CHAPTER XXIX.
THE NESTORIANS.
1857-1863.
The sojourn of three weeks at Tabriz had been a source of constant anxiety to Messrs. Stoddard and Wright, and the former had premonitory symptoms of fever on his way home. But he was not apprehensive on that account, and finding Mr. Cochran and two of the native teachers disabled by sickness, he devoted much time and labor to the Seminary, and to the correspondence which had accumulated in his absence. Yet fever was threatening, and on the 22d of December, ten days after his return, he became decidedly ill. On the 25th he was confined to his bed, where he lay for two and thirty days, while the fever ran its fatal course. He died in great peace January 26, 1857, in the thirty-ninth year of his age. The public funeral services were in Syriac, and his remains were borne to their last resting-place by graduates of the seminary, whose conversion dated back to the first revival.
The mind of Mr. Stoddard was cast in a fine mould. The older members of the Board remember him at the Annual Meeting in Pittsfield in 1849. My own thought at the time was, that were an angel present in human form, his appearance and deportment would be much like those of Mr. Stoddard. A calm, seraphic joy shone in his face, and all that he said and did was just what all delighted to hear and see. His presence did much to give a character to that meeting. Mr. Stoddard had a frail body, and an almost feminine grace of person, like the popular impression of that disciple who leaned on the bosom of his Lord; but, like that disciple, he had strength of principle and inflexibility of purpose. His consecration to the missionary work was no sudden impulse. It was the result of repeated, and sometimes unexpected, meetings and conferences with Dr. Perkins, whose sagacious eye had marked him for a missionary. But the question once settled, it was settled for life. He went whole-souled into the work, and never doubted that his call to it was of God. His talents, which were of a high order, and his learning, which excited the admiration of Persian nobles and princes, were unreservedly consecrated. "He goes among the churches," said the lamented Professor B. B. Edwards, of the Andover Seminary, "burning like a seraph. So heavenly a spirit has hardly ever been seen in this country."
Mr. Stoddard's daughter Harriet followed him to the grave within two months, at the age of thirteen, a victim to the same disease. She was sustained by the same calm trust in Christ, which lighted up the last hours of her excellent father.
Dr. Perkins wrote in 1857, that when the mission was commenced, twenty-four years before, hardly a score of Nestorian men were able to read intelligently, and but a single woman, the sister of the Patriarch. The people had no printed books, and but few copies even of portions of the Bible in manuscript, and these were all in the ancient Syriac, and almost unintelligible. Their spoken language, the modern Syriac, had not been reduced to writing. Their moral degradation was extreme. Still there was a remarkable simplicity in their conception of religious doctrines, and a remarkable absence of bigotry in their feelings, as compared with other oriental sects, and they were very accessible to the missionaries. The change had been great. Of the fifty-six in the male seminary when he wrote, thirty were hopefully pious; and so were ninety-one of the one hundred and fifty who had been connected with it. These were the fruits of seven revivals. Of the one hundred and three who had been connected with the female seminary, sixty, or more than one-half, gave good evidence of conversion; and the same might be said of three fourths who were then in the school. A large portion of the young men who had left the seminary, were either preachers of the gospel, or very competent teachers in the village school; and the greater part of the religious graduates of the other seminary were married to those missionary helpers. This seminary had been blessed with eight revivals. The instruction in both institutions had been almost wholly in the native tongue.
The entire Bible had been translated into the spoken language, which the mission had reduced to a written form; and two thousand intelligent readers, the result of the schools, had been supplied with the sacred volume. Indeed, the Scriptures had been printed and given to the people in the ancient Peschito version, as well as in the spoken tongue. To these were added valuable works on experimental and practical religion, for the use of the schools, and to meet the wants of a community in the early stages of a Christian civilization.
Though separate churches had not been organized, none but pious Nestorians, for the last two or three years, had been admitted to communion with the mission church. The number who had thus communed was about two hundred, and it was thought that from one hundred and fifty to two hundred more were worthy of a place at the Lord's table.
The French Jesuits and their emissaries had been a sore trial, but their success had not been great; and they had probably been useful, by stimulating the mission and the pious Nestorians in their Master's service.
Mrs. Rhea had been two years a member of the mission as Miss Harris, and three as Mrs. Rhea. Her active and useful life closed on the 7th of December, 1857, at the age of twenty-nine years and five months. "Her sick room," says Dr. Wright, "was a hallowed place, where the Sun of Righteousness shone with wonderful brightness."
Another revival of religion occurred in both the seminaries, at the opening of the year 1858, which was extended to Geog Tapa and other villages. Miss Fiske, in charge of the female seminary, relates a fact of much significance. She writes: "Some of the girls' pious friends came to pray with them yesterday, and I was led to inquire how many of them have a pious father or mother (or both), or older brother or sister; and I was surprised to find, as I think you will be to know, that about two thirds of them have such praying friends. I contrast this with the facts respecting their friends in 1846, and feel that we ought to be thankful and humble before our God, for what he has done for them."
Mr. Rhea spent the winter of 1857 and 1858 on the western side of the Koordish mountains, and everywhere found an open door for preaching to the rude dwellers among the rocks. In Shermin, Usgan, and Argin, Nestorian villages southwest of Amadiah, he was cordially welcomed to their houses and churches, and had large congregations that gave earnest attention to his preaching. Snow fell eleven out of fifteen days, and when ready to return to Amadiah, he found the way entirely blocked up. Mr. Marsh having joined him from Mosul, they spent a number of days among large papal villages in that region, where they found ample opportunity for preaching the Gospel; and several individuals seemed earnest inquirers after the way of salvation from the power of sin. With reference to Mosul and vicinity, Mr. Rhea writes: "I am deeply impressed with the evidence, that the labors of the mission here have not been in vain, and that their results are not to be measured by the number of names on the church roll. The Jacobite Church here is now shaken to its foundations; and it cannot be doubted, that whatever of feeling after something better exists among many of its members is owing to the steady light of the Protestant church streaming in upon its darkness." He was absent six months, and for one third of this time was in Mosul. He regarded the proper field of the mountain branch of the Nestorian Mission as extending from Amadiah on the north to Mosul on the south, and from Akra on the east to Bootan on the west; including the mountain districts between Gawar and Amadiah. The Christian population was one in respect to nationality and language, and was a remnant of the once great Syrian Church. The language was the same substantially as that spoken in the eastern districts.
As the result of these explorations, Mr. Rhea made an eloquent appeal for more effective labor in Western Koordistan, which was published in the "Missionary Herald," but cannot be sufficiently condensed for these pages.[1] His health had suffered in his mountain tours, which resembled those performed by his eminent predecessor, Dr. Grant. This rendered it necessary for him to spend a year for recovery in his native land, where his missionary addresses were well received. Two other members of the mission, second to none in the field,—the venerable Dr. Perkins, and Miss Fidelia Fiske,—were obliged to visit the United States in 1858; the former to care for the health of Mrs. Perkins, who, after burying six of her children, had accompanied Mrs. Crane to America, taking her only surviving child; and the latter, in consequence of a disease, which proved fatal after a few years. Dr. Perkins was also accompanied by Mrs. Stoddard, and three children of the mission.
[1] See Missionary Herald, 1858, pp. 317, 318.
Mr. Rhea's appeal had not been without effect. The Rev. Thomas L. Ambrose joined the mission near the close of 1858, the Rev. John H. Shedd and wife in 1859, and the Rev. Henry N. Cobb and wife in 1860, with direct reference to the mountain field; and the Rev. Amherst L. Thompson and Rev. Benjamin Labaree, with their wives, and Frank N. H. Young, M. D., in 1860, to strengthen the force on the plains, together with Misses Aura Jeannette Beach and Harriet N. Crawford. Mr. Thompson had given much promise of usefulness, but died at Seir, August 25, 1860, only fifty-four days after his arrival. Miss Beach was to be associated with Miss Rice, who had rendered efficient service in the girls' Seminary as the associate of Miss Fiske, but was then alone and overburdened.
The unexpected but providential withdrawal of so many older laborers, at this juncture, was not favorable to a more enlarged occupation of the field; and the plan of forming a station on the western side of the mountains, was not carried out. The height of Amadiah above the plain of Mesopotamia, and its salubrity in summer were found to have been overestimated; and further researches made it evident, that the demands of so trying a mountain field were more than the average health of missionaries would be able to endure at any season of the year. Indeed, impaired health obliged Mr. and Mrs. Cobb, who had been specially designated to the mountain district, to return home within two years; and, to their own great regret and that of their associates, they have never been able to rejoin the mission.
The Nestorian helpers, as a class, were pronounced able and faithful men, remarkably so for Orientals. But they could not fully take the place of missionaries. "They do nobly," wrote Mr. Coan, "if properly directed and watched over, better perhaps, in some circumstances, than we can; but it is not the work of a day, nor a year, thoroughly to eradicate the habits of life of those who are brought up in gross superstition."
Early in the year 1859, the seminary for young men was blessed with its tenth revival, in which a third of its pupils were hopefully converted. There had then been eleven such spiritual refreshings in the seminary for girls. In most of these outpourings of the Spirit, as now, the villages were more or less favored. The effects of these revivals were by no means limited to the souls converted. An enlightening, softening, elevating influence affected the masses. The young men from the seminary were generally of good abilities, having been selected from a large number of candidates, and many of them were distinguished for piety; and quite as much might be said of the other seminary.
More than fourteen millions of printed pages had been distributed among the Nestorians. The Old Testament with references formed a part of this literary treasure; and the New Testament was about being issued in that form.
Among the novelties to be recorded was the marriage of Mar Yohanan, in violation of the canons of the Nestorian Church. The bishop had been connected with the labors of the mission from the beginning. He pleaded the example of Luther and the Apostles. The step was one of his own choosing, and taken in the face of many threats, as well as the imputation of unworthy motives; but the "evangelicals" almost universally approved his course. The excitement was much less than had been apprehended; and another of the bishops, after some time, followed his example.
In 1860 the observance of the Lord's Supper, instead of being confined to the missionary stations; was held, once in four months, in the various villages where the converts resided, and about a score of virtually reformed churches were thus planted and watered in as many different places. The native pastor was held responsible for the persons whose names were presented to the missionary, as suitable to be admitted to the Lord's table. Mr. Coan speaks of those little churches, as being such in fact, "scattered in the different villages, as so many moral light-houses in the surrounding darkness."
Mar Shimon, the Nestorian Patriarch, died near the close of 1860, at the age of fifty-nine, and after having been thirty-five years in office. His successor was a nephew, eighteen years old, and a youth of amiable disposition. The patriarch had stood variously affected towards the mission, but was, for the most part, unfriendly. The effect of the Gospel in diminishing the superstitious reverence of the people for him, was one of the causes of his hostility.
About this time, a spirit of unlooked-for liberality was manifested among the Nestorians. It should be borne in mind that the people are poor, that the man worth five hundred dollars is counted rich, and that probably no Nestorian is worth two thousand dollars. The indications in our own country were at that time very unpromising; and when the prospective embarrassments of the Board were stated at the monthly concert in Geog Tapa, John, the pastor, urged the people to support their own missionary in the mountains, and one of the audience rose and pledged nearly a month's support. Others contributed unwonted amounts, and soon the whole congregation was in a blaze of enthusiasm. Those who could command money gave money, others contributed wheat, or other produce, and even women took off their ornaments and gave them. At the monthly concert the next day in the city, the people were more aglow than at Geog Tapa, and gave on a larger scale, though frequently reminded that they were poor, and urged not to give more than their cooler judgments would approve. The amount contributed was five hundred dollars. They seized upon the figure of "a bride"— more forcible in Persia than in America,—which Mr. Coan had used in his address; and one and another contributed for her "shoes," "dress," and other things, until the "church," the "Lamb's wife," had a very comfortable outfit.
This outburst of benevolent effort was too sudden and excessive to last in the same measure. The advantage gained by the elevation thus reached, was the practicability of keeping the converts up to giving according to their ability, which is the Gospel standard. Dr. Perkins, writing two years later, thought there was a real gain by this effort, though it had reacted somewhat. Most of the pledges were redeemed after the next harvest and vintage.
Dr. Dwight was eighteen days at Oroomiah during his Eastern tour in 1860 and 1861. Mr. Wheeler had accompanied him from Harpoot. Some important changes in the practical working of the mission, made at the Annual Meeting, threw a greater responsibility on the native pastors. They were to have the responsibility, not only of administering baptism, but of the Lord's Supper; and the children of none except communicants were to be baptized. The relation of pastor and people was thus made more prominent and distinct. Dr. Dwight declares himself satisfied by what he saw at Oroomiah, that nothing more than this was needed to complete the organization of the reformed church. He had had the impression, for years, that sooner or later the converts among the Nestorians, like the same class of persons among the Armenians, would be organized into separate churches, wholly distinct from the Nestorian Church. The excommunications and persecutions that had led to that result among the Armenians, he seemed to think would not occur among the Nestorians; and it was evident to him that the old ceremonies of the Church were silently vanishing away, and that reformed services were taking their place, as the result of a fundamental change in the minds of the people. A distinct theological class was to be formed in the seminary of promising young converts, and no more men were to be educated in that school than could afterwards be profitably employed. The conclusion was also reached, in view of past experience, that the mountain regions should not be occupied by American families; reserving them as the peculiar field of the reformed church of the plain; as a training-school for their missionary spirit, and a necessary outlet for their pious zeal.
The native preachers and helpers held a two days' meeting at Oroomiah while Dr. Dwight was there, in which several important subjects were discussed. He liked their appearance, admired the spirit of many of them, and was greatly moved by the extraordinary fire of their eloquence, though he understood them only through an interpreter. He was specially impressed by the childlike piety of the venerable Mar Elias.
Mr. Breath, the ingenious and efficient missionary printer, died of cholera on the 10th of November, 1861. He had so far succeeded in training native printers and book-binders, that there was no further call for such workmen from the United States. Mrs. Breath returned home, with her three children, in the following year.
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 passed in silence, for the most part, the long series of efforts by the Persian government to embarrass 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 God'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 horsemen thereof."
As a most cheering illustration of what Nestorians may yet become, through the grace of God 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 God,—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, God-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 anticipation 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 God'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 God, making it his meditation by day and by night,—not able to pass two or three hours consecutively, without drinking from this well-spring of life; the child-like gentleness of his character,—though, when stirred in God'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. God, 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 Ambassador at Constantinople; and Mr. Glen, a pious attaché to the British Embassy in Persia, spent several months on the plain of Oroomiah for a similar purpose.