The name of this daughter was Sarah. She was the first in the revival to ask the way to heaven, the first to find the way, and the first to enter it. Sarah was a tall, dark-eyed girl ten years old when she entered the school. There were then but few books in the school except the Bible, and she became very familiar with its pages. She first learned that she was a sinner in January, 1846, and she lived only five months after that time. Her father loved to have her pray with him, and so remarkable was her Christian experience, that Mr. Stocking had great pleasure and profit in conversing with her. Miss Fiske also felt it to be a delightful privilege to watch over her as she was nearing heaven. They would sit for an hour at a time, and talk of the home of the blest, while Sarah would sing, "It will be good to be there." She had a rare anxiety to be the means of saving souls. The girls, and the women too, loved to have her tell them "the way, for" as they said, "we can see it when she tells us." Her health was not good at the time of her conversion, and as early as March the sentence of death was visible on her countenance. But she clung to her school till May, and continued to attend the meetings, even when it was necessary for some one to aid her in reaching the chapel. The "Dairyman's Daughter" was a favorite book with the girls of the school, and young disciples were sometimes heard to say, as Sarah took her seat in the house of God, "Have we not an Elizabeth Wallbridge among us?" She lingered till June, and was often found with her open Bible and several women by her side, whom she was leading to Christ. Her praying companions often had meetings in her room. Her last words were, "Lord Jesus, receive——" Here her voice ceased.1
1 Life of Fidelia Fiske, p. 173.
On the 13th of February, Deacon Isaac,—one of the Patriarch's brothers, and to a considerable extent his representative in the district, respected moreover among the people for his force of character, as well as for his official station,—made Mr. Stoddard a visit. His manner showed that he wished to converse on the subject of religion, and Mr. Stoddard commenced by asking him, if he rejoiced in what the Lord was doing for his people. He replied, "None but Satan can help rejoicing. I do certainly rejoice. But I am like a man that stands on the shore of a lake, and seeing a beautiful country on the other side is gladdened by the prospect, but has no means of reaching that country himself. Would that I were a child, that I might repent too! But no, it cannot be. My heart is ice. There is no such sinner among the people as I am. I do not believe it is possible for me to be saved." He was reminded of the freeness of Christ's love, and his willingness to receive the vilest sinner that will come to him. After some hesitation, he admitted that it was so. "But," said he, "the great obstacle is myself. My heart is perfectly dead. You may cut and thrust me with a sword, but I am insensible to the stroke. And if you kindly pour ointment on my wounds, it is all the same. I choose sin. I love sin. The wild beasts in the mountains are enticed by the hunters, and seize the bait, not knowing what they do. But I take this world with my eyes open, knowing that I am choosing destruction, and eating death. It is a shame for me to remain in such a miserable condition, while these boys are weeping over their sins, and I am ashamed. But such is the fact, and I expect to die as I have lived, and go to hell." He seemed to speak with sincerity, and Mr. Stoddard learned that he conversed with his people in a similar manner.
On the 16th of February, Mr. Stocking went to Geog Tapa, accompanied by Miss Fiske and John. Miss Fiske found herself surrounded by a company of females at the house of priest Abraham; and again, at the close of a meeting in the church, about fifty of the women present met her in the school-room, for conversation and prayer. A considerable number of them were evidently awakened, and a few gave evidence of real conversion. Yet there were opposers at Geog Tapa, who said, "Why all this ado? Must all we have done for salvation go for nothing? Have all our fathers gone to hell?"
Several of the converts in the seminary for boys having rooms near Mr. Stoddard's study, he could hear their voices from morning till night, as they pleaded in prayer, and their petitions came evidently from the depths of the soul. Their natural love for vivid metaphor, combined with much ardor, gave great vividness to their prayers. They begged that the dog might have a single crumb from the table of his master; at another time, they were smiting their breasts by the side of the publican; at another, they were prodigals, hungry, naked, and far from their father's house; again, they sink in the sea, and cry out, "Lord save me, I perish;" again, poor, diseased, outcast lepers, they came to the great Physician for a cure. Those who had given themselves to Christ, now built their house on the Rock of Ages, while the waters were roaring around them; now they washed the feet of their Redeemer with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of their head; and now, having become soldiers of the cross, they planted the blood-stained banner in the inner citadel of their souls.
Before the end of May, the boys' seminary was removed to Seir, to obviate the necessity of a long vacation, which might be injurious to the pupils in their peculiar state of feeling. Mr. Stoddard was often delighted, in walking about the mountains, to find pupils praying in secluded spots. A Mussulman once fell in with a pupil thus engaged, and having never before seen a Nestorian praying in secret, he stopped in silent wonder. The young man, on being asked what he was doing, commenced teaching the Mussulman how to pray, and so deeply interested him, that they kneeled down together, and the prayer was renewed in the Turkish language, that it might be intelligible to the stranger.
The estimated number of converts in the two seminaries, at the close of 1846, was fifty. The general aspect of Geog Tapa, containing a population of about a thousand, was much changed. Almost every one who had come to years of discretion, gave good attention to the preaching of the Gospel, and as many as fifty seemed to be true disciples. Cases of hopeful conversion were found in eight or ten other villages on the plain. Nor was the awakening restricted to the plain. Of one hundred and fifty hopeful converts, twelve were at Hakkie, and ten at Gawar, fifty miles further west, and both mountain villages.
An edition of the New Testament, with the ancient and modern Syriac in parallel columns, was printed near the close of 1846. The value to the Nestorians of having the Scriptures in their spoken language, cannot be estimated. The translation was made by Dr. Perkins from the original Greek, and the type was that made by Mr. Breath. Dr. Perkins entered at once upon a translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew. Among the books that had been recently printed, was a new and enlarged edition of the Nestorian Hymn-book. The hymns were sung in all the social religious meetings of the Nestorians, and in some of their churches, and with most happy effect. The sentiments of the hymns, and much of their language, entered largely into the prayers of the people. The hymns were also committed to memory by not a few, who were unable to read.
Ill health obliged Mr. and Mrs. Holladay to visit their native land in the spring of this year, and they were not able to resume their connection with the mission. The Rev. Joseph G. Cochran and wife, and Miss Mary Susan Rice, embarked for Oroomiah in June, 1847.
The cholera, in its progress from the east, reached the plain of Oroomiah in the autumn of 1846, and about two thousand persons died in the city. An interesting account of the pestilence by Dr. Wright, as it came under his observation, may be found in the "Missionary Herald" for 1847.1