch a spoonful of chicken-broth during a fast. Dr. Grant gained
+great repute by the removal of cataracts, and the consequent
+restoration of sight. There were patients from great distances.
+Nestorians came from the mountains, Koordish chiefs from the regions
+beyond, and some from the distant borders of Georgia. Among the
+multitudes, were the governor of the province, two princes of the
+royal family, and many of the Persian nobles. His services were
+gratuitous, he made no show to attract customers, and being ready to
+aid the native physicians with both medicine and instruction he gave
+them no offense.
+
+Dr. Grant possessed a rare fitness for the position. I have a vivid
+recollection of him at the time of the annual meeting of the Board
+at Utica in 1834, when he presented himself, one stormy evening, to
+offer his services as a physician for the mission to the Nestorians.
+What specially impressed me was his commanding form and mien, joined
+with calm decision and courage, qualities eminently fitting him for
+a life in Koordistan. The impressions made by that brief personal
+interview, were sustained and strengthened through a most intimate
+correspondence till his death.
+
+It is in the early stage of a mission, that the value of a pious
+physician is most apparent. With the exaggerated conceptions usually
+entertained of the temporal blessings he is able to confer, he is
+welcomed by all classes from the first. Every door is opened, every
+man and woman is accessible. The good-will thus awakened is more or
+less shared by his fellow missionaries, and is thus likely to be all
+the sooner confirmed by a spiritual appreciation of the Gospel.
+
+Soon after their arrival, the missionaries were invited to attend a
+wedding at Geog-tapa, a large Nestorian village five miles distant.
+As they approached, a multitude came out to meet them, with trumpets
+and drums, and shouts of "welcome, welcome." The pupils of an
+English school, which priest Abraham had opened, saluted them with
+"good morning." They found a fat buffalo just knocked down before
+the bridegroom's house, and the bride was standing, like a veiled
+statue, in the farther corner of a large room, which was soon filled
+by the rushing multitude. It was customary to have the marriage
+ceremony in the church, commencing at least an hour before day
+because of its length, and because all parties, even the officiating
+priests, were obliged to fast till it was over; but out of regard to
+the strangers, it was deferred till their arrival, and was in the
+dwelling of the bridegroom's family. Priest Abraham officiated,
+assisted by two other priests and by several deacons, in reading the
+prayers and Scripture selections, all in the ancient Syriac. After
+an hour's reading, the time came for joining hands. Several women
+caught hold of the veiled bride, and pulled her by main force half
+across the room toward her intended husband. Several men at the same
+time seized the bridegroom, who, after a modest resistance, yielded
+and advanced towards the bride. He was not able to secure her hand,
+however, without a struggle, but at length succeeded; and then both
+took a submissive stand near the officiating clergy. After reading
+another hour or more, the bishops, priests, and missionaries, with
+the multitude, advanced and kissed the married pair.
+
+Mr. Perkins engaged Mar Gabriel, a bishop, fair in form, but of a
+restless spirit, to reside with him as his teacher in Syriac; and
+the year did not close before this indefatigable missionary
+commenced reducing the modern Syriac to writing, with the aid of
+priest Abraham, who wrote a beautiful hand. His first translation
+was the Lord's Prayer. The Nestorians were much interested, having
+never heard reading in their spoken language. Even the sober priest
+could not refrain from immoderate laughter, as he repeated line
+after line of his own writing.
+
+What soon became a seminary for males was commenced on the 18th of
+January, 1836, with seven boys from the city, and the number was
+soon increased to fifty by accessions from the surrounding region,
+among whom were three deacons and one priest. Manuscript cards
+prepared by Mr. Perkins supplied the place of books. They read in
+the ancient Syriac, and the cards in the modern dialect, and in
+English, and also wrote with their fingers in sand-boxes, and made
+some progress in arithmetic. There were several free schools, but
+only a very small proportion of the hundred pupils were females.
+Several of the clergy resided with the mission, and conducted
+worship once on each Sabbath in their own language. At this service
+a portion of Scripture was read, which they had previously studied
+with Mr. Perkins, and its meaning was explained and enforced. It is
+a singular fact, that Dr. Grant was obliged to teach a Mohammedan
+school during a small part of each day, to quiet the Mussulmans, who
+were jealous of these favors to their despised Christian subjects,
+and resentfully inquired, "Are we to be passed by?"
+
+Experience showed that the families had been removed to Oroomiah too
+soon; for it took place during cold weather, and the new mud used in
+repairing the walls of their chambers had not been sufficiently
+dried. This predisposed them to disease during the hot, malarious
+summer, when all were more or less affected with illness. A bilious
+fever brought Mr. Perkins to the borders of the grave; and while he
+lay thus sick, and at one time insensible, Dr. and Mrs. Grant were
+seized with fever and ague. Missionary labors were of course
+suspended. The Nestorians sympathized deeply, and rendered all the
+aid in their power, and Mohammedans also manifested much concern.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1836-1840.
+
+
+The two missionaries and priest Abraham narrowly escaped
+assassination by ruffians of a class called Lootee, while on a visit
+to the village of Mar Joseph. Walking quietly through the village
+they encountered three of these fellows, in a narrow path lined by a
+hedge, with a horse placed across to obstruct their progress. Priest
+Abraham stepped forward, and was mildly requesting them to allow his
+party to pass, when one raised his dagger to strike him. Seeing the
+defenseless priest in peril, Mr. Perkins instinctively sprang
+forward, and the assassin turned upon him. Nothing but his fall at
+the moment the weapon struck him, saved him from instant death. As
+it was, the dagger cut through his clothes, and punctured his side.
+Seeing his associates thus hard beset, Dr. Grant, who was behind,
+ran up and brought his riding whip with such force across the
+villain's eyes, as to confuse him for the moment, and in the
+confusion the party ran into a house and barred the doors. The
+priest received a cut in the head, but Mr. Perkins was not seriously
+wounded. Through the efforts of the British ambassador, the Lootee
+received so severe a chastisement from the Persian authorities, as
+made them careful, ever after, how they injured any member of the
+mission.
+
+A printing establishment was much needed; and a press was sent with
+the Rev. Albert L. Holliday and Mr. William R. Stocking, who sailed
+from Boston in January, 1837. At Trebizond, the press was found too
+unwieldy to be carried overland, and was accordingly sent back to
+Constantinople and sold to the Armenians, for their high-school at
+Scutari. The new missionaries were met at Erzroom by Mr. Perkins and
+Mar Yohannan, and reached their destination in June. Mr. Holliday
+found the encouragement to labor quite as great as had been
+represented by the brethren first in the field.
+
+The extreme poverty of the Nestorians had the same effect on the
+first missionaries, that like causes have had in some other portions
+of the unevangelized world. It caused the whole expense of schools
+and of the agency employed to be thrown upon the Christian public at
+home. The board of the fifty scholars in the seminary was paid by
+the mission, and people in the villages thought they could not
+afford to send their children to the village schools, unless each of
+them was paid two or three cents a day to buy their bread. They said
+their children could earn as much by weeding the cotton, or driving
+the oxen; and the brethren naturally rejoiced in being able to
+afford this aid. Among the students of the seminary at this time,
+were two bishops, three priests, and four deacons, who of course
+were adults. Pupils in the first rudiments of their own language
+received twelve and a half cents a week for their support, and the
+more advanced received twenty-five cents. Experience was as needful
+to discover the best methods of missionary labor, as of any other
+untried undertaking.
+
+The mission now had eight native helpers, among whom were three
+bishops and two priests, all, except one, residing with the mission.
+That one was the venerable Mar Elias, the oldest bishop in the
+province, who superintended one of the schools. He had adopted the
+practice of translating portions of the Epistles, which he read
+statedly in his church. Some of the people were much delighted with
+the innovation; but others, and a profligate priest among them,
+complained that he annoyed them with the precepts of "Paul, Paul,
+Paul," of whom they had scarcely ever heard before. But the good
+bishop did not regard the opposition.
+
+Mrs. Grant was the first member of the mission, called away by
+death. She had been thoroughly educated, and the two bishops in her
+family wondered to see a woman learning Syriac through the Latin
+language. Nor was their wonder less when she turned to the Greek for
+the meaning of some difficult passage in the New Testament. Finding
+the prejudices of the people too strong to permit her to begin a
+girls' school at once, she taught her own female domestics to read,
+and then sought to interest mothers in the education of their
+daughters. At length she succeeded in collecting a small school of
+girls, of which she was the first teacher. When too sick to leave
+her chamber, she had the pupils assemble there. This was the
+beginning of the Female Seminary, which afterwards became so noted
+under Miss Fiske. It was commenced March 12, 1838, with four pupils,
+but the number soon increased, and Mrs. Perkins rendered valuable
+aid. Mrs. Grant readily learned to speak the Turkish, and to read
+the ancient Syriac. The modern Syriac she was able both to read and
+write, and the French she could speak before leaving home. But,
+cultured and refined as she was, she declared the time spent in the
+mission field among that rude people, to have been the happiest part
+of her life. The aid she rendered her husband in his medical
+practice, added not a little to her usefulness. She had great
+aptness and skill in the sick chamber, and like her divine Master
+went about doing good; yet without neglecting her household affairs.
+Her death occurred on the 14th of January, 1839, at the age of
+twenty-five. She was greatly lamented by the Nestorians. The bishops
+said to the afflicted husband, "We will bury her in the church,
+where none but holy men are buried;" and her death produced a
+subdued and tender spirit throughout the large circle of her
+acquaintance. This better state of feeling continued through the
+year, especially in the seminary.
+
+Priest Dunka, from one of the independent tribes, gave indications
+of piety. He had learned the alphabet in his childhood, while
+tending his father's flocks on the mountains, and became a reader
+without farther instruction. At Oroomiah he was now both a learner
+and helper. Three months of the summer he spent among his native
+mountains, preaching the Gospel in the villages around his home.
+Little of the truth had been heard there for ages, except in the
+unknown language of the liturgy, but the people were eager to
+listen.
+
+In September, Robert Glen, son of the Rev. William Glen of Tabriz, was
+hopefully converted while at Oroomiah on a visit. He was born at
+Astrakhan, where his father labored seventeen years as a missionary,
+and was now employed as a teacher in a small school of Moslem young
+men. The mission at this time had twelve schools in as many villages,
+containing two hundred and seventy-two males, with twenty-two females;
+and seventeen pupils in the female boarding-school, and fifty-five in
+the seminary, which was taught by a priest and deacon, under the
+supervision of Mr. Stocking.
+
+The scarcity of copies of the Holy Scriptures among the Nestorian
+people would be remarkable, in view of their receiving them as their
+rule of faith and practice, if we did not remember how sorely they
+had been persecuted in the past, and how much they still suffered
+from Moslem oppression. Excepting the Psalms, which entered largely
+into the prescribed form of worship, they had but one copy of the
+Old Testament, and that was in a number of volumes, the property of
+several individuals. The British and Foreign Bible Society had
+printed the Gospels in the Nestorian character; but they had
+scarcely more than a single copy of the Acts of the Apostles and the
+Epistles, and none of the Book of Revelation, in their own
+character. Of course all was in the ancient language.
+
+Dr. Grant had been suffering for some time before the death of his
+wife, from the climate of the plain; and he was now instructed by
+his Committee to commence a station, if possible, among the
+Nestorians on the western side of the Koordish mountains. Incapable
+of fear, he had vainly sought the consent of his brethren to
+penetrate the mountains directly from the plain. It was the belief
+of the Committee that, with his medical skill and his courage and
+address, he could do this with safety; but the brethren of the
+mission had been so impressed by the murder of Mr. Schultz, on that
+route, that they could not consent; and the opinions of brethren on
+the ground were not to be disregarded. He was, however, authorized
+to enter the mountains from the west, in the belief that, once
+established there, he would soon find his way opened on every side.
+
+On the first of April, 1839, Dr. Grant left Oroomiah, expecting to
+meet Mr. Homes at Erzroom, who had been appointed to accompany him.
+An unusually late fall of snow made the journey perilous. For more
+than two hundred miles, it was from two to four feet deep; and for
+twenty miles, in the mountains beyond Ararat, there was not a single
+human habitation. In descending, the only way he could know when he
+was out of the path, was by the depth to which he sank in the snow.
+In the pass of Dahar, near the sources of the Euphrates, where
+Messrs. Smith and Dwight had well-nigh perished, the guide lost the
+path in a snow-storm, and declared it impossible to go on. The snow
+was too deep for the horses. Turning back was out of the question,
+as their tracks were obliterated by the wind, which would then be in
+their faces. Though benumbed and feeble, the courage of Dr. Grant
+did not fail. He could not tell how deliverance would come, but had
+a sweet assurance that God would send it, and encouraged his
+companions to new effort. Just then four mountaineers came tramping
+over the snow before them, and one of them consenting to turn back,
+they passed safely on foot, the man breaking down the drifts for the
+horses, and exploring the path by thrusting his long staff deep into
+the snow. He reached Erzroom on the seventeenth, and rested with his
+kind friend Dr. Riach, who had retired from Teheran, because of
+impending war between England and Persia. Dr. Grant's health had
+improved amid all his hardships.
+
+Learning that Mr. Homes was detained at Constantinople, he started
+for Trebizond on the eighteenth, with no attendant except the
+surijee from the post-house, and there took a steamer for
+Constantinople. Mr. Homes not being yet able to accompany him, he
+returned alone to Erzroom, and proceeded thence to Diarbekir, where
+he arrived May 30. He found the city waiting in suspense for news
+from the battle of Nizib, between the forces of Mohammed Ali and the
+Sultan. The defeat of the latter was soon manifest in the arrival of
+hundreds of fugitives, completely stripped by the Koords. Anarchy
+reigned from that moment, and the city was filled with robbery and
+murder. The people ascribed their defeat to Frank innovations in
+military tactics; and when Mr. Homes arrived, the brethren not only
+heard curses against themselves in the streets, but an openly
+expressed purpose to kill every European in the place. The
+thermometer was then 98 in the shade, and their danger from both
+climate and people induced them to leave for Mardin, which they did
+with an escort of thirty horsemen. Such was their personal danger
+even at Mardin, only a few days after their arrival, that the
+governor offered them a guard. This they declined, not thinking it
+best to manifest any alarm, and the excitement soon apparently died
+away. But, two months later, a mob killed the governor in his palace
+in open day, and also several leading men, and then sought the
+lodgings of the missionaries, intending to kill them. Providentially
+they had ridden out farther than usual that morning, in a vain
+search for a caravan, and before their return, the Koords had shut
+the gates, to prevent the entrance of government troops. That saved
+the lives of our brethren, who retired to the convent of the Syrian
+Patriarch, a few miles distant, which their enemies did not dare to
+attack.
+
+In the midst of so much peril, and with so little hope of
+usefulness, Mr. Homes, by the advice of brethren at Constantinople
+and Smyrna, resolved to return, and Dr. Grant did not withhold his
+consent. "Within the ruined walls of an ancient church," he writes,
+"in a lonely ravine, overlooked by the town, I exchanged the parting
+embrace with my brother and companion in tribulation. On account of
+the anarchy around us, we had travelled together barely two days,
+but on a bed of sickness, and surrounded by men of blood, I had
+learned to prize the company of a Christian friend. Yet, while
+Providence called him back to Constantinople, to me it seemed to
+cry, 'Onward to the mountains!'"
+
+Dr. Grant resolved to go to Mosul. Disguised in an Oriental dress,
+he returned to Mardin to prepare for his journey, and while there,
+his safety was insured by the surrender of the town to the Pasha of
+Mosul. On his way, he was favored with the company of Captain
+Conolly, the bearer of despatches for India, whose sad fate on the
+banks of the Oxus afterwards occasioned the journey of Dr. Wolff to
+Bokhara. The distance was nearly two hundred miles, and they arrived
+at Mosul on the 20th of September.
+
+Fully resolved to penetrate the fastnesses of Koordistan, and
+trusting in the protecting power of his gracious Lord, Dr. Grant
+left Mosul on the 7th of October, with two Nestorians from Persia, a
+Koordish muleteer, and a kavass from the Pasha. Crossing the bridge
+of twenty-one boats, which spans the Tigris, he was amid the ruins
+of Nineveh, and soon reached a Yezidee village, where he was
+hospitably received. On the 15th, as he approached Duree, near the
+borders of Tiary, deep Syriac gutturals from stentorian voices in
+the rocks above him demanded who he was, where he was going, and
+what he wanted. Had he been a Papist, he would have been robbed; as
+it was, the frightened kavass lost all courage, and begged
+permission to return.
+
+When the people heard him speak their own language, they gathered
+around, and welcomed him to their mountain home. His fame as a
+physician had preceded him, and they came for medicine from all
+directions. The venerable bishop, with a long white beard, took him
+into their ancient church, which was a cave high up on the mountain
+side, with heavy masonry in front, and dark within. Here the bishop
+slept, to be in readiness for early morning prayers, and he was
+pleased with the gift of a box of matches to light his lamp.
+
+A loftier range still separated Dr. Grant from Tiary, the "munition
+of rocks," which he describes as "an amphitheatre of mountains
+broken with dark, deep defiles and narrow glens, that for ages had
+been the secure abodes of this branch of the Christian Church." He
+had been warned at Mosul, not to enter this region without an escort
+from the Patriarch. But he could not afford the delay, and as the
+bishop encouraged him, he resolved to go alone. Exchanging his
+Turkish boots for the bishop's sandals, made of hair, to avoid a
+fatal slip on the smooth, narrow ledges of the mountain, he set off
+early on the 18th. An hour and a half brought him to the summit.
+Retiring to a sequestered corner, where he could feast his eyes with
+the prospect, his thoughts went back to the period when the
+Nestorians traversed Asia, and, for more than a thousand years,
+preached the Gospel in Tartary, Mongolia, and China. Though the
+flame of vital piety was almost quenched on their altars, his faith
+anticipated the day when those glens would reecho the glad praises
+of God; and down he sped, over cliffs and slippery ledges, to the
+large village of Lezan, on the banks of the noisy Zab. Scarcely had
+he entered it, when a young man, the only one he had ever seen from
+this remote region, from whose eyes he had removed a cataract a year
+before, came with a present of honey, and introduced him at once to
+the confidence of the people. He became so thronged with the sick
+from all the region, that he had to forbid more than three or four
+coming forward at once.
+
+Leaving Lezan, he went up to Ashita, where he became the guest of a
+priest, reported to be the most learned of living Nestorians, who
+had spent twenty years in copying, in beautiful style, the few works
+of Nestorian literature; but even he had not an entire Bible. He was
+electrified by Dr. Grant's account of the press, that could do his
+twenty years' work in a less number of hours. At Kerme, where he
+arrived on the twenty-fifth, almost exhausted by a walk of ten long
+hours, he was soon recognized and welcomed by a Nestorian, who had
+received medical aid from him two years before at Oroomiah. Starting
+the next morning for the Patriarch's residence, he forded a river on
+horseback, that was fifty or sixty yards across. He was now on the
+caravan road from Salmas to Julamerk. In the more precipitous
+places, the rock had been cut away and regular steps chiseled out.
+He was received by the Patriarch with great cordiality, without the
+extravagant compliments so common with the Persians. "And now," said
+the Patriarch, "you will make my house your own, and regard me as
+your older brother." Mar Shimon was thirty-eight years old, above
+the middle stature, well-proportioned, with a pleasant, expressive,
+and rather intelligent countenance; and his large flowing robes, his
+Koordish turban, and his long gray beard, gave him a patriarchal and
+venerable appearance, that was heightened by a uniformly dignified
+demeanor. But for the fire in his eye and his activity, he would
+have been thought nearer fifty than thirty-eight. Being the temporal
+as well as spiritual head of his people, the difficulties of his
+situation were assigned as the cause of his hoary hair and beard.
+
+During the five weeks spent in the patriarchal mansion, Dr. Grant
+had an opportunity to see Nestorians of intelligence and influence
+from all parts of the mountains, and elicited from them information
+such as he could not have gained in any other way. At parting, the
+Patriarch presented him one of the ancient manuscripts of his
+library. It was the New Testament, written on parchment, in the old
+Estrangelo character, seven hundred and forty years before. It was
+presented by Dr. Grant to the library of the American Board, and is
+now there.
+
+His next sojourn was in the castle of Nurullah Bey, chief of the
+independent Hakary Koords, two days from the residence of the
+Patriarch. The Bey was very sick; and becoming impatient under the
+slow operation of the medicine given him by the doctor, he sent a
+messenger for him at midnight. "The sentinels upon the ramparts,"
+says Dr. Grant, "were sounding the watch-cry in the rough tones of
+their native Koordish. We entered the outer court through wide,
+iron-cased folding-doors. A second iron door opened into a long dark
+alley, which conducted to the room where the chief was lying. It was
+evident that he was becoming impatient; and as I looked upon the
+swords, pistols, guns, spears, and daggers--the ordinary furniture
+of a Koordish castle--which hung around the walls of the room, I
+could not but think of the fate of the unfortunate Schultz, who had
+fallen, as it is said, by the orders of this sanguinary chief. He
+had the power of life and death in his hands. I knew I was entirely
+at his mercy; but I felt that I was under the guardian care of One,
+who had the hearts of kings in His keeping."
+
+The chieftain recovered, and, in token of his gratitude, made his
+benefactor the present of a horse. Dr. Grant describes him as a man
+of noble bearing, fine open countenance, and about thirty years of
+age. This important journey was completed on the 7th of December,
+1839.
+
+The Rev. Willard Jones and wife arrived in the month previous; and
+the Rev. Austin H. Wright, M. D., and wife, in the following July,
+to take Dr. Grant's place as missionary physician; and Mr. Edward
+Breath, a printer, in November. A press, made for the mission, to be
+taken to pieces and so rendered portable, came with the printer,
+much to the satisfaction of the people. A font of Syro-Chaldaic type
+had previously been received from London, through the kindness of
+the Rev. Joseph Jowett, editorial superintendent of the British and
+Foreign Bible Society's publications. The press was the more
+seasonable, because the Jesuits had commenced their characteristic
+and determined efforts to get possession of the field. The vain
+young bishop, Mar Gabriel, imagining himself to have been slighted
+by his clerical brethren, and being strongly assailed with
+flatteries and offers of money, had, in an evil hour, encouraged
+them to come among his people. On reflection he repented of his
+rashness, called in the aid of his Protestant friends, and wrote to
+Bore, the French Jesuit, warning him to keep aloof from his people.
+Bore was enraged, and replied that, having a firman from the King of
+Persia permitting him to open schools, he should open one at
+Ardishai. But Gabriel and the mission had already opened a school
+under one of the best teachers from the Seminary, and soon opened
+another,--the two containing sixty scholars; while the Jesuit's
+school, commencing with nine scholars, dwindled to four or five. One
+of the first works of the press was to print a tract in the Syriac
+language, entitled "Twenty-two Plain Reasons for not being a Roman
+Catholic." The Nestorians were exceedingly interested by the array
+of Scripture texts against the corrupt doctrines and practices of
+that sect. This was followed by a thousand copies of the Psalms.
+
+The gradual revival of preaching in this ancient Church, became now
+apparent. At the earnest request of the people, a circuit was formed
+of seven preaching stations, at all of which the missionaries were
+aided by ecclesiastics, three of them bishops.
+
+Thus, with the hearty approval of both bishops and priests, the
+missionaries began to preach in the churches, and so great was the
+demand for preaching that Mr. Stocking was ordained. The ordination
+took place in one of the Nestorian churches. Mr. Perkins felt that
+spiritual death, rather than theological error, was the calamity of
+the Nestorians. Their liturgy was composed, in general, of
+unexceptionable and excellent matter, and the charge of heresy on
+the subject of Christ's character, he pronounces unjust. The Nicene
+Creed, which they always repeat at the close of their worship,
+accords very nearly with that venerable document, as it has been
+handed down to us.1
+
+1 Annual Report of the Board for 1841, p. 114.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE MOUNTAIN NESTORIANS.
+
+1840-1844.
+
+
+We paused in the history of the Nestorian mission at the return of
+Dr. Grant to Oroomiah, after a successful exploration of the
+mountains of Koordistan. He remained there till the 7th of May,
+1840. During this time, two brothers of the Patriarch visited the
+mission, and urged its extension into the mountains. Mar Shimon also
+wrote, renewing his request for a visit in the spring. Dr. Grant had
+but little prospect of recovering his health on the plain; and the
+welfare of his two sons in the United States, children of his first
+marriage, and the three children then with him at Oroomiah, seemed
+to require that he revisit his native land. Two of these last
+mentioned sickened and died in January. Having then only one son to
+take with him, four years of age, he decided to return through the
+mountains, and revisit the Patriarch on his way. It was a perilous
+journey so early in the season, especially with so tender a
+companion; but the brave little fellow appears to have endured the
+snows and precipices of Koordistan as well as the father. The boy
+was everywhere a favorite, both with Koords and Nestorians. One
+night the snow was so deep near the summit of a mountain that they
+were obliged to sleep under the open sky, with the thermometer below
+zero; but the Patriarch's brothers had carpets enough to keep them
+warm until three in the morning, when the light of the moon enabled
+them to resume their journey. Mar Shimon was then a guest of
+Suleiman Bey, in the castle of Julamerk, and with him they spent ten
+days. Nurullah Bey had gone to Erzroom to negotiate for the
+subjugation of the Independent Nestorians to the Turkish rule,
+having already relinquished his own personal independence, and
+become a Pasha of the empire. Suleiman Bey was a relative of the
+Emir, and had been the leader of the party that murdered Mr.
+Schultz. He showed special kindness to Dr. Grant. His mother and
+sister, as also the sister and mother of the Patriarch, with womanly
+forethought, loaded the Doctor with supplies for the inhospitable
+road before them. He found the Emir at Van on his return home, and
+discovered what had been the object of his journey to Erzroom. When
+Dr. Grant arrived there, with clothes worn and ragged from the
+roughness of the journey, he had the happiness of meeting Dr.
+Wright, then on his way to Oroomiah. The two brethren called on the
+gentlemen of the Persian embassy, then at Erzroom, and one of them,
+observing Dr. Grant's erect and commanding person, remarked that a
+good soldier was spoiled when that man became a missionary. At
+Trebizond he gladly exchanged the saddle for the quiet of the
+steamer, which took him to Constantinople, and he arrived at Boston
+on the 3d of October.
+
+Having embraced the theory, that the Nestorians are descendants of
+the lost Ten Tribes of Israel, Dr. Grant, with characteristic
+industry, employed such time as he could command during his
+missionary travels and his homeward voyage, in preparing a volume in
+support of these views. It was published both in this country and in
+England, and attracted considerable attention. The celebrated Dr.
+Edward Robinson deemed it deserving of an elaborate discussion in
+the "American Biblical Repository," in which he makes a strong
+argument against the theory.1
+
+1 See _American Biblical Repository_, 1841, vol. vi. of new series,
+pp. 454-482, and vol. vii. pp. 26-68.
+
+In January, 1841, Dr. Grant had the pleasure of witnessing the
+departure of the Rev. Messrs. Abel K. Hinsdale and Colby C.
+Mitchell, and their wives, for the Mountain Nestorians. They went by
+way of Aleppo and Mosul, that being the more practicable route for
+females; but the Doctor, thinking to reach the mountains before
+them, and prepare for their arrival, went himself by way of
+Constantinople, Erzroom, and Van. He was at Constantinople May 14th,
+and at Van on the first day of July. The journey from Erzroom to
+that place was wearisome and perilous, famine, the plague, and
+predatory Koords harassing him nearly all the way.
+
+Van, with fourteen thousand Armenian population, though at that time
+difficult of access, was even then regarded as an important place
+for a missionary station, and preferable for residence to most
+others in the interior. Being five thousand feet above the level of
+the sea, it was not subject to oppressive heats. There were fruitful
+gardens on the one hand, stretching for miles over the plain, and on
+the other, the placid lake, and snow-capped mountains; altogether
+forming a very striking landscape. A small Nestorian community had
+formed a settlement on the mountains within three or four hours of
+Van.
+
+Dr. Grant reached the summer residence of the Patriarch on the 9th
+of July, and was cordially received as before; and the same may be
+said of his intercourse with the mountaineers. He mentions several
+places in Koordistan as having strong claims for a missionary
+station, but gives the preference to Asheta in Tiary.
+
+While at Asheta, he received painful tidings of the death of Mr. and
+Mrs. Mitchell, and the sickness of Mr. and Mrs. Hinsdale, and
+immediately started for Mosul, though at much risk from Koords on
+the frontier, and from roving Arabs near the Tigris. He reached
+Mosul on the 25th of August, in time to minister successfully to Mr.
+Hinsdale, whose life had been seriously endangered by a relapse of
+fever.
+
+Messrs. Hinsdale and Mitchell were forty-one days on their voyage to
+Smyrna, from whence an Austrian steamer took them to Beirut. Mr. and
+Mrs. Beadle accompanied them as far as Aleppo, to commence a new
+station. Mr. Mitchell had a slight attack of fever and ague at
+Aleppo, which detained him till the 28th of May. That was rather
+late in the season, still all might have gone well, had they been
+able to press on with the usual speed. The abundant green grass on
+the plain, however, caused the muleteers to loiter, and, once on the
+road, the company was entirely at their mercy. Still the journey, as
+far as Mardin, where they arrived June 19th, was both pleasant and
+prosperous. On the plain below the city Mr. Mitchell, in efforts to
+keep their tent from being blown down in a storm, became wet and
+chilled. This brought on another fit of ague, which was repeated
+after three days. On the 25th, with scarcely any apparent disease,
+he lost his reason, and from that time drooped, like the withering
+of a plant, till he died on the morning of June 27th, 1841. The
+Koordish villagers refused the Christian a grave, nor would they aid
+in carrying the body a few miles to the Jacobite village Telabel,
+The survivors had not strength themselves to carry it, but secured
+its conveyance thither as best they could. There they buried the
+mortal remains in the village cemetery, and two rude stones mark the
+grave.
+
+Eight hours brought them in sight of the Tigris, at Beshabor. The
+next day they crossed on rafts supported by inflated goat-skins,
+and, on the 30th, rode six and a half hours to a Yezidee village.
+Next morning, after riding an hour, Mrs. Mitchell became too ill to
+proceed, and she lay four days in a mud hovel, among Arabs so rude
+that they could not be kept from the sick room, where they laid
+their hands on whatever they fancied. To remain there was out of the
+question, so Mr. Hinsdale constructed a litter, and at exorbitant
+prices obtained men from a distant village to carry it. She had to
+be repeatedly laid upon the ground, while he rode far and near to
+find four men willing to perform the degrading service of carrying a
+woman. At length the sun became so hot, that they could travel only
+by night. Their troubles were somewhat relieved by the services of a
+man, whom Mr. Rassam had kindly sent to meet them. On the 7th of
+July, they entered Mosul, and were cordially welcomed by Mr. and
+Mrs. Rassam. Mrs. Mitchell's disease then assumed a new form, and
+from that time till her death, on the 12th, her reason was
+dethroned. Mr. Hinsdale was taken violently ill before the death of
+Mrs. Mitchell, and Mrs. Hinsdale was unable to render any assistance
+to her husband. It was in these trying circumstances, that Dr. Grant
+so opportunely arrived.
+
+There was ample evidence in the subsequent experience of the
+mission, that these fatal results were not owing to any peculiar
+hazard in the journey itself, though they may have resulted from the
+lateness of the season. All the way from Aleppo to Mosul, they had
+the assistance of Mr. Kotschy, who, in addition to his medical
+knowledge, had travelled seven years in Western Asia and Africa. The
+route, moreover, had been, and is still, one of the great highways
+of nations.
+
+No doubt Divine Providence is always consistent with itself, and
+with the Saviour's promise; and so would it always appear to us,
+could we see, as God sees, the end from the beginning. To the
+devoted missionary, who dies at the outset of his career, all is
+satisfactory, however painful the circumstances, as soon as he
+passes the dark portal. Then, too, in contemplating the reverses
+which were now beginning to thicken upon the mission, we should bear
+in mind, that the divine plan for the Mountain Nestorian mission, as
+afterwards appeared, was not that it be prosecuted from the western
+side of the mountains, but from Oroomiah, the position first taken
+by the mission; where, as we shall soon see, Gospel influences were
+gathering a peculiar and most needful strength.
+
+As soon as Mr. Hinsdale was able to travel, he accompanied Dr. Grant
+on a tour among the Yezidee and Nestorian villages lying near to
+Mosul.1
+
+1 For an account of this tour, see _Missionary Herald_, 1842, pp.
+310-320.
+
+The Jacobites are a branch of the venerable Church of Antioch, and
+were then painfully struggling to repel the inroads of the Papacy.
+As soon as they learned the adherence of the American missionaries
+to the Bible, and their opposition to Papal innovations, they began
+to welcome them as friends. Having been duped by the plausible
+pretenses of the Papists, they were at first cautious in their
+advances; but a priest from the Syrian Christians in India, named
+Joseph Matthew, on his way to be ordained metropolitan by the Syrian
+Patriarch at Mardin, did much to dispel their fears, and promote
+friendly relations with the missionaries. He was a graduate of the
+English college at Cotayam, was evangelical in his views, spoke
+English with propriety, and at once gave the right hand of
+fellowship to the missionaries, and bespoke for them the confidence
+of the people. Early in the following year, he returned from Mardin
+as Bishop Athanasius, and consented to remain and preach among the
+Jacobites during Dr. Grant's absence in the summer.
+
+Nurullah Bey had now commenced making war on the mountain
+Nestorians, with the aid of the Turks; and the Nestorians, split
+into hostile parties, were incapable of combined resistance.
+Suleiman Bey, being opposed to an alliance with Turkey, had seized
+the reins of government in the absence of the Emir; and since the
+object of the Osmanlis was to subjugate the Nestorians, as well as
+the Koords, the Patriarch naturally, but as it proved unhappily,
+sided with Suleiman.1
+
+1 _Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians_, p. 203.
+
+Dr. Grant believed it would now be easier to enter the mountains
+from the east, than from the west. Accordingly he set out for
+Oroomiah, on the 6th of June, 1842, going the southern route by way
+of Ravandooz. Mr. Hinsdale and Bishop Athanasius accompanied him the
+first day. When about to return, the bishop offered prayer in the
+English language, and thus they parted, not all to meet again.
+Athanasius wrote a letter to Dr. Grant from Malabar, but with a date
+nearly a year subsequent to Dr. Grant's death, in which he stated,
+that his people had welcomed him with great joy, and gladly received
+the Word of God.1
+
+1 _Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians_, p. 219.
+
+Dr. Grant crossed the plain of Arbela, where Alexander conquered
+Persia, and in ten days arrived at Oroomiah. Being impatient to get
+into the mountains, the mission assembled immediately, and delegated
+Mr. Stocking to accompany him. Dr. Wright said of him, at this time,
+that "his spirits were buoyant, his step elastic, and his energy
+untiring." Two Nestorians went with them, and they had letters from
+the governor and some Persian nobles to the Persian Khan and the
+Emir of the Hakary Koords. At Khosrawa, Mr. Stocking was constrained
+by sickness to return; and both the native assistants were so
+alarmed by the warlike aspect of things, that they declined going
+farther. The now solitary traveller succeeded, at the last moment,
+in getting the brave bishop Mar Yusuf to be his companion.
+
+The Emir had now broken his treaty with the Sultan, formed two years
+before in the hope of immediate aid to subdue the Nestorians; and
+had sworn perpetual allegiance to the Shah, who promised him support
+against the Sultan. Dr. Grant found Yahya Khan and the Emir at the
+castle of Charreh, on the summit of an isolated rock near the river
+of the same name. The tents of more than a dozen chiefs dotted the
+green banks of the stream. Nurullah Bey still professed to regard
+Dr. Grant as his physician and friend, and in the presence of the
+Khan promised to protect him and his associates, and permit them to
+erect buildings in Tiary for themselves and their schools.
+
+The Khan, to whose friendly agency with the Emir Dr. Grant was
+specially indebted, had a good reputation for integrity. He was a
+Persian subject, then governor of Salmas, and also chief of a branch
+of the Hakary tribe. He had married a sister of the Emir, and given
+him one of his own in return, and another was in the harem of the
+Shah. He assured his missionary guest of the Emir's personal
+friendship, and interested himself for his future safety.
+
+After sundry adventures among precipitous mountains and savage
+Koords, Dr. Grant was once more the guest of Mar Shimon, who kindly
+received the New Testament, the Psalms, and other books from the
+mission press. The Doctor was himself suffering from the effects of
+exposure in a wet dormitory the previous night; but the bracing air
+of that elevated region renewed his strength, and he was glad to
+resume his journey towards Asheta, which he had proposed as the site
+of his first mountain station. On this part of the way he had the
+company of Mar Shimon, who had then decided not to join the Koords
+and Persians against the Turks, having discovered that the strife
+between them was for the supremacy over his own people. Of the two
+he preferred the Turks. He was, however, advised by Dr. Grant to
+cultivate the friendship of the Emir. Further than this Dr. Grant
+would not interfere, being, fully resolved not to meddle with their
+political relations. A secret correspondence of the Patriarch with
+the Turkish Pasha, when discovered, cost him the favor of the Emir;
+and it soon became apparent that the Turks, whatever their
+pretensions, were resolved upon nothing short of the complete
+subjugation of his people. It was but too evident, also, to his
+missionary friend, that the Patriarch was himself more concerned for
+their political, than for their religious and moral condition.
+
+Amadia, on the western frontier of the Nestorians, had now
+surrendered to the Turks; and the war on that side of the mountains
+being ended, Mr. Hinsdale left Mosul on the last day of September,
+and in eight days was at Asheta. The prospect from the summit on the
+western side of the valley was of singular beauty. The village of
+Asheta extended below him for a mile and a half, with numerous plats
+of grain and vegetables interspersed, the whole diversified with
+shade trees of various kinds. A short distance above the village was
+a deep ravine, from which the snow never disappeared. The spot
+selected for the mission house, was on the summit of a hill, near
+the centre of the village.
+
+Soon after the arrival of Mr. Hinsdale, the papal bishop of Elkosh
+and an Italian priest found their way to Asheta. They stated to the
+Patriarch, that many boxes of presents were on their way from
+Diarbekir, and requested permission to remain till they arrived. The
+following Sabbath the Patriarch, with Mar Yusuf and several priests,
+held a public discussion with them on the prominent errors of the
+Papacy. The result was not favorable to their object, and the next
+day their presents were returned, and they had permission to leave
+the country. They left during the week, but not till they had taken
+much pains, though apparently without success, to shake the
+Patriarch's confidence in the American missionaries. Soon after,
+early in November, Mr. Hinsdale returned to Mosul.
+
+Up to this time, Mar Yusuf had been fearless and tolerably patient,
+but he had now become heartily tired of the mountains, and longed
+for his peaceful home on the plain. It was the first time in a life
+of fifty years, that he had been ill when far from home. Yet he had
+been faithful in imparting religious instruction, and the missionary
+regretted his departure. Near the close of November, Dr. Grant
+received a letter from Nurullah Bey, requesting his professional
+services at Julamerk. His Nestorian friends strongly objected to his
+going, as they were apprehensive of treachery, and not without some
+reason; but he went, committing his way unto the Lord. He found the
+chief sick of fever, from which he recovered, through the blessing
+of God on the remedies employed. There was now opportunity to
+counteract reports intended to enlist the Emir in measures to
+destroy the mission. He became convinced that Dr. Grant was neither
+building a castle at Asheta, nor a bazaar to draw away the trade.
+Elsewhere, as will appear in the sequel, these reports had a more
+serious effect.
+
+Dr. Grant had already heard of the arrival of the Rev. Thomas Laurie
+and wife at Mosul; and two days after, returning from Julamerk, he
+received the painful intelligence that Mr. Hinsdale was dangerously
+sick. He at once hastened to his relief, but he was too late. The
+devoted missionary rested from his labors on the 26th of December,
+at the age of thirty-five, after a sickness of twenty-four days. His
+disease was typhus fever. Mr. Hinsdale was a native of Torrington,
+Connecticut, and received his education at Yale College, and the
+Auburn Theological Seminary. "On the night of his decease," says Dr.
+Grant, "while his deeply afflicted wife and Mr. Laurie were sitting
+by him, he was heard to say, amid the wanderings of his disordered
+intellect; 'I should love to have the will of my Heavenly Father
+done!' It was his 'ruling passion strong in death.' Desiring to have
+the will of God done in all the earth, he had toiled to fit himself
+for the missionary work, and then, regardless of sacrifices, he had
+come to a field rich in promise, but full of hardships. His daily
+spirit, as evinced in all his actions, made me feel that he was just
+the man for this portion of the Lord's vineyard."
+
+The Papists were, to say the least, not the main cause of Mar
+Shimon's alienation from his American friends. In 1840, after Dr.
+Grant had passed through the mountains the second time, on his
+return to America, the Patriarch was visited by Mr. Ainsworth,
+travelling at the expense of the Society for Promoting Christian
+Knowledge and the Royal Geographical Society. The statements of this
+gentleman and of his companion, Mr. Rassam, to Mar Shimon, so
+resembled those made by the Papists, that the Patriarch suspected
+them of being Jesuits in disguise, and they actually left the
+mountains without removing that suspicion. Nor was it creditable to
+them, that they passed through Oroomiah without even calling on the
+American missionaries there.1
+
+1 See _Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians_, pp. 151-154. For Mr.
+Ainsworth's account of this visit, see _Travels and Researches in
+Asia Minor_, _etc_., vol. i. p. 1, and vol. ii. pp. 243-255. It is
+not necessary here to correct the erroneous statements in the
+passage referred to.
+
+Had the interference gone no further, not much harm might have
+ensued. But Mr. Ainsworth's report induced the Christian Knowledge
+and Gospel Propagation Societies, in 1842, to send the Rev. George
+Percy Badger as a missionary to the Mountain Nestorians, or rather
+to the Patriarch and his clergy in the mountains. This was nine
+years after the commencement of the mission to the Nestorians at
+Oroomiah, eight years after the republication in England of the
+Researches of Messrs. Smith and Dwight among the Nestorians, and a
+year after the publication there of Dr. Grant's work, entitled "The
+Nestorians, or the Lost Tribes." Nor was there ever a time when the
+attention of the English nation was more directed to Western Asia.
+
+How much the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London
+actually knew of the American mission, before officially and
+strongly commending Mr. Badger to the confidence of the Nestorian
+Patriarch, is not known. They make no reference whatever to that
+mission, and write as if they looked upon the field as entirely
+unoccupied, and open to a mission from the Church of England.
+
+Mr. Badger spent the winter of 1842-43 in Mosul; and, early in the
+spring, before the mountain roads were open, and while Dr. Grant and
+Mr. Laurie were preparing at Mosul to visit Asheta, he hastened to
+the Patriarch, with letters and presents from the dignitaries of the
+Church of England. The civil relations of the Patriarch to the
+Koords, the Persians, and the Turks were such at that time, as to
+make him extremely anxious for the intervention of some foreign
+power; and he had been frankly told, by the American missionaries,
+that they could assure him of no such intervention. Coming with
+letters commendatory from the Primate of all England, the Lord
+Bishop of London, and the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, and with
+offers of schools, his power for good or evil must have been great.
+It cannot be that the patrons of Mr. Badger anticipated the attitude
+he would assume with regard to the American mission. The speedy
+close of his mission, may be assumed as proof that they did not. But
+while this is cheerfully admitted, the disastrous consequences of
+this interference should be distinctly stated. Mr. Badger gives the
+following account of his proceedings, in his report to the Committee
+of the Gospel Propagation Society, dated March 30, 1843. After
+stating the pains he took to explain the character, teaching, and
+discipline of his own Church, and how well his proposals to
+establish schools were received by Mar Shimon, he says, "The
+proceedings of the American Dissenters here necessarily formed a
+leading topic of our discourse. Through the influence of Nurullah
+Bey, they have been permitted to settle in the mountains, and two
+large establishments, one at Asheta and the other at Leezan, a
+village one day distant, are at present in course of being built.
+They have also a school in actual existence at Asheta, the expenses
+of which are defrayed by the Board, and, if I am rightly informed,
+another at Leezan. .... I did not fail to acquaint the Patriarch how
+far we are removed, in doctrine and discipline, from the American
+Independent missionaries. I showed him, moreover, that it would be
+injudicious, and would by no means satisfy us, to have schools among
+his people by the side of theirs, and pressed upon him to decide
+what plan he would pursue under existing circumstances. I think the
+Patriarch expressed his real sentiments on the peculiar doctrines of
+the Independents, when he said, 'I hold them as cheap as an onion;'
+but there are other considerations, which have more influence in
+inclining him to keep on friendly terms with the missionaries. In
+the first place, Dr. Grant has gained the _apparent_ good will of
+Nurullah Bey, and the Patriarch may fear that, if he manifests any
+alteration in his conduct towards the American missionaries, the
+Emir might revenge it. Secondly, although I am fully convinced, that
+there is hardly a Nestorian in the mountains, who sympathizes with
+the doctrine or discipline of the Dissenters, whenever these differ
+from their own, yet I am persuaded, that, from the Patriarch to the
+poorest peasant, all value the important services of a good
+physician; and besides this, they highly prize the money which the
+missionaries have already expended, and are still expending among
+them with no niggardly hand, in presents, buildings, schools, etc."1
+
+1 _Nestorians and their Rituals_, vol. i. pp. 248, 249.
+
+The reader need not be told, that Congregationalists and
+Presbyterians are neither Dissenters nor Independents; and these two
+large bodies of Christians founded the mission.
+
+The object of Mr. Badger was to alienate the Patriarch from the
+American mission; and he appears to have succeeded. Mar Shimon, in a
+letter addressed to the Archbishop and Bishops of the English
+Church, in August, 1843, speaks thus of the missionaries, with whom
+he was on confidential and somewhat intimate terms before the visit
+of Mr. Badger.
+
+"Such was our condition, remaining in our own country in perfect
+peace and security, when, about three years since, persons came to
+us from the new world called America, and represented themselves as
+true Catholic Christians; but when we became acquainted with their
+way, we found that they held several errors, since they deny the
+order of the Priesthood committed to us by our Lord, nor do they
+receive the oecumenical councils of the Church, nor the true
+traditions of the holy Fathers, nor the efficacy of the sacraments
+of salvation, which Christ hath bequeathed to his Church, namely,
+Baptism, and the holy Eucharist; on which account we must beware of
+their working among us. But when your messenger, the pious presbyter
+George, came to us, and delivered into our hands your letters, we
+were filled with joy when we read their contents, and learned
+therefrom your spiritual and temporal prosperity. And we have now
+given up all others, that we may be united with you, in brotherhood
+and true Christian love."1
+
+1 _Nestorians and their Rituals_, vol. i. p. 273.
+
+Five months before the date of this letter, and after the return of
+Mr. Badger to Mosul, Dr. Grant received a letter from Mar Shimon,
+filled with Oriental protestations of undiminished attachment, and
+with urgent invitations to revisit the mountains. He went,
+accompanied by Mr. Laurie. They were kindly received as before, and
+spent several weeks with him, but found the Nestorians in constant
+dread of attacks from the Koords.
+
+Meanwhile the reports, which had been put in circulation with regard
+to Dr. Grant's operations at Asheta, in the way of building, were
+communicated by the Pasha of Mosul to the Pasha of Erzroom, and by
+him to Constantinople. It is not probable that the reports were
+believed anywhere; but as the government was then intent upon
+subjugating that portion of the empire, they were unwilling to have
+the mountaineers enlightened and elevated. Accordingly they refused
+firmans to Dr. Azariah Smith and Rev. Edwin E. Bliss, in case they
+were going as missionaries to the Nestorians, for these would pledge
+to them the protection of the government; though they would grant
+them passports to go where they pleased. The Turkish minister even
+declared to Mr. Brown, our Charge d'affaires at the Porte, that they
+did not wish schools to be opened in the mountains.
+
+In June, Dr. Grant, by special invitation, visited Bader Khan Bey,
+the most powerful chief in Koordistan. The journey occupied him five
+days, by way of Zakhu and Jezireh. The castle of the chief lay
+sixteen or eighteen miles northeast of Jezireh, in a pass among the
+mountains. He found there his old friend, of Koordish sincerity,
+Nurullah Bey, who had come to engage the Buhtan chief in the
+subjugation of the Nestorians. The fearless missionary spent ten
+days with these "deceitful and bloody" men. They made no concealment
+of their designs upon the Nestorians, but promised safety and
+protection to the mission-house and property at Asheta.
+
+The successful attack soon after made on the hitherto independent
+Nestorians, appears to have had its origin in the Turkish
+government. Only unity of action could now save the Nestorians, and
+that unity was wanting. The Buhtan Koords came upon them from the
+northwest, and the Hakary tribes from the northeast and east. On the
+south was a Turkish army from the Pasha of Mosul, while the
+Ravandooz Koords are said to have been ready for an onset from the
+southeast. Diss, the district in which the Patriarch resided, and
+Tiary were soon laid waste by the combined force of the Buhtan and
+Hakary Koords. Many were slain, and among them the Patriarch's
+mother, a brother, and a fine youth who was regarded as the probable
+successor to the Patriarch. The valuable patriarchal library of
+manuscripts was destroyed. When the work of destruction began, Dr.
+Grant was in the southeast part of Tiary. From thence, without
+returning to Asheta, where the Patriarch then was, he hastened, by
+way of Lezan and Amadia, to Mosul, where great fears had been
+entertained for his safety. He reached Mosul on the morning of July
+14, 1843, much fatigued with his journey, but in tolerably good
+health.
+
+In the first invasion, Asheta and three other large villages in
+Tiary were spared the general destruction. Previous to November,
+however, the Nestorians of these villages rose upon the Koordish
+governor, and wounded him; and this occasioned the destruction of
+these villages, and the massacre of their inhabitants. Nothing was
+spared except the house Dr. Grant had erected, and that was
+converted into a fortress. Of the seventy-four priests in Tiary,
+twenty-four were killed, whose names were known. The districts east
+of Diss and Tiary were not destroyed. The tribes of Tehoma, Bass,
+and Jelu suffered comparatively little in either of the invasions,
+except in the loss of their property and their independence. After
+the disasters of Tiary and Diss, each of the remaining tribes sent
+in its submission. The Patriarch fled to Mosul. Several of his
+brothers fled to Oroomiah, and there threw themselves on the
+hospitality of the mission, which in their destitute circumstances
+could not be refused. Many were sold into slavery. Of the fifty
+thousand mountain Nestorians, the estimated number before the war,
+one fifth part were numbered with the slain.
+
+Mrs. Laurie was called on the 16th of December, to rest from her
+labors. "In her last hours," writes Dr. Grant, "she was mercifully
+delivered alike from bodily pain and from mental anxieties. A noble
+testimony of Christian devotedness had been given in her
+consecration to one of the most difficult and trying fields in
+modern missions; and death to her was but the Saviour's welcome to
+mansions of undisturbed repose."
+
+It has been stated that the Turkish government had refused a firman
+to Dr. Azariah Smith, in case he were a missionary to the Nestorians
+of Koordistan. He accordingly remained in the Armenian mission,
+where he found useful occupation till the arrival of the Foreign
+Secretary; when it was arranged that he should proceed to Mosul by
+way of Beirut and Aleppo, and either remain permanently connected
+with the mission, or return to the Armenians as a missionary
+physician. A firman was now given him, and he reached Mosul in
+safety on the 29th of March. Little did any one think that his first
+duty would be to smooth Dr. Grant's descent to the grave, yet an
+all-wise Providence had so ordained. A typhoid fever, which had
+carried off many of the refugee Nestorians in Mosul, seized their
+beloved physician on the 5th of April. He was delirious from the
+moment it assumed a threatening character, and died on the 24th of
+April, 1844.
+
+While the author was at Constantinople, he received a letter from
+Dr. Grant, stating how much his presence was needed, for a time, by
+his children at home. The case being urgent, he was encouraged to
+return and was preparing for this, when his gracious Lord called him
+into his presence above. The tidings of his dangerous sickness
+awakened much interest in Mosul. People of every rank, men of all
+sects and religions, watched the progress of his disease with the
+most earnest anxiety. The French Consul visited him almost daily.
+The Turkish authorities sent to inquire for him, and some came in
+person. One, who arrived immediately after his decease, could not
+refrain from tears when he heard of it. A leading Jacobite remarked,
+that all Mosul was weeping. The poor Patriarch, roused to a sense of
+his loss, exclaimed, "My country and my people are gone! Nothing
+remains to me but God!"
+
+Those who have attentively read the preceding history will need
+nothing more to set forth the character of this eminent servant of
+Christ. His courage, his calmness and yet firmness of purpose, his
+skill in the healing art, his devotion to the cause of his Saviour,
+his tact in winning the confidence even of those who never before
+trusted their own friends, his fearlessness in the presence of
+unscrupulous and cruel men and his ascendency over them, his lively
+faith under appalling discouragements, and his unyielding
+perseverance, form an array of excellence rarely combined in one
+man. Like the holy Apostle, he was "in journeyings often, in perils
+of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils in the city, in perils in
+the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false
+brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in
+hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." Yet
+was he not cast down by these things. He regarded them as incidental
+to his calling of God in Christ Jesus; and in the pursuit of this
+heavenly calling, he was more happy in the savage wilds of
+Koordistan, than he would have been in the most favored portions of
+his native land.
+
+Mr. Laurie and Dr. Smith, the surviving brethren at Mosul, entered
+the mountains in the summer of 1844, explored the district of Tiary,
+and visited Nurullah Bey at Birchullah above Julamerk. Wherever they
+went among the Nestorians, they found a painful scene of desolation.
+On their return to Mosul, they forwarded their journal and a summary
+view of the facts, and asked the Committee to decide whether to
+continue the effort to approach the Nestorians from the west, and
+the Committee now forwarded definite instructions to discontinue
+this branch of the mission.1 They proceeded to Beirut in Syria,
+accompanied by Mrs. Hinsdale, who had been bereaved of her only
+child. Mr. Laurie became a member of the Syrian mission, and Dr.
+Smith of the Armenian; and Mrs. Hinsdale was for some time employed
+in the instruction of missionary children at Constantinople.
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1845, pp. 116-125.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1830-1838.
+
+
+Syria was not in a condition for a return of the missionaries until
+after two years. Messrs. Bird and Whiting left Malta for Beirut on
+the 1st of May, 1830. Mr. Abbott, the English Consul, had already
+returned, and gave them a cordial welcome. The members of the Greek
+Church greeted them in a friendly manner, and were ready to read the
+Scriptures with them; but the Maronite priests, faithful to the
+Church of Rome, forbad their people all intercourse with the "Bible
+men," whom they described as "followers of the devil." Among those
+who received them gladly were a few young men, over whom the
+missionaries had rejoiced in former years, and who had remained
+steadfast in the faith, and had honored the Gospel by their lives.
+
+Gregory Wortabet, one of the two Armenian ecclesiastics who early
+became connected with the mission, is already somewhat known to the
+reader. He belonged to the monastic priesthood in the Armenian
+Church, and there is an interesting autobiography of him in the
+"Missionary Herald" for 1828. His career up to that time, as
+described by himself, shows him to have been an uncommon character;
+and his personal sufferings, both for good and evil doing, prepared
+him to receive benefit from his converse with the missionaries at
+Beirut, which began in 1826, when he was twenty-six years of age. He
+was then ignorant of the Gospel, with his mind in great darkness and
+confusion. His first ray of light was from the good example of his
+missionary friends. Comparing their lives with their preaching, he
+admired the consistency of the two. He then compared both with the
+Scriptures, reading through the entire New Testament. At length day
+dawned upon his darkness. He became fully satisfied, that the
+Scriptures were from God, and committed himself to their divine
+teaching. Renouncing his self-righteousness, and all dependence on
+the absolutions of the Church, he trusted for salvation only in the
+blood of the Lord Jesus. Having adopted the opinion, that his
+monastic vows were unscriptural and therefore void, he married a
+discreet woman, who not long after gave good evidence of piety.
+
+Wortabet accompanied the missionaries to Malta, as did also
+Dionysius, the other ecclesiastic. This change in their
+circumstances was at their own earnest request, but it was a great
+change. The author saw them at Malta, and did not wonder at some
+dissatisfaction on the part of the younger of the two, which helped
+to bring a cloud, for a time, over his Christian character. But his
+morals were irreproachable in the view of the world, and on his
+return to Syria in 1830, which was mainly in consequence of the
+failure of his eyes, the sun shone forth again, and continued to do
+so till his death. He went back to Beirut with the intention of
+supporting himself by manual labor, but the return of ophthalmia
+interrupted his plans, and reduced him to poverty. Mr. Bird visited
+him in May, 1831, at his residence near Sidon, and found him and his
+wife destitute indeed of the good things of this life, but contented
+and cheerful, and Wortabet warning all around him, night and day.
+Much of his conversation was spiritual, and he was listened to with
+deference. He was respected by the principal inhabitants of the
+place, and his wife was regarded as a model of humility and piety.
+Two or three were thought to have received saving impressions from
+his conversation. He obtained his support, such as it was, by means
+of a small shop, and was rigidly conscientious in his dealings.
+Respectable men of all classes came frequently to converse with him
+on religious subjects, and so gave him an opportunity to circulate
+the Bible, and to recommend its religion to Druses, Armenians,
+Papists, and Jews. Even Moslems sometimes listened with attention.
+
+Having been drawn into a written controversy by a zealous Maronite,
+Wortabet called in the aid of Taunus el Haddad, not being himself at
+home in the Arabic, and with important aid from the written
+discussions of Messrs. King, Bird, Goodell, and the lamented Asaad,
+he came out with a full exposition of the points at issue between
+Protestants and the Church of Rome, which attracted much attention.
+An answer was repeatedly promised, but none ever appeared, and it
+was thought the Maronite was himself half convinced of his error.
+Wortabet's weight of character, and his perfect knowledge of the
+people, made his influence at Sidon exceedingly valuable, and it was
+increasing and extending. But on the 10th of September, 1832, a
+short illness, supposed to be the cholera, terminated his earthly
+labors. From the first attack, he regarded the disease as fatal, and
+met death with a calm reliance on the Saviour.
+
+The operations of the mission in 1832, were disturbed by plague,
+cholera, and war. The ravages of the plague were not great, but
+cholera occasioned intense alarm. It swept over Armenia and along
+the western borders of Persia, cut off one third of the pilgrims
+from Beirut to Mecca, was exceedingly fatal at Cairo and Alexandria,
+and made approaches to the seat of the mission as near as Aleppo,
+Damascus, Tiberias, and Acre; but from this terrible judgment the
+inhabitants of Beirut were providentially shielded. They suffered
+much, however, from the rapacity of the Pasha of Acre, until his
+power was broken by the invading army of the Viceroy of Egypt, under
+Ibrahim Pasha. With the aid of ten or fifteen thousand men from
+Mount Lebanon, under the Emir Beshir, Ibrahim Pasha took Acre; then
+pushing his conquests to Damascus, established the dominion of Egypt
+over Palestine and all Syria.
+
+The papal bishop of Beirut having published an answer to Mr. King's
+"Farewell Letter," Mr. Bird made a reply in thirteen letters,
+containing many extracts from the Fathers and Roman Catholic doctors
+against the bishop's opinions and expositions of Scripture.
+Preparatory to this, the mission library was furnished with the more
+important works of the ancient Fathers; and what was wanting to
+complete the polemic department of the library, was munificently
+supplied by Mr. Parnell, of the Bagdad mission; who also presented
+the mission with a lithographic press for printing in the Arabic and
+Syriac languages. About this time, Mr. Temple was instructed to send
+the Arabic portion of the Malta establishment to Beirut, where Mr.
+Smith, who returned from the United States in 1834, was to have the
+charge of it.
+
+Mr. Smith had been instructed by the Prudential Committee, to
+explore the country eastward of the Jordan, and also that bordering
+on the eastern range of Lebanon. Accordingly, soon after his
+arrival, he and Dr. Dodge visited Damascus, and then went into the
+Hauran, which was never before explored by Protestant missionaries,
+and until the publication of Burckhard's travels, twelve years
+before, was almost unknown in modern times. The Bozrah of the
+Scriptures was the limit of their travels southeastward, and marks
+the limit of habitation towards the great desert. Thence they
+traversed the region of Bashan to the southwest, as far as the river
+Jabbok, now called Zerka, beyond which the country is surrendered to
+the wild Bedawin. Turning to the north, they crossed the Jordan not
+far from the lake of Tiberias, ascended the western shore, visited
+the numerous Greek Christians on the west of Mount Hermon, and
+returned to Damascus. The health of the mission now called Dr. Dodge
+back to Beirut, and Mr. Smith completed the survey of Anti-Libanus
+alone; visited a village of Jacobite Syrians in the desert towards
+Palmyra; passed through Homs, and as far north as Hamah, or "Hamath
+the great;" then, bending his course homeward, he crossed Lebanon in
+the region of the Ansaireea, through Tripoli to Beirut. Of this
+whole deeply interesting tour Mr. Smith, as was his custom, kept an
+accurate journal, which he intended to elaborate for publication as
+soon as he should have opportunity. The learned world heard with
+deep regret, in the year 1836, of the loss of this valuable
+manuscript in the shipwreck of Mr. and Mrs. Smith on their voyage to
+Smyrna. The Arabic press arrived in 1834, and passed without
+objection through the customhouse. Indeed, there were at that time
+no less than six presses in Syria and the Holy Land, belonging to
+Jews and Papists, and no one of them was subjected to hindrance,
+censorship, or taxation.
+
+It could not truly be said, that any material change had taken place
+in the character and condition of the people at large, as a
+consequence of Protestant missions. But this at least was true, that
+the impression given by the Jesuits, that Protestants had no
+religion, no priesthood, and no churches, had been extensively
+removed. The missionaries unite in their testimony, that the
+circulation of the Scriptures is not alone sufficient to regenerate
+a people. A very considerable number of copies had been put in
+circulation from Aleppo to Hebron and Gaza, and many of them had
+been in the hands of the people for more than ten years. It is not
+known indeed how much they had been used; but where there had been
+no personal intercourse with missionaries, not a single radical
+conversion of the soul unto God had come to the knowledge of the
+missionaries.
+
+Commodore Patterson visited Beirut during the summer with the U. S.
+ship _Delaware_ and schooner _Shark_; principally, as he said, to do
+honor to the mission, and to convince the people that it had
+powerful friends.
+
+Ten interesting young men placed themselves under the tuition of Dr.
+Dodge to learn English, and Mr. Smith gave them lessons in geography
+and astronomy, of which they knew almost as little as of English. A
+school taught by Taunus el Haddad was converted into a girls'
+school. A female school was also opened by the ladies of the
+mission, assisted by the widow of Wortabet, for which a house was
+erected by the subscriptions of foreign residents. The school
+contained twenty-nine pupils, of whom three were Moslem children,
+and one a Druse, and no opposition was made to it. Religious
+instruction was given, of course, and the scholars made good
+progress in reading, sewing, knitting, and behavior. The whole
+number in the schools exceeded a hundred. Mr. Abbott, the early and
+valued friend of the mission, died during this year.
+
+In 1835, Mr. Bird was compelled, by the declining health of his
+wife, to visit Smyrna. After remaining there nearly a year, and not
+receiving the benefit they expected, they came to the United States,
+and were never able to return to Syria. Their removal was for a time
+an irreparable loss to the mission, and was a severe disappointment
+to themselves. In subsequent years, they gladly gave two of their
+children to the missionary work in Western Asia. Miss Rebecca W.
+Williams arrived this year as a teacher; and in the next year the
+Rev. Messrs. Story Hebard and John F. Lanneau, and Miss Betsey
+Tilden. In 1835, Mr. William M. Thomson was married to Mrs. Abbott,
+the widow of the late English Consul, who, from an early period in
+the mission, had given decisive evidence of attachment to the
+kingdom of Christ.
+
+The high school, commenced in 1835, took a more substantial form in
+the following year. It was wisely decided, that the pupils should
+lodge, eat, and dress in the style of the country; and the annual
+expenses of each scholar for boarding, clothing, etc., was only from
+thirty-five to forty dollars. The course of study embraced the
+Arabic language for the whole period, the English language,
+geography and astronomy, civil and ecclesiastical history, with
+chronology, mathematics, rhetoric,--in the Arab sense, a popular
+study,--natural and moral philosophy, composition and translation,
+natural theology, and sacred music. The Bible was studied
+constantly. In all these departments there was a great deficiency of
+books; in some it was entire.
+
+Mr. Hebard and Miss Williams were united in marriage in October,
+1836. Mr. Hebard had then the care of the seminary, and the girls'
+school was taught by Mrs. Hebard and Mrs. Dodge. The latter was
+subsequently married to the Rev. J. D. Paxton, a clergyman from the
+United States, then on a visit to Syria.
+
+The mission, as early as 1836, became sensible of a serious
+deficiency in their Arabic type. As it did not conform to the most
+approved standard of Arabic caligraphy, it did not meet the popular
+taste. Mr. Smith therefore took pains to collect models of the
+characters in the best manuscripts. These were lost in his
+shipwreck, but he afterwards replaced them at Constantinople, to the
+number of two hundred; so varied, that the punches formed for them
+would make not far from a thousand matrices. These he placed in the
+hands of Mr. Hallock, the missionary printer at Smyrna, who
+possessed great mechanical ingenuity, and was entirely successful in
+cutting the punches. The type was cast at Leipzig by Tauchnitz. Thus
+a really great and important work, without which the press could not
+have been domesticated among the many millions to whom the Arabic is
+vernacular, was brought to a successful issue.
+
+The disastrous shipwreck of Mr. and Mrs. Smith on their way from
+Beirut to Smyrna, has been already mentioned. The voyage was
+undertaken chiefly for the benefit of Mrs. Smith's health; but the
+exposures consequent on the shipwreck, extending through
+twenty-eight days until their arrival at Smyrna, aggravated her
+consumptive tendencies, and hastened her passage to the grave. She
+died on the thirtieth of September, 1836, at the age of thirty-four.
+The closing scene is described by her husband. "Involuntary groans
+were occasionally muttered in her convulsions. These, as we were
+listening to them with painful sympathy, once, to our surprise,
+melted away into musical notes; and for a moment, our ears were
+charmed with the full, clear tones of the sweetest melody. No words
+were articulated, and she was evidentally unconscious of everything
+about her. It seemed as if her soul was already joining in the songs
+of heaven, while it was yet so connected with the body as to command
+its unconscious sympathy. Not long after, she again opened her eyes
+in a state of consciousness. A smile of perfect happiness lighted up
+her emaciated features. She looked deliberately around upon
+different objects in the room, and then fixed upon me a look of the
+tenderest affection. .... Her frequent prayers that the Saviour
+would meet her in the dark valley, have already been mentioned. By
+her smile, she undoubtedly intended to assure us that she had found
+him. Words she could not utter to express what she felt. Life
+continued to struggle with its last enemy until twenty minutes
+before eight o'clock; when her affectionate heart gradually ceased
+to beat, and her soul took its final departure to be forever with
+the Lord."1
+
+1 _A Memoir of Mrs. Sarah Lanman Smith_ was given to the public by
+her brother, Edward W. Hooker, D. D., in 1837, pp. 407.
+
+In the winter and spring of 1838, an opportunity was afforded Mr.
+Smith to perform a very useful service as the associate of Dr.
+Edward Robinson, in his celebrated "Biblical Researches in Palestine
+and the Adjacent Regions."1 The aid was essential to the full
+success of the enterprise, from Mr. Smith's acquaintance with the
+Arabs and their language, and it was cheerfully rendered by the
+missionary, and assented to by the mission and by the officers of
+the Board at home. Mr. Smith had been hopeful of being able to visit
+the Hauran, and to recover the more important facts lost in the
+shipwreck, but the troubled state of the country prevented. Joining
+Dr. Robinson in Egypt, he travelled with him from Cairo to Suez;
+thence to Sinai and Jerusalem, by way of Akabah; then to Bethel, the
+Dead Sea, and the valley of the Jordan. At Jerusalem, they attended
+the annual meeting of the Syria mission.
+
+1 Mr. Smith rendered a similar service, during a part of Dr.
+Robinson's second tour in 1852, in a portion of the same regions.
+
+The Rev. Messrs. Elias R. Beadle and Charles S. Sherman, and their
+wives, joined the mission this year.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+THE DRUZES, AND THE WARS OF LEBANON.
+
+1835-1842.
+
+
+We now enter upon a period of some special difficulty in the
+prosecution of the missionary work. Turkey, Egypt, and several great
+European powers, conflicting for secular objects, brought the Druzes
+into very singular and as it proved unfortunate, relations to the
+mission.
+
+The Druzes are found chiefly on the mountains of Lebanon, and in the
+country called the Hauran, south of Damascus, and number sixty or
+seventy thousand souls. The sect originated with Hakem, a Caliph of
+Egypt, but derived its name from El Drusi, a zealous disciple of the
+Caliph. They believe Hakem to be the tenth, last, and most important
+incarnation of God, and render him divine honors. They have ever
+taken great pains to conceal their tenets, which seem to be
+compounded from Mohammedanism and Paganism, and it is only a portion
+of themselves that know what the tenets are. Those are called the
+Akkal, or _initiated_; the others are the Jebal, or _uninitiated_.
+Four centuries and a half after the death of the founder of the
+sect, it became powerful under a single chief. Inhabiting the rugged
+mountains of Lebanon, they maintained for many ages a free and
+independent spirit in the midst of despotism, and were a
+semi-independent people within the Turkish dominions down to the
+summer of 1835, when they were subdued by Ibrahim Pasha.
+
+As early as 1831, a hope was awakened in the mission, that the
+Gospel might be successfully introduced among that people. A Druze
+woman was in the habit of coming daily to listen to the reading of
+the Scriptures and to religious conversation, and would often say,
+"That's the truth," with her face bathed in tears. Her visits were
+continued until she fell a victim to the plague. An old man, also,
+who was one of the "initiated," came, and, after much disputation,
+professed to receive the Gospel. In proof of his sincerity, he
+brought one of the secret books of his religion, and gave it to the
+missionaries. Mr. Smith, moreover, when on the mountains, was
+invited to attend one of their stated meetings, and, at its close,
+was requested to read and expound a portion of the word of God.
+
+The prospects became more favorable in 1835. Mr. Bird and others
+spent the hot months of summer at Aaleih, a Druze village on
+Lebanon. Mrs. Dodge gathered a school of girls there, and Mr. Bird
+had ten or fifteen Druzes present at his Arabic preaching every
+Sabbath, and among them the young sheiks of the village, with their
+servants. Many of the people listened with attention, and received
+and read the New Testament and other religious books, with apparent
+eagerness. They readily acknowledged that neither repentance,
+alms-giving, prayers, nor any works of their own, were sufficient to
+insure the pardon of sin; and when pointed to the great atonement of
+the Lord Jesus, it seemed to commend itself to their understanding
+and conscience. Though nominally the disciples of the Koran, they
+did not cry out "blasphemy," as did the Moslems, when told that
+Jesus is the Son of God, thus partaking of the divine nature; but
+they seemed to feel that this character was necessary for one who
+should undertake to be a Saviour for a world of sinners.
+
+Mr. Bird coming down from the mountains to accompany his sick wife
+to Smyrna, Mr. Smith took his place, and visited eight or nine
+villages, with every opportunity afforded him for preaching the
+Gospel; and he was everywhere listened to with respectful attention.
+Though aware of the deceitfulness of the people, he could not but
+see how open they then were to this species of missionary labor. Yet
+he could not find among them any real spirit of inquiry, and his
+only hope was in the influences of the Holy Spirit, giving efficacy
+to the truth. The Druzes, though wrapped up in hypocrisy, and
+apparently without one spiritual thought, were of the same race with
+all other men, and the preaching of the word might be expected, in
+the end, to have the same effect upon them.
+
+There was reason to believe, that this movement among the Druzes
+grew mainly out of their recent subjugation by the Egyptians, and
+their apprehension of a military conscription. They had always
+professed Mohammedanism hypocritically, to escape the oppressions
+which Christians suffered under Moslem rule; but now the Christians
+fared better than the Moslems, in that they were not liable to be
+drafted into the army, to which as Moslems the Druzes were exposed.
+They had very painful apprehensions of such a levy, and the reason
+having ceased that had led them to profess Mohammedanism, they were
+disposed to renounce that religion; and some among the uninitiated
+seemed ready to renounce the Druze religion also. Their great object
+was to enjoy equal rights with the Christians, and especially to
+escape the military conscription.
+
+A levy had been demanded of the Druzes before this visit of the
+brethren to the mountains, and had been refused, with an urgent
+request to Mohammed Ali that he would not impose upon them so odious
+a burden. Nothing was heard in reply until the fourth day after Mr.
+Smith's return to Beirut, when Ibrahim Pasha presented himself at
+Deir el-Kamr, at the head of eighteen thousand men. Taken by
+surprise, no opposition was made. Both Druzes and Christians were at
+once disarmed, and officers were left to collect recruits.
+
+With the dreaded evil thus strongly upon them, there was a more
+general disposition to throw off the Druze religion. Applications
+came from individuals and from families in different and distant
+villages. Among them were some of the higher ranks. One whole family
+connection of eighty individuals declared their readiness to pledge
+their property as security that they would never apostatize from the
+Christian faith; and had it been in the power of the mission to
+secure to them the political standing of Christian sects, and had
+the brethren been disposed to favor a national conversion, after the
+example of the early and middle ages, it is probable that the whole
+body of the Jebal Druzes, at least, would have become nominal
+Protestants. Of course the missionaries explained to them how
+inconsistent with the spirituality of our religion would be such a
+mere profession of Christianity. For a few Sabbaths, the Arab
+congregation was composed chiefly of Druzes; and Mr. Smith threw
+open his doors to them at the time of family prayers, and had the
+opportunity of reading and explaining the Gospel to from ten to
+fifteen for two months; but without finding evidence, with perhaps a
+single exception, of a sincere desire to know the truth.
+
+That exception was in the case of a Druze named Kasim. Mr. Smith saw
+him first in October, 1835. Residing in the mountains, Kasim had two
+of his sons already baptized by the Maronites, and had openly
+professed himself to be no longer a Druze, but a Christian. He had
+not himself received baptism, for fear of his relatives, who had
+once gone in a body and beaten him. He now removed into the
+immediate neighborhood of the missionary, where he hoped for
+protection, and he and his family became regular attendants upon
+Christian worship. He professed a strong attachment to the Saviour,
+as did also his wife, and they both made evident progress in
+religious knowledge. Both openly declared themselves Protestants,
+and were anxious for baptism. The officer of the Emir Beshir,
+finding in his hands a testimonial from Mr. Smith, that he was a
+Christian, respected him in this character, while he was seizing all
+his Druze neighbors for soldiers; but he had not then been admitted
+to the church, for want of sufficient evidence of true conversion.
+
+Kasim was at length apprehended by the governor of Beirut, beaten to
+make him confess that he was a Moslem, and cast into prison. Mr.
+Smith visited him, and urged him to make the profession he intended
+to abide by, that the mission might know what to do. In the presence
+of a dozen Moslems, he professed himself a Christian, and declared
+that he would die a Christian, if they burned him at the stake. The
+governor, on hearing this, ordered him to be thrust into the inner
+prison, and loaded with chains. Here his persecutors renewed their
+promises and threats, but his firmness remained unshaken, and they
+left him in prison. Such a confession had never been made in Beirut
+before, and it attracted much attention. The poor man in his
+dungeon, aware of the danger of his situation, spent much of his
+time in prayer, and was often heard by his fellow-prisoners, in the
+watches of the night, calling upon Jesus Christ to help him. He even
+sent directions to a friend respecting the disposal of a few
+effects, in case he should be martyred, thereby showing his
+expectation of persevering unto death.
+
+As the best thing that could be done, the American Consul at Beirut,
+who took a deep interest in the case, addressed a letter to Soleiman
+Pasha, next in power to Ibrahim, who was then at Sidon on his way to
+Beirut. This was favorably received, and the Pasha expressed his
+wish that the family would send a petition to him, that he might be
+ready to judge the case when he should arrive at Beirut. This was
+accordingly done, and the requisite evidence was made ready. The
+poor man received his food daily from his missionary friend, with
+messages of cheer, and he never wavered.
+
+On the arrival of the Pasha, the prisoner's wife immediately sought
+access to him, and this she did day after day; but the governor of
+Beirut threw every obstacle in her way. The Pasha wished to set him
+free, without seeming to yield to Frank dictation, or stirring up
+Moslem fanaticism. At length the governor, threatened by the agent
+of the European consuls with deposition, presented himself in person
+at the door of the prison, and told Kasim to go free.
+
+Thus terminated, after an imprisonment of seventeen days, the first
+case of a converted Druze called to confess Jesus Christ before a
+Moslem tribunal. This was in the early part of the year 1836.
+
+Kasim was kept by the mission two years on probation, but on the
+first Sabbath in 1838 he and his wife were admitted to the church,
+and were baptized, with their six children, receiving Christian
+names at their own request. Mr. Thomson took occasion to preach on
+the subject of baptism, explaining the true meaning and intention of
+the ordinance. The congregation was larger than usual, and there was
+more solemn attention than had ever been witnessed in the chapel.
+Much anxiety was felt for Kasim, but he was not molested. His
+brother and his brother's wife also made a very importunate request
+for baptism, and the mission not long after complied with it.
+
+As these converts were not molested after their baptism, the Druzes
+resorted more and more to the mission for instruction. Mr. Thomson
+was invited to visit their villages, and open among them schools and
+places of worship. They applied for the admission of their sons to
+the seminary, and a young sheik was received, his friends paying the
+expense. Some of them corresponded with Mr. Thomson by letter, and
+some came to reside at Beirut. The Papists assailed them with
+promises, flatteries, and threats of vengeance from the Emir Beshir;
+but the Druzes declared they would never join the Church of Rome.
+While the mission was aware that in all this the Druzes were greatly
+influenced by political changes, past and expected, they could not
+avoid the hope that an increasing number were really desirous of
+knowing and obeying the truth. Indeed it was impossible to avoid
+this conclusion with the facts before them, some of which Mr.
+Thomson embodied thus in his journal:--
+
+"_August_ 13, 1838. This morning Kasim brought a leading Druze to
+see me. He is from Shweifat, and desires to become an English
+Christian. His conversation was very satisfactory, so far as
+sensible and even pious remarks are concerned. He makes the most
+solemn appeals to the Searcher of Hearts to bear witness to his
+sincerity; asks neither for protection, employment, or money; but
+says, that his only object is to secure the salvation of his soul.
+He asks for nothing but Christian instruction, which I of course was
+most happy to afford to the extent of my abilities. Alas! that long
+experience with people here, and especially with the Druzes, compels
+me to receive with hesitation their most solemn protestations.
+
+"_Sept_. 5. M., the ruling sheik of A., came down from the mountains
+to request Christian instruction and baptism for himself and family.
+He is very earnest and rational, for a Druze, and thinks that nearly
+all his villages will unite with him. In a conversation, protracted
+to more than half a day, I endeavored to place before him, with all
+possible plainness, our views of what true religion is. He is not so
+ignorant on this subject as most Druzes, having been acquainted with
+us for many years, and frequently present at our Arabic worship.
+
+"_Sept_. 6. Sheik S., from the heart of Lebanon, came to-day with
+the same request for Christian instruction, not only for himself,
+but for his father and four brothers, leading sheiks of the
+mountains. He asks not for protection, money, or temporal advantage
+in any way, but solely for religious instruction; and declares, with
+apparent sincerity, that his only desire is to secure the salvation
+of his soul. He says concerning their own superstition, that he
+knows it is utterly false and pernicious; and that, having for three
+years read the Bible, and compared the various sects with it, he is
+persuaded that they have forsaken the word of God, and imposed upon
+men many human inventions, designed not for the good of the people,
+but to augment the power and wealth of the priesthood. He mentioned
+with special abhorrence auricular confession, and forgiveness of sin
+by the priest; also, their long fasts, their prayers to saints, and
+their worship of images and pictures; showing that he was well
+acquainted with the leading differences between us and them; and
+proving, by his pertinent quotations from the Bible, that he had
+read it with attention and understanding.
+
+"Sheik S. intends to remain several days for the purpose of
+receiving more instruction. He appears to have no fears of
+persecution, but to be resolved to persevere whatever may happen.
+
+"_Sept_. 12. Went to B.'T., and spent the day in conversing with the
+large family of sheiks there. These sheiks govern, under the Emir,
+all this part of Lebanon. The greater part of them appear resolved
+to become Christians at all hazards. Alas! how little do they know
+of that religion, which they profess to be so anxious to embrace.
+The mother of the sheiks in A. is married to the most powerful sheik
+in B.'T., and she sent word to her children, encouraging them to
+become Christians, and approving also of their plan to place the
+youngest boys in our seminary.
+
+"I had no time to converse with the common people in B.'T., but one
+of our Christian Druzes who accompanied me, spent the day with them,
+and tells me, that a great many of the villagers wished to join us.
+Here also the Papists are busy as bees, both with arguments and
+terrors. What the end will be, is known only to God."
+
+Two days later, several sheiks camp down from the mountains, with an
+apparent determination to take houses, and receive religious
+instruction; declaring their wish not to return to the mountains
+until they had been both instructed and baptized. The same day, two
+Druzes came as agents from a large clan of their people residing in
+Anti-Lebanon, three days from Beirut, professing to treat in behalf
+of their whole community. In the evening, several leading Druzes
+came from Andara, the highest habitable part of Lebanon, professing
+to act in the name of their whole village, and earnestly requesting
+the mission to open schools, build a church, and baptize them all
+forthwith. The missionary preached to them till a late hour, and
+they promised to come again after a few days. They kept their
+promise, and stated that they had made arrangements with the people
+of several villages to unite together, and all declare themselves
+Christians at the same time; hoping that the Emir, when he saw so
+many of them of one mind, would not venture to execute the plans of
+cruel persecution, with which they were threatened. Mr. Thomson now
+found it necessary to call in the aid of Mr. Hebard and Mr. Lanneau.
+
+The Emir Beshir, urged on by the Papal priests, now sent for the
+young Druze sheiks, and threatened them with the full measure of his
+wrath. This occasioned a division among them, some through fear
+siding with the Emir. The father of several young sheiks,--a
+venerable old man, with rank and talents to give him extensive
+influence,--being at Beirut, declared in oriental style his
+attachment to the Gospel, and his intended adherence to it.
+
+The excitement among the Druzes continued, and visitors from all
+parts of Lebanon thronged the house of the missionary, till winter
+rendered communication with the mountains difficult.
+
+Near the close of November, a number of Druzes, who had become Greek
+Papists, were seized by order of the Pasha, and cast into prison,
+whence five of them were drafted into the army. The rest were
+allowed to return to their homes. It was understood that the Pasha
+would not disturb the Protestant converts; but he had shown that he
+was not disposed to tolerate the conversion of the Druzes to
+Christianity. Kasim and his associates appeared resolved to go not
+only to prison, but to death, rather than deny Christ.
+
+At the close of the year, the severity of the Emir, in connection
+with the snows of winter, greatly diminished the attendance of
+Druzes at the meetings. The knowledge, also, that they could not be
+baptized till they had given evidence of being truly converted,
+helped to repress the movement. Still, some of the more hopeful
+persons continued to show their interest in the Gospel.
+
+Syria was now within the jurisdiction of Egypt, and hence the
+mission was not affected by the persecutions, for which the year
+1839 was so distinguished in Turkey. But the missionary force was
+much reduced, Messrs. Bird, Smith, and Whiting being in the United
+States. The Rev. Elias R. Beadle and Charles S. Sherman arrived as
+missionaries, with their wives, in the autumn of that year; and
+Messrs. Samuel Wolcott, Nathaniel A. Keyes, and Leander Thompson,
+with their wives, and Dr. C. V. A. Van Dyck, in April 1840. They had
+the language to learn, and the press lay idle during the year, for
+want of a printer and funds. Mrs. Hebard died in February.
+
+Yet there was progress. A large and convenient chapel had been
+obtained, where were held two stated Arabic services on the Sabbath;
+and on the evening of the Sabbath, the natives had a prayer meeting
+by themselves. In the free schools there were eighty scholars; the
+seminary for boys had twenty boarders; and the distribution of books
+and tracts continued. In this work a blind old man of the Greek
+Church named Aboo Yusoof was an efficient helper. Though stooping
+with age, he went about the country with a donkey loaded with books,
+and a little boy to lead him, doing what he could. In a district
+northeast of Tripoli, he was encouraged in his work by the
+approbation of the Greek bishop Zacharias.
+
+The political and religious events then occurring were intimately
+connected. The conquest of Syria by Mohammed Ali, was the apparent
+cause of the religious movement among the Druzes already described.
+The defeat of the Sultan's army at Nisib, in 1839, and the feelings
+of jealousy towards France and Egypt, then intimately allied, led to
+the determination of England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria to
+restore Syria and the Turkish fleet to the Porte. The consequent
+armed intervention made Beirut the seat of war. An English fleet
+bombarded the city, and the English officers, by a singular
+miscalculation, treated the Papal Maronites as their friends, and
+the Druzes as their enemies. Missionary operations were suspended.
+Mr. Lanneau, whose eyes had failed him, left on a visit to the
+United States. Messrs. Beadle, Keyes, and Leander Thompson spent the
+summer and autumn at Jerusalem, and Dr. Van Dyck joined them there.
+Messrs. W. M. Thomson and Wolcott remained at Beirut until the
+bombardment, when Captain Latimer, of the United States corvette
+_Cyane_, who had come to Beirut to look after their welfare, kindly
+took them and their families to Cyprus.
+
+In the presence of such mighty forces, the mission could only wait
+the course of events. The brethren, before leaving Beirut, had done
+all they could for the protection of their houses, furniture, the
+Arabic press, and the library and philosophical apparatus. They did
+this by hoisting over their houses the American flag and placing
+guards in them, and by an understanding with the admiral. The pupils
+in the boarding-school were sent to their friends. Mr. Wolcott
+visited Beirut during the contest, and found the Egyptian forces
+evacuating the town, and the British troops taking possession. He
+met the American consul there surveying the ruins of his house,
+which had been battered by the great guns and plundered by the
+pasha's soldiers; but the magazine beneath it, which contained most
+of the property of Messrs. Beadle and Keyes, had not been opened.
+Making his way through the ruins of the city to the mission houses,
+he saw the American flags still floating over them, and the guards
+on the ground. Soldiers had encamped in his garden, but had
+abstained from pillage. A few bombs had burst in the yard, and
+several cannon balls had penetrated the walls. The furniture, the
+library, the philosophical apparatus were uninjured. The native
+chapel in Mr. Thomson's house had been filled with goods, brought
+thither for safety by the natives, and these had not been molested.
+The field around Mr. Smith's house had been plowed by cannon balls,
+and he expected to find the new Arabic types converted into bullets,
+but not a type had been touched. Even the orange and lemon trees,
+within his inclosure, were bending with their load of fruit. All
+this was remarkable; and the goodness of Providence was gratefully
+acknowledged at the time, by the missionaries and by their patrons
+at home.
+
+The persecuting Emir Beshir surrendered, and was sent to Malta, and
+a relative of the same name, but with small capacity for governing,
+was appointed Prince of the Mountains. The mission families returned
+from Cyprus before the end of the year, and the seminary was
+resumed; but those students who had been taught enough of English to
+make themselves intelligible as interpreters, had all been drawn
+away by the high wages which British officers paid for such
+services. The place of Tannus, Arabic teacher in the seminary, who
+was sick, was supplied by Butrus el-Bistany, from the Maronite
+College at Ain Warka. He had written a treatise against the
+corruptions of Popery and the supremacy of the Pope, and the enraged
+Patriarch had tried to get him into his power, but without success.
+
+The brethren all reassembled at Beirut early in the year 1841, and
+Mr. Beadle, with a native assistant, commenced a station at Aleppo,
+but it was not long continued. The press resumed its operations with
+the new type, under the management of Mr. George Hurter, a printer
+just arrived from America. The declining health of Mr. Hebard
+compelled him to suspend missionary labors, and he died at Malta,
+June 30, on his way to the United States, greatly and deservedly
+lamented. About the same time, Mr. Smith arrived at Beirut, on his
+return to Syria, with his wife. Four months later, Mrs. Wolcott was
+called away, after a distressing illness of three days, but in sure
+and certain hope of a blessed immortality.
+
+The allied powers had settled the affairs of the East in a manner
+not agreeable to France, and that government seems to have sought
+redress through the Jesuits. In the first month of 1841, three
+French Jesuits arrived at Beirut, with an ample supply of money;
+and, at the same time, the Maronite Patriarch received large sums
+from France and Austria, ostensibly for the relief of sufferers in
+the late war, but never expended for such a purpose. The Maronites
+had been the chief movers in favor of the Sultan and the English,
+and the English agent in negotiating with them was a Roman Catholic.
+On account of their services in that war, the Maronites stood high
+in favor with the English officers and with the Turkish government;
+and the Patriarch received important additions to his power, till he
+thought himself strong enough to expel the American missionaries and
+crush the Druzes. The local authorities having no power to drive the
+missionaries away, he petitioned the Sultan to do this. The Sultan
+laid the subject before Commodore Porter, then American Minister at
+the Porte, who said he was not authorized by his government to
+protect men thus employed. This fact coming in some way to the
+knowledge of the Patriarch, he made proclamation through the
+mountains, that the American missionaries were denounced by their
+own government as troublesome, mischief-making proselyters, and
+would not be protected.1
+
+1 This mistaken opinion of the Minister was made the subject of
+correspondence with the United States Government, and the favorable
+response by Mr. Webster, Secretary of State, is quoted in chapter
+xviii.
+
+Meanwhile, the English officers had obtained a more correct
+understanding of the relations of parties in Lebanon; and they saw
+at once that it was for the interest of England that the Druzes
+should be encouraged to become Protestants. They therefore held
+consultations with the Druze sheiks, and the results were
+communicated to the British government. As a natural consequence,
+the Druze sheiks expected support from England, and some at least of
+the British officers were in favor of such support, should the
+Druzes put themselves under the instruction of the American
+missionaries. It is certain, at any rate, that the Druze sheiks
+confidently expected this. With such expectations, they made a
+definite agreement with the mission, that a school for the sons of
+the ruling class should be established at Deir el-Kamr, and other
+schools as fast as practicable in their villages, and that the
+missionaries should be welcomed as religious teachers among all
+their people.
+
+A school was at once opened at Deir el-Kamr by Messrs. Wolcott and
+Van Dyck, and Mr. Thomson removed to 'Ain Anab to superintend the
+schools for the common people, of which there were three opened in
+the vicinity. Mr. Smith, on arriving at Beirut, was so much
+interested that he did not stop to open his house, but went up at
+once to Deir el-Kamr.
+
+In this same month, the Rev. Mr. Gobat, a German in the service of
+the Church Missionary Society, arrived from Malta. He had long been
+known as a missionary in Egypt and Abyssinia, and was a personal
+friend of the older members of the mission. His object was to see if
+he could make arrangements by which evangelical missionaries of the
+English Church could advantageously share in the labors for
+converting the Druzes.
+
+In September, despatches arrived from Lord Palmerston, which were
+reported to contain an order for taking the Druzes under British
+protection; and with them came from England the Rev. Mr.
+Nicholayson,--originally a Baptist, and at this time an Episcopalian
+and zealous high-churchman--with instructions, it was said, to
+assist in carrying out that arrangement. He did not agree with Mr.
+Gobat in respect to the treatment due to the American missionaries;
+and when the Druzes inquired of him what support they might expect
+from England, the answers they received led them to the conclusion,
+that England would not protect them unless they renounced the
+American missionaries, and put themselves under the exclusive
+instruction of clergymen from the English Church. This they were not
+ready to do. Mr. Gobat retired, in a spirit of catholicity. Neither
+did Mr. Nicholayson prosecute his mission, being disheartened, it
+may be, by the civil war which shortly arose between the Maronites
+and Druzes. His intervention was unfortunate, and I find it referred
+to, thirty years afterwards, by a venerable member of the mission,
+as a warning against similar intrusions.
+
+The Patriarch now deemed himself strong enough to enter upon his
+project of crushing the Druzes. His power in the mountains being in
+the ascendant, he ordered the Druze sheiks to assemble at Deir
+el-Kamr. They came armed, and, as they approached Deir el-Kamr, were
+required to send away their followers and lay aside their arms. They
+refused. A battle ensued, and the Maronites were defeated. The
+Patriarch then proclaimed a crusade against them, ordered his
+bishops to take arms, and marched his forces towards the Druze
+territory. But the Druzes seized the mountain passes, and defeated
+every attempt to enter. Though greatly inferior in numbers, they
+went desperately to work to exterminate or expel every Maronite from
+their part of the mountains. Not a convent, and scarce a village or
+hamlet belonging to the Maronites, was left standing. They then
+descended and dispersed the main army of the Maronites; and were
+ready to march northward into Kesrawan, and attack the Patriarch in
+his stronghold, but were persuaded by British officers to suspend
+their march. The Turkish army, which might have prevented the
+conflict, now took the field, and separated the combatants.1
+
+1 Tracy's _History_, pp. 417, 440. Report for 1842, pp. 117-124.
+_Missionary Herald_, 1842, pp. 196, 229, 362.
+
+This was very properly regarded as a providential deliverance for
+the mission, which had never been threatened with so formidable an
+opposition as at the beginning of the year. It now entered into a
+correspondence with nearly all the principal Druze sheiks, who felt
+that they had, by their swords, won the right to schools. The
+prospects were at that time very hopeful. The country never seemed
+more open to evangelical labors. For a year there had been no
+opposition to the schools, except two or three among the Druzes. The
+press was in operation without censorship, sending forth thousands
+of copies each year, and there was an increasing demand for books.
+The mission bookstore, in the centre of the town, was visited by all
+classes, including very many high officers of government, and even
+by the Seraskier himself, and there was no complaint against it. No
+one had been persecuted for a long time for professing the religion
+of the Bible, and Protestantism seemed to have gained a tacit
+toleration.
+
+In reply to the objection, that the mission had been long
+established, and yet the conversions had been very few, Mr. Smith
+wrote thus: "I ask, what labor? Has it, after all, been so
+disproportioned to the results? The instrumentality highest on the
+scale of efficiency for the conversion of souls in every country, is
+oral instruction, especially formal preaching. Now how much of this
+has there been in Syria? Before Mr. Bird could engage in it, Mr.
+Fisk was called away by death. I had hardly been preaching in Arabic
+a year, when Mr. Bird left for America. Mr. Thomson had but just
+preached his first sermon when my family was broken up, and I became
+a wanderer. Since then, we have both been here together but a few
+months at a time, until the last year. And these are all the Arabic
+preachers we have had at our station. In the mean time we have all
+been away, once for nearly two years at Malta, and again for a while
+at Cyprus. And when here, so many other cares have we had, that a
+single sermon on the Sabbath has been, for most of the time, all the
+formal preaching that has been done. Add to this a weekly
+prayermeeting for six or seven months in the year."
+
+Again he says: "The labor of years has been accomplished in gaining
+experience, forming favorable acquaintances, doing away with
+prejudice, disseminating evangelical truth, the successful
+commencement of printing operations, etc. All this labor is in the
+language of a vast nation of Mohammedans, the sacred language of the
+whole sect, the language of their prophet. And when their power
+falls, it will be so much done towards their conversion. Instead of
+being alarmed and discouraged by the revolutions that are occurring
+around me, I am interested in them as forerunners of that great
+event."
+
+The political changes have generally been very sudden in Syria. In
+April, 1842, Omar Pasha imprisoned the leading Druze sheiks, and
+Albanian soldiers were arriving daily, as if to disarm the Druzes.
+And so it proved. The Turks decided to take the matter into their
+own hands. An army was marched into Lebanon, accompanied by Moslem
+sheiks and teachers, and the whole Druze nation was compelled to
+appear, outwardly at least, as Moslem.1 The motives of the
+government in this were chiefly political, but partly religious.
+They wished to be able to draw recruits from this brave people for
+the army, which could not be done should they become Protestant
+Christians; and also, to retain a strong party in Lebanon, to be
+used, as they afterwards were used, against the large nominally
+Christian majority of its inhabitants. They expected thus to control
+the mountains, and keep down the influence of foreign Christian
+powers.
+
+1 These statements are made on the authority of a document received
+from the mission in the year 1869.
+
+In this manner were the operations for educating and Christianizing
+the Druzes suddenly arrested. In working out their policy, the Turks
+necessarily resorted to measures intended to place the Druzes in
+bitter antagonism to all the native Christians. In the atrocious
+massacre of 1860, which, for the time, threw the Druzes far from all
+Christian sympathy, that unfortunate people were used as tools by
+the Turks to work out their own policy. Events such as these, are
+among the deep mysteries of Providence. Nor is this mystery yet
+solved; though, from facts that will appear in the sequel, we shall
+see enough to authorize the hope of a renewal at some time, of the
+former pleasing relations between the Druzes and Christian
+missionaries.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1842-1846.
+
+
+The mission was strengthened, early in 1842, by the arrival of Dr.
+Henry A. DeForest and wife; and suffered a new bereavement in the
+death of the second Mrs. Smith, but little more than a year after
+her arrival. Some months later, Mr. and Mrs. Sherman retired from
+the field, in consequence of failing health. Messrs, Beadle,
+Wolcott, and Leander Thompson, and Miss Tilden, also returned home
+soon after. Mr. Lanneau rejoined the mission, with his wife, early
+in 1843.
+
+The Foreign Secretary and Dr. Hawes, visited the mission in the
+early part of 1844, and assisted in a meeting of the missionaries,
+which continued several days. Facts and principles were freely
+discussed, and the results were embodied in written reports, drawn
+up by committees appointed for the purpose. There is space for only
+a concise statement of a few of these results.
+
+It was recognized as a fact of fundamental importance, that the
+people within the bounds of the mission were Arabs, whether called
+Greeks, Greek Catholics, Druzes, or Maronites, and that the divers
+religious sects really constituted one race. There were believed to
+be advantages, in the fact, that these sects were intermingled in
+the several villages, since the population was less inclined to
+oppose, and more easily accessible, than where the villages were
+exclusively of one sect. The most hopeful parts of Lebanon were the
+southern districts, inhabited by a people social in their habits,
+owners of the soil, shrewd, inquisitive, industrious, and capable of
+devising and executing with tact and efficiency.
+
+There was much discussion as to the best manner of cultivating the
+field, but all agreed that wherever small companies were ready to
+make a credible profession of piety, they were entitled to be
+recognized as churches, and had a right to such a native ministry as
+could be given them. The reformed churches might combine persons
+from several, and perhaps from all, the various sects; and the
+method of church organization should be such as to throw the
+greatest responsibility on the individual members.
+
+The question was raised, whether the marked disposition in the
+mountain communities to place themselves collectively under the
+instruction of the mission, would justify a lowering of the
+qualifications for church-membership, especially with reference to
+the baptism of children. It was believed that no good would result
+from this; especially, as the people are so bent on regarding
+baptism as a renewing ordinance. To form churches in this way, would
+only be to multiply communities of merely nominal Christians.
+
+The brethren admitted, that their labors had been too little
+adapted, hitherto, to awaken religious feeling among the people. The
+reasons assigned for this were, the absorbing demands of the press
+and of education; the habits of preaching and laboring formed under
+past unfavorable states of the field; and finally, a painful
+impression of the suffering that converts must endure, with no civil
+power to interpose between them and their persecutors.
+
+To counteract the first of these causes, it was decided to suspend
+the printing for a year; and the seminary was revived, which had
+been suspended in 1842, to counteract the second. The remedy for the
+last two, was a more perfect reliance on the Holy Spirit and the
+divine energy of the Gospel. It was the general opinion, that
+education in all its parts should bear a fixed proportion to the
+frequency, spirituality, and power of the more formal preaching. Nor
+was it less clear, that the press should be kept strictly
+subservient to the pulpit.
+
+The most remarkable call for preaching, at this time, was at
+Hasbeiya, a village of four or five thousand inhabitants, situated
+at the foot of Mount Hermon.1 Druzes and members of the Greek Church
+made up the population, with some Greek Catholics, Moslems, and
+Jews. The village lay about fifty miles southeast of Beirut,
+bordering on the country of the Bedawin, with whom was its principal
+trade. As the result of this, the people had much personal
+independence, with a tendency to segregation; features which Mr.
+Smith noticed as specially predominant among other native Christians
+similarly situated, especially in the Hauran.
+
+1 The _New York Observer_, from July 18th to August 29th, 1846, has
+an instructive series of articles on Hasbeiya, from the pen of Dr.
+Eli Smith.
+
+Early in the year 1844, a considerable body of the Hasbeiyans
+seceded from the Greek Church, declared themselves Protestants, and
+made a formal application to the mission for religious instruction.
+About fifty men came at one time to Beirut for that purpose, and
+asked for ministers to teach them. Their dissatisfaction with their
+Church was not of recent date, but had been increasing for years. It
+had arisen from the selfishness and worldliness of their clergy, and
+their consequent neglect of the flock. These men had some
+acquaintance with the mission, Hasbeiya having been visited by more
+than one of the native book agents. It was evident, however, that
+concern for the salvation of the soul was not the cause of their
+coming. What they sought had reference solely to the present life.
+Appropriate instruction was given, and they were advised to go home,
+pay their taxes (which they had not done), and do what they could to
+live in peace with their townsmen, and then to write to the mission.
+A letter was received after a few days, stating that they had done
+as they were advised, and urging the visit of a missionary. In this
+request they were earnestly seconded by the two brethren from the
+United States, who arrived at Beirut, just before the letter came.
+The mission sent two of their native helpers; but these had not left
+Beirut before a second delegation arrived, more urgent than the
+first. The native helpers were followed in May by Messrs. Smith and
+Whiting, who soon saw that they had been too backward to credit the
+sincerity of these men. The hope of political advantage had been
+abandoned, but their decision and their numbers had steadily
+increased. The men were about one hundred and fifty, and among them
+were some of the most respectable inhabitants, and a large
+proportion of enterprising men. Their love of peace, as well as
+their decision, had secured for them general respect. Some had made
+considerable progress in Christian knowledge, and the neighbors
+acknowledged that the profane among them had left off swearing, and
+the drunkard had abandoned his cups. The Sabbath, moreover, was
+carefully observed; the old church fasts were given up; prayers to
+saints and to the virgin had ceased; pictures for adoration had
+disappeared from their houses; and it was remarkable that in these
+changes the women were more zealous than the men. Still their
+knowledge in all cases was very imperfect, and it was uncertain how
+well they would endure persecution. Nearly all the members of the
+mission were there at different times; as also Tannus el Haddad, and
+Butrus el-Bistany, of the native helpers.
+
+Meanwhile the spirit of persecution was rising. The Greek Patriarch
+at Damascus became alarmed, and tidings were received that a company
+of horsemen was coming from Zahleh, a large nominally Christian town
+at the eastern foot of Lebanon, to force a recantation from the
+Protestants of Hasbeiya. Mr. Smith and Butrus were there at the
+time. The stony-ground hearers had fallen off; yet fifty adults were
+present at the preaching, and gave close attention. Of women a
+larger number than usual were present, and seemed to be waking up to
+the idea, that religion was a thing for them. From twelve to fifteen
+women attended a daily afternoon prayermeeting. It was affecting to
+think how lately these were blind devotees of the virgin and the
+saints, and profaning the name of God a hundred times a day. "Going
+to the afternoon service," says Mr. Smith, "where Butrus addressed
+the people, I found the children of the congregation assembled in
+the court, and engaged in repeating the Assembly's Catechism. Their
+order was perfect, their attention solemn, and their answers
+generally given with correctness, while the teacher showed his own
+improvement by the explanations he gave them. Their parents and
+friends stood around, and listened with evident gratification, while
+curiosity had drawn the members of a neighboring Greek family to
+their windows, and they too were quietly looking on. To appreciate
+its interest you must have been present, and heard the shouts rising
+at the same time from an opposite quarter, where the boys of the
+town were assembled in belligerent array, and making a mimic (or
+rather real) war, by throwing stones at each other, to see which
+would gain the victory. The little company before me, when I first
+came to the place, scarcely two months ago, were as fully carried
+away as any of them with these wild sports, and even parental
+authority could not, for a Sabbath or two, bring them to break off
+for an hour to learn the word of God. Now, what a change! It was as
+if the devil had been cast out of them, and they were sitting in
+their right minds. Such are missionary triumphs, and the joy that
+springs from them is what the world can neither give nor take away."
+
+Some members of the community not being satisfied with the
+strictness of the mission in regard to baptism and the Lord's
+Supper, the two brethren went into a thorough explanation of the
+subject. This led to a long and earnest conversation. The next day,
+July 4, the people gave in their reply; which was, that they would
+yield entirely to the judgment of the missionaries, who might admit
+them to the rites of the church when they thought them qualified.
+
+On Sabbath, July 14, it being certain that the people of Zahleh were
+coming, the Protestants assembled in the house of the missionary, to
+enter into a solemn covenant to stand by each other to the last.
+After the service, they drew up an engagement in the following
+terms: "We, whose names are hereto subscribed, do covenant together
+before God and this assembly, and pledge ourselves upon the holy
+Gospel, that we will remain leagued together in one faith; that we
+will not forsake this faith, nor shall any separate us from each
+other while we are in this world; and that we will be of one hand
+and one heart in the worship of God, according to the doctrines of
+the Gospel. In God is our help." The covenant was taken by them
+separately, each one standing by the table, and laying his hand upon
+the Bible as it was read to him. Sixty-eight names were subscribed
+on the spot; and the number was increased next day to seventy-six,
+all of them adult males.
+
+"The affecting solemnity of this scene," writes Mr. Smith, "I leave
+you to imagine. I have been many years a missionary, and have
+witnessed a great variety of heart-thrilling events, but this is one
+of the last that I shall ever forget. Would that that chamber, as
+then crowded with those hardy mountaineers, in the interesting
+attitude of that moment, could have been thrown upon the painter's
+canvas! At some future day, when the Gospel shall have triumphed
+here, it would be cherished and admired as the first declaration of
+independence against ecclesiastical tyranny and traditionary
+superstition."
+
+About thirty horsemen arrived the next day from Zahleh, to quarter
+themselves on the Protestant families until they yielded, or were
+impoverished; but the people, foreseeing their intentions, had
+closed their houses, and assembled elsewhere. The storm seemed now
+ready to burst upon them. At this moment two Druzes, one the leading
+feudal sheik of the province, the other a man of unequaled personal
+bravery, made their way through the excited crowd; seated themselves
+by the side of the Emir; protested in the strongest language against
+the treatment the Protestants were receiving from their townsmen;
+warned all against treating them as men who had no friends to take
+their part; and called upon the Emir to stand forth in their
+defense, promising to support him if he did. This decided
+interference checked a little the progress of events.
+
+The people of Zahleh had been accompanied by a number of Greek
+priests, and in prosecuting their object employed entreaties,
+threats, bribes, reproaches, and actual violence. They were
+countenanced by the Emir, and backed up by a "Young Men's Party,"
+which had grown into an organization under the political excitement
+of the times. They returned home in consequence of an order obtained
+from the Pasha of Damascus, but not until they had drawn away
+perhaps twenty, old and young, some of whom soon after returned to
+the instructions of Mr. Thomson and Tannus, who had taken the place
+of Mr. Smith and Butrus. While they were absent on the mountain to
+recover from illness, the result of confinement, anxiety, and a
+suffocating sirocco, the "Young Men" rose in arms, against the
+Protestant brethren. They virtually took the government of the place
+into their own hands, and the Protestant men fled to escape their
+murderous violence. Returning to Hasbeiya, Mr. Thomson found only
+the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters of those who had fled;
+some of them so poor as not to know how or where they could find
+their daily bread, yet apparently without fear. He overtook the
+fugitive people the next day, who were half perishing with hunger.
+Abeih was their place of refuge; and there they remained till
+October, zealously attending upon religious instruction.
+
+In that month, one of the two Druze skeiks [sic] arrived, who had
+interposed on their behalf on the fifteenth of July, bringing with
+him a document from the Pasha of Damascus, procured, it was said, by
+Mr. Wood, English Consul there, directing their return and
+guaranteeing their entire security. The guaranty proved to be
+illusive, though probably not intended to be so. Strong, unfriendly
+influences were subsequently brought to bear on the Pasha.1 They
+were accompanied by Butrus, and it was intended that one of the
+missionaries should soon follow. The party reached Hasbeiya on the
+fourteenth of October, and found those who had remained there in
+great fear. The Patriarch having arrived the same day, to inflame
+the passions of their enemies, intimidate the governor, and weaken
+the hands of the Druze sheiks. Butrus wrote, advising that no
+missionary come there until the Patriarch was gone, and things had
+become more quiet. He was succeeded by Tannus, in October, and he,
+in the following month, by Elias el-Fuaz. The friendly governor was
+at length set aside for one more in sympathy with their persecutors.
+On the two following Sabbaths, the Bible-men were stoned in the
+streets, and Elias el-Fuaz was seriously wounded; while the governor
+made only a sham resistance, that emboldened the evil-doers, as he
+intended it should, till the native preacher was driven from the
+place, and some of the Protestants fled to Lebanon. Others, wearied
+with persecutions to which they could see no end, complied so far
+with the demands of the Patriarch, as to visit the Greek church,
+though they took no part in the services, and openly spoke against
+its idolatries. This very partial compliance relieved them from
+persecution, but inwardly set them more firmly against an
+organization that resorted to such measures to retain them.
+
+1 Not only the influence of the Patriarch of Damascus, but also of
+the Russian Consul-general of Syria, who wrote to the Pasha as
+follows, on learning that Mr. Wood had privately secured permission
+for the Protestants to return home:--
+
+"However, I may desire to address your Excellency on this subject in
+a friendly manner, I must remind you, that I am serving the
+magnificent Emperor of Russia, and that _we have the right of
+protecting the Greek Church in the Ottoman dominions_. I should
+greatly regret, if I were compelled to change my language and
+protest against every proceeding which may lead to the humiliation
+of the Greek Church at Hasbeiya, and the encouragement of pretended
+Protestants, especially as _the Sublime Porte does not recognize
+among her subjects such a community_."
+
+I give this on the authority of the Rev. J. L. Porter, English
+missionary at Damascus, a man every way competent to give testimony
+in this case.
+
+The station at Jerusalem was suspended in this year, and Mr. Lanneau
+removed to Beirut. Mr. and Mrs. Keyes, in consequence of a failure
+of health, returned to the United States.
+
+The seminary was now revived, not at Beirut, but at Abeih, fifteen
+hundred feet above the sea-level, in a temperate atmosphere, and
+with a magnificent prospect of land and sea. The experience gained
+in the former seminary was of use in reconstructing the new one. Its
+primary object was to train up an efficient native ministry. None
+were to be received to its charity foundation, except such as had
+promising talents and were believed to be truly pious. The education
+was to be essentially Arabic, the clothing, boarding, and lodging
+strictly in the native style, and the students were to be kept as
+far as possible in sympathy with their own people.
+
+A chapel for public worship was fitted up, and here, as also at
+Beirut, there was preaching every Sabbath in the Arabic language,
+with an interesting Sabbath-school between the services. Mr. Calhoun
+having joined the mission, coming from Smyrna, the charge of the new
+seminary was committed to him. The Rev. Thomas Laurie arrived from
+Mosul the same year.
+
+Yakob Agha died in the year 1845. The evidence he gave of piety had
+never been wholly satisfactory, but for the last six years he was a
+communicant in the church. In this time he appeared to be a changed
+man, and his missionary brethren hoped that, with all his failings,
+he was a sincere believer and died in the Lord.
+
+In the spring of this year war broke out afresh between the Druzes
+and Maronites, and Lebanon was again purged by fire. It was in no
+sense a religious war, but a desperate struggle for political
+ascendency. The Maronite clergy in the Druze part of the mountain
+had been rapidly recovering power, and were as rapidly rising in
+their opposition to the mission. The result of this war, as
+aforetime, was the destruction of their villages and their power;
+and the Patriarch sank under the disappointment and died. Moreover
+the party in Hasbeiya, which stoned the Protestants and their
+teachers, were driven out of the place by the Druzes, and great
+numbers of them killed, so that the "Young Men's" party seemed to be
+broken to pieces.1
+
+1 There was a special enmity of the Druzes against the Christians of
+Hasbeiya. The most celebrated sacred place of the Druzes is on the
+top of a hill just above Hasbeiya, called Khulwat el Biyad. In their
+revolt against Ibrahim Pasha in 1838, he was aided by the
+Christians, and when the Druzes were defeated in a battle near this
+place, their sacred place was entered, and several chests of books,
+setting forth their tenets, were scattered through the land. The
+Christians paid dearly for their trespass. The leader of the Hauran
+rebellion became, for a time, the governor of Hasbeiya, and for this
+loss imposed exorbitant indemnities on every one, who had been known
+to take a book. The consequent enmity between the parties doubtless
+had much to do with the events described above.
+
+Abeih, now a missionary station, was inhabited by both Druzes and
+Maronites, and the conflict began there on the 9th of May. Our
+brethren were all along assured by both parties, that neither they
+nor their property would be molested, whichever was victorious. The
+Druzes early had the advantage, and the Maronite part of the village
+was speedily in flames, and more than three hundred and fifty
+Maronites were obliged to take refuge in a strong palace belonging
+to one of the Shehab Emirs. About two hundred more, and among them
+several of the most obnoxious, found an asylum in the houses of the
+missionaries, and in the house of a native helper of the mission,
+which, being in the centre of the Maronite quarter, was crowded with
+refugees. Mr. Thomson ventured out in the midst of the tumult, and
+succeeded in getting a guard of Druzes and Greeks whom he could
+trust, placed around this house, and thus the people with their
+goods were secured. The palace was in danger of being taken by
+storm, and the people within it all massacred; when the leaders of
+the Druzes, to avoid this, requested Mr. Thomson to carry a flag of
+truce, with offers of safety and permission to retire whenever they
+might choose. This was done at some risk, as the battle was still
+raging. After the surrender, Dr. Van Dyck dressed the wounded
+Maronites in the palace, and brought several of them to his own
+house. He also performed like services for the wounded Druzes. This
+he did not without peril to himself; for, returning alone from the
+neighboring village, where he had gone on this professional errand,
+a Druze warrior mistook him for a Maronite, and was so enraged that
+one in an Arab dress and with an Arab tongue should pretend to be an
+American, that, but for the providential coming up of one who knew
+the Doctor, he would have killed him on the spot. Meanwhile Mr.
+Laurie had come safely from Beirut, attended by only two
+janissaries, and passing through hordes of the victorious Druzes.
+Finding, on his arrival, a half-burned corpse of the Italian padre
+lying in the street, he buried it under the pavement of his chapel.
+
+The Maronites being in a starving condition, the missionaries baked
+for them all the flour they had on hand, and sent express by night
+to Beirut for more. Fearing, too, that the Maronites might be
+massacred by the Druzes on their way down to Beirut, notwithstanding
+their Turkish escort, they sent an express to Colonel Rose, the
+English Consul-general, which brought him up immediately with his
+most efficient protection. It should be added, that on the day the
+Maronites left Abeih, a strong proclamation came out from the
+Maronite and Greek Catholic bishops at Beirut to all their people,
+requiring them to protect all the members of the American mission.
+
+The reflections of Mr. Smith on the death of the persecuting
+Patriarch, are just and impressive. "What a lesson," he says, "does
+that event, in such circumstances, teach us! After having martyred
+that faithful witness Asaad Shidiak, caused the Bible often to be
+burned, had missionaries insulted and stoned, and boasted that he
+had at last left no spot open for them to enter the mountains, he
+finds himself stripped of all his power; missionaries established
+permanently in the midst of his flock, and his own favorite bishop
+constrained to give orders for their protection; his people once and
+again ravaged and ruined in wars, which his own measures have
+hastened, if they have not originated; and finally he sinks himself
+under his disappointment and dies. How signally has the blood of the
+martyred Asaad been avenged upon him even in this life."
+
+The war broke up the schools in the mountains; but in the following
+year there were ten schools in charge of the station at Abeih, with
+four hundred and thirty-six pupils. One hundred and forty-four of
+these were girls, and one hundred and ninety-seven Druzes. Connected
+with the Beirut station, were four schools for boys and girls, and
+one for girls alone. In Suk el-Ghurb, a village four miles from
+Abeih, a Protestant secession from the Greek Church was in progress,
+embracing fourteen families, and religious services were held with
+them every Sabbath. At Bhamdun, the summer residence for the
+brethren of the Beirut station, there were a number of decided
+Protestants, who declared that they found persons to sympathize with
+them wherever they went. Even in Zahleh, the hot-bed of fanaticism,
+there were men who openly argued from the Gospel against the
+prevailing errors. Mr. Smith wrote of a village on Mount Hermon,
+that sixty men were known to be standing ready to follow the example
+of Hasbeiya, as soon as the Protestants in that place had made good
+their position. He also declared the movement in Hasbeiya the
+beginning of what would doubtless have been a great revolution, had
+persecution been delayed.
+
+Mr. Lanneau's health constrained him to retire from the field in
+1846. In the same year, Dr. Van Dyck, having acquired an
+extraordinary facility in the use of the Arabic language, was
+ordained to the work of the Gospel ministry.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+GREECE.
+
+DR. JONAS KING AND THE GREEK HIERARCHY.
+
+1845-1847.
+
+
+The struggle of Dr. Jonas King with the Greek Hierarchy, deserves a
+permanent record. The point at issue between them was, freedom to
+worship God and to preach the Gospel in Greece. The conflict was not
+waged by Dr. King as a Greek citizen, for such he never claimed to
+be, though he was a property-owner in Athens, and married to a Greek
+lady, who retained her nominal connection with the Greek Church.
+
+These facts were helpful to him, as was also his American
+citizenship. A mere citizen of Greece could not have maintained his
+ground after the persecuting hierarchy had overawed the courts of
+justice and the officers of state. His courage resembled that of
+Martin Luther. He was a sturdy Puritan, which no Greek at that time
+could have been; and he had strong resemblances to the great
+Reformer, as will abundantly appear in the sequel. Yet the fact of
+his foreign origin made him to be no more than the forerunner of a
+Grecian Luther. His labors and sufferings only prepared the way for
+a national reformation, which it may be hoped is yet to come.
+
+Early in 1845, a public accusation was made against Dr. King, that
+he had uttered impious language respecting the Virgin Mary. In
+reply, he quoted from Epiphanius, Bishop of Cyprus, one of the
+Fathers of the Eastern Church, who says: "Let the Father, and the
+Son, and the Holy Ghost be worshipped; Mary, let no one worship."
+Such a defense, as the writer anticipated, only increased the
+excitement. The most abusive epithets were heaped upon him. Among
+other things, he was accused of falsifying the testimony of the
+Fathers. He published a "Defense," in a small volume of about two
+hundred pages; embracing a history of the controversy from the
+beginning, and proving his teachings to be, as he affirmed,
+doctrines of the Greek Church. This he did by freely quoting from
+Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Clemens, and others. The book was sent to
+the most prominent men, civil and ecclesiastical, in Greece and
+Turkey, and produced a powerful impression. Several persons of
+distinction confessed that it was true.
+
+It was not to be expected, however, that such a publication would
+escape the condemnation of the more bigoted members of the Greek
+Church. The opposition became furious, with threats of personal
+violence. In August, the "Holy Synod of the kingdom of Greece"
+formally denounced the book and its author. Dr. King was
+characterized as a hypocrite, imposter, deceiver, as impious and
+abominable, and a vessel of Satan; and after a confused and lame
+attempt at an answer, every orthodox Christian was forbidden to read
+it, and required to deliver it to the flames. The writer was
+pronounced "an outlaw, whom no one might salute or greet in the
+street," and all were forbidden to enter his dwelling, or to eat or
+drink with him, on pain of the most severe ecclesiastical penalty.
+The Synod also requested the government to institute a criminal
+prosecution. In view of all this, Dr. King consoles himself with the
+Saviour's words (Luke vi. 22, 23), "Blessed are ye when men shall
+hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and
+shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of
+man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy."
+
+In September, officers of justice entered the house of the
+missionary, and seized all the copies of his book they could find,
+ninety-seven in number. About nine hundred had been previously
+distributed. He was then summoned to appear before one of the judges
+to be examined. I give his own characteristic statement.
+
+"My examination and answers were as follows:--
+
+_Question_. What is your name?
+
+_Answer_. Jonas King.
+
+_Q_. Your country?
+
+_A_. The United States of America.
+
+_Q_. Of what city?
+
+_A_. Hawley, a country town.
+
+_Q_. What is your age?
+
+_A_. Fifty-three.
+
+_Q_. What is your profession?
+
+_A_. I am an evangelist, that is, a preacher of the Word of God.
+
+_Q_. What is your religion?
+
+_A_. What God teaches in His Word; I am a Christian, most orthodox.
+
+_Q_. Did you publish this book, entitled "Jonas King's Defense,
+etc.?"
+
+_A_. I did, and distributed it here and elsewhere. I gave it to all
+the professors in the University, and to others.
+
+"The Judge then read to me my accusation as follows: 'You are
+accused of having in your book reviled the Mother of God, the holy
+images, the liturgy of Chrysostom and Basil, the seven oecumenical
+councils, and the transformation of the bread and wine into the body
+and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the fearful mystery of the
+communion. Have you any defense to make?'
+
+"_A_. Those things in my book with regard to Mary, with regard to
+transubstantiation, and with regard to images, I did not say; but
+the most brilliant luminaries of the Eastern Church, St. Epiphanius,
+St. Chrysostom, the great St. Basil, St. Irenaeus, Clemens, and
+Eusebius Pamphyli, say them.
+
+_Q_. Have you anything to add?
+
+_A_. Nothing.
+
+_Q_. Do you know how to write?
+
+_A_. Enough to write my name.
+
+"I was then directed to subscribe my name to the examination, which
+I did, and went away."
+
+In October, intelligence came of the "excommunication" of the book
+and its author by the "Great Church" at Constantinople. They
+assigned the publicity which the "Defense" had obtained in Turkey as
+the reason for this act; and this was doubtless the reason why the
+synodical accusation was sent extensively to be read in the Greek
+churches of the East.
+
+The case went to trial, and was decided against Dr. King in three
+successive courts, the last of which was the Areopagus, or highest
+court of appeal. This was in April, 1846. In this latter court, he
+was well defended by two Greek lawyers, and permission was granted
+him, at his request, to address the court. But after about twenty
+minutes and repeated interruptions by the President, he was silenced
+altogether; not having the freedom which the Pagan Areopagus of
+ancient times gave to the first missionary to Greece. The effect of
+these decisions was to declare the offenses charged against Dr. King
+to be criminal in law, and to refer the case, for trial as to the
+truth of the charges and the infliction of punishment, to the
+criminal court. If condemned, he must suffer imprisonment. The trial
+was to take place at Syra in July. An inflammatory pamphlet was
+secretly printed by a priest, named Callistratus, for distribution
+at the place of trial among judges, jurors, and the populace. It was
+industriously circulated among the lowest class, with the avowed
+sanction of the high priest of the Cyclades. Dr. King soon
+ascertained that a conspiracy was formed there against his life,
+similar to the one which endangered the life of the great Apostle on
+his last visit to Jerusalem. Three Greek lawyers were engaged for
+his defense at Syra, of whom one was Mr. Stephen Galatti, who had
+been educated by the Board in America, and two of these accompanied
+him in the steamer. At least a thousand people awaited his landing.
+Such was the excitement, that even the lawyers dreaded to go among
+them, and the governor of the island confessed his inability to give
+effectual protection. The king's attorney decided, that he could not
+be legally compelled to submit to a trial on that day. His lawyers
+therefore advised him to return in the steamer to Athens, which he
+did. Learning, soon after his arrival, through his wife, of a
+combination there to take his life, he acquainted Sir Edmund Lyons,
+the British Ambassador, with the fact, and that gentleman kindly
+offered him British protection in case of need.
+
+It would be charitable to suppose, that the government had not
+entered into this prosecution willingly, but were urged on by the
+hierarchy. Certain it is, that the whole subject was allowed to rest
+for nearly a year. But on the 4th of June, 1847, the missionary
+received a citation from the officers of government to appear in
+person for trial before the criminal court at Syra. As a similar
+court was at that moment holding a session in Athens, he could
+regard the motive of the citation as not very different from that
+which led the Jews to demand the transfer of St. Paul's trial from
+Caesarea to Jerusalem. It was subsequently affirmed, that this
+proceeding had been without the knowledge of the Prime Minister and
+the Minister of Justice; and the King's attorney soon after recalled
+the citation. The British Ambassador again proffered his kind
+offices, and there were friends among the Greeks themselves. But the
+great body of the people were hostile, and Dr. King concludes one of
+his letters thus: "I feel that my Lord and Master has called me to
+this combat, and though it seems to be waxing hotter and hotter, so
+long as my Captain and Leader lives, I have nothing to fear." He was
+somewhat cheered by the assurance of a Greek of standing, that his
+book, though the cause of much suffering to the author, had given a
+turn to public opinion.
+
+After this Dr. King ventured out into the city with considerable
+freedom, and conversed with such as he met on the subject of
+religion. Many, even some of the priests, saluted him in the
+streets, though contrary to the commands of the Holy Synod. A member
+of the Synod, who had subscribed the excommunication, on meeting him
+returned his salutation.
+
+There was only a lull in the storm. In July of the same year, a
+series of articles appeared in a leading newspaper of Athens called
+the "Age," designed to excite the prejudices of the Greeks against
+our missionary, and to urge them to put a stop to the scandal of his
+preaching. The last and most extraordinary of these was avowedly
+from Simonides, and was fitted to produce an excitement in the Greek
+community. Its statements were improbable in the highest degree, and
+there could not have been a more affecting proof of the superstition
+and bigotry of the people of Athens, than the general credence given
+to this gross fabrication.
+
+The article was called "The Orgies," and was under the headings of
+"Mystery of Marriage," and "Mystery of Baptism;" and a translation
+of it may be found in the "Missionary Herald" for 1847.1
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_ for 1847, pp. 366-368.
+
+It was subsequently ascertained, that Simonides was materially aided
+by two priests; who were elevated, not long after, one to an
+archdeaconry, the other to an archbishopric, under the "Great
+Church" at Constantinople. What immediately followed, will be
+described by Dr. King himself.
+
+"While reading the article in my family, the Governor of Attica, Mr.
+Soutzos, came in and desired to speak with me alone. He informed me
+that he had come to say to me from the Minister of the Interior,
+that, on the one hand, they wished to give me protection, and that,
+a week before, there was no reason for suspecting any difficulty,
+unless it were from my own conscience; but that they desired me to
+put a stop to the scandal of my preaching. He had also to say to me
+from the Minister of Religion, that I must do so, or the government
+would take some measures against me.
+
+"To this I replied, that I considered it an insult, on the part of
+the Minister of the Interior, to say that I had no reason for fear
+except from my own conscience, as I had reason to fear from the
+threats I had heard from various quarters; that my conscience was
+perfectly clear, inasmuch as I had done nothing but my duty; that as
+to my preaching, I considered myself free to preach the Gospel in my
+own house. 'Yes,' said he, 'but not to admit others of the Greek
+religion.' I replied, that I considered myself as having the same
+right, which is enjoyed by the Roman Catholics, by the English, by
+the King's chaplain, and by the Queen's, to hold my service with
+open doors; that the government did not demand of any person of any
+other rite to close his doors against such as might wish to come,
+and that, should I do this, I might be justly suspected of doing
+something improper; that I had a right to preach in my own house,
+and that the constitution protected me in this right; that I
+intended to preach, and with open doors, and whosoever wished might
+come; that what had appeared in the "Age" with regard to my
+religious service, called the "Orgies," and with regard to
+proselytes, was all false; and that it was folly for the government
+to found an accusation, or take any measures against me, on the
+ground of such abominable falsehoods. But if they chose to prevent
+Greeks from coming to my service, they had the power so to do.
+
+"The governor said that this was the last advice the Minister of
+Religion had to give me, and it would be followed by severe
+measures.
+
+"During the greater part of this conversation, my wife was present,
+and added remarks vindicating my right to do as I pleased in my own
+house, and declaring the accusations, which had appeared in the
+'Age' of the preceding day, to be false."
+
+One of the two Greek lawyers already mentioned, on being consulted
+with regard to an article in the Penal Code, to which the Governor
+had referred, said that it had no reference whatever to the case of
+Dr. King, but only to secret societies. In the evening, the
+missionary observed three soldiers guarding his house, and was told
+that they were placed there for that purpose.
+
+Hearing that the Swedish Minister desired an interview, Dr. King
+called, and was informed that the King had expressed a wish that he
+should "economize" the present difficulty by taking a journey, as in
+protecting him there might be bloodshed; that the people were much
+exasperated, and the Parliament being about to assemble, many sought
+to throw everything into confusion; that they might feel obliged to
+order him away, which they did not wish to do, as then, in order to
+return, he must have a permit, which it might be difficult to
+obtain; whereas, if he went away voluntarily, he could return
+whenever he pleased.
+
+It seemed wise to comply with these suggestions, and Dr. King
+resolved to take the Austrian steamer, then soon to leave the Piraeus
+for Trieste. Sir Edmund Lyons secured for him a passport, and
+assured him that he would take special care of his family during his
+absence. At the Piraeus he was most hospitably entertained by Mr. and
+Mrs. Buel, of the American Baptist Mission in that place. He arrived
+at Geneva on the 25th of August, where he met with Christian
+sympathy and a hearty welcome.
+
+Simonides subsequently published other articles in the same
+newspaper, entitled "The Mysteries of Jonas King," and "Teaching of
+Jonas King against the honorable and life-giving Cross;" and still
+another, entitled "He is sent away;" all designed, and some of them
+well adapted, to exasperate the multitude. An extract from the last
+may find a place in this history.
+
+"The false apostle, Jonas King, is out of the Greek commonwealth.
+His nation-corrupting and Satanic congregation of strange doctrine,
+already bearing date of fifteen years, has now been destroyed. The
+terrible progress of the great common scandal of religious strange
+doctrine, has been smitten on the head. In giving this important
+news we congratulate Greece, being persuaded that every other
+important question of the day holds, in respect to this, a second
+place. It concerned religious sentiments, from which flows the Greek
+existence, the national personality; and the corruption of these
+religious sentiments, or even the simple disturbance of them,
+effected especially in the female race, would overturn from the
+foundation everything which holds together the strong links of
+Grecian nationality and liberty.
+
+"Of all the foreign holy apostles, of various religions and various
+heresies, unhappily for Greece, heaped together from every quarter,
+no one became more to be feared, and more destructive, than the
+imposter and deceiver, Jonas King. A man of much speech, of powerful
+sophistry, of infinite subtlety, of hypocrisy incarnate, uniting in
+himself, also, boldness and great pecuniary means, he was able to
+proceed to such lengths, profiting for many years from the double
+indifference of the political and ecclesiastical authorities, as to
+proclaim publicly, that the act of the holy Synod against him of the
+5th of August (19th, N. S.), was unjust and false."
+
+There can be no doubt that a withdrawal from Greece, just at that
+time, was the only judicious course to be pursued; and perhaps the
+proceedings of the government, in view of the uncontrollable
+excitement of the people, were all that could have been reasonably
+expected. For a week after the departure of Dr. King, a guard of ten
+or twelve soldiers was kept at his house, to protect it from the
+mob.
+
+Subsequently, the government went into a protracted examination of
+the case, for which no satisfactory reason has been assigned. It had
+the effect to delay the return of Dr. King, and it may have been
+designed for that end. And perhaps they hoped, by eliciting the
+truth, to allay public excitement.
+
+Dr. King proceeded to Malta in November, that he might be nearer
+Athens, and Mrs. King joined him there in February. About that time,
+by advice of his counsel, he petitioned the Greek government to
+bring the examination to a speedy close. While in Malta, he printed
+his "Farewell Letter"1 in French and Italian, and the edition was
+distributed in Malta, Sicily, Rome, Tuscany, and other places. An
+edition of two thousand copies is said to have been printed in
+Sicily in 1849, of which nine hundred copies were distributed in one
+night, and seven hundred in another, apparently with good effect.
+
+1 This letter is mentioned repeatedly in the second, third, and
+seventh chapters. The reader, who is curious to see precisely what
+it was, will find the translation of a large portion of it in the
+_Missionary Herald_ for 1828, pp. 141-145.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+DR. JONAS KING AND THE GREEK HIERARCHY.
+
+1847-1869.
+
+
+Impatient of longer delay, Dr. King boldly resolved upon returning
+to Athens, and he arrived there on the 20th of June, 1848. He
+assigns his reason for this in a letter to his Secretary: "I thought
+it best," he writes, "to wait no longer, but to throw myself
+suddenly into the midst of the people, and take whatever might come.
+No one ever took a castle by remaining quietly outside. He may lose
+his life, and he may take the castle. At any rate, here I am. I
+believed it my duty to come, and to come now, and I returned with my
+mind perfectly tranquil. I know that a sparrow shall not fall to the
+ground without my Father, and that the very hairs of my head are all
+numbered."
+
+The newspapers were silent. The editor of the "Age," who printed the
+"Orgies," gave him his hand, and welcomed him back to Greece.
+Simonides tried to revive the excitement, but did not succeed.
+Calling on most of the King's Ministers, as a matter of civility, he
+was generally received with cordiality.
+
+It was not thought prudent, however, to resume his preaching at
+once, but his book depository was opened, and Bibles, Testaments,
+and other religious books were again in demand. Within six months
+after his return, he printed over five hundred thousand pages of
+religious books; and the opening of the year 1849 found him
+preaching publicly on the Sabbath, with a Scripture exposition
+Thursday evening, and several young men much impressed by these
+ministrations. The disturbed political condition of Europe at that
+time, had a tendency, no doubt, to divert the public attention. One
+fact deserves mention. Just as a new paper was about to be published
+at Athens, with the special design of holding up Protestant missions
+to popular indignation, a British fleet appeared in the offing, and
+public attention was diverted from the undertaking. In August,
+several students from the University attended the Sabbath and
+Thursday evening services, and called at other times for
+conversation, and two Greeks of hopeful piety were accustomed to
+take part in reading the Scriptures and extempore prayer at a
+Sabbath evening prayermeeting. The devoted missionary felt himself
+called on to work while the day lasted.
+
+It is worthy of note that Simonides, whose inflammatory writings had
+led to the withdrawal of our missionary brother from Athens,
+pretended about this time to have discovered certain Greek
+manuscripts of Homer, Hesiod, etc., which he claimed to be more
+ancient than any others, and some men of learning thought them to be
+genuine; but when they were discovered to be forgeries, the people
+regarded him as a deceiver and liar.
+
+Nearly three years elapsed after Dr. King's return to Athens, and he
+began to be more encouraged in his work. He speaks of a call from an
+abbot of a convent, who embraced him as a brother on leaving, and
+whom he regarded as indeed a brother in the Lord. But early in the
+spring of 1851, indications of public uneasiness began again to
+appear. The Synod represented to the Minister of Ecclesiastical
+Affairs "the scandalous attacks of the American, King, on the Holy
+and Orthodox Church," and demanded prompt redress according to law.
+
+The first outbreak of the popular feeling was in Dr. King's own
+house, on the 23d of March, by evil-minded persons assembled at the
+usual preaching service on the Sabbath. Entering the room, he found
+it crowded with more than one hundred persons. The strictest
+attention was given to the sermon, but a student of theology in the
+University began to put questions immediately after the benediction,
+and a tumult soon arose. The audience was composed of friends and
+foes, the former endeavoring to prevent a disturbance, while the
+latter reviled them. Finding remonstrance unavailing, Dr. King
+unfurled at the door the flag of the United States, which the absent
+Consul had committed to his care, and at the sight of this the crowd
+immediately withdrew.
+
+On the 15th of May, 1851, he was called to appear before a judge to
+answer to the charge of proselyting. The first ten or twelve
+questions and answers were similar to those in the examination six
+years before. The remainder is here reported:--
+
+_Question_. What do you preach?
+
+_Answer_. The Word of God; that is, the Scriptures contained in the
+Old and New Testament, which are recognized by all Christian
+Churches as being the Word of God. This word I hold in my hand, and
+endeavor to draw the attention of those present to what it contains,
+saying, "Thus saith the Lord," and pointing out to them the book,
+chapter, and verse, where what I state is to be found.
+
+_Q_. Have you any other service?
+
+_A_. In the afternoon I have sometimes a service, which consists in
+reading the Word of God, and in prayer and some remarks, the object
+of which is to draw the attention of those present to what Christ
+teaches.
+
+_Q_. Do many attend this service in the afternoon?
+
+_A_. Very few.
+
+_Q_. Do you invite people to come to your preaching, or do they come
+of their own accord?
+
+_A_. In general they come of their own accord. If any ask me if it
+is permitted to them to come, I always tell them that my house is
+open, and any one who wishes is free to come. When I first commenced
+this service, in the time of Capodistria, I invited his particular
+friend, old Mr. Konstantas, and others.
+
+_Q_. Our questions relate principally to the last two years.
+
+_A_. During that time, and since the great opposition to my
+preaching commenced, I have been particularly careful, in general,
+to avoid inviting people.
+
+_Q_. You are accused of having, this year and the last, expressed
+things to the offense of others, and of having expressed principles,
+sentiments, and opinions, which attack in general the foundations of
+religion, and are otherwise injurious. Have you anything to say by
+way of defense?
+
+_A_. What religion is meant? If it be that of Mohammed, I may be
+guilty.
+
+_Q_. The religion of the Oriental Orthodox Church?
+
+_A_. I have already said that my preaching consists in teaching what
+is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, that
+is, the Word of God, which all the most distinguished early Fathers
+in the Eastern Church, especially Chrysostom and Athanasius,
+declared to be the only school of godliness, the fountain at which
+all Christians ought to drink; and if the Eastern Church
+acknowledges these sacred Scriptures as the foundations of its
+religion, I cannot be guilty of the charge, for I have said nothing
+against those bases. As to the superstructure, what has at various
+times been built up on these foundations, I have nothing to say at
+this time. That is quite another question, and one which the
+accusation does not touch. But against the foundations themselves,
+as already explained, I can have said nothing, because I preach that
+Word, which contains them. And besides, I consider it a sin for any
+one to preach anything of his own, and that it is the duty of every
+one to preach only what is contained in the Word of God."
+
+The judge then said, "The examination is ended."1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1851, p. 268.
+
+Dr. King, sometime before, had prepared an "Exposition of an
+Apostolical Church," founded entirely on the Word of God, which was
+printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This was extensively
+distributed, and was denounced by the Greek hierarchy in
+Constantinople, Smyrna, and Thessalonica. In September, the Council
+of Judges in the criminal court of Athens, a sort of grand jury,
+presented him for trial in that court upon the allegations, that for
+two years he had "preached within his house in this place publicly,
+in the exposition of the sacred Scriptures, that baptism is no other
+than a simple symbol, and consequently it is indifferent whether men
+are sprinkled or immersed; that those who eat a little bread, and
+drink a little wine, are foolish in thinking that they will be saved
+by this communion; that the most holy mother of God is not ever
+virgin; that those who worship her, as also the other divine images,
+are idolaters; that he does not accept the sacred Councils, and the
+things ordained by them in religion, and handed down by tradition to
+the orthodox Christians in later times; that the fathers and the
+saints of the orthodox Oriental Church of Christ were deceivers, and
+as a consequence of this, they brought in divers heresies; that holy
+baptism is no other than an external sign for Christians;" etc.
+
+There were successive appeals, as in the former case, up to the
+Areopagus; but with similar results, except that the highest court
+decided that the penal law did not apply to one half of the
+allegations. It was hoped that the matter would end here, but a
+trial was ordered for the 5th of March, 1852.
+
+Great pains were taken, by the evil-disposed, to excite a tumult
+when Dr. King was brought before the court; and the head of police,
+while giving assurance of protection, advised him to go to the
+court-house in a carriage. This he declined. After a prayer with his
+family, he took his little son by the hand, and, in company with an
+American friend, walked first to the house of Mr. Pellicas, one of
+his lawyers. There he was told, that the King's attorney, in view of
+the excitement among the people, desired him to wait till he could
+enter the court with some hope of safety. But Dr. King did not wish
+a postponement on account of the excitement, of which there would
+always be more or less, and so they set out again on foot for the
+court-room. It was with difficulty they pressed through the crowd,
+in which the peculiar hats of many priests were to be seen on all
+sides. Our missionary declares, that he felt very happy, though not
+indifferent to his position, in the full belief, that the result
+would be good.
+
+The charge of reviling the dogmas of the Eastern Church, which was
+now their only dependence, was not proved. So the King's attorney
+had recourse to the "Exposition of an Apostolical Church," printed
+in the United States, to the "Defense," printed in 1845, and to the
+"Farewell Letter," printed twenty-seven years before, which formed
+no part of the indictments, on the assumption that he must have
+preached the sentiments they contained. But even so, his preaching
+would be no more a reviling of the dogmas of the Greek Church, than
+any other exposition of the doctrines held by the millions of
+Protestants in Europe and America. His lawyers made an able defense,
+though embarrassed by the evident bias of the President of the
+court. After a trial of six hours, Dr. King was adjudged to be
+guilty, and was condemned to fifteen days' imprisonment, to pay the
+costs of court, and then to be banished from the Kingdom of Greece.
+
+The court-house was soon cleared by the soldiers, but such a crowd
+awaited Dr. King without, that the military officer in charge
+proposed to call a carriage, and the King's attorney consented to
+his returning to his own house for the night, rather than going
+immediately to prison. He went out through a back door, and the
+officer ordered two or three soldiers to mount the carriage before
+and behind. Just as they entered the carriage, a rush was made by
+the crowd, but the soldiers drove them back with their bayonets.
+
+He had been arraigned for violating the seventeenth and eighteenth
+articles of the Penal Code; yet the attorney failed to prove the
+"reviling," contemplated in the seventeenth article, and the
+Areopagus had decided that the eighteenth did not apply to the case.
+So that Dr. King was adjudged to be deserving of imprisonment and
+banishment, simply for preaching the Gospel in his own house, as
+held by all evangelical Christians. Yet the government claimed to be
+tolerant of all religions.
+
+On the 9th of March, Dr. King entered the prison of Athens, where
+were one hundred and twenty-five prisoners, occupying eleven small
+rooms, eight of which were ten or eleven feet square, with from
+eight to twelve prisoners in each, the other three being larger.
+
+"My heart is not sorrowful," he writes on the same day, "but full of
+joy. I consider this as one of the brightest days of my life. With
+my whole heart I thank the Lord Jesus Christ, that I am counted
+worthy to suffer shame for his name, and for the truths which he has
+taught. The morning before I came to the prison, I read with great
+interest, yea, I may say with tears of joy, Hebrews xi., xii., and
+xiii.; and I felt constrained to render to the Most High ascriptions
+of praise for mercies, rather than to seek freedom from trials. My
+principal petition to God, during all these days of excitement and
+triumph of the enemy, has been, that the name of the Lord may be
+glorified in me, and that the cause of truth may finally prevail."
+
+On the 10th, having appealed to the Areopagus, he was removed to the
+police office, where he was treated kindly, and his friends had
+liberty to call upon him freely. Three days later, becoming ill of a
+fever, he was removed to his own house, where he remained, under a
+guard provided for the purpose, till the decision of the Areopagus
+was announced on the 25th. The sentence of the Criminal Court was
+confirmed.
+
+By the more intelligent in the community, whether native or foreign,
+and by several of the ablest journals, the proceedings of the court
+were strongly condemned. Twelve Greek lawyers, several of whom had
+held the highest offices in Greece and were among the most
+distinguished of their profession, signed their names to a letter,
+declaring their entire dissent from its proceedings.1
+
+1 See _Annual Report_ for 1852, p. 55, and _Missionary Herald_ for
+1852, p. 239.
+
+Execution of the sentence of banishment was delayed by a protest
+from Dr. King, in the name of the United States Government,
+indicating his intention to appeal to that government. The time had
+now fully come for extending to him the protection due to
+missionaries in their just rights and privileges. There can be no
+doubt, that missionaries have equal claims to protection with their
+fellow-citizens, in the lawful pursuit of their profession as
+preachers of the Gospel.1 In 1842, Daniel Webster, being then
+Secretary of State, instructed Commodore Porter, Minister Resident
+at Constantinople, "to omit no occasion, where his interference in
+behalf of American missionaries might become necessary or useful,
+and to extend to them the proper succor and attentions of which they
+might stand in need, in the same manner that he would to other
+citizens of the United States, who as merchants should visit or
+reside in Turkey."2 Happily Mr. Webster was again in the same high
+office. Twenty-nine years before, while the Greeks were fighting for
+their independence, he had eloquently pleaded their cause in the
+House of Representatives of the United States, and procured their
+recognition as a nation by our government. An appeal now came to him
+from an American citizen of the highest respectability, suffering
+oppression by that very nation which he had so befriended. There
+being no diplomatic agent of the United States in Greece, the Hon.
+George P. Marsh, the learned and able Minister Resident at
+Constantinople, was instructed to proceed to Athens in one of the
+ships of war, and inquire into the case, with one or more of the
+national vessels in that neighborhood subject to his order. Having a
+competent knowledge of the Greek language, Mr. Marsh entered upon
+his delicate mission in August, 1852, and prosecuted it till the
+arrival of his successor in the Constantinople embassy, late in
+1853. During this time, Mr. Webster died, and was succeeded by
+Edward Everett; and he again by Mr. Marcy, on the accession of
+President Pierce. Mr. Webster's letter of instruction, dated April
+29, 1852, states the case clearly, as it does also the rights of
+missionaries. Mr. Everett's letter, dated February 5, 1853, gives
+the opinion of President Fillmore, based on Mr. Marsh's report of
+the case. "Although the forms of the law may in general have been
+observed," Mr. Everett writes, "it is quite plain, that Dr. King was
+not tried for any offense clearly defined by the law of Greece; that
+his trial was in many respects unfairly and illegally conducted;
+that the constitution and laws of Greece guarantee a full toleration
+of all religious opinions; and that there is no proof that Dr. King
+has exceeded the just limits of the liberty of speech implied in
+such toleration." "Either the sound and safe maxims of criminal
+jurisprudence," he adds, "which prevail in this country, are unknown
+to the jurisprudence of Greece, or her tribunals were presided over
+by persons who entertained very false notions of the judicial
+character, or there are prejudices against Dr. King, which, in this
+case at least, corrupted the fountains of justice. It may have been
+in part produced by all three, and there is reason to suppose that
+such is the case. This state of things unavoidably destroys all
+confidence in the Greek courts, as far as Dr. King is concerned, and
+compels the President to regard their decision in this case as
+unjust and oppressive."3 He repeats the declaration of Mr. Webster,
+that missionaries are entitled to all the protection, which the Law
+of Nations allows to be extended to citizens who reside in foreign
+countries in the pursuit of their lawful business. Mr. Marsh was to
+communicate to the government of Greece the decided opinion of the
+President, "that Dr. King did not have a fair trial, and that
+consequently the sentence of banishment ought immediately to be
+revoked."
+
+1 See _Proceedings at the Annual Meeting of the Board_ in 1841, pp.
+36-39.
+
+2 See _Memorial Volume of the First Fifty Years of the A. B. C. F.
+M._, p. 201.
+
+3 _Congressional Documents_, No. 9, Senate, 1854, p. 6.
+
+The piece of ground in Athens purchased by Dr. King in 1829, was at
+that time little prized by Turks or Greeks. But after the capital
+became permanently fixed there, the land had become a most desirable
+part of the city, as it commanded an unobstructed view of many of
+the finest ancient monuments and interesting localities of Athens.
+For this reason it was early selected by the government as the site
+of a national church. The law required the value of all land thus
+taken, to be paid for before it was put to use. Years passed, and
+the government neither made use of it, nor allowed the owner to
+build upon it, and yet refused all compensation. This act of gross
+injustice--so gross that it even subjected the government to the
+suspicion of sinister aims in the prosecution of Dr. King,1--was
+one of the points referred to the President of the United States,
+and he declared his conviction, that compensation ought immediately
+to be made by the government of Greece.
+
+1 _Senate Documents_, p, 184.
+
+After some delay, this was done, but I know not to what extent. Mr.
+Paicos, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, objected, on purely
+technical grounds, to reversing the judgment founded on the charge
+of reviling the dogmas of the Greek Church; and as Dr. King very
+properly refused to receive a pardon, that judgment remained in
+force. It was never revived, however, and Mr. Pellicas, one of the
+counsel for the defense, having become Minister of Justice, a royal
+order was issued, revoking the sentence of banishment.
+
+"Dr. King and his creed," writes Mr. Marsh to the Secretary of
+State, "have served as a convenient scape-goat, to bear maledictions
+intended for other teachers and other doctrines, as well as for
+himself and his faith; or perhaps as an experiment, to test how far
+the Greek government would sustain, or foreign powers permit, the
+encroachments of an intolerant priesthood upon the guarantees of the
+independence of Greece, and the solemn sanction of the constitution
+and laws."
+
+A manifest change now took place in the popular sentiment towards
+the persecuted missionary. Many who had been bitterly opposed,
+became cordial. The preaching service had forty or fifty hearers,
+who were generally attentive. The "Exposition of an Apostolical
+Church" continued to attract notice. Dr. Barth's "Ecclesiastical
+History," translated by Dr. King, was extensively read; and the
+American Bible Society responded to an application for a new grant
+of ten thousand copies of the New Testament for the schools. Near
+the close of 1854, Dr. King placed at the disposal of the Minister
+of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Public Instruction for the use of
+schools, a thousand copies of "Chrysostom on Reading the
+Scriptures," printed with the sanction of the American Tract
+Society. The Minister replied, thanking him for the books, and
+sending him a copy of a circular he had addressed to the teachers
+strongly recommending the reading by the pupils, not only of
+Chrysostom, but of the Scriptures also. Several young men appeared
+truly converted, and a class in theology was formed, made up of two
+young men from Athens and four from Constantinople. These had been
+in the Greek department of the Bebek Seminary, and were sent to
+study with Dr. King in consequence of the death of Mr. Benjamin.
+After a year and a half he still had this class. To aid them he
+wrote a little work in modern Greek, combating the idea, prevalent
+with many, that nothing in the Word of God can be understood, except
+by those who have been enlightened by the study of the Fathers. In
+January, 1857, he finished correcting the fifth volume of the
+American Tract Society's publications in modern Greek. The first
+volume he printed in 1853, the second and third in 1854, the fourth
+in 1855. The five volumes contained more than two thousand five
+hundred pages, and were in an eligible form; but they were found to
+be in advance of the national taste for religious reading.
+
+The old enmity in Greece burst forth, once more, with violence, in
+forgeries and fictions of an extraordinary character. It was then
+regretted by many patrons of the mission, that the veteran
+missionary sustained consular relations to the United States, which
+prevented him from meeting this crisis in the simple character of a
+missionary; and such may have been the feeling of Dr. King himself,
+but he found it difficult to change his relations while the storm
+was raging. The public excitement, however, soon subsided, and he
+went on with his work unmolested.
+
+In September, 1859, Dr. King was most unexpectedly cited to appear
+before the judicial authorities, to answer to charges brought
+against him, two years and a half before, by a Greek named Kephalas.
+After an examination of two hours, the accusation was read to him.
+Its import was not clear; but it implied an apprehension, that he
+was secretly endeavoring to form a Christian Church,--an exclusive
+body, with members, meetings, rules, and occupations, and a religion
+not recognized by the government.
+
+After nearly a year, the Council of Judges decided not to proceed
+then with the proscution, [sic] and it was never resumed. Dr. King
+now printed, at private expense, five volumes of his own writings;
+one in French, and four in modern Greek. Two of the volumes in
+modern Greek are supposed to have been made up of forty-eight of his
+sermons, and one of miscellaneous documents. Among them were his
+Farewell Letter; his Defense; Speech before the Areopagus in 1846;
+Exposition of an Apostolic Church; Religious Rites of an Apostolical
+Church; Canons for the Interpretation of the Scriptures; Orgies of
+Simonides; Answer to the Greek Synod; The Opinion of Twelve Lawyers;
+Letter of the Hon. George P. Marsh to the Greek Government; etc.
+
+In the great work of giving the Word of God to the people of Greece,
+Dr. King fully acknowledges the hearty cooeperation of the Episcopal
+and Baptist missionaries, and of Bible agents both British and
+American.
+
+In the autumn of 1862, King Otho and his queen were constrained to
+fly from Greece. In the midst of the consequent revolution, the head
+of police sent a company of soldiers to protect the house of the
+missionary, but Mrs. King told him they were not afraid, and the
+soldiers went away. The editors of the "Age" and of the "Hope," his
+most bitter persecutors in years past, now fell into deep disgrace,
+and were in peril of their lives. Prince Alfred, of Protestant
+England, was elected king by an almost unanimous vote. Not obtaining
+him, they elected a king from Protestant Denmark. George I. arrived
+in October, 1863, and was received by the people with much joy. The
+form of government is a constitutional monarchy. There are neither
+titles nor privileged classes among the people. The only
+qualification for voting is that of a prescribed age, and all
+citizens are eligible to the offices of the state, who possess the
+required mental qualifications. Unfortunately for Greece, the
+article of the constitution of 1843 is retained, which, while it
+grants toleration, prohibits proselytism from the Established
+Church, which it declares to be a crime punishable by the penal
+code. It will be well for Greece, if this be dropped from the
+constitution in the revision to be made in 1875. In March of the
+year following, twenty-six editors of newspapers at Athens formed a
+society, "to discuss subjects connected with the good of the
+country," and, by a large majority, chose Dr. Kalopothakes, editor
+of the "Star of the East," for their President. In May, the
+venerable missionary was invited by the king to administer the
+Lord's Supper in the palace; which was no more than an act of public
+justice towards one of the oldest, most disinterested, and
+self-sacrificing of the friends of the Greek nation.
+
+Dr. King's health was now much impaired, and required a change; and
+in July, 1864, he left Athens, with Mrs. King, and reached the
+United States in August, where they remained three years. Their
+return to Greece was in the autumn of 1867, and the missionary was
+happy to find some of his former pupils actively engaged in labors
+not very dissimilar to his own. Two were preachers of the Gospel;
+Mr. Kalopothakes, from the New York Union Theological Seminary,
+ordained by a Presbytery; and Mr. Constantine, from Amherst College
+and Andover Seminary, and ordained by a Congregational body. A
+third, Mr. Sakellarius, a printer, studied for a while in the
+Baptist Seminary at Newton, and had charge of the office of the
+"Star." All three had their Bible classes and Sunday-schools. Dr.
+King wisely avoided interfering by a separate service of his own.
+Sometime before his return, a mob, excited by the report that
+"Puritanism" was taught in these schools, nearly forced its way into
+the house of Dr. Kalopothakes; but an officer of the police passed
+at the moment, and arrested some of the ringleaders. The Cretan
+refugees were then there, and about twelve hundred of these were in
+their day and Sabbath-schools.
+
+In April, 1868, a distinguished Professor in the University arranged
+for an interview between Dr. King and the President of the "Holy
+Synod." This man in 1863 signed the accusation against Dr. King, in
+consequence of which, after his return to Greece, he was a third
+time cited before the Criminal Court, though without any result. The
+interview was altogether pleasant, and was a striking illustration
+of the progress of public opinion. "A considerable degree of
+religious liberty has been gained," writes the missionary, "and a
+foundation has been laid, on which, I trust, will one day arise a
+beautiful superstructure."
+
+Dr. King finished his course at Athens on the 22d of May, 1869, in
+the seventy-seventh year of his age.
+
+The characteristics of this remarkable man are everywhere apparent
+in the preceding narrative. He was evidently designed by Providence
+to be a reformer; and though he lived not to witness anything that
+could be called a reformation among the Greek people, the battle he
+fought through so many years with the bigotry and intolerance of the
+Greek hierarchy, will be held in perpetual remembrance. A
+reformation has begun, and Dr. King, more than any other Protestant,
+was the instrument of Providence in bringing it about. To him is it
+owing, preeminently, that the Scriptures, since the year 1831, have
+been so extensively used in the schools, and that, in Greece, "the
+Word of God is not bound." It is not forgotten, that others labored
+with him, and not in vain; but it is mainly to the preaching of Dr.
+King, during his protracted residence in Greece, in connection with
+his persistent and triumphant struggle with the Greek hierarchy,
+that we owe, under God, the visible decline of prejudice against
+evangelical truth and religious liberty.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1841-1848.
+
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, finding a sea voyage necessary for the
+recovery of her health, left Oroomiah July 5, 1841, and arrived at
+New York on the 11th of January, just in time to be present at the
+special meeting of the Board in that city. Their passage from Smyrna
+had been prolonged to one hundred and nine days, and much solicitude
+was felt for their safety. They were accompanied by Mar Yohannan,
+who desired so earnestly to see the new world, that he could not be
+dissuaded from coming. As the early friend and constant helper of
+the mission, and as representing one of the most interesting
+branches of the ancient Church of Christ, he was received by the
+Board and the religious community with Christian affection, and his
+visits to different parts of the country with Mr. Perkins were both
+pleasant and useful.
+
+The number of pupils in the seminary at the close of 1841 was
+forty-six; there were also eighteen in the boarding-school for
+girls, and there were twenty free schools in as many villages, all
+taught by Nestorian priests. The free schools contained four hundred
+and seventy pupils, of whom forty were girls; making the whole
+number in the schools five hundred and sixteen. The press, during
+its first year, sent forth sixteen hundred volumes, and three
+thousand six hundred tracts, containing in all five hundred and ten
+thousand pages. Under the superintendence of Mr. Perkins, Mr. Homan
+Hallock cut and cast a new font of type, modeled on the best Syriac
+manuscripts. This was in the year 1841. Three years later, Mr.
+Breath, the printer at Oroomiah, with the help of a native
+assistant, cut and prepared two sets of type after the most approved
+forms of Syriac calligraphy. The natives pronounced these types
+perfect. The two sets resembled each other, the only difference
+being that in one the stroke was larger and the letter more open.
+Mr. Breath afterwards prepared a third set, of a medium size
+compared with the other two.
+
+While the plain of Oroomiah is perhaps one of the most fertile and
+beautiful in the world, its luxuriant vegetation occasions fevers at
+certain seasons, and ophthalmia is prevalent. To escape fevers, the
+missionaries built dormitories on the tops of their flat-roofed
+houses. This preventive not being found sufficient, a health-station
+was formed in the elevated village of Seir, about six miles from
+Oroomiah, where dwellings were provided for two families, which were
+surrounded by a strong stone wall, to serve as a defense against any
+sudden incursion of the Koords.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Perkins and Mar Yohannan embarked at Boston on their
+return in March, 1843. They were accompanied by the Rev. David T.
+Stoddard and wife, and by Misses Catherine E. Myers and Fidelia
+Fiske, who went to promote the education of their own sex among the
+Nestorians. They reached Oroomiah on the 14th of June, and were
+received by the Nestorians with great manifestations of joy. Mr.
+Perkins, while at home, prepared for the press an octavo volume of
+five hundred pages, entitled "A Residence of Eight Years among the
+Nestorian Christians." It is in the form of a journal, is
+illustrated by a map and plates, and is a history of the mission
+during that time.
+
+The ancient Syriac version of the Scriptures was held in such
+veneration by the people, that there were strong reasons for making
+it the basis of the proposed version in the modern language. The
+case was referred to the Prudential Committee, who decided that the
+only proper course was to translate from the original Hebrew and
+Greek, and the translation was made accordingly.
+
+The female seminary at Oroomiah now came under the efficient
+superintendence of Miss Fiske, and soon assumed a very interesting
+religious character. The whole number under instruction in the two
+seminaries, and in the forty-four village free schools, was eleven
+hundred and forty-two. The call for preaching tasked the capacity of
+the mission. The missionaries were free to preach in the Nestorian
+churches, and generally found attentive congregations, and they were
+aided in the ministry of the word by five intelligent native
+preachers. Dr. Perkins thus speaks of a congregation at Ardishai:
+"The church was crowded to overflowing. It would have been difficult
+for half a dozen more to press themselves into it. Priest Abraham
+read the first chapter of the Epistle of James, which we expounded
+for more than an hour, to the great satisfaction of the people, who
+did not suppress their audible Amen, and ejaculatory comments of
+approbation. Priest Abraham spoke very appropriately and feelingly
+on the subject of temptations, applying it to his hearers, who are
+now so sorely beset by the Jesuits. That crowd of eager listeners
+presented a thrilling spectacle. I could not help thanking God for
+the privilege of addressing them on the things that pertain to their
+everlasting well being."
+
+The efforts of the Jesuits among the Nestorians began in 1838. In
+1842, they pushed their proselyting measures so recklessly among the
+Armenians of Ispahan and Tabriz, as to lead the Persian King, at the
+instance of the Russian Ambassador, to send them out of the kingdom.
+A "permanent order" was at the same time adopted, probably on
+Russian suggestion, growing out of repugnance to the political
+influence of the Jesuits, that no native Christian should be
+proselyted from one Christian sect to another. The French
+government, after some delay, sent an envoy to Persia to effect, if
+possible, the return of the Jesuits; but before his arrival, they
+had covertly made their way to Oroomiah, run another race of
+proselytism among the Nestorians, and been a second time expelled.
+The French agent therefore took cognizance of both expulsions, and
+gave the greater prominence to the more recent one, since it had
+just occurred, and was fresh in mind, and since the Jesuits were
+just then specially intent on adding the Nestorians to their sect.
+His demand, however, that they should have leave to return, was
+refused. He then required the expulsion of the American
+missionaries, as being obnoxious to the same law. The Russian
+Ambassador, whose protection the mission had enjoyed since the
+departure of the English embassy in 1839, denied that it was the
+object of the mission to proselyte in the sense contemplated by the
+law. The French envoy then demanded an investigation, and to this
+the Ambassador and the Persian government readily assented. Two
+Mohammedan meerzas were sent from Tabriz to Oroomiah to make the
+investigation. These fell under the papal influence at Oroomiah, and
+made a report so strongly prejudiced against the mission, that it
+was thought necessary to send a committee to the capital to
+counteract their misrepresentations. Messrs. Perkins and Stocking
+were sent accordingly. Riding rapidly on horseback, many hundred
+miles, over cold regions just as winter was setting in, and sleeping
+on the ground at night without beds, with other similar discomforts,
+seemed to them not the least trial of this undertaking. On their
+arrival at Teheran, the importance of their errand was very obvious.
+They found the report of the meerzas bearing manifest traces of
+Jesuit influence. It made but few tangible charges, yet contained
+many serious and unjust insinuations. They were able to meet it with
+satisfactory explanations, and thus the storm passed by, without
+inflicting the injury which the mission feared. I am not aware that
+the "permanent order" against proselyting ever proved any serious
+embarrassment to the mission. The banishment of the Jesuits had not
+been requested by the Nestorians, nor by the missionaries. The
+Russian Ambassador assumed the whole responsibility, saying that the
+business was his own, that he was authorized to protect the
+Christians in Persia, which could not be done while these papal
+disturbers remained in the country. An attempt by the Jesuits to
+wrest from the Nestorians one of their ancient and favorite
+churches, appears to have been the immediate cause of the decisive
+measures last mentioned. Of course these papal emissaries returned
+again, but with a somewhat diminished arrogance.1
+
+1 Manuscript letter from Rev. Justin Perkins, D. D., dated Oroomiah,
+Persia, March 28, 1844.
+
+There were also embarrassments of a serious nature within the
+Nestorian community. In the subjugation of the mountain Nestorians,
+while the Patriarch fled to Mosul, several of his brothers escaped
+to Oroomiah, and threw themselves on the hospitality of the mission,
+which of necessity fell short of their wishes. They demanded money
+of the mission, on the ground that they were the ecclesiastical
+heads of the people. In this they were unhappily countenanced by the
+Patriarch, upon whom an influence hostile to the mission had been
+successfully exerted; who wrote a letter, calling upon the
+ecclesiastics and people of Oroomiah to oppose the mission and its
+schools. The people, as a body, had sense enough to refuse
+obedience. In view of the attitude thus assumed by the patriarchal
+family, and the questionable conduct of some of the bishops, a
+thorough reconstruction of the school system was rendered necessary.
+The seminary for boys and the village schools were accordingly
+dismissed, and finally the female boarding-school under Miss Fiske.
+"When this last result was announced to the pupils," writes one of
+the mission, "there was a general burst of grief. Their tears and
+sobs told, more expressively than language, the bitterness of their
+hearts. Nor did they weep alone. And who would not weep at such a
+scene? Here were those, whom we had hoped to train up for immortal
+blessedness, about to be sent back to a darkness almost like that of
+heathenism. The stoutest Nestorians who were standing by were
+melted. After these tender lambs had been commended to the gracious
+Shepherd of Israel, they began to make their preparations for
+leaving us. The most trying thing was the parting, of the pupils
+from each other, and from those who had been to them as parents.
+They threw their arms around the neck of their teacher, and said
+again and again, 'We shall never more hear the words of God.'"
+
+Nearly all the pupils of this seminary returned of their own accord,
+and after the hostility of the patriarchal family had become known
+to their parents. Miss Fiske was aided in the instruction by a pious
+Nestorian deacon. Besides the ordinary instruction, the pupils were
+taught several useful arts, of which their less favored mothers knew
+little or nothing; among which were knitting and sewing, and these
+branches many of the mothers were eager to learn from their
+children. Moreover they were taught industry, self-denial,
+benevolence, and the preciousness of time. The boys' seminary was
+reorganized in the following spring, under the superintendence of
+Mr. Stoddard; who received a number of promising boys into his
+family as an experiment, with the understanding that the pupils
+would reside wholly on the mission premises.
+
+There was still enough of vacillation among the bishops, and of
+dissatisfaction among the Patriarch's brothers, to raise a question
+which the mission submitted to the judgment of the Prudential
+Committee, as to how far it was proper to employ the higher
+ecclesiastics on wages. The Committee approved of the course which
+had been pursued in relation to the four bishops on the plain of
+Oroomiah, Mar Yohannan, Mar Elias, Mar Joseph, and Mar Gabriel; but
+intimated, while deprecating sudden changes, that the services of
+the bishops, should they prove troublesome helpers, might be
+dispensed with gradually. What the Committee feared was, that
+putting them forward in a manner which had seemed proper in time
+past, might now give them too much control of the reformation that
+was believed not to be far off. The fundamental principle was, to
+pay only for services rendered, and for none more than their fair
+and true value. It was also recommended, that care be taken to
+preserve the independence of the mission; the evangelical character
+of its influence upon the people; its unquestioned right to prepare
+for the expected religious awakening; and when it came, to pursue
+the appropriate measures according to their own better informed
+judgments.
+
+The mission to the Mohammedans of Persia, of which an account is
+given elsewhere, having been discontinued, the Rev. James L. Merrick
+and wife joined the Nestorian mission in 1842. In 1844, the health
+of Mrs. Merrick made it necessary for her to visit England, her
+native land. She was followed by her husband in the next year, and
+he, soon after his arrival at Boston, was released from his
+connection with the Board. Mr. Jones retired from the mission in
+1844.
+
+John and Moses, two young Nestorians of hopeful piety, were ordained
+deacons by Mar Elias and Mar Yohannan. John was a native of Geog
+Tapa, the largest Nestorian village in the province, and one which
+always took the lead, whether for good or for evil. Abraham, the
+well-known priest, and the two newly ordained preachers, divided the
+village into districts for visiting and preaching. Mr. Stocking, and
+after him Dr. Perkins, found there abundant evidence of unusual
+religious interest. Scores of persons called on the native preachers
+almost every evening, after the toils of the day, and many lingered
+to a late hour. There were cases of special interest, and none but a
+skeptic could doubt the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
+
+In May, 1845, the Shah, at the instance of the English and Russian
+Ambassadors, appointed Dawood Khan, of Tabriz, an Armenian from
+Georgia and an officer of the army, Governor of the Nestorians. The
+object was to protect the Christians from the oppressions they had
+long suffered from the Moslem nobles residing in the district.
+
+We have now entered on an auspicious period in the history of the
+mission. Geog Tapa became the radiant centre of spiritual life. The
+preceding year had been one of apprehension, but the brethren now
+learned not to despond every time the heavens gathered blackness,
+for in the darkest hour the sun may break forth and change the whole
+scene. We have come to the beginning of that series of revivals,
+with which the mission was so remarkably blessed.
+
+The first revival was in the year 1846, and the first hopeful
+conversions were in the female seminary in January. Both seminaries
+were moved. A number in each came to their teachers with the
+inquiry, "What shall I do to be saved?" The religious concern
+rapidly increased. The 23d of January was set apart by the mission
+as a day for private fasting and prayer. On the preceding evening,
+as the people were assembling for a religious service, Mr. Stoddard
+observed signs of deep feeling in different groups, and was
+convinced that a revival had begun. After service, the people came
+in crowds to his study, and he, with unutterable delight, unfolded
+the Gospel of Christ to one company after another, until near
+midnight. On the 25th, Tamo, a deacon from the mountains, was
+overwhelmed with a sense of his sinfulness. At the same meeting,
+priest Eshoo sat with his face buried in his handkerchief, and when
+spoken to wept, but said nothing. On the day following, he led the
+devotions in the male seminary, in a prayer so humble and earnest,
+so in contrast with his former sing-song tone and thoughtless
+manner, that Mr. Stoddard could not refrain from tears. He had
+evidently learned how to pray, and his knowledge, his stable
+character, and his important position would enable him, if truly
+converted, to do much good among his people. Though every room about
+the premises, that could possibly be spared from other uses, had
+been opened for retirement, so numerous were the awakened that they
+could not find places in which to pour out their souls to God. Such
+was the natural excitability of the people, that it was difficult to
+keep their expressions of feeling within proper bounds. On the 26th,
+deacon John came to Mr. Stoddard, saying that the boys were weeping
+violently in one of their rooms, and desired that he would go to
+them. John added, that he had been looking at them with amazement,
+having never before seen anything of the kind, and he knew not what
+to do. Mr. Stoddard entered the room with Dr. Wright, and they found
+fifteen or twenty boys lying on the floor, weeping, groaning, and in
+broken sentences praying for mercy, presenting a scene of great
+confusion. Some older people were standing around in silent wonder,
+thinking that an angel had visited the school. Measures were
+immediately taken for checking this disorder. The pupils all
+promised that no two of them would again pray aloud at the same
+time. The school was still the next day, but with no diminution of
+solemnity.
+
+Miss Fiske had often ten or fifteen women, relatives of her pupils,
+to pass the night with her, making it necessary to collect together
+all the spare pillows, cushions, and quilts in the house, and make
+the sitting-room one great dormitory. She frequently conversed with
+them till midnight, and then she heard them from her room, praying
+most of the night.
+
+Priest Eshoo called his neighbors together, and told them of the
+great change in his feelings. So upright had he been as a priest,
+that a confession of his need of salvation through the blood of
+Christ made a strong impression. It became more and more evident
+that he was truly a child of God. On the 5th of February, he
+announced his great joy that his oldest daughter, a member of Miss
+Fiske's school, was hopefully born again, and he thought she knew
+the way to the cross better than himself.
+
+The name of this daughter was Sarah. She was the first in the
+revival to ask the way to heaven, the first to find the way, and the
+first to enter it. Sarah was a tall, dark-eyed girl ten years old
+when she entered the school. There were then but few books in the
+school except the Bible, and she became very familiar with its
+pages. She first learned that she was a sinner in January, 1846, and
+she lived only five months after that time. Her father loved to have
+her pray with him, and so remarkable was her Christian experience,
+that Mr. Stocking had great pleasure and profit in conversing with
+her. Miss Fiske also felt it to be a delightful privilege to watch
+over her as she was nearing heaven. They would sit for an hour at a
+time, and talk of the home of the blest, while Sarah would sing, "It
+will be good to be there." She had a rare anxiety to be the means of
+saving souls. The girls, and the women too, loved to have her tell
+them "the way, for" as they said, "we can see it when she tells us."
+Her health was not good at the time of her conversion, and as early
+as March the sentence of death was visible on her countenance. But
+she clung to her school till May, and continued to attend the
+meetings, even when it was necessary for some one to aid her in
+reaching the chapel. The "Dairyman's Daughter" was a favorite book
+with the girls of the school, and young disciples were sometimes
+heard to say, as Sarah took her seat in the house of God, "Have we
+not an Elizabeth Wallbridge among us?" She lingered till June, and
+was often found with her open Bible and several women by her side,
+whom she was leading to Christ. Her praying companions often had
+meetings in her room. Her last words were, "Lord Jesus, receive----"
+Here her voice ceased.1
+
+1 _Life of Fidelia Fiske_, p. 173.
+
+On the 13th of February, Deacon Isaac,--one of the Patriarch's
+brothers, and to a considerable extent his representative in the
+district, respected moreover among the people for his force of
+character, as well as for his official station,--made Mr. Stoddard a
+visit. His manner showed that he wished to converse on the subject
+of religion, and Mr. Stoddard commenced by asking him, if he
+rejoiced in what the Lord was doing for his people. He replied,
+"None but Satan can help rejoicing. I do certainly rejoice. But I am
+like a man that stands on the shore of a lake, and seeing a
+beautiful country on the other side is gladdened by the prospect,
+but has no means of reaching that country himself. Would that I were
+a child, that I might repent too! But no, it cannot be. My heart is
+ice. There is no such sinner among the people as I am. I do not
+believe it is possible for me to be saved." He was reminded of the
+freeness of Christ's love, and his willingness to receive the vilest
+sinner that will come to him. After some hesitation, he admitted
+that it was so. "But," said he, "the great obstacle is myself. My
+heart is perfectly dead. You may cut and thrust me with a sword, but
+I am insensible to the stroke. And if you kindly pour ointment on my
+wounds, it is all the same. I choose sin. I love sin. The wild
+beasts in the mountains are enticed by the hunters, and seize the
+bait, not knowing what they do. But I take this world with my eyes
+open, knowing that I am choosing destruction, and eating death. It
+is a shame for me to remain in such a miserable condition, while
+these boys are weeping over their sins, and I am ashamed. But such
+is the fact, and I expect to die as I have lived, and go to hell."
+He seemed to speak with sincerity, and Mr. Stoddard learned that he
+conversed with his people in a similar manner.
+
+On the 16th of February, Mr. Stocking went to Geog Tapa, accompanied
+by Miss Fiske and John. Miss Fiske found herself surrounded by a
+company of females at the house of priest Abraham; and again, at the
+close of a meeting in the church, about fifty of the women present
+met her in the school-room, for conversation and prayer. A
+considerable number of them were evidently awakened, and a few gave
+evidence of real conversion. Yet there were opposers at Geog Tapa,
+who said, "Why all this ado? Must all we have done for salvation go
+for nothing? Have all our fathers gone to hell?"
+
+Several of the converts in the seminary for boys having rooms near
+Mr. Stoddard's study, he could hear their voices from morning till
+night, as they pleaded in prayer, and their petitions came evidently
+from the depths of the soul. Their natural love for vivid metaphor,
+combined with much ardor, gave great vividness to their prayers.
+They begged that the dog might have a single crumb from the table of
+his master; at another time, they were smiting their breasts by the
+side of the publican; at another, they were prodigals, hungry,
+naked, and far from their father's house; again, they sink in the
+sea, and cry out, "Lord save me, I perish;" again, poor, diseased,
+outcast lepers, they came to the great Physician for a cure. Those
+who had given themselves to Christ, now built their house on the
+Rock of Ages, while the waters were roaring around them; now they
+washed the feet of their Redeemer with tears, and wiped them with
+the hairs of their head; and now, having become soldiers of the
+cross, they planted the blood-stained banner in the inner citadel of
+their souls.
+
+Before the end of May, the boys' seminary was removed to Seir, to
+obviate the necessity of a long vacation, which might be injurious
+to the pupils in their peculiar state of feeling. Mr. Stoddard was
+often delighted, in walking about the mountains, to find pupils
+praying in secluded spots. A Mussulman once fell in with a pupil
+thus engaged, and having never before seen a Nestorian praying in
+secret, he stopped in silent wonder. The young man, on being asked
+what he was doing, commenced teaching the Mussulman how to pray, and
+so deeply interested him, that they kneeled down together, and the
+prayer was renewed in the Turkish language, that it might be
+intelligible to the stranger.
+
+The estimated number of converts in the two seminaries, at the close
+of 1846, was fifty. The general aspect of Geog Tapa, containing a
+population of about a thousand, was much changed. Almost every one
+who had come to years of discretion, gave good attention to the
+preaching of the Gospel, and as many as fifty seemed to be true
+disciples. Cases of hopeful conversion were found in eight or ten
+other villages on the plain. Nor was the awakening restricted to the
+plain. Of one hundred and fifty hopeful converts, twelve were at
+Hakkie, and ten at Gawar, fifty miles further west, and both
+mountain villages.
+
+An edition of the New Testament, with the ancient and modern Syriac
+in parallel columns, was printed near the close of 1846. The value
+to the Nestorians of having the Scriptures in their spoken language,
+cannot be estimated. The translation was made by Dr. Perkins from
+the original Greek, and the type was that made by Mr. Breath. Dr.
+Perkins entered at once upon a translation of the Old Testament from
+the Hebrew. Among the books that had been recently printed, was a
+new and enlarged edition of the Nestorian Hymn-book. The hymns were
+sung in all the social religious meetings of the Nestorians, and in
+some of their churches, and with most happy effect. The sentiments
+of the hymns, and much of their language, entered largely into the
+prayers of the people. The hymns were also committed to memory by
+not a few, who were unable to read.
+
+Ill health obliged Mr. and Mrs. Holladay to visit their native land
+in the spring of this year, and they were not able to resume their
+connection with the mission. The Rev. Joseph G. Cochran and wife,
+and Miss Mary Susan Rice, embarked for Oroomiah in June, 1847.
+
+The cholera, in its progress from the east, reached the plain of
+Oroomiah in the autumn of 1846, and about two thousand persons died
+in the city. An interesting account of the pestilence by Dr. Wright,
+as it came under his observation, may be found in the "Missionary
+Herald" for 1847.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1847, pp. 154-157.
+
+Among the noticeable occurrences of the year 1847, was the visit of
+Dr. Wright, to Bader Khan Bey, on the same errand which took Dr.
+Grant to him three years before. The request came through Nurullah
+Bey and the governor of Oroomiah, and the mission advised him to go,
+as such a visit might open the way for the Gospel into the
+mountains. Mr. Breath was requested to accompany him. They took with
+them deacon Tamo, who was a subject of the recent revival, and
+deacon Yoosuph, an assistant in the medical department. Leaving
+Oroomiah on the 4th of May, they reached Julamerk, the home of
+Nurullah Bey, in five days; and in his absence, were cordially
+welcomed by his nephew, Suleiman Bey, and other relatives. They were
+detained there thirteen days by a report, that the mountains beyond
+were covered with snow. The Emir was at home the last three days,
+and soon became familiar and kind. Two days from Julamerk, they were
+refreshed by a bath in a hot sulphur spring, admirably suited for
+the purpose. Four days more brought them to the residence of Bader
+Khan Bey. There had been a wonderful change in the mountains since
+Dr. Grant's first entrance. Our travellers crossed the wild central
+regions of Koordistan with no fear of robbers. The principal reason
+for this was doubtless the character and energy of Bader Khan Bey's
+government; which extended from the Persian line to Mesopotamia, and
+from the neighborhood of Diarbekir to that of Mosul. Nearly all the
+chiefs in northern Koordistan came to pay their respects to him
+while the missionaries were there, bringing valuable presents. Even
+the Hakkary Bey, though higher in rank, and once more powerful than
+he, seemed to feel himself honored in his presence. In the wildest
+parts of Koordistan, our travellers often slept in the open air,
+their horses let loose to graze around them during the night, and
+their luggage without a guard; yet nothing was stolen. In most parts
+of Turkey and Persia, such a course would not have been safe.
+
+They spent four weeks with the chief. During the last two, the
+Hakkary chief was there also, and the demeanor of both was kind and
+respectful from first to last. Dr. Wright was every day engaged
+professionally among the sick in the Khan's family and retinue. He
+also introduced the vaccine matter, of which they had never heard
+before. Nurullah Bey was unwilling, for some reason, that they
+should return through Tiary and Tehoma. They therefore took a
+northern route by Bashkallah, a fortress about thirty miles
+northeast of Julamerk, and reached Oroomiah, July 3, after an
+absence of two months.
+
+The Nestorians within the range of their observations manifested
+simplicity and readiness to receive instruction, but were in danger
+from the inroads of Rome.
+
+It appears to have been the intention of the Turkish government in
+1847, doubtless through the influence of the English Ambassador at
+Constantinople, to restore the Nestorian Patriarch to his native
+regions, and constitute him the civil head of his people; and while
+at Mosul, he was invited to the seat of government for that purpose.
+Distrusting the motives of the Porte, he fled to Oroomiah, where he
+arrived in June. It was a kind Providence that delayed his coming
+until there were no longer grounds for dissatisfaction arising from
+members of his family being in the employ of the mission. There were
+indeed ill disposed Nestorians, who were always ready to fill the
+ears of the Patriarch with insinuations against the mission. Among
+these were two of his own brothers, the least respectable portion of
+his family. But there were others who were watchful to correct
+misrepresentations, and to give him right views of the results of
+the mission, and of its doctrines. Among these were two of his
+brothers, deacon Isaac and deacon Dunka, whom he held in high
+esteem.
+
+"These brothers," writes Mr. Stocking in July, 1847, "have appeared
+truly friendly for two years, and disposed, to the full extent of
+their influence, to aid us in our work. Both have been regular
+attendants on our preaching; and, though not pious, they maintain
+decidedly evangelical views in regard to the doctrines of grace.
+Deacon Isaac especially, one of the most talented of the Nestorians,
+is always ready, before the Patriarch and all others, boldly to
+advocate the doctrine of justification by faith through grace alone.
+He has studied critically, and appears to understand, as well as an
+unconverted man can, the book of Romans; without the study of which,
+he has been heard to remark, no one can understand what Christianity
+really is. We have been interested to learn, through our native
+helpers, that these brothers have voluntarily acted in concert, one
+or both never failing to be with the Patriarch whenever there was
+any one present to assail us and our work, ready to confront them to
+their faces, and repel all false charges."
+
+The Patriarch received priests Eshoo, Dunka, Abraham, and John, who
+called to obtain his cooeperation, with apparent cordiality, and gave
+his full consent to their preaching in all the dioceses. He told
+them that his letter from Mosul, forbidding preaching and schools,
+was written through the importunity of Mr. Rassam. He spent a month
+at Seir, where he had much friendly intercourse with the
+missionaries. He even invited Dr. Perkins to preach in his tent, and
+Messrs. Wright and Stoddard led in prayer, before and after the
+sermon, while the Patriarch himself pronounced the benediction at
+the close. The hymns sung on this occasion were from the new
+Nestorian Hymnbook.
+
+The Patriarch's friendly deportment continued till some time in
+April, 1848, when he threw off the mask, if he had worn one, and
+took the stand of open and decided opposition. This was not wholly
+unexpected, and while it was matter for regret, it did not occasion
+much alarm. His power to do harm had been greatly circumscribed by
+the providential embarrassments of his civil and ecclesiastical
+relations; by the extensive prevalence of evangelical truth among
+the Nestorians; by their friendliness, and the good will of the
+Persian government towards the mission; and by the number, standing,
+and influence of the religious among his people. His first
+unfriendly act he concealed from our brethren, but it was made known
+to them by the British Consul at Tabriz. It was a formal
+communication to the Russian Consul at that place, designed to
+prejudice him against the American missionaries, of whom his Embassy
+was the nominal protector. The Consul made no response to this. The
+first open attack was on the seminary under the care of Mr.
+Stoddard. The Patriarch next endeavored to withdraw the native
+assistants from the missionaries; at one time calling into exercise
+all his powers of persuasion, and at another uttering the severest
+threats. Though his people were deriving great advantages, in many
+ways, from the educational system introduced by the mission, he
+recklessly determined to deprive them of it, without providing
+anything to supply its place. He ordered the leading men of Geog
+Tapa to break up the schools in that village, and received a
+respectful but decided refusal. The priest of Charbush was ordered
+to suspend his school, but declined. The Patriarch came to that
+village soon after, and his servants, meeting the priest in the
+street, beat him severely and wounded him. Those same servants
+returning to the city intoxicated, entered the mission premises, and
+fell to beating Mar Yohannan and his brother Joseph, and priest
+Dunka, who happened to be sitting within the gate. The Governor at
+once interfered. At that juncture, an order arrived from the Heir
+Apparent, the ruler of Azerbijan, directing the Mohammedan
+authorities to allow no one to molest the missionaries, or any one
+in their employment. In September, the Patriarch sought the
+intervention of the chief Doctor of the Mohammedan law against the
+mission. It so happened that the missionaries were paying their
+respects to the Moolah, at the very time when the Patriarch called,
+with a large retinue of Nestorians, on this business. The Moslem
+doctor made him a public and mortifying reply: "These gentlemen," he
+said, "are peaceable men; the Mohammedans respect them, and are
+pleased with them. Why are you falling out with them? You, who are
+Christians, ought to respect them even more than the Mohammedans."
+For a time the Patriarch and the Jesuits, both aiming at the
+overthrow of the mission, were in practical combination. As a
+necessary means to this end, both wished to expel from office Dawood
+Khan, the Christian Governor and civil protector of the Nestorians
+of that province; and the Mohammedan nobles were in sympathy with
+them in this, as that dignitary stood in the way of their exactions.
+
+But this political alliance, though at first promising success both
+to the Patriarch and the Jesuits, in the end led to the signal
+overthrow of both. It was stated to the mission by Mr. Stevens, the
+English Consul, as a well ascertained fact, that Mar Shimon had
+united his interests with the French Jesuits, and that they had
+strong hope of making use of him to cast their net over his people.1
+Up to this time, the mission had not applied to any European
+functionary for interference in their troubles with Mar Shimon. Nor
+did they now; but Mr. Stevens, hearing of his persecuting course,
+took up the matter of his own accord, gave the information as above
+stated, and befriended the missionaries in various ways. The
+Patriarch having declared, that he had the countenance and support
+of the Russian Consul, that official wrote sharply rebuked him for
+so doing. The four bishops of Oroomiah and nearly all the priests
+and deacons, with many of the leading Nestorians in the province,
+now united in a representation to the Persian Government, highly
+commending the character, objects, and labors of the mission. It is
+recorded, that the converted Nestorians also, with scarce an
+exception, stood firmly by the mission, in the face of trials and
+reproaches; and the same was true of many who made no pretensions to
+piety.
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1849, p. 30.
+
+News of the death of the King arrived at Oroomiah on the 14th of
+September. He was succeeded by his eldest son, a young man of twenty
+years, who for the last year had been Prince Governor of Azerbijan.
+In Persia, the death of the King interrupts for a time the regular
+transaction of public business.
+
+An immediate effect of the news was to displace the Governor of
+Oroomiah, Yahyah Khan, with whom Mar Shimon had been forming an
+alliance, to strengthen him in his persecutions.
+
+Through the friendly, but unsolicited agency of the English Consul,
+five of the most prominent of Mar Shimon's coadjutors were put under
+heavy bonds in no way to aid or abet him again in similar
+proceedings. Should they violate their written engagements to the
+authorities, they would expose themselves to severe corporal
+punishment and heavy fines.
+
+Another requisition from the government was, that the two servants
+who had entered the mission premises, and beaten and insulted
+several of the ecclesiastics, should be taken to that same
+inclosure, and be bastinadoed to the satisfaction of the mission.
+Only one of the two could be found. He was brought thither, and laid
+upon the pavement with his feet tied to a pole, and a large bunch of
+rods by his side; and the missionaries were requested to come and
+see that due punishment was inflicted. But they, greatly to the
+satisfaction of the crowd of Nestorians who had assembled to witness
+the punishment, complied with the earnest entreaties of the culprit
+to excuse the crime he had committed, and he was at once released.
+
+The repeated mention of Suleiman Bey's friendly attentions to Dr.
+Grant, must have interested the reader in his behalf. But we are now
+obliged to place him among the persecutors of the Lord's people.
+Tamo was teacher in the male seminary for about ten years, and
+became hopefully pious in the revival of 1846. He accompanied Dr.
+Wright and Mr. Breath in their visit to Bader Khan. His family
+resided in the mountain district of Gawar, within the limits of
+Turkey. Being fleet, athletic, and capable of great endurance, he
+was well fitted for a mountain evangelist. After an extended
+preaching tour in the summer of 1848, he spent some time at his
+mountain home. The Bishop of Gawar had received a charge from Mar
+Shimon to ruin him, and made complaint against him to Suleiman Bey.
+He was seized by that chief, heavily fined, and his life threatened.
+But Suleiman Bey was taken, meanwhile, a prisoner by the Turks.
+Afterwards, Tamo, while on his return to Oroomiah with two of his
+brothers and a nephew, all members of the seminary, was attacked in
+the night by a party of ruffian Koords, also incited by the
+Patriarch, who beat all the company with clubs, and called to each
+other to "kill them." Friendly Koords came to their rescue, but not
+until they had been stripped of nearly all their clothing and
+suffered cruelly from the hands of the barbarians.
+
+In the year 1848, Bader Khan Bey, failing in one of his favorite
+night attacks on the Turkish army, was taken prisoner in his own
+castle of Dergooleh, and placed, as such, on one of the islands of
+the Grecian Archipelago.
+
+Nurullah Bey, also, some time in 1849, was driven from his
+stronghold at Julamerk, and fled from castle to castle, till he also
+was taken captive by the Turks, whom he had aided to destroy the
+Nestorians, and went into captivity, far from the scenes of his
+former power. Suleiman Bey, as already stated, was taken captive
+while cruelly persecuting deacon Tamo, and died at Erzroom, while on
+his way to Constantinople.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1850, p. 96.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1848-1852.
+
+
+The health of Mr. Stoddard became so prostrated, early in the summer
+of 1848, as to leave no hope of his recovery without a change of
+climate. At Trebizond, on his way home, he and his family were
+subjected to a quarantine of eight days. His wife and children were
+then in good health, and they had no reason to apprehend cholera
+there, as it passed beyond that place westward. But it returned, and
+Mrs. Stoddard was one of its victims. The death of this excellent
+woman was a grievous loss, not only to her husband and infant
+children, but to the mission. The nurse also sickened of the same
+disease, while on the voyage to Constantinople, and died soon after
+her arrival; and it was a remarkable Providence that spared the
+enfeebled and overtasked husband and father. But he lived to serve
+Christ in his native land, and afterwards again among the
+Nestorians. The Rev. George W. Coan and wife joined the mission in
+the autumn of 1849.
+
+Mr. Cochran succeeded Mr. Stoddard in charge of the male seminary.
+Twelve had gone from the institution, and most of them were exerting
+a good Christian influence. The new scholars, as a consequence of
+these village schools, were older and more advanced than their
+predecessors had been. The thirty-two schools contained five hundred
+and ninety-eight pupils, of whom one hundred and twenty-five were
+girls. Twelve of the teachers were priests, and about half of them
+would have been welcomed into New England churches. The female
+seminary, a most valuable institution, was under the care of Misses
+Fiske and Rice.
+
+Mar Shimon returned to the mountains early in 1849, though not
+without apprehension of being sent into exile, as the Koordish
+chieftains had been.
+
+Hearing that the good seed sown by Dr. Grant and his associates at
+Mosul was giving promise of a harvest, the mission deemed it
+expedient for Dr. Perkins and Mr. Stocking to visit that city,
+preaching the Gospel as they went. Mar Yohannan and deacons Isaac
+and Tamo went with them.1 They were hospitably entertained by Mr.
+Rassam, the English Consul at Mosul, during the eleven days of their
+visit. Many of the Mosulians were thought to have come under
+evangelical influences. Some of them were much enlightened, and a
+few were regarded as truly pious. All would gladly have welcomed a
+Protestant missionary to reside among them. These were chiefly
+Jacobites, but a few were Papists. The mountain districts were found
+to be accessible to the Gospel; though everywhere they heard of
+messengers and letters from the Patriarch, warning the people
+against them as deceivers, and particularly against deacon Isaac,
+his brother, who, he said, had become "English." Nevertheless they
+were treated in all places with kindness, and found attentive
+listeners to their preaching.
+
+1 For a full account of this tour by Dr. Perkins, see _Missionary
+Herald_ for 1850, pp. 53-61, and 83-97.
+
+The first revival of religion, already described, was in 1846; the
+second was in 1849; and there was a third in 1850. The severe trials
+of the years 1847 and 1848 seem to have produced in the mission a
+subdued feeling, and unusual earnestness in prayer. This resulted in
+the revival of 1849.
+
+In the seminary for boys, the converts of the previous revival were,
+for two or three days after this began, the subjects of intense
+heart-searchings, and of piercing compunctions for their
+backslidings. This was not less true of the more devoted Christians,
+than of others. The irreligious members of the seminary were also
+deeply moved; and there was a similar experience in the girls'
+seminary. Geog Tapa again shared largely in the spiritual blessings
+of a revived religious feeling. In the village of Seir, hardly a
+person was unaffected. In Degala, Charbush, Ardeshai, and other
+places, there were large and attentive congregations, and many gave
+delightful evidence of having passed from death unto life. A
+vacation occurred in the male seminary, and pious students labored
+with great zeal and success in the houses of the people. Deacon
+Isaac had been known for many years as an evangelical man and a
+friend of the mission, but now he gave good evidence of conversion,
+and the pious natives beheld the change in him with wonder and
+thanksgiving. Mar Yohannan had never before given satisfactory
+evidence of a thorough change of heart. He now made full confession
+of his sins as a man, and of his unfaithfulness as a bishop. The
+revival was marked by a deep sense of the lost condition of men by
+nature, by a vivid sense of the evil of sin, by an intelligent and
+cordial embrace of salvation as the gift of sovereign grace, by a
+hearty self-consecration to the service of Christ, by earnest
+desires for the salvation of others, and by a remarkable quickening
+of the moral and intellectual powers.
+
+One of the most noted among the native evangelists at this time, was
+deacon Guwergis of Tergawar. Before conversion in 1846, he was as
+wild and wicked as a Koord. In the autumn of 1845, he brought his
+eldest daughter, then twelve years of age, to Oroomiah, and begged
+Miss Fiske to receive her into the seminary. She consented
+reluctantly, being painfully impressed by the gross avarice and
+selfishness of the father, who even asked permission to take away
+with him the clothes she had on. He came again in February, with his
+belt of ammunition, his dagger at his side, and his gun thrown over
+his shoulder. Many of the pupils were then weeping over their sins,
+among them his own daughter, and the teacher felt that the wolf had
+come into the fold. Guwergis ridiculed the anxiety of the girls for
+their souls till his daughter, distressed by his conduct, asked him
+to go alone with her to pray. He went and repeated his form in
+ancient Syriac, while she, in her native tongue, poured forth her
+soul in earnest prayer, first for herself, and then for her father.
+When he heard her say, "Save, O save my father, going down to
+destruction," as he afterwards confessed, he raised his hand to
+strike her. Sabbath morning found him toiling to prevent others from
+coming to Christ. At noon, Miss Fiske went to his room, and was
+received with sullen rudeness, but he broke down under her
+affectionate and faithful appeals, and retired to pray. He soon
+entered the place of worship. His gun and his dagger had been laid
+aside, and he sank into the nearest seat, and laid his head upon the
+desk. That night Mr. Stocking took him to his study, and the recent
+blasphemer cried out in agony, "My sins, my sins, they are higher
+than the mountains of Jeloo!" Next morning, Mr. Stoddard found him
+subdued and humbled. All Guwergis could say was, "My great sins, my
+great Saviour." Before noon, he left for his mountain home, saying,
+as he left, "I must tell my friends and neighbors of sin and of
+Jesus."
+
+Nothing was heard from him for two weeks, when priest Eshoo was sent
+to his village to look after him, and found him in his own house,
+surrounded by his friends, and discoursing to them on these very
+topics,--of sin and of Jesus. The deacon accompanied priest Eshoo to
+Oroomiah, and his relations of Christian fellowship with the members
+of the mission were at once firmly and forever established.1 His
+conversion and his self-consecration to the service of the Lord
+Jesus were entire. He became known as the "mountain evangelist," and
+was faithful unto death. He rested from his labors on the 12th of
+March, 1856.
+
+1 _Woman and her Saviour in Persia_, pp. 87-93.
+
+The revival scenes of 1849, were renewed in the first month of 1850.
+The awakening commenced on the same day in each of the seminaries,
+without any communication between them, though they were six miles
+apart. The first manifestation of deep feeling in the male seminary,
+was at the evening prayer-meeting. While deacon Tamo was speaking of
+the need of preparation for death, the school gave signs of deep
+feeling. The emotion was increased when Dr. Perkins came in, and
+took up the same strain, until the weeping became so loud and
+general that he feared the result of further excitement, and
+requested the pupils to repair to their closets. There were similar
+indications the next morning.
+
+The strength of feeling was as intense in the girls' school, but was
+manifested in a different manner. The devout among them were
+disposed to spend much time in prayer, while at the same time they
+were very active in efforts for the conversion of their associates,
+as well as of the members of their families that visited the school.
+For two months, until the close of the term, there was no diminution
+of interest. The regular attendance on preaching at Oroomiah, Seir,
+Degala, Geog Tapa, and Ardishai, was greater than ever before. The
+same may be said of numerous other villages, where meetings were
+occasionally held. Divine truth seemed to reach and affect the mass
+of the people. Geog Tapa was specially favored. The people were
+affected, not as in former years with the overwhelming convictions
+of the law, but with a deep and intelligent persuasion of the claims
+of truth.
+
+Perhaps the most distinguished among the Nestorian laborers, at this
+time, next to priest Abraham, was deacon John. He is described as
+unwearied in the work, often preaching three times a day during the
+week, and performing other arduous labors. The missionaries admired
+the grace of God, as developed in his active piety, discreet zeal,
+and indomitable perseverance.1
+
+1 Mr. Stocking gives the following description of the study of
+deacon John at that time. "His study is a small chamber about five
+feet by eight, entered by a ladder, built of mud, and plastered on
+the inside with the same material mixed with straw. It has two small
+windows covered with paper instead of glass, to let in the light. On
+the floor is a coarse woolen rug, but as yet no chair. His library
+is neatly arranged on a high shelf, reaching from one side to the
+other, and protected from the loose earth and dust of the roof by a
+paper ceiling. It consists of a copy of the Syriac, the Hebrew, and
+the English Bibles, the Comprehensive Commentary, the Scripture
+Manual, a Dictionary, and a few other choice books, lent or given
+him by friends. Through these books and his knowledge of the English
+language, he derives much assistance in preparation for his pastoral
+duties. When his friends in the village heard that a table was
+needed to complete the furniture, they made at once a voluntary
+contribution to procure one. This is the first study of the first
+Nestorian pastor, and is likely to introduce a new idea into the
+minds of Nestorian ecclesiastics in regard to their appropriate
+calling."
+
+Among the interesting converts was deacon Jeremiah, who came with
+Messrs. Perkins and Stocking from Mosul. He was formerly in a papal
+monastery near Elkoosh. Becoming disgusted with the abominations of
+the place, he at last, after many attempts, effected his escape. His
+convictions of sin were very deep, and seemed to result in his full
+consecration to the service of Christ. He returned to Mosul on the
+reestablishment of a mission in that city.
+
+The year 1850 was one of great activity. Deacon Jeremiah visited
+Bootan in the spring, at the invitation of some of the leading
+Nestorians in that region.1 Yonan and Khamis, native helpers, made a
+preaching tour through a part of Koordistan.2 Deacons Syad and
+Mosheil encountered many hardships and dangers in a visit to
+Bootan.3 In July, Messrs. Wright and Cochran accompanied by deacons
+John, Tamo, and Guwergis, made a tour in the mountains by way of
+Bashkallah, Kochanis, Julamerk, and Asheta.4 Messrs. Perkins,
+Stocking and Coan, went in the autumn to Gawar and beyond, and the
+results were interesting and satisfactory.5
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1851, p. 90.
+
+2 _Ibid_. 1851, pp. 91-97.
+
+3 _Ibid_. 1851, p. 139.
+
+4 _Ibid_. 1851, pp. 54-58.
+
+5 _Ibid_. 1851, pp. 61-63.
+
+The mission was much strengthened in the year 1851, by the return of
+Mr. Stoddard, accompanied by Mrs. Stoddard, and by the accession of
+the Rev. Samuel A. Rhea. In this year, through the efforts of Mr.
+Stevens, British Consul at Tabriz, and Colonel Shiel the Ambassador,
+the Persian government promulgated an edict of toleration, granting
+equal protection to all its Christian subjects, including the right
+of proselyting, following in this the example of Turkey. The mission
+was now received again under British protection, and the Persian
+government notified the authorities at Oroomiah of the change.
+
+The advance of public sentiment in respect to the education of
+women, is worthy of special notice. Only a few years had elapsed
+since it was deemed disgraceful to instruct that sex. Now, an
+examination of the female seminary drew together all the principal
+men and women of the Nestorian community, who listened with
+unwearied interest for two days. The examinations of both seminaries
+were highly satisfactory, Mar Yohannan, who had been present on
+similar occasions at colleges in the United States, and had desired
+to see the same things in his own country, was greatly delighted.
+Mr. Stoddard doubted whether he had ever attended an examination of
+greater excellence than that of the seminary for girls. "The
+pupils," he says, "were thoroughly acquainted with all their secular
+studies, and their familiarity with the Scriptures was truly
+wonderful." Three-fourths of the forty in the male seminary were
+also in the school of Christ, and there was the same prevalence of
+piety in the female seminary. Dr. Perkins regarded the latter school
+as unsurpassed by any in America in system, studiousness, good
+conduct, and rapid improvement.
+
+The fifty-eight village schools contained a thousand and
+twenty-three pupils, and were generally under evangelical teachers.
+On the Sabbath, these schools took the form of Sabbath-schools, and
+many of the parents came in to hear their children, or to take part
+with them. The Sabbath-school in Geog Tapa numbered more than two
+hundred. Every school was a place for preaching, and when there was
+no one to preach, a meeting was sustained by the teacher. An
+increasing interest was felt by the Nestorians in the monthly
+concert of prayer for the conversion of the world. At Geog Tapa
+three or four hundred were present at the concert, and they joined
+contributions with their prayers.
+
+The labors of the mission were widely extended. Mr. Cochran and
+deacon Moses preached in villages along the southern border of
+Oroomiah, and found the people there eager to hear the word of life.
+Messrs. Stocking and Coan, and Misses Fiske and Rice, with several
+native helpers, spent a month in Gawar, preparing the way for a
+station there. That place is seventy miles from Oroomiah, and within
+the Turkish dominions.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1852, p. 67.
+
+Mr. Coan went from here with some Nestorian helpers through the
+mountains beyond Tiary, till their way was hedged up by hostile
+Koords. They met with great encouragement in their proclamation of
+the gospel.1 Mention has been made of the preaching of deacons Syad
+and Mosheil in Bootan, in the summer of 1850. The next winter was
+spent by deacons Murad Khan and Mosheil in the same region; and
+their journal affords evidence of singular talent for the labors of
+an evangelist. They were gone six months.2
+
+1 _Ibid_. 1852, p. 71.
+
+2 _Missionary Herald_, 1852, pp. 257-262.
+
+Among the native helpers, who accompanied Mr. Stocking to Gawar, was
+deacon Isaac. After spending a few days with Mr. Stocking, he
+proceeded to Kochanis, the residence of his brother, whither his
+family had previously gone on a visit. The influence of this deacon
+and his amiable wife was the probable cause of the unusual conduct
+of the Patriarch in a visit he shortly afterwards made to Gawar,
+when he received the missionary and his native helpers with the
+greatest apparent cordiality in the presence of a large number of
+ecclesiastics, and charged the people to see that they were treated
+with the regard due to good men.
+
+This was in the summer of 1851. The station was commenced by Messrs.
+Coan and Rhea in the autumn of that year. The plain of Gawar is
+large and beautiful, and is hemmed in by some of the wildest of the
+Koordish mountains. The village of Memikan, selected for the
+station, lay on the southwest base of the great Jeloo mountains.
+That village was preferred to the larger ones, as having received
+much religious instruction from deacon Tamo. It was also central.
+The rigors of a severe climate cut them off three mouths from
+communication with the plain of Oroomiah, and these rigors were to
+be encountered in native huts. But they enjoyed comfortable health,
+and were happy and successful in their work. The Bishop of Gawar
+sent orders to the villagers not to attend their services, nor to
+send children to their schools; but the order produced only a
+momentary effect. Mrs. Coan had a school for the mothers and
+daughters of the village, who came barefooted through the snow day
+after day, the mothers bringing their children on their backs. All
+the young men and all the boys of suitable age learned to read the
+gospel, and the fathers came to the school-room every Saturday, to
+listen while the scholars were learning their Sabbath-school
+lessons. Thirty or forty were accustomed to assemble every night to
+hear the Word of God expounded, and all attended on the services of
+the Sabbath. Deacon Tamo preached in the surrounding villages.
+Though threatened at times, he encountered no active opposition.
+
+The year was distinguished by the death of a youth of seventeen
+years of age, of whom Dr. Perkins speaks as being a remarkable
+instance of the triumph of faith. His name was Guwergis. He was a
+nephew of deacon Tamo, and a member of the seminary. Guwergis came a
+rude mountain boy from Memikan, and was one of the converts of 1849.
+His convictions of sin were pungent, and his interest in the welfare
+of souls was engrossing. His prayerfulness was unequaled. During the
+period of greatest interest in the revivals, he would occasionally
+pray for nearly the whole night. Quite frequently he would rise at
+midnight, and repair to his cold and dark closet, which he ever
+found warm with a Saviour's love, and radiant with his presence. He
+was often known to spend two hours in prayer, and as might be
+supposed, in this exercise he soon excelled many of his superiors.
+
+His sickness was very severe. Mr. Coan, after relating an
+interesting conversation with the dying youth, speaks of him in the
+following manner: "He then closed his eyes, and offered one of the
+most touching prayers I ever heard. It were vain for me to attempt
+repeating it. He began by expressing a desire to die, and be with
+Christ; but he checked himself by saying, 'Not my will, but thine be
+done.' He then proceeded in a most humble and penitent strain, to
+speak of his own vileness, and to adore the sovereign love of God in
+calling him to be an heir of his grace.
+
+"His humble confession of sin, his strong confidence in the efficacy
+of the atonement, even for him sinful as he was, his entire
+renunciation of all dependence on anything save the grace of God in
+Christ, were deeply affecting. He ceased, and on opening his eyes he
+saw us weeping. 'Why do you weep?' said he. 'If it is the will of
+God that I die, my heart is burning to see Christ in his glory.'
+Surely, this is far more than a return for all that has been
+expended by the Church in the work of missions."
+
+"I have been happy during his sickness," wrote Dr. Perkins, "to try
+to alleviate his bodily pains; but I have also been greatly
+refreshed in spirit; and I have been instructed and comforted in
+watching the remarkable exercises of his mind, and the ardent
+longing of his soul after Christ and heaven. Since the death of Mrs.
+Grant, more than twelve years ago, I have been present at no such
+rapturous deathbed, nor have I ever beheld any more wonderful."
+
+The Rev. Edward H. Crane and wife, and Miss Martha A. Harris, were
+added to the mission in the year 1852.
+
+Among the adverse influences of the year, was the conscription of a
+regiment of Christian soldiers by the Persian government. This was
+made in that arbitrary and oppressive manner, in which Moslems deal
+with their Christian subjects. The Romanists, also, taking advantage
+of the edict of toleration, and relying on French protection, became
+very unscrupulous and troublesome. Mar Shimon, having been
+recognized by the Turkish government as the civil head of the
+mountain Nestorians, became intent on driving the missionaries from
+Gawar, and the Turkish authorities were only too willing to unite
+with him in this effort.
+
+Among the extreme measures of the Turkish rulers, under such an
+influence, was the arrest of deacon Tamo, with his two brothers, and
+several of the chief villagers, on the strange charge of murdering a
+Turkish soldier, who was spending the night near the house of the
+deacon, and was shot by a company of marauders. Deacon Tamo was
+arrested as the chief offender, and along with the others was taken
+to Bashkallah, the residence of the local Pasha. They were there
+chained together, made to work in brick under taskmasters, and
+thrown at night into a vile prison. It so happened, that
+Lieutenant-colonel W. F. Williams, the British Commissioner for
+settling the boundary between Turkey and Persia, was in that
+district at the time of this outrage. On learning it, his generous
+nature was aroused, and he immediately proceeded to Bashkallah, a
+distance of twenty hours. The Pasha was absent, and not securing the
+release of the prisoners, he continued his journey to Van, three
+days further, to see the Pasha of Koordistan. He made him many fair
+promises, but forgot them on the departure of Colonel Williams. He
+however had the prisoners removed in October to Van, and there,
+after the form of a trial, dismissed all except deacon Tamo to their
+homes. To him the Pasha said, "I shall exact from you thirty
+thousand piastres, and retain you a prisoner three years." He had
+promised Colonel Williams, that both the fine and the imprisonment
+of Tamo should be merely nominal. No one believed the deacon to be
+guilty. And it is interesting to note the persons, who put forth
+efforts through a whole year from this time, to effect his release.
+Colonel Williams went to Constantinople, and laid the case before
+Colonel Rose, H. B. M. Charge d'Affairs, and Mr. Brown, the American
+Charge. Mr. Brant, English Consul at Erzroom, and Mr. Stevens,
+English Consul at Tabriz, cooperated with Colonel Williams; and
+finally Sir Stratford de Redcliffe, British Ambassador at the Porte,
+made a decisive and successful appeal; and deacon Tamo once more
+appeared among his friends at Memikan, exhibiting a truly Christian
+spirit towards his enemies.
+
+The interposition of such powerful friends in behalf of this
+persecuted Nestorian Christian, exerted a favorable influence upon
+the local authorities. Kamil Pasha sent reiterated friendly
+assurances from Bashkallah to Messrs. Coan and Rhea. He also removed
+from office the Moodir of Gawar, who had been one of the chief
+causes of the trouble, and put one of his own household in his
+place; and the restriction upon building at Memikan was so far
+modified, that their accommodations were tolerable before the
+arrival of winter, when the thermometer sometimes sank fifteen,
+twenty, and twenty-five degrees below zero.
+
+In this year Dr. Perkins completed his translation of the Old
+Testament into the modern Syriac, and the whole Bible was given to
+the people in their spoken language.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1845-1856.
+
+
+Good tidings were received in 1845 concerning Aintab, in Northern
+Syria, communicated by Dr. Kerns, of the London Jews Society, and by
+Bedros, an Armenian vartabed, who had been banished from
+Constantinople by the Patriarch Matteos.1 His banishment was to the
+Armenian monastery at Jerusalem, but he turned aside from Beirut to
+Northern Syria. Letters came also from prominent men in Aintab,
+written in behalf of a large number of families in that place who
+had heard the gospel from Bedros, and were resolved to abandon the
+errors of their Church. They asked for a missionary to instruct
+them, and said their need of aid was the greater, as they were
+violently persecuted by their bishop.
+
+1 See chapter xxii.
+
+Mr. Thomson was instructed by the mission to visit Aleppo and
+Aintab. He went by way of Antioch, and reached Aleppo in August.
+Bedros was there, having been driven from Aintab, and Mr. Thomson
+concluded it was not prudent for him to proceed farther. He
+accordingly wrote to the Protestants of Aintab, requesting more
+information as to their condition and wishes. The distance was two
+long days' ride from Aleppo, and on the fifth day an answer came,
+that eighteen of their number, including two priests, were coming to
+see him. A message arrived soon after, stating that they had
+prepared to come, but fearing the commotion it would produce, they
+had concluded to abandon the visit and write. Their letter contained
+a very earnest appeal for a missionary, with strong affirmations of
+attachment to the gospel, and their determination to adhere to it at
+all hazards. Mr. Thomson stated, in his reply, why a missionary
+could not be sent from Beirut, and that he would forward their
+letters, and those of Bedros, to the missionaries at Constantinople,
+with a request, that a missionary might be sent who could preach
+both in Turkish and Armenian; or at least an experienced Armenian
+preacher, to assist Bedros in this important work. Just before
+leaving Aleppo, Mr. Thomson received from them another letter,
+declaring their satisfaction with this arrangement, and their
+gratitude for his interest in their welfare. "We are the fish in the
+great sea," they said, "and wait for you to spread the gospel net
+for us."
+
+Mr. Thomson estimated the nominally Christian population of Aleppo
+at twenty thousand, and the whole number of inhabitants at sixty
+thousand. The most promising were the Armenians, though at that time
+they were kept aloof by the excommunication of Bedros and all
+associated with him. The Protestant Armenians in that city were
+thought to be about fifty. The orthodox Greeks were not numerous.
+Their bishop was in poor health, but received the missionary with
+much cordiality, and appeared quite pleased with the prospect of a
+missionary in Aleppo. The Greek Catholics were by far the largest
+body of Christians. To this body belonged Athanasius, the Archbishop
+of Tripoli, so called, but residing at Aleppo. He was not forty
+years old, and had been two years in England, and two in Malta. Mr.
+Thomson had much intercourse with this man, and spoke of him as the
+most learned theologian of his sect, and the most promising
+ecclesiastic he had seen in Syria. He seemed to be serious and
+earnest, evangelical in sentiment, desirous of reforming his
+countrymen, and enlightened enough to take a comprehensive view of
+the work to be done, and make a rational estimate of the obstacles
+to be overcome. He was highly respected by all classes; and though
+his Protestant sentiments were well-known, there was said to be no
+power in his Church to depose him.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1846, p. 418.
+
+Mr. Calhoun visited Hasbeiya in February, 1846, accompanied by
+Tannus, and was there eighteen days. The congregations were smaller,
+but made up mainly of those who sought to know the way of life;
+while their townsmen, softened by last year's war, were not disposed
+to persecute, as before. Mr. Whiting, Mr. Hurter, and Butrus were
+there in June. The spirit of the congregation is thus described by
+the missionary. "They like to hear a good long exposition, and then
+to stay and hear and converse, after prayer, as long as we are able
+to sit up. Some are coming in during the day at all hours, so that
+we scarcely cease teaching and preaching from morning until
+bed-time." Some of the declared Protestants, and even some new
+inquirers, took a bold stand under persecution by the Governor; and
+many, who did not venture to call upon the missionary, were in an
+inquiring state of mind.
+
+Mr. Laurie's health suffered at Mosul, and also in Syria, so that he
+was obliged to return home in the autumn of this year, and to
+relinquish the idea of resuming the foreign service. His subsequent
+labors through the press, have endeared him to a large number of the
+friends of missions.1
+
+1 See his works: "_Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians_." Boston,
+1853; and "_Woman and her Saviour in Persia_." Boston, 1865.
+
+The year 1847 opened with an earnest and eloquent appeal from the
+missionaries for an increase to their number.1 And there is nothing
+more painful in the retrospect of this mission, than the numerous
+and often unexpected and surprising openings for usefulness, that
+were so often effectually closed, solely, as it would seem, because
+there were not missionaries to enter and take possession. There is
+space for only a single extract from this appeal. Addressing the
+Prudential Committee, they say:
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_, 1847, pp. 185-193.
+
+"We tell you, with all earnestness, that there is great danger, that
+the work may languish almost to lifelessness, even at the two posts
+which you now occupy in Syria, before your new messengers can be
+found, cross the ocean, and pass through the primary process
+indispensable to fit them to prophesy upon the slain. Yes, we must
+make you understand with unmistakable explicitness, that unless you
+hasten the work, and quicken the flight of those who have the
+everlasting gospel to preach, the voice may cease to sound, even in
+the valleys and over the goodly hills of Lebanon! Your infant
+seminary for training native preachers may droop, or disband; your
+congregations on the mountains, and on the plain, may be left
+without any one to break to them the bread of life; and your press
+may cease to drop those leaves, which are for the healing of the
+nations. All this may, yes, must occur, by a necessity as inexorable
+as the decree that commands all back to dust, unless you hasten to
+renew the vitality of our mission, by throwing into it the young
+life of a new generation of laborers."
+
+The appeal was published; but it continued painfully true, that the
+harvest was plenteous, while the laborers were few.
+
+Among the interesting events of the year, were the accession of nine
+persons to the church at Abeih; and a "fetwa" of the mufti, or
+Moslem judge, at Beirut, deciding that the Druzes stand in the same
+relation to the Mohammedan community and law with the Jews, or any
+Christian sect; _i.e_. as "_infidels_;" and, consequently, that a
+Druze was not subject to prosecution in the Turkish courts, in case
+of his embracing Christianity. Mr. and Mrs. Benton joined the
+mission in the latter part of the year.
+
+In the spring of 1847, the Protestants of Hasbeiya sent one of their
+number to Constantinople, to lay their grievances before the Sultan.
+The agent was informed, that the Pasha of Damascus had been
+instructed to protect the Protestants. The British Ambassador
+afterwards made inquiries, and received a copy of the document,
+which proved satisfactory. The Pasha sent a strong order to the Emir
+at Hasbeiya in 1848, for their protection; and he, though extremely
+reluctant to obey, sent word to the Protestants, that they might
+meet and worship together as Protestants, and he publicly forbade
+all parties to interfere with them.
+
+When the Greek Patriarch saw that the Turkish government had
+recognized the principle of toleration, and acknowledged the
+Protestants as a Christian sect, he resolved to try the effect of a
+bull of excommunication. The form of these missives is similar in
+the Latin and the Oriental Churches, and the reader will recall some
+of the specimens already given.1 The consequence at Hasbeiya, for a
+time, was that no Protestant could buy, sell, or transact any
+business, except with his fellow Protestants, and many of the poorer
+ones were at once thrown out of productive employment, and cut off
+from the means of living. They were compelled to pay their debts,
+but could collect nothing due to them, and no redress could they get
+from the Governor. Many suffered for the necessaries of life. But
+the faith of the brethren, with a single exception, did not fail.
+The Druzes and other sects remonstrated against the whole
+proceeding, and the rigor of the excommunication began at length to
+fail, and in December it had lost its force.
+
+1 See in the case of Dr. King, chapter xvii.; and Mr. Bird, chapter
+iii.
+
+The most important event in the year 1848, was the formation of a
+purely native church at Beirut. Hitherto the native converts had
+joined the mission church, formed at an early period of the mission,
+which was composed mostly of the missionaries and their families.
+Circumstances had made it seem inexpedient, hitherto, to form a
+church exclusively of native converts. Whether the brethren were
+right in this, it is not needful now to inquire. The new church
+originated in the best manner. At the annual meeting of the mission,
+a petition was presented from the native Protestants at Beirut to
+the American missionaries, asking that they might be organized into
+a church, according to certain principles and rules embodied in
+their petition. The whole originated with the native brethren. The
+principles proposed for the constitution and discipline of the
+church were afterwards modified somewhat, at the suggestion of the
+mission, in order to a closer conformity with the organization
+adopted by the Protestant Armenians in another part of the empire.
+For some special reasons, they were advised to delay the election of
+a native pastor.
+
+The great work of translating the Scriptures into Arabic, was now
+committed to Mr. Smith; and he was assisted by Butrus el-Bistany and
+Nasif el-Yasijee.
+
+Messrs. Ford and Benton removed to Aleppo, with a view to a
+permanent station. They were accompanied by Mr. Smith, Butrus, and
+Wortabet, the latter of whom remained there until his services were
+required at Hasbeiya. Mr. Smith visited on his return, the
+Nusairiyeh in Antioch, Suwaidiyeh, and around Ladikiyeh, and then
+both them and the Ismailiyeh in their mountain fastnesses back of
+Ladikiyeh. He found them a rude people in a rough country.
+
+The Rev. Horace Foot and wife arrived in Beirut in August, 1848, and
+were associated with Mr. Wilson at Tripoli. Bedros Vartabed, whose
+labors were so much blessed at Aintab, died after a very short
+illness at Aleppo, on the 13th of November, 1848. His last hours
+were spent in fervent prayer, and his last words were expressive of
+his gratitude to God. His life had been characterized by visible
+progress in the way of holiness, by habitual prayerfulness, and by
+zeal in the work of urging upon men the claims of the gospel.
+
+A very hopeful fact in the missions to Oriental Churches, has been
+the number of able men affected by the truth. Eminently such was a
+learned Greek Catholic of Damascus, named Michael Meshakah, who
+became convinced of the errors of his Church, and openly declared
+himself a Protestant in 1848. He had embraced infidel views to quiet
+his conscience, but the reading of "Keith on the Prophecies" in
+Arabic, and other books from the mission presses, especially the
+Scriptures, led him to relinquish these, and personal intercourse
+with missionaries, especially with Dr. Smith, induced him to take a
+decided stand for Christ. He used no reserve in professing his
+attachment to the gospel. This brought on a controversy between him
+and his Patriarch, and as he was esteemed the most intelligent
+native layman in the country, and the Patriarch the most learned
+ecclesiastic, attention from all quarters was directed to their
+debate. Having decided to publish the reasons of his secession from
+the Catholic Church, and to prove the corruptness of the doctrines
+and practices in that Church, he commenced a free and full
+correspondence with Dr. Smith in Arabic. The result was a treatise,
+which was published by the mission. After making the reader
+acquainted with his own history, he disproved the supremacy of the
+Pope, the existence of any priesthood but that of Christ, or of any
+atonement but his. He then showed that there was no authority for
+more than two grades of officers in the church, or for the doctrine
+of transubstantiation. There were, also, chapters on justification
+by faith and the new birth. Dr. Smith declares the treatise to have
+been "well and thoroughly argued, sometimes most impressively
+solemn, at others keenly sarcastic, and spirited and fearless
+throughout."1
+
+1 The _Bibliotheca Sacra_, for October, 1858, contains an account of
+Dr. Meshakah by Dr. Thomas Laurie, and a translation of a treatise
+by him on skepticism.
+
+Michael Aramon took the place of Butrus in the seminary, and gave
+the highest satisfaction both as to his literary and his religious
+qualifications for the post. A Hasbeiyan brother, well informed,
+upright, "a burning and shining light," taught a school among the
+Druzes in the higher part of the mountains. Another, named Asaad
+el-Maaluk, exercised a silent influence for good, in a school and
+upon the people of another mountain village where he taught. Through
+him, a priest in the Greek church of that village, named Elias,
+became gradually enlightened. When Asaad began declaring the truths
+of the gospel, the villagers appealed to priest Elias, and he
+several times endeavored publicly to defend the doctrines and
+ceremonies of his Church. Perceiving at length how much the Bible
+was against him, and that he could not answer his opponent, he
+became angry, and forbade all communication with Asaad. But the mild
+and earnest manner of the native brother at length won his heart,
+and he came to the conclusion, that nothing in his Church had any
+authority, which was not derived from the Bible. This change in his
+views he soon declared to his people, and absented himself from the
+church. Once and again they forced him to go and say mass. Sometimes
+he yielded, and sometimes refused; till, near the end of January,
+1849, having performed mass, he went out with the people, locked the
+door of the church, threw the key down before the door, and
+declared, in the presence of them all, that he was a Protestant, and
+could no more act against his conscience by officiating as a priest.
+Various methods were tried to bring him back, but in vain.
+
+In May, 1849, Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. De Forest accompanied their
+husbands to Hasbeiya, and had delightful intercourse with the native
+Protestant women, who had from the first gone hand in hand with the
+men.
+
+The brethren at Tripoli endeavored to secure a summer residence in
+the Maronite village of Ehden, where Mr. Bird had been so rudely
+assailed twenty years before, but were driven thence by similar acts
+of violence. The English Consul at Beirut, without the knowledge of
+the missionaries, laid the facts before the British Government, and
+Lord Palmerston promptly administered a severe rebuke to the
+Patriarch and Emir. The case was eventually settled by the offenders
+paying seventy dollars, and by the governor of the mountains
+furnishing the missionaries with an official guaranty in writing,
+for their protection wherever they should be able to hire houses.
+The American Ambassador also procured a strong vizieral letter to
+the Pasha in the Tripoli district.
+
+A fourth class was admitted to the seminary at Abeih in October,
+1849. One member of the class was from the most influential family
+in Hasbeiya, another was a Greek Catholic from Ain Zehalty, another
+a Maronite from Kefr Shema, another from the Greek sect at El Hadet,
+and the fifth was a young Druze emir of the Raslan family. Three
+pupils had been expelled for bad conduct in the previous year, and
+the discipline had a good effect on the school. Arabic was the
+medium of instruction; English was taught only as a branch of
+knowledge, and near the end of the course.
+
+The printing in 1849 exceeded a million of pages. There were two
+fonts of beautiful type, of different sizes, modeled on the best
+Arabic calligraphy, and cut by Mr. Hallock at New York. The type
+were cast in Syria under the supervision of Mr. Hurter.
+
+Of the twenty-seven members in the native church at Beirut, up to
+the close of 1849, ten were from the Greek Church, four were Greek
+Catholics, four Maronites, five Armenians, three Druzes, and one a
+Jacobite Syrian; showing how men of different sects may be made one
+in Christ Jesus. These church members were widely dispersed, and
+most of them exerted a salutary influence in the places where they
+resided.
+
+In the autumn of 1850, the Greeks and Greek Catholics of Aleppo were
+subjected to terrible outrages by the Mohammedans. Their number was
+from fifteen to twenty thousand, and they were more wealthy and
+refined than their brethren in most eastern cities. They looked upon
+themselves as the aristocracy of Syria. Instead of prudently
+concealing their wealth, they made an ostentatious display of it in
+furniture, dress, and costly decorations of their churches. Added to
+this was an arrogant bearing, often even towards the Moslems,
+rekindling their hereditary hate; while the recent efforts of the
+Sultan to establish liberty throughout his dominions, both inflated
+still more the pride of the Christians, and stirred up the
+indignation of the Moslems.
+
+The arrival of a government order for a military conscription, a
+thing most unwelcome to the Moslems, occasioned a popular tumult.
+They determined, while setting the Pasha at defiance, to gratify
+their hatred of the Christians. The attacks on these commenced on
+the 16th of October. Thousands of wild Arabs, along with ruffians
+from the city, filled the houses and churches, and splendid
+furniture, gorgeous dresses, and gold and silver hoarded for
+generations, were suddenly transferred to the swarthy Arabs. All the
+churches, save one, were rifled and then burnt or destroyed,
+together with a large number of private houses. Not a few of the
+Christians were murdered, or severely wounded. The Pasha, unequal to
+the crisis, took refuge among the soldiers of the barracks, and
+yielded to the demands of the populace until new orders should
+arrive from the Sultan. There was a fortnight of anarchy, while the
+Pasha was employed in collecting troops sufficient to regain his
+authority. Then, having received explicit instructions from the
+capital, he commenced a bloody attack upon the insurgents. These
+were all Moslems, and such was their desperation that they suffered
+more severely than had the Christians.
+
+Until this outbreak, there had been a manifest change going on in
+the feelings of the nominally Christian community towards the
+Protestants. There was a growing respect among all classes for the
+missionaries and their teachings, a readiness on the part of many to
+acknowledge the truth, and a more easy access to the houses of the
+people. All this the outbreak interrupted for a time, and the effect
+was not good on the whole. There was a bloody feud between the two
+great parties. Yet the bonds of superstition had been weakened;
+especially the faith of the people in the miraculous virtue of the
+pictures, which filled their churches and had been worshipped for
+centuries. Some of these pictures were supposed to be so sacred,
+that whoever touched them would have a withered hand. But they had
+now seen them torn in pieces, trampled under foot, and burned by the
+enemies of their religion.
+
+Of the nineteen pupils in the seminary at Abeih in 1850, four were
+Druzes, three were Greeks, four Maronites, four Greek Catholics, two
+Protestants, one Syrian, and one Armenian; all on a level, eating at
+the same table, mingling in the same sports, and meeting at the same
+place of prayer.
+
+The native brethren at Hasbeiya suffered considerably in their
+spiritual interests, from the delay in organizing a native church
+with a native pastor. A church of sixteen members was formed in
+July, 1851, and the number of members, before the end of the year,
+was increased to twenty-five. Mr. John Wortabet, son of the Armenian
+convert of that name, had been their preacher four years, and
+ultimately became their pastor. He inherited the abilities of his
+father, and was an acceptable, courageous, and zealous preacher.1
+There were occasional dissensions among his people, but the church
+gradually increased in compactness, order, and efficiency. When
+there was a call for discipline, it was carried through firmly and
+wisely, without assistance from the mission.
+
+1 He was educated in the first Seminary, in English and Arabic. When
+that closed, he commenced the study of medicine and Latin under Dr.
+Van Dyck, and completed his medical course under Dr. De Forest.
+After practicing for a time in Tripoli, he commenced his theological
+studies, Greek and Hebrew included, at Beirut, under the care of
+Messrs. Smith, Whiting, and Thomson. These studies he prosecuted for
+a time at Aleppo, and afterwards at Abeih. Upon the establishment of
+the Hasbeiya station, in 1851, he took up his residence at Hasbeiya
+as preacher, and was ordained at Beirut in the spring of 1853. The
+honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon him by Yale
+College, in view of an article from his pen on the fevers of Syria,
+published in the _American Journal of Medical Science_.
+
+The annual meeting of the mission, in 1851, was favored with the
+valuable assistance of Dr. Leonard Bacon, and the meeting in 1852,
+with that of Dr. Edward Robinson; both corporate members of the
+Board.
+
+A girls boarding-school had been commenced at Beirut, under the
+general superintendence of Dr. and Mrs. De Forest, and the
+instruction of Miss Whittlesey. The decease of the latter, in 1852,
+was a check to its growth. The Rev. William Bird, son of one of the
+pioneers in this mission, with his wife, and Miss Sarah Cheney,
+arrived in the year 1853. Miss Cheney was to take the place of Miss
+Whittlesey. The value of this school as a means of elevating women,
+became more and more evident. The marriage of the senior teacher in
+the seminary at Abeih with a young lady trained by Mrs. De Forest,
+gave them a native family, which Mr. Calhoun says, "in its domestic
+economy and religious order, would do no discredit to the best
+portions of New England." In this year a native church was formed at
+Abeih, and another at Aleppo.
+
+The Rev. William W. Eddy and wife joined the mission in 1852, and
+were designated to Aleppo. The political condition of Hasbeiya and
+the surrounding region, now became so disordered as often to make it
+inaccessible to missionaries, or their native assistants. Yet Mr.
+Wortabet persevered in his labors during all these troubles, and was
+afterwards ordained pastor of the church. Protestant communities at
+Ibel near Hasbeiya, and at Rasheiya over the mountain, survived the
+severe persecutions to which they were subjected by the combined
+efforts of bishops, priests, and local governors; until the
+governors, who had been the real cause of most of the difficulties,
+were summoned to Damascus, through the agency of the English
+Ambassador at Constantinople, to answer for their conduct.
+
+At Sidon, there was an average congregation of thirty-live, and
+persecution did not shake their constancy. In a dozen villages near
+that city, there were persons in the habit of reading the
+Scriptures, and visiting the missionaries. Mr. William Thomson, a
+son of the missionary, rendered valuable service in this portion of
+the field. Messrs. Foot and Wilson, on a visit to Hums and Hamath,
+northward of Damascus, found the former place peculiarly accessible
+to religious teaching, and that Dr. Meshakah of Damascus had sent
+books to several persons in this place, and been in correspondence
+with them. Dr. De Forest was much interested in what he saw in
+villages along the coast, as far south as Carmel. Everywhere the
+people were anxious to know more of the new way, which was
+everywhere spoken against.
+
+One of the persons received to the Abeih church, about this time,
+had a somewhat singular experience. In the war with the Druzes, nine
+years before, his party plundered a large village. In one of the
+houses he saw a Bible, which he seized and carried home. Soon he
+became intensely interested in reading it, and learned from it the
+errors of his Church. He then sought the acquaintance of the
+missionaries, and several of his relatives adopted his new views. He
+was excommunicated, his house attacked, his property destroyed, and
+his just dues were withheld. But he remained firm, and was admitted
+to the church. His wife and other relatives became Protestants; and
+by his judicious course, at once decided and conciliatory, he lived
+down the persecution. A school which he opened, was attended mostly
+by Druze pupils, but several of his former co-religionists intrusted
+their children to his instruction.
+
+In August, 1853, Dr. Smith had completed the translation of the Four
+Gospels. His work was then suspended by the failure of his health.
+He was afterward able to resume it, and in May, 1854, he had
+translated the Acts, the Epistle to the Romans, and the greater part
+of the Epistles to the Corinthians.
+
+In 1853, interesting developments occurred in the southern portion
+of the field, which was that year under the special charge of Dr.
+Thomson. Yacob el-Hakim, interrupted in his school at Ibel by
+opposers, made two extended medical tours, and preached the Gospel,
+with another native helper, in villages to the south as far as
+Nazareth. In one village, after visiting from house to house for
+some time, he was invited to preach in the church on the Sabbath,
+and there the entire community listened for two hours to the Word of
+God. In consequence of these labors the whole village, with the
+priest at their head, declared themselves Protestants, and went to
+Nazareth to be enrolled with the Protestant community at that place,
+under the care of the Episcopal brethren at Jerusalem. In his last
+tour, Yacob reported fifty men in Rany, another village not far from
+Nazareth, who had adopted the same course, and he met with great
+encouragement in several other places. Indeed he became so much
+interested in this work, that he did not wish to return to his
+school. These tours were made wholly at his own expense, and he was
+able to support himself by his medical practice.
+
+Elias Yacobe, a native of Rashaiah, spent the summer at Abeih in the
+study of theology, and was found to possess uncommon preaching
+talents. He subsequently labored with success at his native place,
+at Ibel, and especially at Khuraibeh. Wherever the native brethren
+went, they reported an unusual desire among the people to hear the
+Word of God. At Sidon the attention paid to the preaching of Mr.
+Thomson and his helpers was marked and solemn. More than thirty were
+in a Bible-class. It was somewhat remarkable that the whole class
+found the study of Romans far more interesting than any other
+portion of the New Testament. The powerful arguments of Paul, when
+clearly opened to their comprehension, seemed to fall upon their
+minds with the charm of novelty. And having clearly understood and
+embraced the great fundamentals of Christian faith, there was good
+reason to hope, they would never return again to the beggarly
+elements of this world. What they learned in the class they made
+known abroad. The surrounding country was awakened more or less to a
+spirit of inquiry. At a village directly east of Sidon, several
+families declared themselves Protestants. At Kanah, in the
+neighborhood of Tyre, at Alma, higher up on the mountain, and at
+Acre and Kaifeh, there were decided Protestants.
+
+The clergy of the different sects became thoroughly alarmed, and for
+a time worked in concert to arrest this spirit of inquiry. A strong
+corps of women, under the general name of Sisters of Charity,
+settled in Sidon, and opened large schools to which the parents were
+commanded, by the clergy of the various sects, to send their
+children; and strenuous exertions were made to break up the mission
+school. Every possible measure was employed to intimidate the
+people.
+
+Nearly all the professed converts stood firm; though subjected to
+want, cruel hatred, and banishment from their homes. There was an
+advance in religious character; more decision, more intelligence,
+more earnestness. The inquiry was, what is real religion, and how
+can one become a partaker in its infinite blessings. Progress was
+thus made towards organizing a church at Sidon.
+
+The Protestants at Hasbeiya, under favor of the Druzes, who then had
+the upper hand in all political matters, and under the successful
+pastorate of Mr. Wortabet, now built a neat, substantial church,
+forty-five feet by thirty-five, with a basement for schools and
+prayer meetings.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Foot left the mission in the autumn of 1854, on account
+of her illness, but too late to save her life. She died when near
+the shores of her native land. The Rev. Jerre L. Lyons and wife
+arrived at Beirut early in the following year. Dr. Smith had now
+completed the translation of the New Testament; and in addition to
+the Pentateuch, previously completed, he had gone through seven of
+the Minor Prophets, and commenced upon Isaiah.
+
+The author made his second visit to this mission in 1855, on his
+return from India. During this visit he accompanied Dr. Smith to Ain
+Zehalty, a place of difficult access in the heart of Lebanon, where
+Mr. and Mrs. Lyons were residing, with no one to speak the English
+language, in order the sooner to learn the Arabic. There, through
+the teachings of a native brother from the church at Abeih, the
+people had lost all confidence in the ceremonies and superstitions
+of their Church. The priest, after making vain attempts to bring
+them back, left the place in disgust, and begged the bishop to send
+him elsewhere. He was obliged to return, however, and as his flock
+would not support him, a salary was given him by the bishop, in the
+hope of ultimately recovering them to his fold. The experiences of
+this little community of Protestants will again claim our attention.
+
+It was now agreed to leave Aleppo, and northern Syria from Kessab
+northward, to be cultivated by the Armenian mission; since the
+language in that region was chiefly the Turkish.
+
+The Rev. Messrs. Edward Aiken, Daniel Bliss, and Henry H. Jessup,
+and their wives, were added to the mission in this year. Mrs. Aiken
+died at Hums before she had completed a residence in the field of
+half a year. In November, one of the older missionaries, the Rev.
+George B. Whiting, finished his course, after a devoted service as a
+missionary through a fourth part of a century.1 Mrs. Whiting
+returned, in poor health, to the United States.
+
+1 For an obituary notice of Mr. Whiting by Mr. Calhoun, see
+_Missionary Herald_ for 1856, pp. 129-133.
+
+The Gospel was preached statedly at sixteen places. At four of
+these--Beirut, Abeih, Sidon, and Hasbeiya--churches had been
+organized. Fifteen members were added during the year 1856. The
+number admitted from the beginning was one hundred and six, of whom
+eighty were living and in regular standing. The average number of
+hearers was about four hundred and twenty; but the whole number was
+of course much larger. The sons-in-law of the old Emir Beshir, the
+unrelenting persecutor no longer among the living, were among the
+firmest friends of the mission, and his grandchildren were in its
+schools. The anathemas of the Maronite clergy, once so terrific, had
+lost their power. Light was spreading; and though there was not a
+corresponding religious interest, yet the most influential
+inhabitants were on friendly terms with the mission, and in favor of
+education and good morals.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1845-1846.
+
+
+We come now to the grand crisis, when the evangelical Armenians, who
+claimed the right of worshipping God according to the teachings of
+his Word, were on that account excommunicated, pronounced accursed,
+and subjected to a protracted and most cruel persecution. But
+inasmuch as this made it necessary to organize Protestant churches
+all over the country, it was overruled, in God's providence, for the
+furtherance of his kingdom.
+
+Matteos, the leader of this persecution, became Patriarch of
+Constantinople in the autumn of 1844. Peshtimaljian, the celebrated,
+teacher, who knew him as one of his scholars, said of him, ten years
+before, when he was on very friendly terms with the missionaries,
+that he was a man of enlightened views, but without principle, and
+always governed by what he considered the wishes of those who were
+likely to promote his interests. His position as Patriarch was one
+of great difficulty. The evangelical doctrines were spreading in all
+directions, and their enemies demanded that they be rooted out. A
+report was even started, that Matteos himself was a Protestant, and
+his convictions were known to have been at one time in that
+direction; but his interests and his ambition now led him to oppose.
+He had attained the highest post in his nation, and was resolved to
+keep it. As the evangelical brethren would not yield, he must, if
+possible, put them down. He resolved to sacrifice the Protestants;
+and all his powers, personal and official, were employed to
+eradicate Protestantism from the land.1
+
+1 Dr. Dwight, in his _Christianity Revived in the East_ is severe on
+Bishop Horatio Southgate, of the American Episcopal mission in
+Turkey, on the ground of his publicly declared sympathy with the
+Patriarch Matteos, and the advice and countenance he was believed to
+have given that cruel persecutor. How far the Patriarch was actually
+influenced by Bishop Southgate, it is impossible to say; and I have
+supposed that at this late day, the demands of history would be
+satisfied with this brief allusion to the case. See _Christianity
+Revived_, pp. 211-213.
+
+He first secretly directed those among his own flock, who were
+patrons or regular customers of the evangelical brethren, silently
+to withdraw their patronage. Many of the Protestants thus suddenly
+found themselves deprived of business, and that remonstrances
+availed nothing, unless they pledged themselves to withdraw from the
+preaching of the missionaries. A more decisive measure was, ordering
+the priests to hand in to the Patriarch the names of those who did
+not come to confession, and partake of the communion, in their
+respective churches. All such were threatened with excommunication
+and all its dreaded consequences.
+
+As two or three vartabeds and some of the priests continued to
+attend the preaching of the missionaries, and others were known to
+be friendly, something must be done to operate upon those spiritual
+guides of the people. Bedros Vartabed was the first to be made an
+example. He was ordered to perform a mass, but declined on
+conscientious grounds. He was then instructed to proceed forthwith
+to a town on the Russian frontier, ostensibly to take charge of a
+diocese, but really to get him where he could easily be conveyed as
+a prisoner to the monastery of Echmiadzin. He politely declined to
+go, and the Patriarch was not then prepared to resort to force.
+After some delay, it was arranged that Bedros should go to the
+monastery at Jerusalem. He proceeded no farther, however, than
+Beirut, and from thence went to Aleppo and Aintab. His usefulness at
+the latter place, and his Christian death at Aleppo, have been
+already stated.1
+
+1 See chapter xxi.
+
+The Patriarch's attention was next turned to Priest Vertanes, who
+was already in his hands as a prisoner at the monastery of Armash,
+whither he had been sent by his predecessor. It was found that he
+had been preaching to the monks salvation through the blood of
+Christ alone, without the deeds of the law. It was represented to
+Matteos, that if the Protestant priest was not removed, the inmates
+of the monastery would soon become corrupted. An imperial firman was
+therefore procured for his banishment to Cesarea, whither Hohannes
+had been sent, six years before, for a like offense. On his way
+there, in charge of a Turkish officer, and indeed after his arrival,
+he ceased not to preach the Gospel for which he was in bonds. In the
+same year the Sultan gave orders, on occasion of a great feast, to
+have all the exiles in the country set at liberty, and Vertanes
+returned to Constantinople. Letters came to the Patriarch from
+Cesarea, soon after, saying that he had seduced many, and that had
+he remained there much longer, all would have gone after him.1
+
+1 _Christianity Revived_, p. 152. Authority for most of the
+following statements concerning these persecutions, may be found in
+the _Missionary Herald_ for 1846: pp. 193-203, 218-230, 263-273,
+298-304, 397-406; and for 1847, pp. 16-22, 37-45, 75-83, 150,
+193-199, 264-273, 298-301, 372-374. The account of them given by Dr.
+H. G. O. Dwight, in his work entitled _Christianity Revived in the
+East_, published in 1850, is so well written, that I cannot confer
+upon the reader a greater favor than by a free, though much
+abridged, use of his language.
+
+At the metropolis there were restraints upon the hierarchy, that
+were unfelt in the provinces. Ephrem, bishop of Erzroom, had once
+acknowledged the errors of his Church, and had often strongly
+expressed his desires for reform, though now among the most zealous
+and persevering of the persecutors. The same was lamentably true of
+Boghos, Vartabed of Trebizond. Ephrem and Boghos had actually
+suffered persecution, on the charge of being Protestants. The change
+in their conduct was owing to the change in their relations, and to
+their loving the praise of men more than the praise of God.
+
+The Bishop of Erzroom exceeded all others in bitterness against the
+followers of the Gospel. He had spies in every part of the town, and
+often upon the roofs of houses adjacent to the dwellings of the
+missionaries, to observe who were their visitors. He never allowed
+disobedience to his orders to go unpunished. The bastinado was
+repeatedly applied under his own eye, merely for an expression
+indicating reverence for the Word of God. Twenty blows were
+inflicted on the bare feet of a young man, and he was thrown into
+prison, because he had sold a copy of the Psalms in modern Armenian,
+and called at the house of a missionary. A teacher of a country
+school was severely bastinadoed for teaching the Gospel to the
+villagers. A merchant, who had early embraced the truth, was cruelly
+beaten in the bishop's own room, and the people were commanded to
+spit in his face in the streets, merely because he visited the
+missionary. A priest, for showing so much sympathy as to call upon
+him, was summoned before the bishop and bastinadoed. Another, who
+had called once at Mr. Peabody's house and procured some books, was
+seized, put in irons, and thrown into prison, and his books were
+burnt before his eyes. In most cases these violent measures
+confirmed the individuals in their new ways; and the truth is said
+never to have made so much progress among the permanent Armenian
+residents of Erzroom, as during the period of these outrages.
+
+One principal reason for the determination of the ecclesiastics to
+uproot Bible religion from Erzroom, was the central and consequently
+influential position of that city in the interior of Armenia. In the
+district of Pasin, to the east, were nearly two hundred villages, in
+which Mr. Peabody found both priests and people remarkably
+accessible. In the nearer villages, a few were always found so much
+awake to the truth as to pay little regard to the injunctions of
+their spiritual rulers, who were opposed to Bible teachings. Not
+unfrequently individuals from Egin, Diarbekir, and other distant
+places, called on Messrs. Peabody and Smith for religious inquiry. A
+tour of Haritun of Nicomedia to Sivas, Erzroom, Egin, etc., brought
+to light many encouraging facts in those places. In every important
+place some inquirers were found, and only laborers seemed needful to
+gather in an abundant harvest.
+
+The author can bear witness to the increase of intelligence at
+Trebizond. The quiet preaching of the word by Messrs. Johnston and
+Bliss, and the distribution of the Scriptures and other evangelical
+books, had, by the blessing of God, moved many minds, and taught the
+difference between truth and error; and they gladly availed
+themselves of every opportunity to come together for conference and
+prayer. Not many, however, were willing to run much risk for the
+truth's sake, and few gave satisfactory evidence of being "born
+again."
+
+A young man of superior attainments in Trebizond, belonging to the
+Papal Armenians, died in the spring of 1844, giving the most
+satisfactory evidence of conversion. His priest had made every
+effort to reclaim him, but Mugurdich, for that was his name, was
+very decided, and a few days before his death made a formal
+renunciation of his Church in writing, and peacefully committed his
+all to Christ. His body was not allowed a burial in the graveyard,
+or with the usual religious ceremonies, but was carried out at a
+late hour, in a dark stormy night, by common street porters, under
+the direction of a Turkish police-officer, and buried in a waste
+place about a mile out of the city. His priest had threatened to
+bury him like a dog; but he told them, at the time, that they could
+thus do him no harm, as they could not reach his soul.
+
+The Vartabed in this city was not deemed sufficiently energetic as a
+persecutor. But Boghos, his successor, was. On receiving
+instructions from the Patriarch in the spring of 1845, he
+immediately set the whole persecuting machinery in motion. And so
+terrific did it become, that in the space of ten days about one half
+of the Bible readers had recanted.
+
+Just at this juncture, a highly respected evangelical inhabitant of
+Trebizond, named Tateos, returned from a visit to Constantinople,
+Smyrna, Broosa, Nicomedia, and Adabazar, whither he had been to make
+the acquaintance of the missionaries and native brethren in those
+places. Fearing the influence of such a man, the persecuting party
+resolved to put him out of the way. He was accordingly decoyed on
+board the steamer as it was leaving for Constantinople, thrust down
+into the hold, and confined there by order of the Turkish Pasha.
+Thus was he torn from his affectionate wife and children, and
+carried off like a felon, they knew not whither, without even the
+show of a trial. Arriving at the capital, he was taken to the
+Armenian hospital, and shut up in the mad-house. Placed in a sitting
+posture, he was fastened with two chains, one from his neck to the
+wall, the other from his feet to the floor. Orders from the
+Patriarchate were, that no one should have access to him, but some
+of the native brethren discovered the place of his confinement, and
+gained admittance. He was then removed to another place, where it
+was believed he could not be found. On the Sabbath, the eighth day
+of his imprisonment, while the Armenian congregation was engaged in
+singing in the chapel at Pera, he entered, a free man! Much prayer
+had been offered for him, and his sudden liberation reminded all of
+Peter the Apostle. Sir Stratford Canning had been informed of his
+case, and there was no doubt that the remonstrances of this
+benevolent statesman had caused the Patriarch to loosen his grasp
+upon this innocent victim of his oppression.
+
+But whatever was the influence exerted to moderate the proceedings
+of the Patriarch in this case, he was fully resolved not to fail of
+success. In the beginning of 1846, he entered upon the more decisive
+course of subjecting the evangelical Armenians to the pains and
+penalties of excommunication. He began with Vertanes, who escaped
+arrest only through the friendly agency of his landlord, (not a
+Protestant,) and was concealed for several weeks in the house of a
+friend. At the patriarchal church, after the morning service,
+January 25th, the church was darkened by extinguishing the candles,
+the great veil was drawn in front of the altar, and a bull of
+anathema was solemnly read against Priest Vertanes; and, on the next
+Sabbath, against all who were of his sentiments,--"followers," as
+the instrument read, "of the corrupt new sect, who are accursed,
+excommunicated, and anathematized." Vertanes was denounced in the
+usual style of such documents, as "a contemptible wretch," "a
+vagabond," "a seducer of the people," "a traitor and murderer of
+Christ," "a child of the devil," "an offspring of Antichrist," and
+"worse than an infidel or a heathen." "Wherefore," says the
+Patriarch, "we expel him, and forbid him, as a devil and a child of
+the devil, to enter into the company of our believers; we cut him
+off from the priesthood, as an amputated member of the spiritual
+body of Christ, and as a branch cut off from the vine, which is good
+for nothing but to be cast into the fire. By this admonitory bull, I
+therefore command and warn my beloved in every city far and near,
+not to look upon his face, regarding it as the face of Belial, not
+to receive him into your holy dwellings, for he is a house
+destroying and ravening wolf; not to receive his salutation, but to
+refuse it as a soul-destroying poison; and to beware, with all your
+households, of the seducing and impious followers of the false
+doctrine of modern sectarists, and to pray for them to the God who
+remembereth not iniquity, if perchance, they may repent, and turn
+from their wicked paths, and secure the salvation of their souls,
+through the grace of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who is
+blessed forever and ever. Amen."1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1846, pp. 197, 198.
+
+The Patriarch immediately issued orders to his clergy, to see that
+the temporal penalties threatened in the anathema were all
+inflicted. Most of the clergy obeyed these orders with good will,
+but some reluctantly. The leading men in the different trade
+corporations were required to deprive the persons anathematized, and
+their families, of their employments and means of living, and they
+evinced more pitiless zeal than did even the clergy. Many of the
+brethren were forcibly driven from their houses and shops, and some
+were expelled even from the paternal roof. A form of recantation was
+drawn up, and a new creed, and these were sent throughout the
+country for the signature of the Protestants. The evangelical
+brethren were everywhere summoned before their ecclesiastical rulers
+for this purpose. The creed contained the worst errors of Popery.
+The recantation required was, in substance, a confession that "being
+deceived by the enticements of Satan" they had "separated from the
+spotless bosom of the holy Church," and had "lovingly joined the
+impious New Sectaries," which they now saw to be "nothing else but
+an invention of arrogance, a snare of Satan, a sect of confusion, a
+broad road which leadeth to destruction." Wherefore repenting of
+their "impious deeds," they "fled again to the bosom of the
+immaculate and holy Armenian Church," and confessed that "her faith
+is spotless, her sacraments divine, her rites of apostolic origin,
+her ritual pious," and promised to receive "whatever this same holy
+Church receiveth, whether it be a matter of faith or ceremony," and
+to "reject with anathemas whatever doctrines she rejects."1
+
+1 Appendix to _Christianity Revived in the East_, p. 272.
+
+The persecutions designed to enforce this bold and cruel measure,
+both at Constantinople and elsewhere, were too numerous to be fully
+set forth in this history. It appears, from a statement drawn up by
+the missionaries at Constantinople, that nearly forty persons, in
+that city alone, had their shops closed and their licenses taken
+away, and were thus debarred from laboring for an honest livelihood.
+Nearly seventy were ejected from their own hired houses, and
+sometimes from houses owned by themselves, and were thus exposed as
+vagabonds, to be taken up by the patrol and committed to prison; and
+could find shelter only in houses provided for the emergency at
+Pera, or Galata, through the charity of Europeans or Americans. To
+increase the distress, bakers were forbidden to furnish them with
+bread, and water-carriers to supply them with water. Thirty or more
+persons were exiled, imprisoned, or bastinadoed, on no other charge
+than their faith. Many were compelled to dissolve partnerships, and
+bring their accounts to a forced settlement, involving their utter
+ruin. Where the agents of the Patriarch ascertained that debts were
+due from the anathematized to faithful sons of the Church, the
+latter, however reluctant, were compelled to urge an immediate
+settlement.1
+
+1 _Annual Report_ for 1846, p. 98.
+
+Dr. Dwight gives us a glimpse of the working of the Anathema in the
+following narrative: "At one time the Patriarch called before him
+several of the leading Protestants, and sought to win them by
+gentleness and argument. When he found that they could outreason
+him, he said, rather petulantly, 'What is the use of your talking? I
+only called you to sign this paper. If you cannot do it, you may go,
+and next Sabbath you will all be anathematized.'
+
+"One of the number he retained for a more private conversation. This
+was Mr. Apisoghom Khachadurian, who afterwards became the first
+Protestant pastor. After those present had been sent away, the
+Patriarch, with a great show of kindness, entreated our brother to
+yield to the demands of the Church, for the sake of peace. 'Let me
+know,' said he, 'how much you receive as a salary from those men
+(meaning us), and I will pledge myself to secure more for you, if
+you will only come over to our side.' Ap. Khachadurian begged the
+Patriarch not to pain his feelings again by addressing to him any
+such motives, which, in a matter of such solemn moment, were worthy
+of no consideration.
+
+"The Patriarch then said: 'If you will only come back to us, you may
+retain your own private opinions and nobody shall molest you; only
+you must not speak of them to others. Why should you preach? You are
+no priest.'
+
+"_K_. 'I cannot return on any such conditions. It is every man's
+duty to try to enlighten his neighbors in things pertaining to
+salvation, so far as he understands the Gospel.'
+
+"_Patriarch_. 'But, if the evangelical men are permitted to remain
+in the Church on such conditions, the time is not distant when they
+will make the whole Church evangelical.'
+
+"_K_. 'And what if they should? Would it be a calamity to our people
+to receive the Word of God as a body, and endeavor to follow it? You
+well know that this is the true way. You know that you confessed
+this to me some years ago. The course you are now pursuing will be
+destructive to our nation. I well understand your motive. You have
+been called a Protestant, and you seek to wipe this blot from your
+name; but have you not already done enough? Surely everybody must be
+convinced, by this time, that you are an Armenian, and no
+Protestant. Desist, I beseech you, from this work; for your own
+sake, I beseech you desist; otherwise it may result in something
+very bad for you.'
+
+"_Patriarch_. 'Why? what will they (meaning the missionaries) do
+unto me?'
+
+"_K_. 'They will do nothing to you, but your own nation will, if you
+go on in this way.'
+
+"This conversation continued for some time, and the Patriarch's
+conscience seemed, for the moment, to be touched by our brother's
+faithful appeals, and he looked very thoughtful. He requested Mr.
+Khachadurian to call again after two days, which he accordingly did,
+but was not received. A vartabed was sent to say, that if he
+continued of the same mind as before, the Patriarch did not wish to
+see him; and on the following Sabbath he was publicly anathematized
+in all the churches."1
+
+1 _Christianity Revived_, pp. 199-201.
+
+Soon after this anathema, the persecuted brethren addressed a letter
+to the Patriarch, explaining their religious sentiments, and asking
+to be relieved from their sufferings. This producing no effect, they
+addressed themselves to the Primates of the Armenian community, but
+no one of them was disposed to interfere in their behalf. At length
+they presented a petition to Reschid Pasha, Turkish Minister of
+Foreign Affairs. This petition was treated with respect; but, owing
+to the influence of some of the Armenian Primates, it procured no
+relief. Subsequently they carried their case before the English,
+Prussian, and American Ministers, asking their intervention. These
+gentlemen took the kindest interest in their case, and made repeated
+efforts to procure redress. Still the persecution went on. The
+Patriarch even ventured, within a month after the excommunication,
+to send the names of thirteen leading Protestants to the Porte,
+requesting their banishment. This was going a step too far. The
+English Ambassador, Sir Stratford Canning, had called the attention
+of the Turkish ministry to the pledge given, three years before, by
+the Sultan, that "henceforth there should be no more persecution for
+religious opinions in Turkey;" and it was now decided, in accordance
+with this pledge, that the persecution of the evangelical Armenians
+could not be allowed.
+
+Scores of men, women, and children were wandering houseless, for the
+faith of Jesus, in the streets of the great metropolis, but they
+could not be left thus to suffer. Through the kindness of Mr. Allan,
+missionary of the Free Church of Scotland to the Jews, twenty
+individuals were comfortably lodged in a large building he had
+secured for a chapel and mission house. For the rest, the
+missionaries hired such tenements as could be found; at the same
+time providing bread for those cut off from all means of procuring
+their own subsistence. Nor was any time lost in appealing for aid to
+evangelical Christians throughout the world; and responses were
+received from the United States, from England, from every country in
+Europe, and from India; and five hundred dollars were contributed by
+foreign Protestant residents on the ground.
+
+One good resulting from this evil should not be overlooked. The
+evangelical brethren in Constantinople had lived scattered over a
+territory eight or ten miles in diameter, so that they could rarely,
+if ever, come together. But while driven from their homes, and
+sheltered by the hand of Christian charity, they were, for many
+weeks, almost in one neighborhood, with abundant opportunity to
+cultivate each other's acquaintance. Most of their time, indeed, was
+spent in social prayer and religious conference; the effects of
+which were seen in a deeper interest felt for one another, and in a
+stronger bond of union.1
+
+1 _Christianity Revived_, p. 208.
+
+Early in March, Reschid Pasha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
+called up the Armenian Patriarch, and charged him to desist from his
+present course. This was an important point gained. It was now
+virtually decided, that the evangelical subjects of the Porte could
+have a civil existence in Turkey, without being under the spiritual
+dominion of the Patriarch.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1846, p. 218.
+
+But freedom from the Patriarch's civil power they did not actually
+attain until their full and formal recognition as a Protestant
+community. In point of fact, there was no material relief from the
+persecution; though the Patriarch issued a pamphlet, about this
+time, utterly denying that there was any. He even proclaimed from
+the pulpit, that religion was free in Turkey. There was no doubt a
+change for the better in the Turkish government, and the Patriarch
+was gradually learning that persecution for religious opinions was
+not to be allowed. Therefore he felt constrained to use every
+artifice, so that nothing should seem to be done contrary to law;
+and, if possible, so that no ambassador should be able to prove upon
+him an act of persecution. At that very time, however, thirty-four
+shops were closed in Constantinople, and their former occupants were
+forcibly kept from resuming their business, merely because they did
+not subscribe to the Patriarch's creed. This was all, however, under
+the pretense of law. The Patriarch was the civil head of the
+Armenian community, and as such was responsible to the government
+for every trade. No person could open a shop without a license, and
+each trade was incorporated, and regulated by a small committee of
+the most prominent persons in that business. The license came from
+this committee; and each one taking out a license was required to
+give two or more sureties for good conduct. Licenses were refused to
+the evangelical Armenians; or if not, they were not accepted as
+sureties for each other, and none others ventured to assume the
+relation. Thus, until the slow moving Turk discovered the abuse, the
+persecutor pursued his work with impunity under the broad shield of
+the law.
+
+It was specially so in the interior. One of the most trying cases of
+persecution was that of Priest Haritun at Nicomedia, whose
+conversion was mentioned in connection with that of Vertanes, more
+than twelve years before. When Der Vertanes was anathematized, the
+bishop of Nicomedia required Haritun to write a confession of his
+faith, in order to show the people that he was a true son of the
+Armenian Church. The document was far from being satisfactory, and
+his letter appended to it was still less so, for in that he affirmed
+the Holy Scriptures to be the only infallible rule of faith and
+practice, and declared his willingness to receive whatever
+punishment was prepared for him. He was naturally timid, but now he
+was filled with the spirit of martyrdom. He was brought to the
+church on the Sabbath, and the bishop, after reading his confession,
+immediately pronounced him excommunicated and accursed. Two priests
+then violently tore his clerical robes from his shoulders, and with
+boisterous shouts, cried, "Drive the accursed one from the church."
+The excited rabble now fell upon him, and with kicks and blows
+thrust him into the street. All this he received with the greatest
+meekness, and returned to his house exceeding glad that he was
+counted worthy "to suffer for the name of Jesus."
+
+The bishop then sent him a paper of recantation to sign. Refusing to
+do this, he was by an easy artifice, thrown into prison. Finding
+that he owed small sums to different individuals, the debts were all
+bought up by a magnate of the place, and immediate payment was
+required. Being unable to meet the demand, as it was well known he
+would be, he was cast into prison. It was under sanction of the law.
+After thirteen days, he was conducted by a soldier to the bishop's
+palace, where the Patriarch's creed was offered for his signature.
+When they could not persuade him to sign it, he was threatened with
+the loss of his beard, which was considered the greatest indignity
+to a priest. He replied, "For the wonderful name of Christ, I am,
+God helping me, ready even to shed my blood." A barber was called
+in, and not only his beard, but all the hair from his head was
+shaved off. They then tore his clerical cap, and cast it into a
+filthy corner of the street, together with the hair and beard. A mob
+of boys now fastened the beard and the disfigured cap to the end of
+a long pole, and paraded through all the wards of the city,
+shouting, "Heads out! behold the cap of the accursed Haritun." He
+was afterwards sent back to prison, the soldiers leading him by a
+circuitous route to prolong his sufferings, and the mob continually
+following him with opprobrious language. "I entered the prison," he
+wrote to a native brother, "with a joyful heart, committing myself
+to God, and giving glory to Him, that He had enabled me to pass
+through fire and sword, and brought me to a place of repose."
+
+The Turkish governor of the prison, moved by pity, immediately
+released the unoffending old man. Passing through a Turkish burying
+ground, he reached his home unobserved. It was the Sabbath day, and
+he says, "Being delivered from the hands of reckless men, I fell
+down on my face about the eighth hour, with my wife alone, and gave
+glory to God that He had accounted me worthy of such an honor, which
+I formerly avoided, but now by his grace he has made me cheerfully
+to receive, though I am altogether unworthy. He has kept me for such
+a day."
+
+Haritun's inability to pay his debts subjected him to a second
+imprisonment; but as his cup increased in bitterness, his resolve
+was the more firmly fixed, never to deny his Lord and Saviour. His
+spotless reputation, and his meekness in suffering, procured for him
+many friends, even among the Mohammedans.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1846, pp. 219-223, 366.
+
+It deserves to be recorded, that the magnate who secured his
+imprisonment, was thrown from his horse, not long after, and
+received a fracture of the skull, from which he died; and his
+splendid mansion was subsequently consumed by fire.
+
+After having thus cruelly treated Priest Haritun, the bishop
+summoned the evangelical brethren before him, as a body, and so
+wrought upon their fears, that they all agreed to sign the paper of
+recantation. Some of them, however, declared to the bishop, at the
+time, that they should continue to read the Gospel, and come
+together for prayer; and he assured them, that he merely wanted
+their signatures as a matter of form, and that they should be left
+at liberty to believe and act as they pleased. But they lost all
+peace of mind from that moment, until they had abjured their
+recantation, and publicly declared their determination to abide by
+the doctrines of the Gospel, even unto death. This was in March,
+1846. They were all soon after excommunicated.
+
+At Adabazar, there was much suffering. Four of the brethren were
+seized for debt, and thrown into prison. The Protestants were
+assailed with hootings and curses. Fresh outrages were of daily
+occurrence. A native brother, named Hagop, on his way from Adabazar
+to a village an hour distant, was passed by one of the persecutors
+on horseback, who turned upon him and cruelly beat him. Returning
+home with eyes and forehead swollen and blackened, and his limbs
+bloody from the blows he had received, he was taken by his friends
+to the Turkish governor, and two Turks came in as witnesses; but the
+governor refused to give him a hearing. Soon after, the houses of
+the brethren were stoned, and some of them were imprisoned on false
+pretenses, while the governor and judge, though perfectly aware of
+these things, cared not for them. Emboldened thus, the chief ruler
+of the Armenians headed a band of about fifty desperate fellows, and
+went in the evening to the house of Hagop, who had been beaten a few
+days before, broke down the door, rushed up-stairs, and, in the
+presence of his family, beat him on his nose and mouth, and wherever
+else the blows happened to fall, and threw him down stairs. They
+there beat him again, pushed him into the street, and dragged him to
+a place of confinement. Other brethren were subjected to similar
+violence, until the mob became so outrageous that the governor and
+judge were obliged to interfere.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1846, p. 270.
+
+At Trebizond, a young man, refusing to sign the recantation, was
+beaten on the soles of his feet, the vartabed aiding with his own
+hands in inflicting the blows. He was afterwards thrown into a
+miserable stable as a prison; water was plentifully poured upon the
+cold, damp ground on which he stood with mangled feet; his hands
+were tied behind him by the two thumbs; a rope was passed under his
+shoulders and fastened to a beam over his head; and in this
+torturing condition he was left to stand during the night. Orders
+were also issued that no one should give him food. After being kept
+here nearly two days, with some mitigations, and repeatedly
+importuned to sign the recantation, with terrific threatenings in
+case he did not, the sufferer was induced to yield. The
+ecclesiastics were encouraged by this to bastinado and imprison all
+who refused to comply. Those who could, fled to the house of the
+missionary, and ten men were at one time lodged in the chapel, and
+fed at his table.
+
+This mode of proceeding could not continue. The British Consul
+interposed and gave information to the Pasha, who arrested the
+barbarous proceedings, and virtually advised the brethren to secede
+from their persecuting Church. Mr. Powers thought the effect of
+these sufferings had been salutary on all the brethren.1
+
+1 _Missionary Herald_, 1806, [sic, 1846?] pp. 298-300.
+
+Another case occurred at the remote station of Erzroom, and I
+mention it because of the extreme violence of the persecutors,
+though regretting that they partially gained their point. The man
+was a recent convert, but his answers when interrogated, were so
+judicious and decisive, and so sustained by Scripture proofs that
+his adversaries were unable to reply. The main question was, whether
+he would worship the sacred pictures. This he refused to do,
+whereupon he was severely bastinadoed; and afterwards some of the
+priests kicked him, spat in his face, and smote him on the face,
+till the blood gushed from his nose and mouth. He was then put in
+chains, and thrust into a cold prison, without being allowed water
+to wash the blood from his face, though he earnestly requested it.
+
+During the evening two priests went to his prison, and he begged
+them to secure his removal to a stable. They called him a dog, and
+told him he could receive no favor unless he submitted in
+everything. This he said he could never do. He was afterwards
+removed to a stable, and the next day was brought before his
+persecutors and required to sign a creed they had drawn up. This he
+did, after the most objectionable parts had been erased. Emboldened
+by this, and by the refusal of the Pasha to protect the sufferer,
+the ecclesiastics next Sabbath ordered the same man to appear before
+them, and he was immediately thrust into prison. In the evening he
+was taken into the church and brought before the altar, where, in
+the presence of a great multitude, curses were heaped upon him
+without measure. The vartabed who performed this service, used
+language fitted to stir up the worst passions of the people; many of
+whom being partially intoxicated, became so enraged that when the
+brother was conducted to the vartabed's room they grossly abused
+him, not only by words, but by blows and spitting in his face. They
+crowded the door, declaring that he was worthy of death, and that
+they were ready to shed his blood, even if for so doing, they should
+have to shed their own, and it was with difficulty they were
+prevented from rushing upon him. Indeed some actually entered and
+kicked him on the head as he was seated on the floor, without one
+word of rebuke from the ecclesiastics. Their object was to compel
+him to sign a paper recently sent them by the Patriarch. He told
+them he could never heartily sign such a paper. "No matter about
+your _heart_," they exclaimed, "perform the outward act." In
+consequence of this remark, and terrified by the mob, which seemed
+panting to lay violent hands upon him, and into the midst of whom he
+was to be thrust if he did not sign his name, he at length yielded,
+and the next morning his sentence of excommunication was revoked.
+
+A month later, this man much regretted having done so, even under
+such a pressure, and had no thought of abandoning the new religious
+life. He continued his efforts to enlighten the dark minds of those
+to whom he had access, though by so doing, he exposed himself to new
+trials.1
+
+1 Mr. Peabody, in Missionary Herald, 1846, pp. 265-267.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1846-1848.
+
+
+We are now in the middle of the year 1846. Hitherto no one has
+voluntarily separated himself from the Armenian community. The
+so-called "schismatics" were made such by the exscinding act of the
+Patriarch himself. For nearly six months anathemas had been dealt
+out in the patriarchal church every Sabbath until many of the people
+grew weary of them. Through ecclesiastical influence, bread and
+water were still withheld from many Protestant families by the
+dealers in those articles, and everything was done that could be
+done with impunity to afflict those who remained steadfast in the
+truth; nor did the Patriarch or the magnates give them any hope of
+relief, except through unconditional submission to their demands.
+Their only earthly hope was in the Protestant Ambassadors, and in
+Reschid Pasha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Sir Stratford
+Canning, the English Ambassador, whose noble efforts for religious
+liberty in Turkey are worthy of all praise, did not cease urging the
+government to secure to their Protestant subjects the right of
+pursuing their lawful callings without molestation. As to sureties
+for those who were excluded from their shops and business, he
+represented that the demands of the law might be met by their
+becoming sureties for one another. He at length succeeded, and
+Reschid Pasha, who soon became Grand Vizier, gave orders that the
+Protestants be permitted to resume their business on this condition.
+A new officer was put in the place of the one who had turned a deaf
+ear to their petitions. When summoned before him, they declared
+themselves to be Armenians, and he told them it was "Protestants,"
+whom he was to allow to open their shops. They had never adopted
+that name, as it had been applied to them by their enemies by way of
+reproach,--as probably the term "Christian" was to the disciples at
+Antioch,--but called themselves the "Gospellers," or "Evangelists."
+But now, whether they wished it or not, they were constrained to
+adopt the designation of "Protestants."
+
+A letter from the Grand Vizier, written at this time to the Pasha of
+Erzroom, also recognized them as Protestants. It was the first
+document issued by the Turkish government for their protection, and
+began with stating, that certain Armenians at Erzroom, who had
+embraced the Protestant faith, were represented to the government as
+suffering various forms of persecution, from which they prayed to be
+delivered. The Grand Vizier says that the same thing had occurred at
+the capital, where the Protestants, having been anathematized by the
+Patriarch, were cut off from both social and commercial intercourse
+with their countrymen. While the Sultan would not interfere with the
+spiritual duties of the Patriarch, he could not allow his Protestant
+subjects to be hindered in their lawful pursuits. As the Armenian
+Primate had converted the law, requiring every subject entering into
+business to provide sureties for his good behavior, into an
+instrument of oppression, by refusing to accept Protestants as
+sureties for each other, the Pasha was to see that they had the same
+liberty, in this respect, as was enjoyed by their countrymen. This
+was their privilege at Constantinople, and the Grand Vizier hoped
+the Pasha of Erzroom would secure the same for them in his province.
+
+The Patriarch had left no means untried to break up the seminary at
+Bebek, and succeeded in taking away seventeen out of the
+twenty-seven students. But five of them soon returned, and ten
+others speedily joined the institution. About half of the ten were
+young men of good intellectual capacity and mature faith, who had
+fallen under the anathema of the Patriarch. Shutting up their shops
+had sent them to the seminary, where their minds would be
+disciplined, and where, studying the history of the Church, and
+comparing the past and present with God's Word, they would be
+prepared to comprehend the Oriental Apostasy. Of the other five,
+three were from anathematized families, and two were without
+relatives. A lad, who had been expelled from his father's house
+because he was a Protestant, was about to enter the seminary,
+through the influence of a young man who had left it because of the
+failure of his eyes. His father carried both to the patriarchate;
+and the Patriarch, who had declared himself no persecutor, condemned
+them to imprisonment, with hard labor and the wearing of a heavy
+chain day and night. The father repented of his cruelty and implored
+their release, but in vain. It was only when the Patriarch
+understood that the father was carrying the case before the English
+Ambassador, that he released the son. The other youth remained in
+irons; and the reply of the Turkish authorities to repeated
+petitions was, that he had been committed for crime. The
+missionaries believed him entirely innocent, and truly pious. We are
+obliged to leave this youth, after six weeks of labor begirt with a
+chain, in the midst of ferocious and beastly criminals, refusing to
+accept deliverance on condition of subscribing the Patriarch's
+creed.
+
+This persecution changed the seminary into a theological school.
+More instruction was given in ecclesiastical history, especially, in
+regard to the introduction of doctrinal errors, and more attention
+was paid to the exposition of the written Word. A select class was
+formed for the study of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and care was taken
+to have the pastors of the reformed churches men of faith and
+prayer, strong in the Scriptures, and able to expose the
+antichristian character of the nominal Churches round about them.
+
+A seminary for young ladies had been opened in Pera, in the autumn
+of 1845. Eight were then admitted, and five more some months later.
+As the pupils came from evangelical families, most of them had
+received some instruction at their homes. They could read in the New
+Testament with more or less readiness when they entered, and they
+made good proficiency in their studies. Several of them were
+excommunicated by name, and nearly all belonged to excommunicated
+families; so that the sympathies of all were enlisted on the side of
+evangelical truth, though only two or three of the older ones were
+regarded as hopefully pious. The school was under the charge of Mrs.
+Everett and Miss Lovell.
+
+On the 21st of June, 1846, a great feast day in the Armenian Church,
+the Patriarch issued a new anathema against all who remained firm to
+evangelical principles; and decreed that it be publicly read, at
+each annual return of this festival, in all the Armenian churches
+throughout the empire. The Protestants were thus cast out forever.
+They had no power to organize themselves into a civil community; but
+it was clearly their duty to secure for themselves and their
+children, as far as they could, the spiritual privileges of the
+Gospel. Nothing remained for them but to organize themselves into a
+separate church, and this they resolved to do.
+
+They made a written request to the missionaries for aid in this
+matter, having themselves no experience. A meeting was accordingly
+held in Constantinople of delegates from the different stations of
+the Armenian mission. Messrs. Allan and Koenig, missionaries of the
+Free Church of Scotland to the Jews, were present by invitation; and
+also Dr. Pomroy, of Bangor in Maine, and Mr. Laurie, then on his way
+home from Syria. Though the meeting was composed of two or three
+different denominations of Christians, there was the most entire
+harmony in the discussions, and a plan then drawn up for the
+organization of the Evangelical Armenian church, was agreed to by a
+unanimous vote.
+
+The evangelical Armenians in Constantinople came together on the
+first day of July for the public recognition of the church. After
+the reading of the Scriptures and prayer, the plan of organization,
+confession of faith, covenant, and rules of discipline, were read,
+with such explanations as seemed necessary. Those present were then
+requested to rise and give their assent to the articles of faith and
+to the covenant. All rose, and the articles were again read, at the
+end of which all audibly responded, "We do thus believe." In like
+manner they audibly assented to the covenant. The missionaries and
+others then rose, and, as the representatives of Protestant
+Evangelical Churches, publicly acknowledged them as a true church of
+Jesus Christ. Their names were then recorded, amounting to forty,
+three of whom were women.
+
+Thus was constituted the First Evangelical Armenian Church of
+Constantinople. As soon as the names of members had been recorded,
+they proceeded to the choice of a Pastor by ballot, and the
+unanimous choice fell upon Apisoghom Khachadurian, of whom honorable
+mention was made in the preceding chapter. The other church officers
+were then elected; and the church unanimously requested Mr. Dwight
+to act as helper in the pastoral office, which he consented to do.
+
+After one week, an Ecclesiastical Council, invited by the church,
+assembled to ordain the pastor elect. It consisted of the
+missionaries of the Board resident at Constantinople, and Mr. Allan,
+missionary of the Free Church of Scotland. The candidate was
+examined, in the presence of the church, as to his personal piety,
+his views in entering the ministry, as to the doctrines of the
+Gospel, church government, the sacraments, and the duties of
+the pastoral office. He had been educated in the school of
+Peshtimaljian, had for years been in constant intercourse with the
+missionaries, had attended courses of exegetical and theological
+lectures in the seminary, and had received much private instruction.
+More than all, he possessed an experimental knowledge of religion,
+and seemed eminently taught by the Holy Spirit. His clear perception
+of evangelical truth, his power in argument, his impressive manner,
+his superior judgment, his boldness, and his general weight of
+character, plainly singled him out as the man, whom God had called
+to that position.1
+
+1 _Christianity Revived_, p. 231. _Missionary Herald_, 1846, pp.
+317-320, 357.
+
+The new church lost no time in setting forth to their countrymen a
+declaration of their faith, and their reasons for the steps they had
+taken; which they did in a pamphlet issued in the Armenian
+language.1
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_, 1846, p, 356.
+
+Churches on the same basis were formed at Nicomedia and Adabazar in
+July, and at Trebizond early in the autumn. There were disturbances
+at each of these places, but the Mohammedan authorities showed a
+disposition to repress them promptly.1
+
+1 See _Missionary Herald_, 1846, pp. 368-370.
+
+The church at the metropolis was soon called to suffer affliction in
+the death of its beloved pastor, on the 12th of March, 1847. His
+disease was brain fever, occasioned by an exciting missionary visit
+to Nicomedia, where the church was about calling his brother to be
+their pastor. From the nature of the disease, he was mainly without
+the use of his reason; but a few hours before his death, while Mr.
+Dwight was present, the cloud passed from his mind, and they enjoyed
+a most delightful interview. "There were present," says the
+missionary, "besides his own relatives, his two deacons, and several
+of the brethren and sisters of the church, and their joy was
+unbounded when they heard their dying pastor, with restored reason,
+giving such clear testimony of the all-sufficiency of Christ to
+support him in that trying hour. At the end of every answer he gave
+to my inquiries, they cried out all over the room, "Bless the Lord,"
+"Glory to God," unable to restrain their gratitude that God had
+given him grace and opportunity to bear such a testimony. I have
+been present at many Christian death-beds of the people of God, but
+I can truly say, that I never witnessed anything so deeply
+affecting. I afterwards led in prayer. Our departing brother uttered
+a loud _Amen_ at the end of every sentence, and his reason then left
+him to return no more on earth."
+
+I cannot refrain from quoting here the testimony of so judicious, an
+observer as Mr. Dwight, concerning the wife of the pastor. "She is a
+person every way fitted to be a pastor's wife. She is one of the
+most intelligent, pious, and lovely women I have known in this
+country. Indeed, in native intellectual power and in piety, she has
+few superiors anywhere."
+
+Der Haritun had long been the spiritual leader at Nicomedia; but
+when a church was formed, and there was need of one who should be
+both a pastor and preacher, he as a priest, having never learned to
+preach, and having almost reached the age of sixty, meekly gave
+place to one who was better qualified to preach the Gospel with
+power and effect, and now took the place of a deacon.
+
+The reader will remember the manner in which the reformation arose
+among the Armenians of Aintab, through the labors of Bedros
+Vartabed.1 It is worthy of notice, that while the letter of Mr.
+Thomson was on its way to Constantinople, and before his visit
+became known to the Prudential Committee, they had directed the
+Constantinople brethren to send Mr. Van Lennep on a visit to Aleppo
+and Aintab. Mr. Van Lennep estimated the number of Armenian families
+in the place at fifteen hundred. The people were rude and ignorant,
+but they were residents, and not sojourners, as were most of the
+Armenians at Aleppo. He had visitors from morning till night, and
+the conversation was confined to the great subjects of salvation and
+eternal life. All the people knew the reason of his coming, and
+therefore were anxious for instruction on those great questions.
+Meetings were well attended. About ten men appeared to have been
+truly converted. The people were very anxious to have a missionary
+reside among them, but this was not possible at that time.
+
+1 See chapter xxi.
+
+The next visit was by Mr. Johnston, who remained three months at
+Aleppo, till the way was open to Aintab. Meanwhile three were chosen
+from among the brethren to go and study the Scriptures with him at
+Aleppo. Their names were Avedis, Sarkis, and Krikor, all under
+thirty years of age. Mr. Johnston went to Aintab in September, and
+was subjected to a quarantine of twelve days on his arrival. Bedros
+accompanied him, and they called on the Governor. The Catholicos of
+Sis, the spiritual head of the Church, arrived soon after to oppose
+the missionary. Mr. Johnston was fully occupied, however, with the
+numerous inquirers, and there was no way for the opposers but to
+induce the Pasha to drive him from the place. In this they
+succeeded, but not until the time that he himself had set for his
+departure. He and his companions were followed, as they left the
+town on the 14th of December, by attendants of the Catholicos
+reviling and throwing stones. No reason was assigned by the Governor
+for permitting this outrage, and he was shortly afterwards removed
+from office. Remonstrances from the American Minister at the Porte,
+were supposed to be among the causes of his removal.
+
+Meanwhile Dr. Azariah Smith was traversing regions in eastern
+Turkey, which have since become endeared to the friends of missions,
+and reached Aintab just after Mr. Johnston left. A tumult was raised
+at once, with the hope of driving him away also, but without
+success. Having a firman, he refused to go without first seeing the
+Governor, and his medical profession and practice were in his favor.
+He remained until March, and before leaving gathered the hopeful
+converts into a church, which has since proved to be one of the most
+prosperous in Turkey. On his departure, a number of the brethren
+accompanied him a considerable distance, and parted after uniting in
+prayer for each other, and for the cause of their Redeemer and
+Saviour. Bedros, however, whom he left behind to look after the
+infant church, was soon expelled. Mr. Schneider labored there in the
+summer and until some time in the autumn.
+
+Still the position of the Protestants was everywhere one of trial.
+They were separated from the Armenian community, but not united with
+any other. The government, though determined to protect them from
+persecution, did not know exactly what to do. The municipal
+regulations of Constantinople forbad marriage, baptism, or burial
+without the cognizance of the civil power. To obtain a permit for
+marriage, it was necessary to present to the head of the police a
+certificate from the Patriarch; and the Patriarch must report the
+name of every baptized child to the same officer for enrolment.
+Before every burial, permission must be obtained from the Board of
+Health, and this also must be through the Patriarch. Then every
+traveller must have a passport, which could not be obtained without
+a voucher from the Patriarch. It had become quite obvious, that the
+Patriarch could no longer act as their civil representative at the
+Porte.1
+
+1 _Christianity Revived_, p. 241.
+
+In order to promote the internal peace of the empire, the Sultan
+found it necessary to reduce the power of the Armenian Patriarch, by
+appointing a council of laymen, for secular matters, and another of
+ecclesiastics and laymen, for matters spiritual; the Patriarch not
+being allowed to act without their sanction.
+
+The number of Protestant Armenians, including men, women and
+children, now separated from their former churches, was about one
+thousand. Nearly three thousand more were known to entertain
+Protestant sentiments, though still retaining a loose connection
+with their former churches. Those who were more or less awakened to
+a knowledge of their errors, and secretly desired the progress of
+the reformation, must have amounted to several thousands more; but
+of these no accurate estimate could be made.
+
+The six churches formed previous to May, 1848, were as yet small,
+the whole number of members being only one hundred and sixty-six.
+Ninety-nine were at Constantinople, twenty-six at Nicomedia, twelve
+at Adabazar, sixteen at Trebizond, five at Erzroom, and eight at
+Aintab. But neither the number of church members, nor the size of
+the congregations, nor the number of those who came to the
+missionaries for religious conversation, told the whole story. There
+was a deep movement going on in the Armenian community itself, which
+might be expected to produce great changes in the whole body. In
+some of the churches there were contentions, occasioned chiefly by
+their inexperience in self-government, and their ignorance of the
+proper modes of acting under their new circumstances. In Trebizond,
+it became necessary to separate two of the church members by a
+formal vote of excision. But this event, though exceedingly trying
+to the infant community, as well as to the missionaries at the
+station, was overruled for good. By the divine blessing on such
+experiences, the self-governing power usually gains strength.
+
+Baron Simon was ordained pastor of the bereaved church in
+Constantinople, in place of his brother. Baron Haritun Manasian was
+ordained pastor of the churches in Nicomedia and Adabazar, and was
+to spend one fourth of his time in the latter place. Both were from
+the seminary at Bebek.
+
+During the year ending May, 1848, the seminary containing
+forty-seven scholars, and the school for girls containing
+twenty-three, were both favored with what may be called a revival,
+which added several from each of them to the church; and there was a
+similar awakening in both institutions in the following year. The
+work of the Holy Spirit was distinctly traceable also at Aintab,
+Aleppo, Killis, Arabkir, and other places in the interior. The
+houses of worship in Pera, and in the city proper, were crowded on
+the Sabbath, and nearly every week new persons were present.
+
+
+END OF VOLUME FIRST.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of The Missions Of The
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