Several churches, as well as the seminaries, had enjoyed special seasons of revival. A sunrise prayer-meeting of an hour was held each day of the session, was well attended, and characterized by much fervor and importunity in prayer, and the last evening was spent in devotional exercises. The burden of prayer seemed to be for the outpouring of the Spirit on the churches and the conversion of souls, and many of the congregation were at times deeply moved.
Deacon Yâcob was ordained in the month following, that he might be able to administer the ordinances to the converts among the Malakans of Russia. Mr. Shedd wrote of him as "a man whom we delight to have among us, so full is he of the Holy Ghost and of faith." One other person was also ordained as an elder or priest, and four as deacons, in connection with meetings of district conferences composed of preachers and delegates.
In the first week of 1868, the "week of prayer," Mr. Labaree made a tour in five villages, and never passed that interesting season more delightfully, finding in each village cheering evidence of the special presence of the Lord. The Christians were induced to pray and labor earnestly for the unconverted around them. In each village two meetings were held each day, and were attended by considerable numbers outside of the church. Indeed that week was observed, generally, among the evangelized Nestorians, and there were indications of a blessing in the two seminaries, and in several villages.
It is an important step towards the support of religious institutions, when a people have once acknowledged such support to be their duty; and this admission will be the more effectual when organizations exist that can attend to the performance of the duty. In the progress of events there had grown up four ecclesiastical bodies, called Knooshyas, that is, assemblies, three on the plain, and one in the mountains; which had their confession of faith and rules of discipline. The local assemblies sometimes met together as one body. As in kindred bodies among the Armenians, the missionaries were admitted for counsel, but not to vote. At a meeting of one of these bodies, the duty of self-support was fully acknowledged, and the desire was strongly expressed to show their gratitude to the American churches by assuming the entire support of the gospel among themselves, and sending it to regions beyond, as did their fathers. The following resolution was adopted, namely: "That it is the duty of every member of the church, as he has received spiritual benefits from his pastor, to aid in the temporal support of the same; and also to aid in meeting the necessary expenses of the church according to his ability."
It was recommended that pastors preach on the subject of these resolutions; and that the pastor and lay-delegates, on their return home, use their influence with the brethren and congregations of their respective villages to bring the people up to their duty in these matters.
The following reflections by the venerable Dr. Perkins, written about this time, will be refreshing to the reader: "The progress of our work," he says, "is steadily onward, and is probably as rapid as would consist with its highest prosperity. This progress is not always in a uniform current. It often resembles a succession of circling eddies, caused generally by obstacles in the stream, but sometimes by the accelerated speed of the current, which, but for these self-regulating checks, might bring upon the work serious disaster. Such eddies are often our best missionary regulators, correcting mistakes or undue haste, and giving to our converts occasion and time to examine the foundations of their faith."
Miss Nancy Jane Dean joined the mission in October, 1868, to labor in the female seminary. Miss Rice and Mrs. Rhea had left Oroomiah in the previous May, with Dr. Perkins, and arrived at New York in August. Miss Rice had been connected with the female seminary twenty-two years, and her good influence was felt in hundreds of Nestorian homes on the broad plain and in the wild glens of the mountains. Mrs. Rhea's return was due to her children, but, like that of Miss Rice, it was a sad loss to the mission circle, and to the women of Persia. The return of Dr. Perkins, the father of the Nestorian mission, seemed like a removal of the foundations. "It is difficult," wrote Mr. Shedd, "to over-estimate his labors, continued now for more than a third of a century, or the value of his experience. It is a gratification to him, and to us all, that he can leave us in the atmosphere of revivals; and that, after he is gone, the many works from his pen will continue to speak to the people whom he loved. But many will sorrow at his leaving Persia, and most of all that they shall see his face no more."
Dr. Perkins had seen much accomplished in the thirty-six years of his connection with the mission. From eighty-five centres, and to congregations averaging nearly two thousand four hundred, the gospel had come to be proclaimed, by more than a hundred native helpers, of whom fifty-eight were fully recognized preachers; and more than nine hundred persons had professed their faith in Christ, of whom seven hundred and twenty were then connected with the evangelical communion. The seminaries had educated hundreds of youth, whose influence was seen in the general social and moral elevation of the people. In the common schools there were more than a thousand pupils; and from the press more than half a million of pages had gone forth in the year preceding his departure; making an aggregate of nearly nineteen millions (18,996,450) from the beginning.
The mission was commenced with the expectation that the revival of gospel light and influence among that people would rekindle their ancient missionary spirit. Extreme oppression and poverty have made the development of this spirit very difficult. But we have already seen among them as fine specimens of it, probably, as there ever were in the olden times. Witness the venerable Bishop Elias, Tamo of Gawar, Guwergis of Tergawer, Isaac of the Patriarchal family, Joseph the translator, Priest Eshoo of the Seminary, Oshana of Tehoma, and, more recently, Yâcob, among the Malakans of Russia, and Deacon Eshoo in the commercial capital of Persia. These were really missionary men; and there seems also to have been even a greater development of the genuine missionary zeal among the Nestorian women. There were, and doubtless there are now, men and women, who would have resolutely carried the gospel into Central Asia, had the door been open.
The time had now come, when it could be no longer safe for the reformed Nestorian churches to defer entering upon incipient foreign missions. The healthful reaction of such missions had become as indispensable as it was when the churches at the Sandwich Islands were providentially led to send missionaries to Micronesia and the Marquesas. The churches at the Islands, living under a free constitutional government, were indeed able to support their missionaries, and the oppressed and impoverished Nestorians are not; but it was a great thing to have messengers go forth from among themselves to make the gospel known to less favored peoples.