1848-1852.
The health of Mr. Stoddard became so prostrated, early in the summer of 1848, as to leave no hope of his recovery without a change of climate. At Trebizond, on his way home, he and his family were subjected to a quarantine of eight days. His wife and children were then in good health, and they had no reason to apprehend cholera there, as it passed beyond that place westward. But it returned, and Mrs. Stoddard was one of its victims. The death of this excellent woman was a grievous loss, not only to her husband and infant children, but to the mission. The nurse also sickened of the same disease, while on the voyage to Constantinople, and died soon after her arrival; and it was a remarkable Providence that spared the enfeebled and overtasked husband and father. But he lived to serve Christ in his native land, and afterwards again among the Nestorians. The Rev. George W. Coan and wife joined the mission in the autumn of 1849.
Mr. Cochran succeeded Mr. Stoddard in charge of the male seminary. Twelve had gone from the institution, and most of them were exerting a good Christian influence. The new scholars, as a consequence of these village schools, were older and more advanced than their predecessors had been. The thirty-two schools contained five hundred and ninety-eight pupils, of whom one hundred and twenty-five were girls. Twelve of the teachers were priests, and about half of them would have been welcomed into New England churches. The female seminary, a most valuable institution, was under the care of Misses Fiske and Rice.
Mar Shimon returned to the mountains early in 1849, though not without apprehension of being sent into exile, as the Koordish chieftains had been.
Hearing that the good seed sown by Dr. Grant and his associates at Mosul was giving promise of a harvest, the mission deemed it expedient for Dr. Perkins and Mr. Stocking to visit that city, preaching the Gospel as they went. Mar Yohannan and deacons Isaac and Tamo went with them.1 They were hospitably entertained by Mr. Rassam, the English Consul at Mosul, during the eleven days of their visit. Many of the Mosulians were thought to have come under evangelical influences. Some of them were much enlightened, and a few were regarded as truly pious. All would gladly have welcomed a Protestant missionary to reside among them. These were chiefly Jacobites, but a few were Papists. The mountain districts were found to be accessible to the Gospel; though everywhere they heard of messengers and letters from the Patriarch, warning the people against them as deceivers, and particularly against deacon Isaac, his brother, who, he said, had become "English." Nevertheless they were treated in all places with kindness, and found attentive listeners to their preaching.
1 For a full account of this tour by Dr. Perkins, see Missionary Herald for 1850, pp. 53-61, and 83-97.
The first revival of religion, already described, was in 1846; the second was in 1849; and there was a third in 1850. The severe trials of the years 1847 and 1848 seem to have produced in the mission a subdued feeling, and unusual earnestness in prayer. This resulted in the revival of 1849.
In the seminary for boys, the converts of the previous revival were, for two or three days after this began, the subjects of intense heart-searchings, and of piercing compunctions for their backslidings. This was not less true of the more devoted Christians, than of others. The irreligious members of the seminary were also deeply moved; and there was a similar experience in the girls' seminary. Geog Tapa again shared largely in the spiritual blessings of a revived religious feeling. In the village of Seir, hardly a person was unaffected. In Degala, Charbush, Ardeshai, and other places, there were large and attentive congregations, and many gave delightful evidence of having passed from death unto life. A vacation occurred in the male seminary, and pious students labored with great zeal and success in the houses of the people. Deacon Isaac had been known for many years as an evangelical man and a friend of the mission, but now he gave good evidence of conversion, and the pious natives beheld the change in him with wonder and thanksgiving. Mar Yohannan had never before given satisfactory evidence of a thorough change of heart. He now made full confession of his sins as a man, and of his unfaithfulness as a bishop. The revival was marked by a deep sense of the lost condition of men by nature, by a vivid sense of the evil of sin, by an intelligent and cordial embrace of salvation as the gift of sovereign grace, by a hearty self-consecration to the service of Christ, by earnest desires for the salvation of others, and by a remarkable quickening of the moral and intellectual powers.
One of the most noted among the native evangelists at this time, was deacon Guwergis of Tergawar. Before conversion in 1846, he was as wild and wicked as a Koord. In the autumn of 1845, he brought his eldest daughter, then twelve years of age, to Oroomiah, and begged Miss Fiske to receive her into the seminary. She consented reluctantly, being painfully impressed by the gross avarice and selfishness of the father, who even asked permission to take away with him the clothes she had on. He came again in February, with his belt of ammunition, his dagger at his side, and his gun thrown over his shoulder. Many of the pupils were then weeping over their sins, among them his own daughter, and the teacher felt that the wolf had come into the fold. Guwergis ridiculed the anxiety of the girls for their souls till his daughter, distressed by his conduct, asked him to go alone with her to pray. He went and repeated his form in ancient Syriac, while she, in her native tongue, poured forth her soul in earnest prayer, first for herself, and then for her father. When he heard her say, "Save, O save my father, going down to destruction," as he afterwards confessed, he raised his hand to strike her. Sabbath morning found him toiling to prevent others from coming to Christ. At noon, Miss Fiske went to his room, and was received with sullen rudeness, but he broke down under her affectionate and faithful appeals, and retired to pray. He soon entered the place of worship. His gun and his dagger had been laid aside, and he sank into the nearest seat, and laid his head upon the desk. That night Mr. Stocking took him to his study, and the recent blasphemer cried out in agony, "My sins, my sins, they are higher than the mountains of Jeloo!" Next morning, Mr. Stoddard found him subdued and humbled. All Guwergis could say was, "My great sins, my great Saviour." Before noon, he left for his mountain home, saying, as he left, "I must tell my friends and neighbors of sin and of Jesus."
Nothing was heard from him for two weeks, when priest Eshoo was sent to his village to look after him, and found him in his own house, surrounded by his friends, and discoursing to them on these very topics,—of sin and of Jesus. The deacon accompanied priest Eshoo to Oroomiah, and his relations of Christian fellowship with the members of the mission were at once firmly and forever established.1 His conversion and his self-consecration to the service of the Lord Jesus were entire. He became known as the "mountain evangelist," and was faithful unto death. He rested from his labors on the 12th of March, 1856.