Volume II Part 8 (1/2)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER x.x.x.

THIRTY YEARS AMONG THE JEWS.

1826-1856.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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