Volume II Part 16 (2/2)
”From the villages about us we have a good report. They receive the gospel from Oshana and Shlemon, who visit them every Sabbath. In my journeys through these mountains, I have seen various a.s.semblies of men and women listening to the gospel; poor ones, exclaiming, 'What shall we do? Our priests have deceived us; we are lost, like sheep on the mountains. There is no one to teach us.' They sit in misery and ignorance. They need our prayers and our help. I verily believe that if we labor faithfully--G.o.d help us to labor thus--we shall soon see our Church revived, built up on the foundation of Christ Jesus, and adorned for Him as a bride for her husband. With tears of joy we shall gaze on these ancient ruins becoming new temples of the Lord. Soon shall these mountains witness scenes that will rejoice angels and saints. Those will be blessed times. Let us pray for them, and labor with Christ for their coming.”[1]
[1] _Woman and her Saviour in Persia_, pp. 216-221. Similar ill.u.s.trations could be multiplied from this remarkable volume, some of them scarcely less interesting than the above.
Priest Abraham, the father of this excellent woman, died in 1871. He was one of the first to cooperate with Dr. Perkins, and was faithful unto the end.
There was the more call for some new missionary movement from the fact, that, whatever may be affirmed as to the wisdom of the plan adopted for reforming the Nestorian Church, in the earlier stages of the mission, experience had shown that the Old Church, as such, could not be reformed. It was proper that, from time to time, the favorable facts on this subject should be stated in this history, as they appeared to the men then on the ground,--to Dr. Lobdell;[1] to Dr. Dwight;[2] to Mr. Coan;[3] to Dr. Perkins;[4] indeed to the whole body of the mission. But the experience of six and thirty years had shown, that the dead Church could not be galvanized into spiritual life. There was no way for the truly enlightened but to leave it, and form reunions on the Apostolic basis.
[1] Chapter xxvii.
[2] Chapter xxix.
[3] Chapter xxix.
[4] Chapter xxviii.
The necessity had become obvious, but it was a trying process. It was too much for Mar Yohanan. He must be spoken of kindly, for he had long stood in friendly relations with the mission, though the evidence of his piety was never entirely satisfactory.
Priest John, of Geog Tapa, gave unquestioned evidences of piety in early life. But in 1868, if not earlier, his gold had become dim, and his proceedings and their consequences must have a place in this history.
Becoming extravagant in his habits, and thus involved in debt, he was disaffected because the mission could not accede to exorbitant demands, and relieve him from pecuniary embarra.s.sments. So he went abroad to collect money for this purpose, and made his way to England, where he succeeded in interesting several of the dignitaries of the Established Church. Returning home in the autumn of 1869, he made such a report of his visit, and excited such expectation of the coming of Episcopal clergymen, and large patronage for ecclesiastics and civil protection for all cla.s.ses, that many of the simple-hearted people were carried away. The mission had been hoping to get some of the evangelical churches, ere long, upon a self-supporting basis; but the hopes thus excited of their burdens being a.s.sumed by the Church of England, put back for a time this work of self-support.
The narrative is continued in the language of Mr. Cochran: ”Priest John returned from England flushed with the apparent success of his mission. At Geog Tapa, the next Sabbath after our communion, at early dawn he baptized fifteen children with much display. More than two hours were spent in reading the English Liturgy, chanting Psalms, and explaining and vindicating the usages of the English Church. He announced his intention to give the communion to all who desired it. This innovation upon the evangelical usage of more than a dozen years (though he had once previously practiced indiscriminate baptism), was not inappropriately followed by the suspension of the Sabbath-school and preaching service, and the turn-out of the whole village, headed by Malek Yonan and Priest John, to meet the son of the master of their village, who happened to return on that day from a long absence in the army. In the delay of the young Khan's arrival, a young deacon, more zealous than discreet, proposed a service by the roadside, but many voices cried, 'We have become Episcopalians, and don't want any more preaching.'
This public and flagrant violation of the Sabbath, headed by the two leading Christians of the village, painfully ill.u.s.trates the material found there, and sadly contrasts with the better days of the excellent and lamented Malek Agha Beg and Mar Elias.
”We have heard nothing from friends in England, but from other sources infer the probability of at least a visit of Episcopalians to Mar s.h.i.+mon, and possibly to Oroomiah, the coming spring. Priest John states, that Dr. Perkins did him harm in England by his published statement, that he (Priest John) had come, not as an accredited agent to secure Episcopal interference, but rather on a private and personal begging expedition (the truth of which is well known in Oroomiah, and confirmed by a written stipulation lodged with friends here, that his companion should receive one third of the avails of the excursion). To destroy the force of Dr. Perkins'
statement, Priest John has secured the signature of a large number of names, including Patriarchs, Bishops, Maleks, and princ.i.p.al men among the people. The paper was circulated privately, but we learn that only one of our employees, and very few, if any, of our communicants, could be persuaded to sign it.
”If asked, what is the true state of feeling among our communicants, an extensive and familiar acquaintance with them enables me to testify with great confidence, that, with the exception of a very small high-church party, headed mainly by Mar Yohanan, I discover no special tendency to Old Churchism of any kind, and if let alone, they are more than satisfied with the gospel simplicity and spontaneity of wors.h.i.+p.”
Under date of January 10th, 1870, Mr. Cochran adds, ”Geog Tapa continues to witness novel scenes under the eccentric and reckless Priest John. At the close of the fast of the nativity, the communion was administered to the whole village, and numbers from surrounding villages were also invited in. Many who had not communed for from ten to thirty years, as well as the more superst.i.tious and the lowest rabble, partic.i.p.ated. Four priests, all of whom are of doubtful piety (though two were in our communion), officiated, clothed in white. The whole Old Church service was read in ancient Syriac, and long Psalms were chanted in the same. The baser sort were exultant, but the thoughtful, even of those not with us, were sad. Every artifice was used to draw in our communion, but we were rejoiced to find that all except ten,--consisting of the family of Priest John, and the priests and deacons who officiated,--refused to partake with them.
”I have preached there three times since. Yesterday was our communion. The house was crowded at both services. It was judged that seven hundred were inside, and not less than one hundred and fifty outside. I preached in the morning on the spiritual character of a true church, and newness of life as the condition of admission, and that the ordinances belong exclusively to the church, and not to those outside. All listened attentively, though a disturbance was feared. In the afternoon I 'fenced' our communion fully, but Priest John had the effrontery to partake. I have since learned that had it been withheld, he, with the rabble, would have taken it by force. A perfect separation seems called for, and with it a casting out of unworthy members from the church. But the heart of the body is right, and will, I trust, stand by the truth.”
”Enlightened villagers,” adds Mr. Shedd, under date of January 20, 1870, ”besides members of the evangelical communion, did not partake. It shows the movement for high-church aid in its true colors. Such aid on the part of the English bishops is nothing more nor less than salarying Mar s.h.i.+mon and his ecclesiastics, for reading their old prayers and using their dead forms and rites, as they have done for ages past. We rejoice in so simple an issue, and are sure it can do no injury to vital Christianity.”[1]
[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1870, p. 190.
The time having come for separate and independent church organizations, these painful occurrences seem to have been providentially designed to promote that result.
Mr. Cochran thus writes: ”The progress of the gospel and providential occurrences, are bringing us into many new relations to the old Nestorian Church, and grave questions, affecting the purity and future growth of our churches, are now forcing themselves upon us. So long as the Old Church did not oppose evangelical labors, so long as she freely opened her doors to our services, consenting to a separate administration of the ordinances for the hopefully pious, and silently tolerating many ecclesiastical and social reforms, and an abandonment of the liturgical service; in short, so long as we could see, under the preached gospel, the hold on the old superst.i.tions steadily lessening, and the ma.s.ses being leavened with evangelical truth, we were more than content to labor on without a separate church organization.
”But experience in other fields, as well as our own, has proved that such labors can only be prosecuted for a time. From year to year we have found the old ecclesiastics more restive under their loss of support, and more jealous of the progress of spiritual life. Mar s.h.i.+mon, as you are informed, has for years openly opposed the gospel, and now so intimidates the interior mountain districts under his immediate control, that it seems preposterous to attempt to prosecute labors there, unless on a separate foundation. And we now find the opposition on the plains, and all over the field, not less positive, and daily becoming more concerted and potent.
”Mar Yohanan has also, for years, secretly, and often openly and most offensively, opposed spiritual and reformatory labors. Priest John, a most untiring and reckless man, is arousing a furor of zeal for Old Churchism,--a fanaticism that will not be likely to subside with the spasmodic efforts he may make. He and others are now administering the communion every few weeks to the whole people, without distinction of character. They also enjoin the fasts and saints' days, resume the use of the liturgy in ancient Syriac, burn incense daily, bow before the altar, and make the sign of the cross; though some, as yet, refuse to come into all these measures.
”With the return of these old superst.i.tions, there is also a painful throwing off of moral restraint, and intemperance and kindred vices have greatly increased.
”In these circ.u.mstances the question has arisen, first in Geog Tapa, and subsequently in other places; Can 'the evangelicals' further unite in the morning and evening service conducted by priests--and there happen to be five or six in that village--who are reviving these superst.i.tions? Almost the whole church are surprisingly united in the decision to withdraw. This has been done for the last two months, and we find upwards of one hundred members there, who are firm, and daily waxing stronger in faith and opposition to the old superst.i.tions.”
<script>