CHAPTER XXVII.
THE ASSYRIA MISSION.
1849-1860.
Mosul is related to the Syria Mission in language, the written Arabic being essentially the same in both fields; but there is considerable difference in the language of preaching and social intercourse, "Near Mosul, and especially on the east of the Tigris," writes Dr. Leonard Bacon, after his visit to Mosul, "the language is Syriac, or as they there call it, Fellahi, the peasant language. In other districts, Turkish and Koordish are spoken by many nominal Christians. The people in Mesopotamia are very different from those in Syria. They are of other sects. Instead of the Greek Church, the Greek Catholic, and the Maronite, we find, as we travel east of the Euphrates, and especially as we approach the Tigris, the Jacobite, the Syrian Catholic or Romanized Jacobite, the Nestorian (almost exterminated), and the Chaldean or Romanized Nestorian. And the condition of these sects, as it respects the feeling of strength and pride, is very unlike that of the sects in Syria. The Maronite Church, and the Greek Catholic, are strong and proud in their relation to Rome, and in the feeling that they are protected by the great papal powers in Europe. The Greek Church may be likened to a Russian colony in the Turkish empire. But the more eastern sects, remnants of what were once the great Oriental Church, are in far different relations, ecclesiastical and political. The Jacobites, like the Nestorians, feel themselves weakened and depressed. The Syrian Catholic and the Chaldean are not very firmly united to Rome, and are little affected by European influences. Nor is this all. The nominal Christians of Mesopotamia are of a very different race and blood from those of Syria. The Greek element, which characterizes the Arabic-speaking Christians west of the Euphrates,—an element of subtlety of disputation, and of intellectual pride,—is not so prominent in these more Oriental communities. For these and other reasons, I cannot but think that this field should be occupied by the brethren of the Mosul station, and be regarded as entirely distinct from that of the Syria Mission. Mosul, as a centre of missionary labor, is much more nearly related to Oroomiah, than to Beirût, or Aleppo."[1]
[1] Report of the Board for 1851, p. 82.
The visit of Messrs. Perkins and Stocking to Mosul, in May, 1849, has been already mentioned.[1] That visit did much to prepare the way for Mr. Ford, of the Aleppo station, who went there at the close of 1849. He was kindly received by Mr. Rassam, the English Consul, and had a joyful greeting from the little band of "gospel men," who welcomed the return of their long lost privileges of Christian instruction. Of the fifty who soon called upon him, about twenty appeared to be decidedly evangelical, and ready to stand by the Gospel at all hazards, though few of them gave evidence of a work of grace in their hearts. Twenty more were enlightened and favorably disposed; and the remaining ten might be regarded as indifferent or hostile. This little band was the remainder of those who had been brought under the influence of the Gospel, when our brethren of the Mountain Nestorian Mission were detained in the mysterious providence of God, to labor and suffer there. Yet the Lord had not forsaken them, for Meekha, the ingenious mechanic, who had learned the truth from Mr. Laurie, had given them the benefit of his steadfast piety and diligent instruction.
[1] Chapter xx.
The reader knows, already, what led to the temporary occupation of Mosul by the Board, in 1841. Its relinquishment in 1844, was chiefly in view of the fact, that the Episcopal Church of the United States had a mission then in Turkey, with the avowed object of laboring among the Jacobites of Mesopotamia.[1] That mission having been withdrawn from the Turkish empire, the operations of the Board were naturally extended again to Mosul, to look after the fruits of former labors, as well as to meet the exigencies of the mission in western Koordistan.
[1] This was first known through Dr. Grant, who forwarded a copy of a letter from seven of the American Episcopal Bishops to the Syrian Patriarch at Mardin, as evidence of the fact. After stating the object in sending the Rev. Horatio Southgate to reside for a time at Mardin, with the hope of associating two others with him, to which no exception could be taken, the Patriarch was informed by the letter, that Mr. Southgate "will make it clearly understood, that the American Church has no ecclesiastical connection with the followers of Luther and Calvin, and takes no part in their plans or operations to diffuse the principles of these sects."
The Rev. Dwight W. Marsh arrived at Mosul on the 20th of March, 1850, going by way of Beirût, Aleppo, Aintab, Oorfa, and Diarbekir; from this last place he floated down the Tigris on a raft supported by inflated goat-skins, in less than four days to his new home. He describes the river as breaking through between bold precipices, and scenery delightfully and unexpectedly romantic. Mr. Schneider was his travelling companion from Aintab to Diarbekir, and Mr. Ford was at Mosul to greet him on his arrival. The Rev. William Frederic Williams removed from the Syria Mission to Mosul in the spring of 1851, going in company with Dr. Bacon and his son Mr. Leonard W. Bacon, then travelling in the East. Salome Carabet, the eldest of the girls in Mr. Whiting's family at Abeih, went with Mr. Williams, to take charge of a school of thirty girls.
Dr. Bacon's visit to Mosul was in compliance with a request of the Prudential Committee, that he would make his tour of relaxation and improvement the occasion of visiting the several stations of the Board in Western Asia. The attempt to proceed from Mosul to Oroomiah through the mountains by the most direct route, was unsuccessful. The two travellers, in company with Mr. Marsh, soon after crossing the Zab, were set upon by Koordish robbers, who had been requested by an Agha, near Akra, to kill them. So imminent was the peril, that they united together in prayer to God, led by Dr. Bacon. Some Moolahs seeing this, interceded for their lives, and though they could not hinder their being plundered, they succeeded in sending them safely to another Moolah, three hours distant, who was revered for his sanctity; and it was through his resolute protection, under God, that they effected a safe return to Mosul. Mr. Rassam gave information of the outrage to the English Ambassador, and the Pasha, in the following year, having received orders from Constantinople, sent three hundred men, with three cannon, against the robber, who was compelled to pay the full value of the losses, and much more besides to the government.[1]
[1] Missionary Herald, for 1851, p. 295, and 1852, p. 388.
The Assyria Mission was so named for geographical reasons. Its most northern station at this time, was Diarbekir. Dr. Grant passed through this city with Mr. Homes, in 1839, Messrs. Hinsdale and Mitchell passed through it in 1841, and Mr. Laurie in 1842. The city was visited by Mr. Peabody in 1849, when he found several persons awakened by reading the Scriptures and other books, brought there by colporters. It was visited again by Mr. Schneider in the following year, who reported that nearly fifty Armenians were accustomed to meet on the Sabbath for reading the Scriptures. These were then subjected to a severe persecution, and they sent to Constantinople for a vizierial letter, which was granted, but brought little relief. Dr. Azariah Smith organized a small church at Diarbekir in the spring of 1851. It included both Armenians and Jacobites; but only those were to be received who gave satisfactory evidence of piety. As soon as this restriction was announced, the most influential Syrians in the congregation resolutely set themselves to secure admission to the church for all Protestants of good moral character. For a time their efforts to unite the congregation in opposition prevented attention to their ordinary business; and but for the conservative spirit of the Armenian portion, perhaps the audience, as a whole, would have gone back to their churches. In the end all were persuaded to listen to a discourse on the subject, by Dr. Smith, and the character of the young ruler, in Luke xviii. 18-30, was unfolded in connection with Acts ii. 43-47. The exhibition of a church, as an association of men devoted, body and soul, time and wealth, to the extension of Christ's kingdom, was new to them. That repentance involved the ceasing to live for selfish and worldly ends, and that faith in Christ included the consecration of our energies to his service, was no part of their old creed. And though these truths had been previously preached by the missionaries, the practical connection in which they now came up made them more impressive.
Mr. and Mrs. Dunmore, after spending some months at Aintab, arrived at Diarbekir in November, 1851. They were accompanied by Stepan, a graduate of the seminary at Bebek. This man, not long after his arrival, was rudely arrested by a Turkish officer as a Protestant, and cast into a prison, where he spent the night with vagabonds and thieves. The Pasha refused Mr. Dunmore a hearing, but at once ordered Stepan's release.
Mr. Dunmore had not yet a free use of the Turkish, which was the language spoken by the Armenians; but an average of more than seventy persons came on the Sabbath to hear Stepan, and new faces were seen at every meeting.
Soon after the arrival of Mr. Dunmore, a young man of talents, named Tomas, who had long been vacillating, boldly declared himself a Protestant, and though his bishop offered him the monthly reward of two hundred piastres for two years, paid in advance, if he would leave the Protestants, his reply was: "Go tell the bishop that I did not become a Protestant for money, and that I will not leave them for money, even should he give me my house full of gold." Tomas was then nineteen years of age, and had an orphan brother and two sisters dependent on him. He had been a prosperous silk manufacturer, but after he became a Protestant, both nominal Christians and Moslems refused to trade with him, and he was impoverished. It was decided to send him to the Bebek Seminary, with his younger brother; and to send his older sister to the Female Seminary at the same place; while Mr. and Mrs. Dunmore took the youngest, a bright little girl of six years. In this young man we have the future native pastor of the church in that city.
The persecutions inflicted on the Protestants at Diarbekir were similar to those described elsewhere. But not only were the native converts, in this remote city, oppressed in every possible way, but the missionary reports himself as being grossly insulted, and even stoned in the streets whenever he went abroad.
About this time Mr. Marsh performed a missionary tour to Mardin, through Jebel Tour, a branch of the great Kûrdish range of mountains which crosses the Tigris above Jezirah, and goes westward toward the Euphrates. These rugged, though not lofty mountains, cover fourteen hundred square miles, and form the stronghold of the Jacobites. Their ecclesiastical capital is Mardin. "High up the mountain's side," writes Mr. Marsh, "with a steep descent of six or seven hundred feet to the plains, the city wall mounts up still higher, three hundred feet or more; and a large castle on the mountain top crowns the view." Here he found several persons favorably inclined, and recommended the place for a missionary station.
The Rev. Henry Lobdell, M. D., and wife, reached Mosul in May 1852. They came through Aintab, Oorfa, and Diarbekir. Such was the desire of the people of Aintab for a missionary physician to take the place of Dr. Smith, that four hundred and twenty of them signed a petition in a single evening, requesting him to remain; but he felt constrained to give them a negative. He speaks with pleasure of his brief sojourn at Oorfa, which he describes as beautifully situated on the west side of a fertile plain, and retaining many marks of its ancient greatness.
In the ten days which Dr. Lobdell spent with Mr. Dunmore at Diarbekir, he was impressed by the hold the reformation was taking in that place. At the same time, he and his missionary brother had a startling illustration of its hostility to the Gospel. They were looking at the great mosque of the city, formerly a Christian church, and in the words of Mr. Dunmore, "As we were standing in front of it, in the public highway, examining its architecture, several lads came up and began to insult us and to order us away. We did not notice them, but went further from the mosque, and stopped to examine some old marble pillars. Soon, however, we found a rabble about us, who began to jerk our garments. I then turned and spoke to them, and they instantly rushed upon us like tigers. They seized Dr. Lobdell's hat, threw it into the air, and began to beat him. One ruffian seized me by the throat. By main strength I loosed his grasp, and was moving off, when two men tried to wrest my cane from me, but did not succeed. We retreated as last as possible, but when we got out of the reach of their hands, they resorted to throwing stones, some of them weighing two or three pounds. One hit Dr. Lobdell in the side, and we saw no alternative but to run for our lives. We went immediately to the Pasha, taking one of the largest stones with us, and made a statement of the facts in the presence of the council. He refused to do anything more than to send a man to inquire who was in fault, the ruffians, or we! He said he knew nothing about us."
In a tent supported by a raft of one hundred and twenty inflated goat-skins, Dr. and Mrs. Lobdell floated down the Tigris to Mosul. "The Arabs, who swam out upon their goat-skins, and the Kûrds armed to the teeth upon the shore, were alike unable to touch us, as the river was unusually high and swift. I do not remember having enjoyed four successive days so much. The scenery is grand, equaling that of the far-famed Hudson. It might not wear as well, but it is unique and wonderful." Mr. and Mrs. Williams were there to welcome them.
Mr. Marsh was absent on a visit to his native land, from whence he returned with his wife in May, 1853. He was accompanied as far as Aintab by Rev. Augustus Walker and wife, and from thence to Diarbekir, by Messrs. Schneider and Walker. Mr. Dunmore's congregation had then risen to nearly two hundred hearers.
Mr. Marsh was especially struck, on returning to Mosul, with the greatly improved singing of the congregation, which he thought was now better there than at Diarbekir, Aintab, Constantinople, or Beirût. This was due to the unwearied pains taken by Mr. Williams, though the people seemed to have a better ear for music than elsewhere in Western Asia.
Dr. Lobdell found his medical profession a great assistance to him as a preacher of the Gospel. Jacobites, Papists, and Moslems came in considerable numbers, and he preached the Gospel alike to all. He was overworked, and it was perhaps a favor to him that the judge was stirred up by Popish priests, as the Moslems affirmed, to forbid the Mohammedans coming to his preaching. The judge was willing that they should call upon him for medical aid, if he would not preach the Gospel to them; but the doctor declined administering to the body, unless he could, at the same time, explain to them "the words of Jesus" (which all Moslems professed to receive) for the benefit of their souls.
Salome Carabet returned to Syria, very much in the manner of Rebecca of old, to become the wife of the young pastor at Hasbeiya; and the female school was thus deprived of its teacher.
A visit by Dr. Lobdell to the Yezidees in October, 1852, developed interesting and valuable information. Their doctrines he regarded as a strange fusion of Mohammedanism and Christianity with the philosophy of the older Persians.[1]
[1] See Memoir of Dr. Lobdell, pp. 213-227; also Missionary Herald for 1853, pp. 109-111.
In June, 1853, Dr. Lobdell travelled through Koordistan to Oroomiah. One of his objects was the improvement of his health; but he greatly desired, also, to confer with the brethren of the Nestorian Mission, and to preach the Gospel in the regions between. He took with him a native, who not only spoke the Syriac and Arabic, but the Turkish and Koordish.[1] "He came to us," wrote Dr. Perkins, "for the benefit of his impaired health. Yet was he buoyant as a lark, being overjoyed to find himself in our happy circle, after his perilous journey across the mountains." Two days after his arrival he was seized with a fever which proved severe and obstinate. But he recovered, and was able to give much thought to the somewhat peculiar method of proceeding in that mission; in which no separate Protestant community had been formed, and no church organized; though the missionaries had the communion by themselves, to which they invited only those whom they believed to be truly regenerated. His preconceived opinions had been somewhat adverse to the plan, and he and his brethren at Mosul had adopted other methods. But he wrote to the Secretaries of the Board his approval of the main policy of his brethren in Persia, as justified by their peculiar circumstances, and ratified by the blessing of Heaven. He specified some things in which he thought more decided measures might be taken; but advised that the mission be left to follow the leadings of Providence, until a crisis should come in the Nestorian Church, and then to act as they should deem wise at the time.
[1] Missionary Herald, 1854, pp. 18-22.
Before returning, Dr. Lobdell made an excursion of three weeks in the province of Azerbijan, going as far as Tabriz. It was while he was at Gawar, on his way home, that Deacon Tamo was liberated from his long imprisonment. Messrs. Rhea and Coan accompanied him to Mosul. Dr. Lobdell represents the two highest peaks of the Jelu Mountains as distinctly visible from Mosul. Every step through Koordistan reminded him of the devotion, courage, and energy of Dr. Grant.
Some difficulties existed in the Protestant community at Diarbekir, growing out of the old leaven of baptismal regeneration, from which the church itself had not been thoroughly purged. The church then contained eleven members,—eight men and three women. Six of the men were Syrian Jacobites, and four of these were formerly deacons in their church. The difficulties encountered by Dr. Smith in 1851, when he declared his intention of admitting to the church none but such as were truly pious, and baptizing only them and their children, were now revived.
In view of these things, a meeting of the Assyria Mission was held at Mosul for ten days, in March, 1854. It was then decided that Messrs. Marsh and Lobdell should return with Messrs. Dunmore and Walker, and assist in reorganizing the church at Diarbekir. Out of twenty candidates whom they examined, eleven were accepted; and, in the presence of three hundred persons, were organized into a new church, with a creed and covenant.[1] Dr. Lobdell had a hundred Christian patients daily while there; but the Pasha still continued to refuse protection, and the missionaries were still hooted and stoned in the streets. They believed, however, that the Gospel had taken such hold in the city as to insure its ultimate triumph.
[1] I find, in the archives of the Board, an extended analysis of the baptismal question by these brethren, in its bearing on the Oriental Churches.
The church was subjected to a severe trial, immediately after its reorganization. The Mosul brethren had to return to their own work; it was necessary for Mr. Dunmore to join his sick wife at Arabkir; and as it was unsafe for Mr. and Mrs. Walker to be left alone at Diarbekir, they went to Aintab for the summer. The Koords robbed them on their way, but they returned in the autumn, accompanied by David H. Nutting, M. D., and wife. Mr. Dunmore remained at Arabkir till the spring of 1855, when he commenced the important station of Harpoot. The missionaries at Diarbekir now enjoyed the very welcome protection of W. R. Holmes, Esq., the newly appointed English Consul. Dr. Nutting's professional services to the Pasha, in a dangerous illness, soon after his arrival, gave him an introduction to almost all the officers of the government and influential Moslems in the city, and obtained for him a public expression of the Pasha's gratitude. Instead of stonings in the streets, without redress, as under the preceding Pasha, the missionaries received respectful treatment, and had free access to all classes. Mr. Walker found the state of things better than he anticipated. Certain disaffected members of the Protestant community had repented of their errors. Persecution had not shaken the faith of any in the church. During the winter the congregation increased to two hundred. In April, 1855, six were admitted to the church, and not less than four hundred and fifty persons were present. The accessions were not only from the Armenian and Jacobite Churches, but also from the Catholic Church, though fierce persecution and imprisonment were the consequence. A large portion of the Jacobite Church were convinced of the truth, and of the emptiness of their own rites and ceremonies. Some openly avowed that they retained their connection with their old church merely to fight against it, hoping to turn the whole community to Protestantism. The people demanded that the Bible should be read in the church in Turkish or Arabic, instead of the ancient Armenian and Syriac, which were, to most of them, dead languages; and the Jacobite bishop was forced to yield. Finding, at length, that this must rapidly undermine the priestly influence, he secretly removed the Scriptures from the church. But the word of the Lord was not bound, for the deacons or readers carried their own Bibles.
At the out-station of Hainè, Stepan, the native preacher who had come to Diarbekir with Mr. Walker, was enabled by divine grace to maintain his position. The Pasha at one time ordered him to leave, but he thought it right to disobey. At a subsequent period, being stoned and beaten in the streets, he was obliged to flee, and the Protestants suffered much oppression. Through the energetic efforts of the Consul at Diarbekir, the persecuting governor was deposed, and another appointed.
Across the river from Diarbekir is Cutterbul, a large Christian village, where were twenty Protestants, with several church-members; and the missionary, in his occasional visits, gathered almost as large a congregation as the one at Mosul. The preaching would have been acceptable in Turkish, or Koordish, though the people preferred the Arabic. Cutterbul was but a sample of what the villages on all sides of Diarbekir might have been, were the station fully manned.
The Protestants at Mosul obtained no relief from their oppressive taxes until January, 1854; when, through the efforts of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, a firman was addressed to the Pasha for their protection. The Pasha then ordered an equitable rate to be made for them, which encouraged the Protestants, and disheartened their enemies. The year was one of progress. Five were added to the Protestants, and two to the church, while there was a decided improvement in the attention given to preaching. The boys' school prospered, with forty pupils. Women were to some extent instructed in reading the Bible by the scholars, who went from house to house for the purpose. Thirty adults were taught at their houses, and thirty others attended the male school regularly. The church-members gained a reputation for strict honesty, temperance, and general excellence. The mere existence of a church upon an apostolical basis, worshipping God in simplicity, told with force against the corrupt hierarchies.
The excitements at Mosul during the Crimean war, were often intense. At one period there was great danger of an outburst of Mohammedan fanaticism, so that the Christians were in terror for their lives. Stringent orders from Constantinople aroused the local authorities to do their duty, and the insolence of those ready for deeds of blood was checked. Early in May, 1854, a volunteer reinforcement of two thousand Koords for the Turkish army, was quartered in the city, and certain outrages indicated an approaching massacre of Christians and Jews. The evil was averted by the bold decision of the English Consul, who went to the Pasha, and demanded that the Koords be sent at once out of the city. They were soon on their way to the seat of war.
Mosul was regarded as free from miasma; but the heat of the summer days was exhausting to the foreigner, and the natives also suffered. For a hundred days in 1853, the mercury stood, at two o'clock in the afternoon, as high as 98º; and for eighty days it ranged from 100º to 114º. The highest point in the shade was 117º. It was much the same in the following year.
As the summer advanced, the health of Mrs. Williams declined, and it became obvious that she could no longer endure the excessive heat. She was desirous of removing to a cooler climate, and Dr. Lobdell went with her and her family to the mountains. When they were near the Zab river, they met Dr. Wright from Persia, who had come with the hope of conducting them to Oroomiah. The rest is told in the words of Dr. Lobdell. "We could go no farther, and on the 29th of June, at sunset, were on our way towards Mosul; our sick friend being anxious to go there to die, but most of the time unconscious of the incidents and fatigues. On the last day of June we reached Akra; a litter was made, twelve Christians bore it, and the next morning at six o'clock, while moving on the road, that litter became a bier! An hour farther, and a rough box way made ready for her we had loved. The children knew not what had happened. At evening, the box was bound upon a mule, and we rode silently for fourteen hours, and crossed to the ruins of Nineveh shortly after sunrise. The flag of the English Consul was thrown over the body as we crossed the Tigris. A narrow house had already been prepared for it outside the walls (not even the dead body of a Moslem could have been carried within the gates); Mr. Marsh had a short service; and there we laid the wife, the mother, down to her last sleep."[1]
[1] Memoir of Dr. Lobdell, p. 330.
The Crimean war inflamed Mohammedan fanaticism all over Western Asia. Such was its influence in Persia, that the missionaries requested Dr. Lobdell, in view of his recent visit, to go to Bagdad, and represent their critical situation with reference to the Persian government to Mr. Murray, English Ambassador to Persia; who was to be there in January, 1855, on his way to his post. He accordingly commenced his voyage down the river on the 10th of January, upon the customary raft of skins, and on the fourth day reached Bagdad. The ambassador arriving on the 8th of the following month, Dr. Lobdell had a satisfactory interview with him, which probably led to the subsequent visit of Mr. Murray to Oroomiah. His return was by post-horses in fifty-eight hours. The road made a long curve to the east to avoid the Arabs of the desert. The nearest route would have been on the west side of the Tigris.
Ten days after this, Mr. Marsh and Mr. Williams went to Diarbekir to attend the second annual meeting of the mission. The next day Dr. Lobdell prepared a sermon, talked with a crowd of papists, preached to eighty-five patients, delivered his sermon to the church in the evening, and went to bed with a chill and fever. On the day following, he wrote his last letter, and made his last entry in his journal. He gradually grew worse, and was at times delirious. A message was sent for the absent brethren, but, owing to the disturbed state of the country, it was the twentieth day of his sickness, and only five days before his death, when Mr. Marsh reached Mosul. As he entered the room, the Doctor threw his arms about his neck and wept. The church-members prayed earnestly for his recovery, and were eager to serve as watchers. He passed easily away, as the Sabbath was closing, on the 25th of March, 1855, to his eternal rest. His age was twenty-eight.
Dr. Lobdell's life was short to fill four hundred pages in Professor Tyler's excellent Memoir, but the volume is none too large. His life, measured by activities and results, was long. His character was many sided, and every side glowed with consecrated ardor. He made the most of himself as a man, a scholar, a Christian, and a Christian missionary. Like the Apostle Paul, "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before," he pressed "toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
He had a strong desire to go as a missionary to China, but the author, in his official correspondence, though seldom venturing to oppose such predilections, was so impressed with the difficulties to be overcome at Mosul, and with Dr. Lobdell's adaptation to that field, that he called his attention to it, and soon received the reply that he would go, as soon as he could get ready; and from that time the new field grew in his affections. That he could or would have done more for the kingdom of Christ, in any other sphere of labor, no one who attentively considers his remarkable life will venture to affirm.
Dr. Henri B. Haskell succeeded Dr. Lobdell at Mosul, and reached Diarbekir, with the Rev. George C. Knapp and wife, appointed to that station, in April, 1856. The Christian worship at Diarbekir had now assumed a regular form. There were four services on the Sabbath. At the first, an hour after sunrise, fifty persons assembled for prayer and praise, and the meeting was conducted by two native teachers; one reading his own translation of Doddridge's "Rise and Progress" in Turkish; the other, after having read through Dr. Goodell's "Notes on Matthew," and a volume of his sermons in Turkish, had commenced reading discourses of his own. The second was at the time of "noon cry" from the minarets, when Mr. Walker or Baron Tomas, now returned for a time from Bebek, preached to about two hundred persons, who listened more attentively than most American congregations. At the ninth hour (three o'clock in the afternoon) Baron Tomas met a Bible-class of sixty or eighty of the more intelligent Protestants. The last preaching service, at the tenth hour, was usually attended by a hundred or a hundred and fifty persons. From forty to seventy persons were present at the Friday evening meeting. The monthly concert was well attended, and with increasing contributions. Mrs. Walker had a Wednesday afternoon meeting for the women, at which from twenty to forty were present.
The Gospels had been translated into Koordish by the native helper at Hainè, and copies of Matthew had been received from the press in Stamboul. As soon as the good deacon Shemmas could get the box containing them from the custom-house, he retired to his room and poured out his soul in thanksgiving to God for his great mercy, and prayed that He would now greatly bless his Word in this new tongue.
The church at Diarbekir was doubled in 1856, and all belonging to the mission, both male and female, found full employment in imparting instruction. Baron Tomas returned to Bebek, to spend two years in the study of theology.
Excepting the death of the second Mrs. Williams, on the 25th of
December, there was nothing in 1857, specially demanding attention.
Mr. Williams spent the summer of 1858 in Mardin, intending to occupy it as a new station, and returned in November to make it his permanent residence. He found the people, as he expected, exceedingly bigoted, yet hardy and intelligent. There was an important advantage in the pure mountain air of the place. The language was Arabic, as at Mosul. More than half of the twenty thousand inhabitants were nominal Christians; there were three Arabic-speaking villages within six miles, and the whole of Jebel Tour was accessible. He found the Romish Church stronger than he had expected, having a Papal-Syrian patriarchate just established within the city. He was received by the ecclesiastics with bitter denunciations. For a time, no one dared to acknowledge himself a Protestant, though many Mohammedans called upon him, and seemed to appreciate his very intelligent and gentlemanly conversation and manners.
Subsequently a papal priest, to whom, in former years, he had given a Bible, joined himself to the missionary, and patiently endured severe persecution. But the most encouraging case was that of an influential merchant named Meekha. He was originally an Armenian, and, thirty years before had become a Papist, and carried over one hundred houses with him. He was the champion of the papal party. His conversion was on this wise. The priest just mentioned had sown much Gospel truth among his disciples, and among them was a son-in-law of Meekha. At length the old man, provoked by an instance of dishonesty and falsehood in his bishop, and unable to read himself, sent for his son-in-law to read to him the Gospel. The young man was kept reading for three days, until the Gospels and Epistles were all finished. Amazed to find his religion opposed by the whole spirit and teachings of the divine oracles, Meekha sent for the priests and they came. "Prove me your doctrines from the Bible," said he. Convinced, from their manner of reply, that they had nothing to say, he ceased from the worship of the Virgin, and declared himself a Protestant; and his wife was as sincere and earnest as he. Though father, mother, and three unmarried daughters were excommunicated, and subjected to continued insults, their souls were overflowing with joy and thankfulness that the Gospel had come to them.
Speaking of this family, Mr. Williams says: "I have never witnessed such amazed eagerness as that with which, for the first time, they comprehended that salvation is without money and without price—absolutely free and gratuitous. It was to them news—good news; and when I call to mind Meekha's impetuous temperament, and see him listen with such docility to Christ's teaching, I cannot but hope that, though imperfectly sanctified, the 'good work' is begun in him, which God's grace will complete. He accepts no new truth without a challenge, and nothing short of a 'Thus saith the Lord,' will give it currency with him. At one of my evening lectures I alluded to Isaiah's statement, 'All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,' when two or three spoke up: 'What 's that?' On repeating it they were incredulous, and demanded chapter and verse. I gave it to them next day, and it has taken hold of them like iron. I have seen Meekha since throw that verse into a crowd of opposers with such force as to start them from their seats with an emphatic 'God forbid,' and the most positive denial that such a verse could be in the Bible. When I turned to the passage, and put the book into their hands that they might read it for themselves, they could not believe their own eyes, but continued poring over it, reading carefully from the head of the chapter; and this very day some of them came in to ask what it meant, and so changed in their manner I could hardly believe my eyes. Before, obstinate, dogged, unreasonable; now, meek, docile, and asking what the will of the Lord is. One said, 'That went like a dagger to my heart, and I slept none all that night.' And when to-day, I turned to Rom. iii. 26, Eph. ii. 8-9, and Rom. iv. 1-4, they listened as children. Truly the word of the Lord is a sharp sword, piercing to the heart."
Mr. Knapp's health forbidding a longer residence at Diarbekir, he commenced, in May, 1858, a new station at Bitlis, a healthy place several thousand feet above the level of the sea. Dr. and Mrs. Haskell were with them during the latter half of the summer, and spent the summer of 1859 at Mardin; but Mr. and Mrs. Marsh and Mrs. Lobdell decided to remain at Mosul. In May, Mr. and Mrs. Marsh were called to part with their second and only surviving child. A fortnight later, Mrs. Marsh herself had a severe attack of fever, but soon recovered. The fatal attack was three months later, and her death occurred unexpectedly. The thermometer in the early part of the night before, stood at 113º. During the day it was 120º; and on the night of her death it was 100º on the roof, where they slept. She had had a slight illness for a few days, and it now became a burning fever, with delirium, and all remedies proved vain. She died on the 12th of August, at the age of thirty-two, after a residence of six years at Mosul, as an earnest and faithful laborer. Her mother and her only sister had died before reaching the age of thirty, and it is possible Mrs. Marsh might not have lived as long in her native land, as she did at Mosul. "Yet it is probable," as her husband wrote at the time, "that the heat, so unusually extreme, cutting the leaves from the tree in our court by thousands, and causing many natives of the country to fall dead by the roadside, was the immediate occasion of her death."
Mrs. Lobdell found reason, in the necessities of her children, for returning to America, and in April, 1860, she bade adieu to the little band of women, who, for eight years, had sat at her feet to learn of Jesus. She reached her native land in August, in company with Mr. Marsh.
Mosul remained unoccupied during the summer, the heat at that season being found too great for endurance; though the climate is agreeable for nearly three fourths of the year. The summer retreat prepared by Dr. Lobdell at Deira, near Amadiah, was distant seventy miles, or four days' travel, and it required at least nine days to reach Mardin.
There were but two or three places in Turkey where missionaries, up to this time, had had such marked success as in Diarbekir. The church, at the close of 1859, numbered sixty-one, and after the April communion, seventy-three. Rarely did a communion pass without some additions. Protestants were a recognized power among the people, and their influence was extending. Books were eagerly sought after and paid for. Illegal taxes had nearly ceased in the city itself. After a weary struggle of nine years, the assessment of the tax-roll for the Protestants was made upon a satisfactory plan, which bid fair to be permanent. The commercial standing of the Protestants was above that of any other sect, though there were no wealthy men among them. But the increase of the congregation had been retarded by the want of sufficient accommodations for public worship. The lamented removal of Mr. Holmes, the English Consul, to a more desirable consulate in European Turkey, while it was a great loss to the mission, threw his house upon the market, and it was purchased for a place of worship at less than half its cost. It required only slight alterations, and could be indefinitely enlarged. The members of the church subscribed a thousand dollars towards its purchase, and a certain amount was granted by the Board. The school for boys, and the one for girls, were both eminently a success. At Cutterbul, half the village was Protestant and the rest more than half so, and the place of prayer would not hold the congregation.
In 1860, the stations of the Assyria Mission were brought within the field of the Eastern Turkey Mission, and the Assyria Mission ceased to have a separate existence.