The year 1856 was signalized by a visit to the Karaites and other Jews in the Crimea. At Baktchi-Serai, Stern was surrounded by Jews, "all anxious to buy Gospels," and was the guest of the chief rabbi, who shewed him the cemetery of the Karaites—strangely called "The Valley of Jehoshaphat"—with its 40,000 sculptured tombs, and in which myriads more had been interred, to whose memory poverty or indifference had raised no monument. At Simpheropol, Stern preached in the synagogue and sold a number of New Testaments and Pentateuchs. On one occasion he had the privilege of addressing British troops in their quarters in the Crimea.
Stern made a second journey in the same year—to Arabia.
The space at our command is totally inadequate to describe the incidents of that romantic and perilous journey, in the wake of Joseph Wolff who, just forty years before, had engaged in the same pioneer work. Stern had to take precautions for his safety, adopting native dress and passing as the "Dervish Abdallah." At Safon, a beautiful mountain town, the report that a man who spoke Hebrew, and yet was no Jew, dressed like a Mohammedan and yet ignored the Koran, caused much sensation amongst the Jews, who flocked to see him, and to whom he preached in a synagogue. This was repeated at other places. At Sanaa he was occupied for twelve days, with very little rest at night, preaching to the multitudes who congregated wherever he went. The last day of his visit there he characterized as "the happiest of my life, the happiest of my missionary career."
After a visit to England in 1857, Stern returned to Constantinople, taking up again the threads of his settled missionary work there.
In 1859 Stern embarked on the first of his most memorable journeys to Abyssinia. Mr. J. M. Flad had been working in that country as one of the "Pilgrim Missionaries" from St. Chrischona. More Christian labourers, however, were needed; and so Stern was despatched from Constantinople to found an English mission, if possible, amongst the Falashas—some thousands of Jews dwelling in the highlands of the interior. Flad now joined Stern, and the two worked hand-in-hand together. The results of this preliminary visit were thus summed up by Stern, who, having accomplished his purpose, repaired to England in 1861:—"I visited, in company with Mr. Flad, the Bishop of Jerusalem's Scripture Reader, upwards of thirty Falasha settlements, and saw the priests, and all those that could read, from more than fifty-five other places. The desire to obtain the Word of God exceeds all description; young and old, the man standing on the verge of the grave, and the youth just rushing into life's happiest whirl, heedless and indifferent to the pain and difficulties of the road, followed us for days and days, till we yielded to their unwearied entreaties, and from our scanty stock supplied their communities with copies of the sacred volume."
Speaking in Exeter Hall in May of the next year, Stern said, "During my stay in that country, I was amazed at the excitement created by our preaching through the various provinces we visited. Frequently, hundreds of Christians and Jews would meet together near our tent with the Word of God in their hands, converse and investigate those truths which we had been preaching."
Flad and a fellow-labourer named Bronkhörst, who had joined him, continued to carry on the work with much success, and on July 21, 1861, the first fruits of the mission were gathered in, twenty-two Falashas receiving Holy Baptism. On August 4, nineteen more were baptized. This encouraging success led to Stern going out again to Abyssinia in September, 1862, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Rosenthal. We cannot follow the details of the work for the next two years, but must sum them up in Stern's own words:—"We have in the course of two years, without being allowed to form a separate community, rescued a considerable number of Falashas from their unbelief, and nominally, but not virtually, united them as a living, active and spiritual element, to the dead Church of the Amharas. We have circulated about one thousand whole copies and portions of Scriptures; we have given an impulse to the study of the written vernacular; and we have stirred up a spirit of enquiry among Jews and Amharas, which must either terminate in a spontaneous reform, or lead (which is far more probable) to our expulsion and a relentless persecution." The latter surmise proved to be only too true.
The following circumstances eventually led to the imprisonment of the missionaries. King Theodore had despatched to the Queen of England, by Consul Cameron, a letter, to which, from some strange reason, no reply was vouchsafed. A similar letter to Napoleon III. was indeed answered, but the verbal message accompanying it gave dire offence. Theodore resolved to be revenged on all Europeans, and to "humble the pride of Europe," as he said, meaning England and France.
Some expressions in Stern's book, "Wanderings among the Falashas in Abyssinia," as to Theodore's humble origin, also gave offence to the dusky monarch. When Stern paid him a visit, in order to ask permission to return home, the opportunity thus offered for revenge was seized. Stern had with him two servants. The hour of the visit was unfortunately ill chosen, and his servants' knowledge of Arabic so limited, as to render their mode of interpreting so offensive to the King, that he ordered them to be beaten,—an order so effectually obeyed, that they died in the night. Stern, unable to endure the scene, turned round, and in his nervousness bit his finger,—unaware, or forgetful, that such a gesture was in Abyssinia indicative of revenge. At first, the King seemed inclined to overlook the matter, but subsequently, urged on by those around him, Stern was struck down insensible, and, on recovery, bound hand to foot and consigned to prison.
For four and a-half years Stern remained a prisoner. It is impossible to describe his terrible sufferings and perilous position during that long protracted "period of heart-rending and heart-breaking martyrdom."