Volume II Part 9 (1/2)
Manual labor schools and hospitals for the Jews, employing converts merely for the sake of giving them employment; boarding-schools to serve as houses of refuge for the children of converts; expenses incurred for s.h.i.+elding converts from persecution or for teaching them trades; were not regarded as within the range of missionary work; but the converts were, in general, to be left, as the Apostles left them, to meet the consequences of their conversion upon their persons, their families, and their business, as G.o.d in his providence and by his grace should enable them.
Mr. Maynard was removed by death from his labors within five months after his arrival. In company with a New England clerical friend, he made a tour into the delightful region of Thessaly for relaxation and health. Unconsciously they exposed themselves to malaria, and both took the same fever; of which Mr. Maynard died at Salonica, and his friend at Athens. Mrs. Maynard soon afterwards returned home.
The place thus early vacated was filled, in the following summer, by the Rev. Justin W. Parsons, who was accompanied by his wife.
The Salonica Jews had scarcely more than the shadow of education. A school taught in the princ.i.p.al synagogue contained about a thousand pupils, but with the least possible intellectual value in the instruction. Half as many more were in private schools, where Hebrew and Hebrew-Spanish were taught, but nothing like Grammar, Geography, or History. In a small select school, supported by rich Jews, Italian (the commercial language) and French were taught.
Familiarity with the Talmud was regarded as the perfection of knowledge, so that a man needed to know nothing else. ”Oh,” said a beardless youth to a missionary, ”if you had only read our Talmud, you would throw all your books into the fire.” Salonica was famous for its books, but they were servile imitations of the Talmud. The spoken language was essentially Spanish, but, with a deficient vocabulary, and greatly corrupted with Turkish and Hebrew words, while subject to constant change. Consequently the many books and tracts in Hebrew-Spanish, which were published by the English missionaries in Smyrna, were comparatively useless at Salonica, because of the difficulty of understanding them. These Jews therefore needed missionary schools.
The excessive self-righteousness of this people, as described by Mr.
Dodd, disclosed a serious obstacle to missionary success among them.
”Two thousand years of punishment,” he says, ”have not destroyed the feeling, that they are the beloved of heaven. They pray, morning, noon, and night, and that too in the holy language. They always ask a blessing on their food. They neither eat nor touch any unclean thing. Except they wash their hands oft, they eat not. When they fast, it is by entire abstinence from food. They read the Word of G.o.d almost continually. In pa.s.sing through the bazaars, you may see the shop-keepers taking up the Bible to read in their leisure hours; and if a visitor has to wait for you a few minutes, with a Bible within reach, you will certainly find him reading it, though it be in an unknown tongue; and once a year they sit up all night to read through the law. Their recognition of Providence is excessive. Every event is referred to G.o.d. He is thanked for every good; submission to his will is expressed in every trial. Every hope is uttered conditionally, in dependence on him; and his aid is invoked in trouble as frequently, and with as little meaning, as many Christians speak of fortune, or luck. As to the outward semblance of piety and devotion, I do not think another such people can be found.
Like their fathers, they seek G.o.d daily, and delight to know his ways. As a nation, they take delight in approaching G.o.d. 'Is not the Lord among us?' 'No evil shall come upon us.' Talk to them of G.o.d's glory, and they will answer by quoting some beautiful Psalm of David. Talk of man's sinfulness, and they will repeat Psalm 51st, with seeming penitential devotion. Speak of G.o.d's wrath against sin; they will a.s.sent readily, but add, that he is pitiful, remembering that we are dust. Thus the missionary is baffled. Let him search the Word of G.o.d to find expressions that shall penetrate to their consciences; the Jew is familiar with them all, and repeats them every day in his prayers. They either mean nothing, or through a talmudic gloss, aided by self-righteous blindness, they foster his confidence in the mercy of the G.o.d who is his peculiar friend, and loves him more than he loves the Gentile world, or even his own justice and truth.”
Mr. Parsons also says, after a visit to Seres, a city fifteen miles northwest of Salonica: ”The Jews of Seres have the same blind submission to the rabbis, the same prejudices, the same evasions of the truth. Gold is their G.o.d, and traffic is their religion,--one would say, who should meet them only in their fair. But in their prayers, and their Sabbath observance, the deceiver makes them appear to themselves the holy favorites of heaven, separate from the nations.”
Mr. Schauffler had now printed his Hebrew grammar, and commenced the printing of his Hebrew lexicon. The edition of the Pentateuch was nearly exhausted.
The Rev. Homer B. Morgan and wife reached Salonica in February, 1852. The brethren were of the opinion, that while for two thirds of the year the climate of that city was tolerably healthy, the low portions, where the Jews and Greeks chiefly resided, were subject to malaria. The missionaries, therefore, would have resided in the more elevated parts occupied by the Turks, but could neither hire nor purchase houses in that quarter. The best they could do was to live in the upper stories of their houses. Mr. Dodd suffered from a bronchial affection, and sought to recruit his health by an excursion into Thessaly, where he enjoyed some excellent opportunities for preaching the gospel, both to Jews and Gentiles.[1] Mr. Parsons visited the part of Macedonia, which lies northwest of Salonica, and then extended his journey to Sophia, the capital of Bulgaria.[2]
[1] _Missionary Herald_ for 1852, pp. 235-238.
[2] _Ibid_. pp. 78-83.
The health of Mr. Dodd did not improve, and he repaired first to Malta, and then, with the consent of the Committee, to the United States. In August, 1852, a mouth after his departure, Mr. and Mrs.
Parsons, and Mr. and Mrs. Morgan were all prostrated by intermittent fever. Mrs. Morgan did not yield to the disease, till she had exhausted her strength in caring for the others; and then, after a short illness, during most of which she was unconscious, she was removed to her heavenly home. Mr. Parsons was at one time very low; and the three survivors were subjected to such frequent returns of fever during the winter, that they were advised by physicians to spend the spring and summer on the Bosphorus. They left the station in charge of native helpers, and removed to Constantinople. Until sickness came, their labors had been uninterrupted. Their circle of acquaintance was constantly increasing, and they were generally regarded by the Jews as their sincere friends. They were expected in their visits to declare and make personal applications of gospel truths. A little volume upon the inspiration of the Old and New Testaments, by Mr. Dodd, was favorably received by many of the Jews.
It was not deemed expedient for the brethren to resume their residence in Salonica. Mr. Morgan and Mr. and Mrs. Parsons removed to Smyrna, where they shared with their English brethren in labors among the Jews. They hoped to continue to occupy Salonica through Armenian native helpers, and to visit it themselves in the healthy season. Mr. Morgan was married to Mrs. Sutphen, of the Armenian mission, at the close of 1853, and on the return of Mr. and Mrs.
Dodd to Smyrna in the autumn of 1854, they went to Salonica, expecting to remain there during nine months, and then to retire before the miasma of summer. Mr. Morgan was welcomed by his Jewish acquaintance, and found that the spirit of inquiry had spread, and that there was greater boldness on the part of a few. But whatever their secret conviction of the truth, none confessed the Saviour openly. The first fruits ripened elsewhere. A family of three fled to Malta, and were baptized there; another, a converted rabbi, came to Smyrna, and became a teacher. There had been a considerable advance in female education, since Mrs. Dodd had, with great difficulty, persuaded a Jewish girl to encounter the odium of learning to read. Some prominent rabbis were teaching their daughters, and the tide seemed evidently turning.
The Jews of Smyrna were found to be more worldly, and less given to religious thought, than the Jews of Salonica. But an avowedly Christian school of near twenty pupils was sustained during the year 1854, and taught by the converted rabbi above mentioned. The teacher was known to be a proselyte. The New Testament was read daily, and biblical instruction occupied a large place. It was hopeful that Jews were found willing to place their children in such an atmosphere. A boarding-school was opened for a few of the more promising boys belonging to the day-school. The parents of five actually signed a contract binding them to the missionaries for three years. This they did after the most explicit declarations, that while the boys would be trained for the highest usefulness and happiness in this world, they would be carefully instructed in the way of salvation through Jesus of Nazareth. The experiment could not proceed without opposition. The chief rabbi interposed. The eldest boy in the school manifested an inclination to embrace the Christian religion, and was beaten, dragged to the synagogue, and compelled to go through the form of wors.h.i.+p. He was then put in irons procured from the mad-house. He afterwards fled to Constantinople, where he was baptized by one of the Scotch missionaries. The teacher was also thrown into prison, on a false accusation. A young Jewish physician appeared fully to embrace the truth, and was not moved by the most cruel threats, or flattering promises. Mr. Parsons was greatly encouraged.
The instruction of inquirers at Constantinople had pa.s.sed mostly into the hands of English and Scotch missionaries to the Jews, while Mr. Schauffler's labors were chiefly literary. He was preparing a new translation of the Psalms into Hebrew-Spanish, in a more popular style; but could hardly expect entire success, owing to the peculiarities of the language as spoken by the common people in different places. His translation of the Old Testament into Hebrew-German, after revision by Mr. Koenig, of the Scotch Free Church Mission, was printed by the American Bible Society. He was able to preach in various languages, and did not neglect employing his talent in that direction. The printing of his Hebrew Lexicon was completed in 1854.
The reader will scarcely be prepared for the relinquishment of this mission, which took place early in 1856, though not in consequence of failing success. The Armenian and Jewish missions, at their united annual meeting in the spring of 1855, recommended that the Board relinquish to some other society the Jewish stations of Salonica and Smyrna. Constantinople, as such a station, had been practically relinquished some time before. At a conference of missionaries in Constantinople in November of that year, on occasion of a visit from the Foreign Secretary of the Board, the subject was carefully considered, and the question was decided according to the personal convictions of the brethren in the Jewish mission. The result was in favor of relinquis.h.i.+ng the Jewish field to the English and Scotch Societies; and of the younger members of the mission devoting their strength to the Armenian field, the exclusive right to which had been conceded to American missionaries by the general consent, as it were, of Protestant Christendom. It had become certain that the Board could not command laborers enough to do anything like justice to both fields; while the English and Scotch churches manifested a special interest in laboring for the conversion of the ancient people of G.o.d; and there were both English and Scotch missionaries in Constantinople, and English missionaries in Smyrna; and others from the Established Church of Scotland were ready to occupy Salonica.
Mr. Schauffler subsequently devoted himself to labors for the Moslems, many of whom were becoming interested in the spiritual form of Christianity presented in the Protestant Armenian communities, that were springing up throughout the empire.
CHAPTER x.x.xI.
THE BULGARIANS OF EUROPEAN TURKEY.
1857-1862.
The geographical position of European Turkey brings it directly in contact with European civilization. Its interior may easily be reached from the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmora, the Dardanelles, the Grecian Archipelago, the Adriatic Sea, and from the Danube flowing down from the heart of Europe. The Mohammedan population is estimated at four millions, and three fourths of these are supposed to be of Christian origin, and less firmly wedded to the Moslem faith than the remaining million of Osmanly Turks. And even these, born and educated on the borders of Europe, in the midst of divers Christian races, must form a character different from that of the Asiatic Turks in other parts of the empire.
Of the various races in European Turkey, the Bulgarians, properly so called, who are estimated at four millions, speaking the Bulgarian language, claim our first attention. They inhabit not only Bulgaria proper, extending from the Danube to the Balkan Mountains, but also an extensive region south of these mountains, reaching to the Bosphorus, the Marmora, and Albania; and embracing a good part of ancient Thrace, Albania, and Macedonia.[1]