Produced by John Bechard (JaBBechard@aol.com)
HISTORY OF THE MISSIONS OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
BY RUFUS ANDERSON, D.D., LL.D., LATE FOREIGN SECRETARY OF THE BOARD.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
BOSTON: CONGREGATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY. 1872.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.
PREFACE.
Missions to the Oriental Churches occupy a large space in the forty-nine volumes of the Missionary Herald, and in as many Annual Reports of the Board; and in view of the multitude of facts, from which selections must be made to do justice to the several missions, it will readily be seen, that their history cannot be compressed into a single volume. The Missions may be regarded as seven or eight in number; considering the Palestine and Syria missions as really but one, and the several Armenian missions as also one. The history of the Syria mission, in its connection with the American Board, covers a period of fifty-one years; that of the Nestorian, thirty-seven; that of the Greek mission, forty-three; of the Assyrian (as a separate mission), ten; of the Armenian mission, to the present time, forty; and of the Bulgarian, twelve. The mission to the Jews, extending through thirty years, was so intimately connected with these, as to demand a place in the series; and the facts scattered through half a century, illustrating the influence exerted on the Mohammedans, are such as to require a separate embodiment.
In writing the history, one of three methods was to be adopted; either to embrace all the missions in one continuous narrative; or to carry forward the narrative of each mission, separately and continuously, through its entire period; or, rejecting both these plans, to keep the narratives of the several missions distinct, but, by suitable alternations from one to another, to secure for the whole the substantial advantages of a contemporaneous history. The first could not be done satisfactorily, so long as the several missions have a separate existence in the minds of so many readers, and while so many feel a strong personal interest in what is said or omitted. Even on the plan adopted, so much must necessarily be omitted, or stated very briefly, as to endanger a feeling, that injustice has been done to some excellent missionaries. As for the second, the author had not the courage to undertake consecutive journeys through so many long periods; and he believed not a few of his readers would sympathize with him. If, however, any desire to read the history of any one mission through in course, the table of contents will make that easy. Each of the histories is complete, so far as it goes.
No attempt has been made to write a philosophical history of missions. The book of the Acts of the Apostles is not such a history, nor has one yet been written. The time has not come for that. There are not the necessary materials. The directors of missions, and missionaries themselves, have not yet come to a full practical agreement as to the principles that underlie the working of missions, nor as to the results to be accomplished by them; and it must be left to competent writers in the future,—when the whole subject shall be more generally and better understood,—after patiently examining the proceedings of missionary societies in America, England, Scotland, and Germany, to state and apply the principles that may be thus evolved. The most that can now be done, is to record the facts in their natural connections, together with the more obvious teachings of experience. If the author has been successful in doing this, his end is gained.
In the present state of religious opinion respecting divine Providence among a portion of the reading community, it may be proper to state the author's strong conviction, that the promise of the Lord Jesus, to be with his missionaries, pledges the divine interposition in their behalf; and that "whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord." In the work of missions, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." The history before us often presents cases, in which there is no more reason to doubt the divine agency, than the human; and no intelligent missionary would labor hopefully and cheerfully, after becoming a disbeliever in a particular providence.
Nearly all the early laborers in the fields here presented, have finished their work on earth. Parsons and Fisk were the only ones, with whom the writer had not a personal acquaintance. Of not a few others,—and of some who, like himself, still linger here,—he has many pleasant personal recollections that sweeten anticipations of the heavenly world. He is thankful in being allowed to commemorate their labors and virtues, and only regrets the want of space and ability to do it better. His constant endeavor has been to present the missions to the reader as their imprint is left on his own mind. More biographical notices would have been gladly inserted, had there been room. The details of persecution are sufficient to furnish glimpses of the severe ordeal, through which it has pleased the Head of the Church to bring the infant churches of those fields.
The Syria and Nestorian missions passed under the direction of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in the year 1870, and our history of them closes at that time. Up to that date, the Congregational and New School Presbyterian Churches (the Old School Presbyterians also up to the year 1837, and the Reformed Dutch Church for many years) sustained an equal relation to all these missions. The mission to the Jews in Turkey was relinquished in 1856, out of regard to Scotch and English brethren, who had undertaken to cultivate that field. The communities in Turkey among whom our missionaries now labor, are the Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Mohammedans, and the Arabic-speaking Christians of Eastern Turkey.
The Board has ever acted on the belief, that its labors should not be restricted to pagan nations.1 The word "heathen" in the preamble of its charter, is descriptive and not restrictive. It is not in the Constitution of the Board, which was adopted at its first meeting only a few weeks after its organization. The second article of the Constitution declares it to be the object of the Board, "to devise, adopt, and prosecute ways and means for propagating the Gospel among those who are destitute of the knowledge of Christianity." This of course includes Mohammedans and Jews; and those who carefully consider the statements embodied in the Introduction to the History, will see that it embraces, also, the Oriental Churches, as they were fifty years ago.
1 These remarks were suggested by a speech at the Annual Meeting of the Board in Salem, by the Rev. S. B. Treat, Home Secretary of the Board.
In November, 1812, the year in which the first missionaries sailed for Calcutta, a committee, appointed by the Board to appeal to its constituency, used this emphatic language: "It is worthy of consideration, that the Board is not confined in its operations to any part of the world, but may direct its attention to Africa, North or South America, or the Isles of the Sea, as well as to Asia." At the Annual Meeting in 1813, it was voted: "That the Prudential Committee be directed to make inquiry respecting the settlement of a mission at San Salvador, in Brazil, at Port Louis, in the Isle of France, or on the island of Madagascar." In the latter part of 1818, it was resolved to commence a mission in Western Asia. The Prudential Committee said, in their Report for 1819: "In Palestine, Syria, the provinces of Asia Minor, Armenia, Georgia, and Persia, though Mohammedan countries, there are many thousands of Jews, and many thousands of Christians, at least in name. But the whole mingled population is in a state of deplorable ignorance and degradation,—destitute of the means of divine knowledge, and bewildered with vain imaginations and strong delusions." In that year Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons embarked for this field.
This historical review makes it clear, that those who organized the Board and directed its early labors, regarded not only Pagans, but Mohammedans, Jews, and nominal Christians, as within the sphere of its labors; and such has been the practical construction for nearly sixty years.
The reader is referred to the close of the second volume for an Index; also, for a detailed statement of the Publications issued by the several missions, which must impress any one with the amount, value, and influence of the intellectual labor there embodied. Had these statements been given at length in the History, they would have embarrassed its progress. A list is also appended of the Missionaries, male and female, giving the time during which they were severally connected with the missions.
Thankful acknowledgments are due to the Rev. Thomas Laurie, D.D.,
the writer of a number of valuable and popular works, and to the
Rev. Isaac R. Worcester, well known as the Editor of the Missionary
Herald, for their kind and careful revision of the work.
This History of the Missions of the Board to the Oriental Churches, is respectfully dedicated to the friends of those missions; and the author, who has no pecuniary interest in the work, will be amply rewarded, should he be regarded as having given a true and faithful account of the agency of the Board in the Republication of the Gospel in Bible Lands.
Boston, 1872.
CONTENTS.
MISSIONS TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I. PALESTINE.—1819-1824.
The First Missionaries.—Their Instructions.—Reception by other
Missionaries.—The Seven Churches.—Temporary Separation.—Mr.
Parsons at Jerusalem.—Disturbing Influence from the Greek
Revolution.—Returns to Smyrna.—Their Voyage to Alexandria.—Death
and Character of Mr. Parsons.—Mr. Fisk goes to Malta.—Printing
Establishment.—Rev. Jonas King becomes Mr. Fisk's Associate.—Rev.
Joseph Wolff.—The Missionaries in Egypt.—Crossing the Desert.—At
Jerusalem.—Beirût and Lebanon.—The Emir Beshir.—An interesting
Convocation.—Journals and Labors.—Jerusalem revisited.—Arrest of
Messrs. Fisk and Bird.—Visit to Hebron.—Sale of Scriptures.
—Return to Beirût.—Communion of Saints.—Journey to Damascus and
Aleppo.
CHAPTER II. PALESTINE.—1824-1843.
Proclamation of the Grand Seignior.—Jerusalem again visited.
—Absurd Reports.—Disturbed State of the Country.—Mr. King's
Farewell Letter.—He visits Smyrna and Constantinople.
—Contributions in France and England.—Agency among the Churches.
—Sickness and Death of Mr. Fisk.—His Character.—Jerusalem
reoccupied.—Danger to the Mission Families.—Death of Mrs.
Thomson.—New Missionaries.—Death of Dr. Dodge.—The Cholera.
—Station at Jerusalem suspended.—Opinion of Dr. Hawes.—Burying
Ground on Mount Zion.
CHAPTER III. SYRIA.—1823-1828.
Origin of the Mission to Syria.—Beirût.—Studies of the
Missionaries.—Native Helpers.—Papal Opposition.—Hopeful View.
—Education.—First Acquaintance with Asaad Shidiak.—Greek
Invasion.—Providential Interposition.—Pious Natives.—Dionysius at
Jerusalem.—A Prayer-meeting.—The Mission Church.—Works in the
Native Languages.—Persecution of Mr. Bird.—Apprehension of War.
—Suspension of the Mission.—Parting Scene.
CHAPTER IV. SYRIA.—THE MARTYR OF LEBANON.—1826-1830.
Significance of the Narrative.—Early History of Asaad.—Becomes
known to the Missionaries.—Employed by Mr. King.—Prepares an
Answer to Mr. King's "Farewell Letter."—His Conversion.—Employed
by the Mission.—Stands on Protestant Ground.—His Constitutional
Weakness.—Puts Himself in the Patriarch's Power.—His Boldness.
—His Escape.—His Account of his Experiences.—First Effort to
Recapture him.—Second and successful Effort.—Is taken to the
Patriarch.—Imprisoned and in Chains.—The Family relent.—Barbarous
Treatment.—Increased Cruelty.—Time and Manner of his Death.—A
Martyr.—Exploration by an English Merchant.—Remarks on the
Narrative.
CHAPTER V. THE PRESS AT MALTA.—1822-1833.
Why at Malta.—Successful Publications.—Publication of the
Armeno-Turkish New Testament.—Extent of the Publications.—Singular
Use of Alphabets and Languages.—Preaching at Malta.—Missionary
Fellowship.—The Press removed to Smyrna.
CHAPTER VI. PRELIMINARY EXPLORATIONS.—1828-1831.
Need of Information.—The Author's Visit to the Mediterranean. —Results of Malta Conferences.—Explorers of Armenia.—Preparations for the Tour.—The Route.—Sojourn at Shoosha.—German Colonies. —Sufferings from Illness.—Kindness of the English Embassy in Persia.—The Nestorians of Former Ages.—How Attention was first drawn to the Nestorians.—A Week among the Nestorians.—The Published Researches.—Religious Condition of the Armenians.
CHAPTER VII. THE ARMENIANS.—1827-1835.
Effect of Mr. King's "Farewell Letter."—School of Peshtimaljian.
—Its Influence on the Priesthood.—The Erasmus of the Armenians.—A
Preparedness for Reformation.—Commencement of the Mission.
—Splendid Scenery.—Destructive Conflagration.—Schools for the
Greeks.—The Armenian Patriarch.—Accessions to the Mission.—Outset
of the Mission characterized.—Unexpected Obstacles.—Remarkable
Converts.—Removal of the Press.—Supply of School-books.—High
School.—New Missionaries.—New Stations.
CHAPTER VIII. THE ARMENIANS.—1836-1840.
Trebizond.—Favoring Circumstances.—Improvement in the Publishing
Department.—Progressive Civilization among the Turks.—Papal
Opposition.—Signs of Progress.—Education of Women.—Active
Usefulness of Der Kevoork.—Death of Peshtimaljian.—Deaths by the
Plague.—Missionary Convocation.—Remarkable Occurrence.—Serope at
Broosa.—Vertanes and Haritûn.—Year of Persecution.—Causes of the
Persecution.—The Sultan enlisted.—Deposition of the Patriarch
Stepan.—Banishment of Hohannes.—Zeal of the Persecutors.
—Coöperation of the Greek Synod.—An Imperial Firman.—Efforts to
Expel the Missionaries.—Divine Providence effectually interposes.
—The Power of the Persecution broken.—Hohannes recalled.—The
Persecutors brought low.—Stepan restored to Office.
CHAPTER IX. THE ARMENIANS.—1840-1844.
Pledges of the New Sultan.—Boarding School at Bebek.—Station
commenced at Erzroom.—Interest at Nicomedia.—The Gospel introduced
into Adabazar.—Danger from the Papacy.—Favorable Reaction.—New
Missionaries.—Publications.—Scripture Translations.—Education.
—Signs of Progress.—Visit of Vertanes to Nicomedia.—Awakening at
Adabazar.—New Missionaries.—An Anxious Sinner seeking Rest.
—Unexpected Opposition.—Hohannes goes to the United States.—A
Native Mission.—Prayer Meetings.—Publications.—Preaching to
Women.—A Turkish Execution.—Efforts of Sir Stratford Canning.—A
Second Execution.—The Ambassador's Demand on the Sultan.—The Death
Penalty no more to be Inflicted.—Importance of the Pledge.
—Sufferings from Persecution.—Changes in the Mission.—Case of Mr.
Temple.—Death of Mrs. Van Lennep.
CHAPTER X. GREECE AND THE GREEKS.—1824-1844.
The Greek Mind as affected by Circumstances.—Death of Mr. Gridley.
—Education of Greek Youth.—Result of Experience.—Marriage of Mr.
King.—His School in Poros.—He removes to Athens.—Change in the
Government.—A New Missionary.—High Schools.—Station at Argos.
—Power of the Hierarchy.—Free Circulation of the New Testament.
—Opposition to the Old Testament.—Intrigues against the Mission.
—Success notwithstanding.—Station on Scio.—Argos relinquished.
—Removal from Scio to Ariopolis.—Serious Embarrassments.—Death of
Mrs. Houston.—Religious Toleration and Political Parties.—Growth
of Intolerance.—The Station abandoned.—The Retiring Missionaries.
—Station among the Greeks of Cyprus.—Explorations.—Ignorance of
the People.—Insalubrious Climate.—Friendly Disposition of the
People.—Death of Mr. Pease.—Relinquishment of the Station.—Athens
the only Station retained in Greece.—Preaching and the Press.
—Labors among the Greeks of Turkey.—Why in great measure
Discontinued.—Valuable Results.
CHAPTER XI. THE NESTORIANS.—1833-1836.
Commencement of the Mission.—Instructions to the Missionary.—Rise
of the Nestorians.—Their Missions.—Destroyed by the Mohammedans.
—The Overland Journey of Mr. and Mrs. Perkins.—Hardships endured
in Russia.—Kindness of the British Embassy in Persia.—Remarkable
Escape.—Friends in Need.—The Field to be Occupied.—Preliminary
Measures.—Additional Laborers.—The Province of Oroomiah.—Dr.
Grant's Medical Practice.—Recollections of Dr. Grant.—When a
Missionary Physician is most valuable.—A Nestorian Wedding.
—Reducing the Language to Writing.—Rise of the Seminary for
Males.—School for Moslem Youths.—Sickness in the Mission.
CHAPTER XII. THE NESTORIANS.—1836-1840.
Escape from Assassination.—New Missionaries.—First Impressions.
—Too much Pecuniary Aid given to the People.—Native Helpers.
—Eminent Qualities of Mrs. Grant.—She commences the Female
Seminary.—Her Death.—Priest Dunka.—Robert Glen.—Schools.
—Scarcity of Scriptures in Ancient Syriac.—Dr. Grant's Desire to
enter Koordistan from the East.—Authorized to enter from the West.
—An Arduous Journey.—Battle of Nizib.—Consequent Anarchy at
Diarbekir.—Mr. Homes.—Dr. Grant goes to Mosul.—Starts for
Koordistan.—Is challenged from the Rocks.—Welcomed by the
Mountaineers.—Boldly enters Tiary.—Pleasing Meditations.—His
Reception there.—A Learned Priest.—How Received by Mar Shimon.
—The Patriarch described.—Old Parchment Copy of the New
Testament.—Visits Nûrûllah Bey.—His return to Oroomiah.—New
Missionaries.—Arrival of Press and Type.—Bold Inroad of Jesuits.
—Counteractive Influences.—Demand for Preaching.—What was the
Calamity of the Nestorians.
CHAPTER XIII. THE MOUNTAIN NESTORIANS.—1840-1844.
Invitations from the Patriarch.—Dr. Grant resolves to return Home
through the Mountains.—Ten Days at Julamerk.—Womanly Forethought.
—Arrival at Boston.—Work on the Ten Tribes of Israel.
—Missionaries for Koordistan.—Dr. Grant returns through Van.
—Again with the Patriarch.—Painful Tidings.—Hastens to Mosul.
—Journey of the New Missionaries.—Death of Mr. Mitchell.
—Sufferings and Death of Mrs. Mitchell.—Seasonable Arrival of Dr.
Grant.—Reflections.—Reception by the Jacobites.—A Syrian Priest
from India.—The Koords making War on the Nestorians.—Bishop
Athanasius.—Dr. Grant again visits Oroomiah.—A Third Time enters
the Mountains.—Guest of Mar Shimon.—The Patriarch's Coöperation.
—Mr. Hinsdale.—Papal Missionaries.—Dr. Grant visits Nûrûllah
Bey.—Returns to Mosul.—Death of Mr. Hinsdale.—Influence of Mr.
Ainsworth and Mr. Badger on the Patriarch.—Letter from Mar Shimon
to English Bishops.—Dr. Grant's Last Visit with Mr. Laurie to the
Patriarch.—Visits Bader Khan Bey.—Subjugation of the Mountain
Nestorians.—Escape of Dr. Grant.—Destruction of Tiary.—The
Patriarch flees to Mosul.—Destruction of Life.—Death of Mrs.
Laurie.—Arrival of Dr. Azariah Smith.—Death of Dr. Grant.
—Reflections on his Life and Character.—Tiary again explored.
—Discontinuance of the Western Branch of the Mission.—Disposal of
the Missionaries.
CHAPTER XIV. SYRIA.—1830-1838.
The Station at Beirût resumed.—Gregory Wortabet.—His Conversion.
—Accompanies the Missionaries to Malta.—Returns to Syria.—Active
in the Christian Life.—Respected by all Classes.—His Death.
—Disturbing Influences.—Conquest of Syria by Ibrahim Pasha.—Mr.
Bird's Letters in the Arabic Language.—Arabic Press at Beirût.
—Explorations in the Hauran.—Journal of the Tour lost in a
Shipwreck.—Presses in Syria.—Influence of the Mission.—National
Protection.—Schools.—Retirement of Mr. and Mrs. Bird.—Accessions
to the Mission.—Improvements in the High School.—Great
Improvements in Arabic Type.—Death of Mrs. Smith.—Biblical
Researches.
CHAPTER XV. THE DRUZES, AND THE WARS OF LEBANON.—1835-1842.
The Druzes.—Hope of introducing the Gospel among them.—Disposition to Hear.—Their Leading Motive.—Subdued by Ibrahim Pasha. —Increased Tendency towards a Nominal Christianity.—A Hopeful Druze Convert.—His Firmness under Persecution.—Admitted to the Church.—Striking Illustration of an Apparent Religious Interest. —Papal Opposition and its Effect.—Treatment of Papal Druzes. —Causes of Declining Interest.—Changes in the Mission.—Evidence of Progress.—Connection between Religious and Political Events. —Consequent Warlike Proceedings.—Remarkable Preservation of Mission Property.—The persecuting Emir Beshir deposed.—Changes in the Seminary.—The Mission Reassembled.—Inroad of French Jesuits. —Mistaken Policy of English Officials.—The Patriarch's Effort to expel the Americans.—English Officers better informed.—Mistake of the American Minister.—Renewed Interest among the Druzes.—Proffer of Friendly Aid.—An Unfortunate Interposition.—The Patriarch makes War to his own Ruin.—Deliverance of the Mission.—Its Favorable Prospects.—The Success of the Mission proportioned to its Efforts. —Value of the Results.—A Sudden and Disastrous Revolution.
CHAPTER XVI. SYRIA.—1842-1846.
Experiences of the Mission.—Missionary Convention.—The People all
of one Race.—The most Hopeful Districts.—When to form Churches.
—Qualifications for Church membership not to be relaxed.—Practical
Errors.—Counteracting Agencies.—Call for Preaching at Hasbeiya.—A
Secession from the Greek Church.—Attention given to the Gospel.
—Needed Explanations.—Affecting Scene.—Arrival of Persecutors.
—Seasonable Intervention.—The Protestants obliged to flee.—Their
Return.—Interference of the Russian Consul General.—Partial
Success of the Enemy.—The Jerusalem Station suspended.—The
Seminary revived.—Death of Yakob Agha.—Another War between Druzes
and Maronites.—Its Results.—Friendly Services of the
Missionaries.—Reflections on the Patriarch's Death.—After the War.
CHAPTER XVII. DR. JONAS KING AND THE GREEK HIERARCHY.—1845-1847.
Importance of this Struggle.—The Accusations against Dr. King.—His Response.—Increased Violence of the Opposition.—His Examination by a Judge.—His Book denounced at Constantinople.—The Courts against him.—Goes to the Criminal Court at Syra.—A Dangerous Gathering. —Returns to Athens.—Is offered British Protection.—Again cited for Trial at Syra.—The Citation recalled.—Alleviations.—Renewal of the Storm.—Extraordinary Accusations.—Call from the Governor of Attica.—A Guard of Soldiers.—Advice from the King.—Offer of Sir Edmund Lyons.—Retires to Geneva.—More Slanderous Accusations.—His House protected.—Subsequent Proceedings of the Government.—Goes to Malta.—Editions of his "Farewell Letter."
CHAPTER XVIII. DR. JONAS KING AND THE GREEK HIERARCHY.—1847-1869.
Returns to Athens.—His Reasons.—The Reception.—Resumes his
Labors.—His Chief Accuser discredited.—Cheering Incident.—The
Greek Synod demands his Prosecution.—An Outbreak.—Quelled by
raising the United States Flag.—Answers to a Judge.—Effect of a
New Publication.—Allegations for a New Trial.—The Trial at
Athens.—Decides to go to the Court-room openly and on foot.
—Extraordinary Sources of Proof.—His Condemnation.—Ground of the
Condemnation.—Is imprisoned.—Appeals to the Areopagus.—Which
confirms the Sentence.—Greek Lawyers dissent from the Courts.
—Appeal to the United States Government.—The Rights of
Missionaries.—The Appeal responded to.—Opinion of the President.
—Justice partially rendered.—Sentence of Banishment revoked.
—Opinion of the American Minister.—Favorable Change in the Popular
Sentiment.—Temporary Outbreak of the Old Enmity.—Unexpected
Citation.—The Judges decide not to proceed.—Coöperation of other
Missionaries.—A Revolution in the Government.—Disgrace of Old
Persecutors.—New King and Constitution.—Association of Editors.
—An Act of Public Justice.—Visit to the United States.—Return to
Greece.—Zealous Native Labors.—Conference with the President of
the Synod.—Death of Dr. King.—General Reflections.
CHAPTER XIX. THE NESTORIANS.—1841-1848.
Visit of Dr. and Mrs. Perkins to the United States.—Accompanied by
Mar Yohannan.—Schools and the Press.—Improved Type.—Health
Station.—New Missionaries.—Dr. Perkins's History of the Mission.
—His Return.—Version of the Scriptures.—Religious Influences.
—The Jesuits and French Government.—Counteracting Influences.—The
Patriarchal Family.—Hostility of the Patriarch.—Dismission of the
Schools.—Female Seminary revived.—Boys' Seminary reorganized.—On
employing the Higher Clergy.—Mr. Merrick's Connection with the
Mission.—Ordinations.—Protection for Native Christians.—The First
Revival.—Its First Fruits.—Brother of the Patriarch.—Interest at
Geog Tapa.—Interest in the Boys' Seminary.—Estimated Number of
Converts.—Modern Syriac New Testament.—Translation of the Old
Testament.—Nestorian Hymn Book.—New Missionaries.—Devastation by
the Cholera.—Dr. Wright's Visit to Bader Khan Bey.—Wonderful
Change in the Mountains.—Homeward Route.—Mar Shimon invited to
Constantinople.—Flees to Oroomiah.—Conflicting Influences upon
him.—His Apparent Friendship.—Throws off the Mask.—His Power
circumscribed.—His Unfriendly Acts.—The Government interposes.
—His Combination with the Jesuits.—Prejudicial to Both.—Death of
the King.—Providential Interpositions.—Persecution of Deacon
Tamo.—Deposition of the Great Koordish Chieftains.
CHAPTER XX. THE NESTORIANS.—1848-1852.
Mr. Stoddard Visits the United States.—Death of Mrs. Stoddard.
—State of the Schools.—Mar Shimon returns to the Mountains.—A
Visit to Mosul.—A Second Revival.—Deacon Guwergis.—Third
Revival.—Deacon John.—Deacon Jeremiah.—Various Tours.—The
Mission Enlarged.—Advance in Female Education.—Village Schools.
—Sabbath-schools.—The Monthly Concert.—Preaching Tours.—Deacon
Isaac.—Station at Gawar.—A Remarkable Youth.—Adverse Influences.
—Persecution of Deacon Tamo.—Intervention of Lieut.-Col.
Williams.—Powerful Friends.—Release of Tamo.—Favorable Results.
—Modern Syriac Bible.
CHAPTER XXI. SYRIA.—1845-1856.
Good News from the North.—Mr. Thomson Visits Aleppo.—The People
characterized.—Greek Catholic Archbishop.—Visit to Hasbeiya.—Mr.
Laurie's Return Home.—Unsuccessful Appeal for Laborers.—Relation
of the Druzes to Mohammedanism.—Successful Appeal of the Hasbeiyans
to the Turkish Government.—Desperate Resort of the Greek
Patriarch.—Formation of a Purely Native Church.—Translation of the
Scriptures into the Arabic.—Station of Aleppo.—Visit to Northern
Lebanon.—Death of Bedros.—Intelligent Men affected by the Truth.
—Another Visit to Hasbeiya.—English Protection.—Seminary at
Abeih.—Improved Arabic Type.—The Native Church.—Outrages at
Aleppo.—Effect of the Proceedings.—Pupils in the Seminary.—The
Church at Hasbeiya.—John Wortabet.—Drs. Bacon and Robinson.
—Female Boarding School.—Native Church at Abeih.—Experience in
Different Localities.—An Interesting Conversion.—Hopeful
Developments.—Opposition and its Effect.—A Church built at
Hasbeiya.—Progress of the Arabic Translation of the Scriptures.
—The Gospel at Ain Zehalty.—Northern Syria transferred to the
Armenian Mission.—Accessions and Bereavements.—General View.
CHAPTER XXII. THE ARMENIANS.—1845-1846.
The Grand Crisis.—The Persecuting Patriarch.—Mention of Bishop
Southgate.—The Patriarch's Mode of Proceeding.—His Treatment of
Bedros Vartabed.—Priest Vertanes.—The Chief Persecutors.
—Persecution at Erzroom.—Its Effect.—Central Position of
Erzroom.—Progress at Trebizond.—Persecutions.—The Patriarch
resorts to Excommunication.—Temporal Penalties enforced.—The
Patriarch and the First Protestant Pastor.—Appeals of the
Persecuted.—Charitable Aid.—Good Resulting from Evil.
—Intervention of the Government.—The Patriarch's Subterfuge.—Case
of Priest Haritûn.—A Temporary Triumph.—Cruelties at Adabazar and
Trebizond.—A British Consul interposes.—Effect of the
Persecutions.—Barbarities at Erzroom.
CHAPTER XXIII. THE ARMENIANS.—1846-1848.
Continued Persecutions.—Interposition of the English Ambassador.
—Designation of "Protestants."—A Vizierial Letter.—The
Patriarch's Hostility to the Seminary.—Its Effect.—Seminary for
Young Ladies.—Perpetual Excommunication of the Protestants.
—Consequent Organization of an Evangelical Church at
Constantinople.—Choice of Officers.—Ordination of a Pastor.
—Public Declaration of Faith.—Other Churches formed.—Early Death
of the Pastor.—The Pastor's Wife.—Der Haritûn.—Reformation at
Aintab.—Visit of Mr. Van Lennep.—Visit of Mr. Johnston.—Arrival
of Dr. Azariah Smith.—Mr. Schneider's Visit.—Trying Situation of
the Protestants.—Power of the Patriarch reduced.—Number of the
Protestants.—The Churches.—Additional Native Pastors.—Revivals of
Religion.
INTRODUCTION.
We may not hope for the conversion of the Mohammedans, unless true Christianity be exemplified before them by the Oriental Churches. To them the native Christians represent the Christian religion, and they see that these are no better than themselves. They think them worse; and therefore the Moslem believes the Koran to be more excellent than the Bible.
It is vain to say, that the native Christians have so far departed from the truth that they do not feel the power of the Gospel, and that therefore the immorality of their lives is not to be attributed to its influence. The Mohammedan has seen no other effect of it, and he cannot be persuaded to read the Bible to correct the evidence of his observation, and perhaps also of his own painful experience.
Hence a wise plan for the conversion of the Mohammedans of Western Asia necessarily involved, first, a mission to the Oriental Churches. It was needful that the lights of the Gospel should once more burn on those candlesticks, that everywhere there should be living examples of the religion of Jesus Christ, that Christianity should no longer be associated in the Moslem mind with all that is sordid and base.
The continued existence of large bodies of nominal Christians among these Mohammedans, is a remarkable fact. They constitute more than a third part of the population of Constantinople, and are found in all the provinces of the empire, as, also, in Persia, and are supposed to number at least twelve millions. Being so numerous and so widely dispersed, should spiritual life be revived among them a flood of light would illumine the Turkish empire, and shine far up into Central Asia. The followers of Mohammed would look on with wonder, and perhaps, at first, with hatred and persecution; but new views of the Gospel would thus be forced upon them, and no longer would they be able to boast of the superiority of their own religion.
It is true of the Oriental Churches, that they have lost nearly all the essential principles of the Gospel; at least that those principles have, in great measure, ceased to have a practical influence.1 Their views of the Trinity, and of the divine and human natures of Christ, are not unscriptural; but their views of the way of salvation through the Son, and of the work of the Holy Spirit, are sadly perverted. The efficacy of Christ's death for the pardon of sin, is secured to the sinner, they suppose, by baptism and penance. The belief is universal, that baptism cancels guilt, and is regeneration. They also believe baptism to be the instrumental cause of justification. Hence faith is practically regarded as no more than a general assent of the understanding to the creeds of their churches. Of the doctrine of a justifying faith of the heart,—the distinguishing doctrine of the Gospel,—the people of the Oriental Churches are believed to have been wholly ignorant, before the arrival of Protestant missionaries among them.
1 This brief description of the religion of the Oriental Churches, is condensed from a statement by that eminent missionary, Dr. Eli Smith, in a sermon published in 1833, but now accessible to very few. I often use his words, as best adapted to convey the true idea. Subsequent observations, so far as I know, have never called for any modification in his statement.
Being thus freed from the condemning power of original sin, and regenerated by baptism, men were expected to work their way to heaven by observing the laws of God and the rites of the church. These rites were fasting, masses, saying of prayers, pilgrimages, and the like, and in practice crowded the moral law out of mind. The race of merit was hindered by daily sins, but not stopped, provided the sins were of a class denominated venial. These could be canceled by the rites of the church, the most important of which was the mass, or the consecration and oblation of the elements of the Lord's Supper. That ordinance is to be observed in remembrance of Christ, but the people of the Oriental Churches are taught to look upon it as a renewal of his death. On the priest's pronouncing the words, "This is my body," the elements are believed to be changed from bread and wine, and thenceforth to contain the body and blood, the soul and divinity, of Christ; so that He is crucified afresh, and made an expiatory sacrifice for sin, every time the consecration is performed; which, in most churches, is almost every morning in the year. Its merit attaches not only to the offerer and the partaker, but to all the faithful, living and dead; especially to those who, by paying the priest, or by some other service, have their names mentioned in the prayers that form a part of the ceremony.
Thus a ministry to offer sacrifices is substituted for a ministry to feed the flock of God with sound doctrine, and the spiritual worship of God is converted into the formal adoration of a wafer. Preaching is nowhere regarded as the leading duty of the clergy, but to say mass. By exalting the eucharist into an expiatory sacrifice, the partaking of the elements by the people came to be considered quite unessential, and is generally neglected. They need not understand, nor even hear the language of the officiating priest. It is enough, if they see and adore. A bell warns them when to make the needful genuflections and crosses. Nor can there be a reasonable doubt, that the adoration of the host (which is required on pain of excommunication in the Romish Church) is the grossest species of idolatry.
But there are deadly, as well as venial, sins; and these expose the soul to eternal punishment. When these are committed after baptism, they can be remitted only by auricular confession, or the sacrifice of penance, of which confession forms an essential part. To the efficacy of this ceremony, contrition of heart is supposed, in theory, to be essential; but its necessity is rarely taught, and the great mass of the community go away from the confessional fully satisfied that their sins are canceled by the mere external form.
Pardon by the priest is not, however, absolute. Grace is restored, and eternal punishment remitted, but there must be a temporary punishment,—certain penances, such as fasting, alms-giving, saying prayers, and the like. The fasts are merely the substituting of a less for a more palatable and nutritious diet. Alms are more for the spiritual benefit of the giver, than for the relief of the receiver. The supposed efficacy of prayer has no connection with the sincerity of the offerer. For in none of the Oriental Churches, excepting the Arabic branch of the Greek Church, are the prayers in a language understood by the people.
They believe that all who die before baptism, or after baptism with deadly sins unconfessed, are lost forever; but if one die after confession, and while his penance is incomplete, he cannot be sent to hell, neither is he prepared for heaven. He must first complete his penance in a temporary state of misery. This state the papists call purgatory; and though the other churches reject the name, they cleave tenaciously to the thing. As all believe that the sufferings of the departed may be shortened by the merit of good works performed by surviving relatives and imputed to them, prayers for the dead are frequent in churches and over graves, and masses are celebrated in their name.
Though the Nestorians renounced auricular confession, they no more looked to the redemption of Christ for pardon, than did their neighbors, and they knew of no other regeneration than baptism.
There is no need of entering here on the practical influence of such a religion on the lives of the people. That will appear in the progress of our history. Enough has been said to justify the American churches in laboring to restore to the degenerate churches of the East the Gospel they had lost, especially as an indispensable means of Christianizing the Moslems of Turkey and Persia.
The Oriental communities within the range of this history, are the following:—
The GREEKS;
The ARMENIANS;
The NESTORIANS;
The JACOBITES;
The BULGARIANS;
The ROMAN CATHOLICS OF TURKEY;
The JEWS OF TURKEY; and
The MOHAMMEDANS.
The Missions are as follows:—
The PALESTINE Mission;
The SYRIA Mission;
The GREEK Mission;
The ARMENIAN Mission;
The NESTORIAN Mission;
The ASSYRIAN Mission;
The MISSION TO THE JEWS; and that to
The MOHAMMEDANS.
MISSIONS TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
CHAPTER I.
PALESTINE.
1819—1824.
American missions in Bible lands, like their apostolic predecessors, had a beginning at Jerusalem. The first missionaries from this country to the Oriental Churches were Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons. On the 23d of September, 1818, they were appointed to labor in Palestine. But as, at that early period, there was special need of making the churches acquainted with the work, and foreign missionaries were less common than now, they were detained to labor at home until November of the following year, when they embarked at Boston for Smyrna, in the ship Sally Ann, Captain Edes. They were both interesting men, and the impressive public services connected with their departure were long remembered in Boston. A single extract from the official instructions of Dr. Worcester, the Corresponding Secretary of the Board, will give at once a glimpse of that remarkable man, and a view of the object of the mission.
"From the heights of the Holy Land, and from Zion, you will take an extended view of the wide-spread desolations and variegated scenes presenting themselves on every side to Christian sensibility; and will survey with earnest attention the various tribes and classes who dwell in that land, and in the surrounding countries. The two grand inquiries ever present to your minds will be, WHAT GOOD CAN BE DONE? and BY WHAT MEANS? What can be done for Jews? What for Pagans? What for Mohammedans? What for Christians? What for the people in Palestine? What for those in Egypt, in Syria, in Persia, in Armenia, in other countries to which your inquiries may be extended?"
The vessel touched at Malta, thus giving opportunity, so far as the quarantines of those times would allow, for personal intercourse with the Rev. William Jowett, of the Church Missionary Society, and afterwards one of its secretaries. He received his American brethren in that catholic spirit, which has ever characterized that society and its agents, and gave them all the aid in his power. They also received kindness from the Rev. Mr. Wilson, of the London Missionary Society, then resident in Malta, and from Dr. Naudi, a native of the island and interested in Protestant missions, though then a Roman Catholic.
The brethren reached Smyrna at the opening of the year 1820, and took lodgings in a Swiss family, where French, Italian, Modern Greek, and some Turkish were spoken, but no English. American and English residents treated them kindly, and they were specially indebted to the Messrs. Van Lennep, Dutch merchants, to whom they were introduced by Captain Edes.
In May they repaired to the Greek College in Scio, for the purpose of studying the Modern Hellenic, and there they made the acquaintance of Professor Bambas, a Greek gentleman of talent and learning, who entered into their plans with an intelligent and heartfelt interest.
It was my privilege, eight years after this, to make the acquaintance of Professor Bambas at Corfu, in the Ionian Islands, where he was connected with the University, instructing in logic, metaphysics, and practical theology, and presiding over the theological seminary connected with the University. An intelligent and judicious friend, well acquainted with him, expressed a decided opinion in favor of his piety and preaching. Bambas appeared then to be about fifty years old; and his sweet countenance enlivened by a quick eye, and the deliberation, judgment, and kindness, with which he replied to inquiries, made a most favorable impression, which subsequent intercourse fully sustained.
With such a specimen of a Greek before them, we cannot wonder that Messrs. Fisk and Parsons cherished strong hopes as to the future of the nation. They remained in Scio five months, and availed themselves of every opportunity to revive among the Greeks a knowledge of the Gospel. In November, they made a tour of about three hundred miles, visiting the places where once stood the Seven Churches of Asia, everywhere acquiring and imparting information.
After mature deliberation they decided, that the object of their mission would be most effectually promoted by their temporary separation; and that Mr. Parsons should proceed at once to Jerusalem, preliminary to its permanent occupation, while Mr. Fisk should prosecute his studies at Smyrna, under the hospitable roof of Mr. Van Lennep. The war of the Greek revolution began in the following spring, and Mr. Fisk's journal makes frequent mention of cruel atrocities committed by the Turks on their opponents in the streets of Smyrna. Prudence required him to live much in retirement. In a few short excursions, however, he distributed Bibles, Testaments, and tracts; and, during a part of the year, he supplied the place of British chaplain.
Mr. Parsons arrived at Jerusalem on the 17th of February, 1821, and was the first Protestant missionary ever resident there, with the intention of making it a permanent field of labor. His first object was to reach the multitude of pilgrims then about to congregate in the Holy City. He took with him the Scriptures in nine languages, and four or five thousand religious tracts. He had letters to Procopius, an assistant of the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, president of the Greek monasteries, and agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Convenient rooms were assigned him near the so-called holy sepulchre. During the spring he visited the principal places of interest in Jerusalem and its vicinity, including the Jordan and Dead Sea, and had reason to believe that his labors were not fruitless. As he supposed it not safe to pass the hot months of the year at Jerusalem, he resolved to spend the summer on Mount Lebanon, but civil commotions obliged him to relinquish the idea. He then turned his attention to Bethlehem, but the influence of the Greek revolt had reached Palestine, and was putting the Greeks in constant fear of their lives. His only resort was to return to Smyrna. On the voyage he first saw the new Greek flag, and was informed, by the captain of a Greek vessel of war, that the college at Scio was closed, and that Professor Bambas had saved his life only by flight. He found a temporary home at Syra, under the protection of the British consul. There he had an attack of fever, from which he recovered so far as to reach Smyrna in December.
As Mr. Parsons did not regain his health at Smyrna, the two brethren proceeded to Alexandria in Egypt, hoping much from a change of climate, and trusting that they should be able to reach Jerusalem in the spring. But such was not the will of their Heavenly Father. Mr. Parsons' disease assumed a dangerous form soon after their arrival at Alexandria, and he died early in the morning of February 10, 1822. His last words, when parting with his beloved associate, late in the evening, were, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him."
The character of Mr. Parsons was transparent and lovely. Few of those distinguished for piety leave a name so spotless. Though scarcely thirty years of age, such was the impression he had made on the Christian community at home, that his death was widely lamented; the more, doubtless, because of the intimate association of his name with Jerusalem, Zion, Gethsemane, and the scenes of the crucifixion. His disposition, demeanor, and general intelligence inspired confidence, and gave him access to the most cultivated society. He united uncommon zeal with the meekness of wisdom. His powers were happily balanced, and his consecration to the service of his Divine Master was entire. Mr. Fisk's account of the closing scene was beautiful and touching in its simplicity.1
1 See Missionary Herald for 1822, p. 218.
Mr. Fisk went to Cairo soon after the death of his associate, intending to proceed to Jerusalem through the desert. But hearing that the Rev. Daniel Temple had arrived at Malta as a fellow-laborer, he deemed it prudent to confer with him, before venturing upon the then very disturbed state of Palestine. He arrived at Malta on the 13th of April. How natural, after the privations of his journeys by land and sea, the seclusion from Christian society, the scenes of plague and massacre he had witnessed, and especially after the sickness and death of his beloved colleague, that he should feel the need of Christian friends, with whom to renew his strength.
Mr. Temple and his wife had embarked at Boston on the 2d of January, 1822. He had brought with him a printing-press, designed for the mission at Malta, types had been ordered at Paris, and his connection with this establishment prevented his accompanying Mr. Fisk.
An associate was provided, however, in an unexpected quarter. The Rev. Jonas King had been elected Professor of Oriental Languages in Amherst College, and was then pursuing the study of Arabic in Paris, under the celebrated orientalist De Sacy. Mr. Fisk lost no time in requesting him to become his associate. On receiving the letter, Mr. King wrote at once to the American Board, tendering his services for three years, and they were accepted. There were then neither steamers nor telegraphs, and the response of the Prudential Committee could not be received until after the favorable season for oriental traveling would have passed. Mr. King's friends in Paris and in some other European cities, therefore, advanced the needful funds to enable him to start at once, and he landed at Malta early in November. A few days later, the celebrated Joseph Wolff also arrived, for the purpose of going with Mr. Fisk to Jerusalem. The three started January 3, 1823, to go by way of Alexandria, Cairo, and the desert. During the three weeks spent in Egypt they ascended the Nile as far as Thebes, distributing Bibles and tracts at most of the villages along the river. They were able to communicate religious truths in several languages, and sold more than six hundred copies of the Bible, or parts of it. The whole number of copies distributed was eight hundred, in twelve languages, besides more than two thousand tracts.
They left Cairo without waiting for a caravan, but were joined by Turks, Arabs, Greeks, and Armenians, before entering the desert, until they numbered seventy-four persons, with forty-four camels, and fifty-seven asses.
This being their first visit to Jerusalem, it was full of interest. Here God had been pleased to dwell visibly in his temple. For many ages it was the earthly home of the Church. Here the chosen tribes came to worship. Here David tuned his harp to praise Jehovah, and Isaiah obtained enraptured visions of the future Church. Above all, here the Lord of the world became incarnate, and wrought out redemption for man. During the two months of their sojourn, they visited many places of interest to the Christian and to the Biblical student.1 For greater usefulness, they occupied separate rooms in the Greek Convent, where they received all who came unto them, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding them. Mr. Wolff had a room on the side of Mount Zion, near the residence of the Jews, with whom he labored almost incessantly. Impressions as to the unhealthiness of Jerusalem in summer were stronger, at that time, than subsequent experience justified, and the brethren decided, like Mr. Parsons, to pass the hot months on the heights of Lebanon. Accordingly they left the Holy City on the 27th of June, going by way of Jaffa and the coast to Beirût, where they arrived on the 10th of July. The southern portion of Lebanon, largely occupied by Druses, was then governed by the Emir Beshîr, who was called Prince of the Druses, though himself a Maronite. Not long before, having offended the Sultan, he had fled into Egypt, and there became acquainted with the missionaries. Having made his peace with the Sultan and returned to Deir el-Kamr, his capital, the brethren visited him there, and were hospitably entertained, and furnished with a firmân for travelling in all parts of his dominions.
1 See Missionary Herald, 1824, pp. 65-71, 97-101.
Mr. King took up his residence there in order to study the Arabic language. Mr. Fisk spent the summer with Mr. Way, of the London Jews' Society, in a building erected for a Jesuits' College at Aintûra, which that gentleman had hired for the use of missionaries in Palestine. In August, Mr. Wolff arrived from Jerusalem. Early in the autumn, Messrs. Fisk, Lewis of the Jews' Society, Wolff, Jowett and King, all met at Aintûra, for the friendly discussion of some practical questions relating to missions, which were soon arranged to mutual satisfaction. How many dark and troubled ages had passed, since there was such a company of Christian ministers assembled on that goodly mountain! The journals of Mr. King, here and elsewhere, have a singularly dramatic interest, and were eagerly read, as they appeared in the "Missionary Herald." Those of Mr. Fisk are also rich in the information they contain. He was able to preach in both the Italian and Modern Greek. Mr. King's labors were chiefly in the Arabic language, in which he preached the Gospel with the utmost plainness. Yet he appears to have secured in a remarkable degree the good-will of the people. He thus describes the scene connected with his departure from Deir el-Kamr, on the 22d of September:—
"A little before I left, the family appeared very sorrowful, and some of them wept. The mother wept much, and a priest with whom I had often conversed came in and wept like a child. I improved this occasion by telling him of his duty as a shepherd, and spoke to him of the great day of account, and the responsibility that rested upon him, and his duty to search the Scriptures. The family I exhorted to love the Lord Jesus Christ, to read the Word of God, and to be careful to keep all his commandments.
"It was truly an interesting scene; and I was surprised to see the feeling exhibited by the Arabs on my departure. As I left the house, they loaded me with blessings, and, as I passed through the street, many commended me to the care and protection of the Lord."1
1 Report for 1824, p. 121.
In October, Messrs. Fisk and King rode to Tripoli, supposed then to contain fifteen thousand inhabitants. From thence they proceeded to the Maronite Convent of Mâr Antonius Khoshiah, situated on the brow of an almost perpendicular mountain, where was a printing-press. Nearly all the inhabitants of that part of Lebanon are Maronites, acknowledging allegiance to the Pope. Thence they visited the Cedars of Lebanon; and then crossed the rich plain of Coelo-Syria to Baalbek, at the foot of Anti-Lebanon. Several of the places visited in this tour will come more properly into notice in the subsequent history.
Mr. Fisk returned to Jerusalem in the autumn with Mr. Jowett. Just before leaving Beirût, they had the joy of welcoming the Rev. Messrs. William Goodell and Isaac Bird, and their wives, who arrived on the 16th of October. In January, Messrs. King and Bird also went to Jerusalem.
The year 1824 was one of much activity. In February, Messrs. Fisk and Bird were the only missionaries at Jerusalem, Mr. King having gone to Jaffa. While successfully employed in selling the Scriptures to Armenian pilgrims in the city, they were apprehended, at the instigation of the Latins, and brought before Moslem judges on the strange charge of distributing books that were neither Mohammedan, Jewish, nor Christian. Holding up a copy of Genesis, the judge declared it to be among the unchristian books denounced by the Latins. Meanwhile their rooms were searched, and a crier was sent out into the city, forbidding all persons to receive their books, and ordering all that had been received to be delivered up. Their papers were examined, and some of them retained by the government. In a few days, however, through the prompt interference of the English Consul at Jaffa, their papers were all restored, and they were set at liberty. These proceedings becoming widely known, the result was, on the whole, favorable. Mr. Abbott, English Consul at Beirût, learning of the occurrence, wrote to the Pasha at Damascus, and the governor and judge at Jerusalem received an official order to restore to the missionaries whatever had been taken from them, and to secure for them protection and respectful treatment. The governor was shortly after superseded, for what cause was not certainly known; but many people, both Mussulmans and Christians, believed it was in consequence of his ill treatment of Messrs. Fisk and Bird.
Mr. Damiani, son of the English Consul at Jaffa, had come to Jerusalem on their behalf, with a letter from his father to the governor. In company with this young gentleman, the missionaries visited Hebron in February, going by way of Bethlehem. About three miles south of Bethlehem, they came to what are called the Cisterns of Solomon, three in number, of large dimensions, on the side of a hill. Mr. Fisk was informed, that Jerusalem was supplied in part by an aqueduct, which carried its waters from those fountains.1
1 Dr. Robinson says that the modern aqueduct was mostly laid with tubes of pottery; but, northeast of Rachel's tomb, he saw "the traces of an ancient aqueduct which was carried up the slope of the hill by means of tubes, or perforated blocks of stone, fitted together with sockets and tenons, and originally cemented." This was in 1842. Dr. Eli Smith drew my attention in 1845 to the same thing. Such stones are said to be seen nowhere else in that region.
The visit to Hebron had no important results. During the five months spent at Jerusalem, seven hundred copies of Scripture were sold. In the last six weeks, Mr. Fisk suffered from an attack of fever, with headache, restlessness, and tendency to delirium, and had no medical adviser. On the 22d of April, the two brethren went to Jaffa, from whence they proceeded, with Mr. King, to Beirût, where they arrived on the 4th of May. With Messrs. King, Bird, and Goodell around him, Mr. Fisk thus gives expression to his feelings: "These days of busy, friendly, joyous intercourse have greatly served to revive the spirits that drooped, to refresh the body that was weary, and to invigorate the mind that began to flag. I came here tired of study, and tired of journeying, but I begin to feel already desirous to reopen my books, or resume my journeys. We have united in praising God for bringing us to this land. I suppose we are as cheerful, contented, and happy, as any little circle of friends in our favored country. Dear brother Parsons! how would his affectionate heart have rejoiced to welcome such a company of fellow laborers to this land! But he is happier in union with the blessed above."
On the 22d of June, 1824, Messrs. Fisk and King set out for Damascus, where they expected to find peculiar facilities for Arabic studies. Aleppo being still more advantageous for them, they proceeded to that city in July, with a caravan, notwithstanding the intense heat of midsummer. On the 19th, they suffered much from exposure to the heated air, filled with sand and dust. On the 25th, they encamped at Sheikhoon, a dirty Mussulman village of a thousand inhabitants. There was neither tree nor rock to shade them. The strong wind was almost as hot as if it came from a furnace, and they had nothing to eat but curdled milk, called leben, and bread that had been dried and hardened by the heat of eight or ten days. Yet it was the Sabbath, and they declared themselves to be happy. In the last day of their journey, which was July 28, they were joined by a large caravan from Latakia, much to their satisfaction, as that day's journey was considered the most dangerous.
On the 25th of October the brethren started on their return to Beirût, going by way of Antioch, Latakia, and Tripoli, a journey of nineteen days. While traveling across the mountains, often in sight of the ruined old Roman road to Antioch, they were repeatedly drenched by the great rains of that season. No wonder the brethren of Mr. Fisk at Beirût were not a little anxious about him, amid such exposures, but his usual health seems to have returned with the cold season.
CHAPTER II.
PALESTINE.
1824-1843.
In February, 1824, the Grand Seignior, influenced, as it would appear, by Rome, issued a proclamation to the Pashas throughout Western Asia, forbidding the distribution of the Christian Scriptures, and commanding those who had received copies to deliver them to the public authorities to be burnt. The copies remaining in the hands of the distributors were to be sealed up till they could be sent back to Europe. But few copies were obtained from the people, and the Turks seemed to take very little interest in the matter.
Messrs. Fisk and King made their third and last visit to Jerusalem in the spring of 1825, arriving there on the 29th of March. On their way, they had stopped a few weeks in Jaffa, where their labors gave rise to some very absurd reports, which yet appeared credible to the superstitious people. Some said, that the missionaries bought people with money; that the price for common people was ten piastres, and that those ten piastres always remained with the man who received them, however much he might spend from them. Others said, that the picture of professed converts was taken in a book, and that the missionaries would shoot the picture, should the man go back to his former religion, and he would of course die. A Moslem, having heard that men were hired to worship the devil, asked if it were true, saying that he would come, and bring a hundred others with him. "What," said his friend, "would you worship the devil?" "Yes," said he, "if I was paid for it."
The brethren were cordially received by their acquaintances at Jerusalem. Two days afterwards, the pasha of Damascus sat down before the city, with three thousand soldiers, to collect his annual tribute. The amount to be paid by each community was determined solely by his own caprice, and what he could not be induced to remit was extorted by arrest, imprisonment, and the bastinado. Many of the inhabitants fled, and the rest lived in constant terror and distress. So great was the confusion and insecurity within and around the city, that the brethren decided to return to Beirût, where they arrived on the 18th of May. From 1822 to 1825 they and their associates had distributed nearly four thousand copies of the Scriptures, and parts thereof, in different languages, and about twenty thousand tracts. After staying a month at Beirût, Mr. King passed six weeks at Deir el-Kamr in the study of Syriac, with Asaad el-Shidiak for his teacher, a remarkable young Maronite, who will have a prominent place in this history. On returning to Beirût, Mr. King wrote a farewell letter to his friends in Palestine and Syria, which Asaad translated into excellent Arabic, and afterwards multiplied copies for distribution. It was a tract destined to exert an important influence.
Mr. King's term of service had now expired; and on the 26th of August, 1825, after three years of active and very useful missionary labors, he left Syria homeward bound. He went first to Tarsus by ship, and thence, by what proved a tedious land journey, to Smyrna. His clothes, books, papers, and several valuable manuscripts were sent by a vessel, that was taken by a Greek cruiser, and only a part of them were returned. On his arrival at Smyrna, December 4, he received the painful intelligence of the death of his beloved associate at Beirût.
Mr. King remained several months at Smyrna, waiting the recovery of his effects, making good progress, meanwhile, in the modern Greek language, and doing much service for the Greeks. He then visited Constantinople with the Rev. Mr. Hartley, of the Church Missionary Society, where he was received by several high Greek ecclesiastics with a kindness similar to that he had received from the Greeks of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor. It was after his departure, that a copy of his Farewell Letter found its way into the hands of Armenians, who brought it before a council convened for the purpose, as will be related hereafter. He returned to France just four years from the time of his departure to enter upon his mission. Pious people were everywhere exceedingly eager to hear his statements. Enough was contributed by friends in Paris, to purchase a font of Armenian type for the press at Malta, which he ordered before leaving the metropolis. When in England he obtained funds for Arabic types, and left orders for a font in London. Mrs. Hannah More, then at an advanced age, was among the contributors. He returned home at the close of the summer of 1827, and soon after the annual meeting of the Board made a tour as agent through the Southern and Middle States, which occupied him till April of the following year. The Rev. Edward N. Kirk (now Dr. Kirk of Boston) was associated with him in this agency.
Mr. Fisk had a good constitution, and would probably have endured the climate of Syria for many years, with no more strain upon it in the way of travel, than subsequent experience warranted. The reader of the preceding pages will be prepared to apprehend special danger from his return to Beirût in a season, that was sickly beyond the recollection of the oldest of the Franks. He first spoke of being ill on Tuesday, October 11, having had a restless night. His experience was similar on several succeeding nights, but during the day he seemed tolerably comfortable, enjoyed conversation, and frequently desired the Scriptures to be read, remarking on the importance of the subjects, and the preciousness of the promises. His devotional feelings were awakened and his spirits revived by the reading or singing of hymns, such as he suggested. On the 19th his mind was somewhat affected, and he fainted while preparations were being made for removing him to his bed. The next day, according to a request he had made some time before, he was informed of the probable issue of his sickness. He heard it with composure; remarking that he believed the commanding object of his life, for the seventeen years past, had been the glory of Christ and the good of the Church. During the day he dictated letters to his father, and to his missionary brethren King and Temple. On Thursday he asked for the reading of that portion of Mrs. Graham's "Provision for Passing over Jordan," where it is said, "To be where Thou art, to see Thee as Thou art, to be made like Thee, the last sinful motion forever past,"—he anticipated the conclusion, and said, with an expressive emphasis, "That's Heaven." As the evening approached, he was very peaceful, and in the midst he spoke out, saying: "I know not what this is, but it seems to me like the silence that precedes the dissolution of nature." Becoming conscious that the fever was returning, he said, "What the Lord intends to do with me, I cannot tell, but my impression is, that this is my last night." The fever, however, was lighter than usual, and the next forenoon there was some hope that it might be overcome. Yet it returned in the afternoon, with all its alarming symptoms. At six o'clock he had greatly altered, and the hand of death seemed really upon him. At eight a physician, who had been sent for, arrived from Sidon, but Mr. Fisk was insensible. Though the physician expressed little hope of saving him, he ordered appliances which arrested the paroxysm of fever, and restored him temporarily to consciousness. He was quiet during Saturday, the 22d, and there were no alarming appearances at sunset. But before midnight all hope had fled. "We hastened to his bedside," say his brethren, "found him panting for breath, and evidently sinking into the arms of death. The physician immediately left him, and retired to rest. We sat down, conversed, prayed, wept, and watched the progress of his dissolution, until, at precisely three o'clock on the Lord's day morning, October 23, 1825, the soul, which had been so long waiting for deliverance, was quietly released. It rose, like its great Deliverer, very early on the first day of the week, triumphant over death, and entered, as we believe, on that Sabbath, of eternal rest, which remaineth for the people of God."
His age was thirty-three. As soon as the fact of his death became known, all the flags of the different consuls were seen at half-mast. The funeral was attended at four P. M., in the presence of a more numerous and orderly concourse of people, than had been witnessed there on a similar occasion.
Mr. Fisk had a strong affinity, in the constitution of his mind and the character of his piety, to the late Miss Fidelia Fiske, of the Nestorian mission, who was his cousin, and whose praise is in all the churches. He was an uncommon man. With a vigorous constitution, and great capacity for labor, he possessed a discriminating judgment, an ardent spirit of enterprise, intrepidity, decision, perseverance, entire devotion to the service of his Master, facility in the acquisition of languages, and an equipoise of his faculties, which made it easy to accommodate himself to times, places, and companies. He was highly esteemed as a preacher before leaving home. "And who," said a weeping Arab, on hearing of his death, smiting on his breast, "who will now present the Gospel to us? I have heard no one explain God's word like him!" Aptness to teach was the prominent trait in his ministerial character, and in a land of strangers, he was esteemed, reverenced, and lamented.
The following tribute to his memory is from the pen of Mr. Bird:—
"The breach his death has made in the mission, is one which years will not probably repair. The length of time which our dear brother had spent in the missionary field, the extensive tours he had taken, the acquaintances and connections he had formed, and the knowledge he had acquired of the state of men and things in all the Levant, had well qualified him to act as our counselor and guide; while his personal endowments gave him a weight of character, sensibly felt by the natives. His knowledge of languages, considering his well-known active habits, has often been to us a subject of surprise and thanksgiving. All men who could comprehend French, Italian, or Greek, were accessible by his powerful admonitions. In the first-mentioned language he conversed with ease, and in the last two, performed with perfect fluency the common public services of a preacher of the Gospel. Even the Arabic he had so far mastered, as to commence in it a regular Sabbath service with a few of the natives. At the time of his death, besides preaching weekly in Arabic, and also in English in his turn, and besides his grammatical studies under an Arabic master, he had just commenced a work, to which, with the advice of us all, he was directing, for the time, his main attention. Having in a manner completed the tour of Palestine and Syria, and having become quite at home in Arabic grammar, he felt more than ever the need of a dictionary to introduce the missionary to the spoken language of the country. The ponderous folios of Richardson are for Persia; Golius, and the smaller work of Willmet, explain only the written language. We were therefore of the unanimous opinion, that a lexicon like the one in contemplation by Mr. Fisk, was needed, not only by ourselves, but by the missionaries who should succeed us. Our dear brother had written the catalogue of English words according to Johnson, and had just finished the catalogue (incomplete of course) of the corresponding Arabic, when disease arrested him. Had he lived, he hoped to visit his native country, and probably publish some account of his Christian researches in the Levant.
"Such were some of the plans and employments of our brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, when he was called off from all his labors of love among men. He is gone, but his memory lives. Never till called to sleep by his side, shall we forget the noble example of patience, faith, and zeal, which he has set us; and the churches at home will not forget him, till they shall have forgotten their duty to spread the Gospel."1
1 Missionary Herald for 1827, pp. 101, 102.
The station at Jerusalem was suspended for nearly nine years, when unsuccessful efforts were made to revive it. The Rev. William M. Thomson, and Asa Dodge, M. D., were sent for that purpose. Mr. Thomson was the first to remove his family to Jerusalem, which he did in April, 1834. Mr. and Mrs. Nicholayson, of the London Jews Society, went with them to commence a mission among the Jews. Everything looked promising for a few weeks, and Mr. Thomson went down to Jaffa to bring up his furniture. During his absence, the Fellâhîn, roused by an order to draft every fifth man into the army, rose against Mohammed Ali, the then ruler of Syria. Jerusalem was the centre of this sudden rebellion; and Mr. Thomson, for nearly two months, found it impossible even to communicate with his family, so closely was the city besieged by the rebels. The first sense of personal danger to the mission families, arose from an earthquake of unusual severity, which extended to the coast and shook their old stone habitation so roughly that they were compelled to flee into the garden, and sleep there. Here they were exposed to the balls from the muskets of the Fellâhîn outside the walls. At length the rebels within the city somehow let in their friends outside, and it was an hour of terror when they took possession of the mission house, which was near the castle, dug loopholes through its walls, and began to fire on the soldiers of the fortress. The fire was of course returned, and the building, already shattered by the earthquake, was torn by the Egyptian cannon; while both it and the garden were filled with a multitude of lawless and angry rebels. The families found refuge in a lower room of the house, where the walls were thick, and there listened to the cannon balls as they whistled above them. The arrival of Ibrahim Pasha at length quieted the city.
Able to return to his family on the 11th of July, Mr. Thomson found his wife suffering from ophthalmia, with high inflammatory fever. Two days afterwards, Mr. Nicholayson was attacked with a fever, and the children were all sick. The case of Mrs. Thomson baffled all their skill. Convinced herself that she would not recover, the thought did not alarm her. For many weeks, she had been in the clearer regions of faith, enjoying greater nearness to God in prayer than ever before, with greater assurance of her interest in the covenant of grace through the Redeemer. She had indeed cherished the hope of laboring longer to bring some of the degraded daughters of Jerusalem to the Saviour; but the Lord knew best, and to His will she cheerfully submitted. She died peacefully on the 22d of July, 1834. The bereaved husband was apprehensive of difficulty in obtaining a suitable place for her burial; but the Greek bishop gave permission, and took the whole charge of preparing the grave.
Mr. Thomson now visited Beirût to confer with his brethren, and was advised to remove to that place. The Rev. George B. Whiting and wife and Dr. and Mrs. Dodge, were to occupy the station thus vacated, aided by Miss Betsey Tilden. Dr. Dodge accompanied Mr. Thomson on his return, and assisted him in removing his babe and his effects to Beirût; and on the 22d of October he and Mr. Whiting were on their way with their families to Jerusalem.
Early in the winter, Dr. Dodge was called to Beirût to prescribe for Mrs. Bird, who was dangerously sick. Mr. Nicholayson returned with him to Jerusalem, arriving there on the 3d of January, 1835, cold, wet, and exhausted with fatigue, having traveled on horseback nearly seventeen hours the last day. The peril of such an exposure in that climate was not realized at the time. Both were soon taken sick, and Dr. Dodge rapidly sunk, though a physician from one of the western States of America arrived at the critical moment, and remained with him to the last. He died on the 28th of January, and Mrs. Dodge removed to Beirût. The arrival of Rev. John F. Lanneau in the spring of 1836, furnished an associate for Mr. Whiting. A school was opened, and numerous books were sold to the pilgrims. Early in the next year, Tannûs Kerem of Safet was engaged as a native assistant. He was born and educated in the Latin Church, but in thought and feeling was with the mission, and enlarged their personal acquaintance and influence. In the summer the cholera appeared, and swept off four hundred victims in a month. Mr. Homes, of the mission to Turkey, was there at the time, and all devoted themselves to the gratuitous service of the sick, a thing unknown before in that region. They gave medical aid to many, nearly all of whom recovered, and thus gained many friends. Preaching was commenced in September to a small but attentive congregation. Mrs. Whiting and Miss Tilden had an interesting school, composed chiefly of Mohammedan girls. There was also a school for boys under a Greek teacher, with twenty-four pupils. In 1838, Mr. Whiting was obliged, by the protracted sickness of his wife, to visit the United States, and Mr. Lanneau was alone at Jerusalem, with Tannûs Kerem, and suffering from extreme weakness of the eyes; but was encouraged by the arrival of Rev. Charles S. Sherman and wife in the autumn of 1839. The new missionary expressed his surprise at finding the different classes so little affected by the prejudices of sect in their intercourse with members of the mission. The illness of Mr. Lanneau became at length so distressing, as to require his absence from the field for nearly two years. Before his return to the East, which was early in 1843, the Committee had expressed an opinion, that it was expedient to suspend further efforts at Jerusalem. Mr. Lanneau, however, resumed his abode there until the visit of the writer, with Dr. Hawes, in the spring of 1844, This was after there had been a protracted conference with the mission at Beirût, at which nothing appeared to affect the decision of the Prudential Committee, and Mr. Lanneau removed with his family to Beirût. Writing of Jerusalem to the Committee, Dr. Hawes says: "In regard to this city, viewed as a field for missionary labor, I saw nothing which should give it a special claim on our attention. It has indeed a considerable population, amounting perhaps to seventeen or eighteen thousand. But it is such a population as seemed to me to bear a near resemblance to the contents of the sheet which Peter saw let down from heaven by the four corners. It is composed of well-nigh all nations and of all religions, who are distinguished for nothing so much as for jealousy and hatred of each other. As to the crowds of pilgrims who annually visit the Holy City,—a gross misnomer, by the way, as it now is,—they are certainly no very hopeful subjects of missionary effort; drawn thither, as they are, chiefly by the spirit of superstition; and during the brief time they remain there, kept continually under the excitement of lying vanities, which without number are addressed to their eyes, and poured in at their ears."
The burying-ground belonging to the Board, on a central part of Mount Zion, near the so-called "Tomb of David," and not far from the city, inclosed by a stone wall, was reserved for a Protestant burying-place, to be for the use of all sects of Protestant Christians.
CHAPTER III.
SYRIA.
1823-1828.
The civil and social condition of Jerusalem and Palestine was such, on the arrival of Messrs. Bird and Goodell in 1823, that their brethren advised them to make Beirût the centre of their operations. The advice was followed; and this was the commencement of what took the name of the Syria Mission.
The ancient name of Beirût was Berytus. The city is pleasantly situated on the western side of a large bay, and has a fertile soil, with a supply of good water, sufficient in ordinary seasons, from springs flowing out of the adjacent hills. Its population and wealth have greatly increased of late. The anchorage for ships is at the eastern extremity of the bay, two miles from the city. Lebanon rises at no great distance on the east, stretches far toward the north and the south, and is a healthful and pleasant resort for Franks in summer. There is a large and beautiful plain on the south, abounding in olive, palm, orange, lemon, pine, and mulberry trees. Damascus was then distant three days, but less time is required now, by reason of the new macadamized road. Sidon might be reached in one day, Tyre in two, and Tripoli in three. An additional motive, in those troublous times, for making Beirût a central station, was the protection afforded by Mr. Abbott, a friendly English Consul.
The two brethren landed, with their wives, October 16th. During the nine mouths of their sojourn at Malta, they had made considerable progress in the Italian language, which was spoken extensively in the Levant; and now, without wholly neglecting the Italian, they applied themselves to the languages of Syria.
Mr. Bird made the Arabic—spoken by the Maronites and Syrian Roman
Catholics—his chief study; and Mr. Goodell the Armeno-Turkish,
—Turkish written with the Armenian alphabet,—which was the
language of the Armenians.
Going to Sidon for aid in his linguistic studies, Mr. Goodell formed the acquaintance of Yakob Agha, an Armenian ecclesiastic, who had dared to marry, a privilege not allowed to him as a bishop. That he might be able to defend his course, he began the study of the New Testament, and thus became impressed with the wickedness around him. He was at that time acting British agent at Sidon. Mr. Goodell also became acquainted with Dionysius, another Armenian bishop, who had committed a similar offense, and engaged him as a teacher; giving him the name of Carabet, the "Forerunner." He was a native of Constantinople, and had lived thirty-six years in the Armenian convent at Jerusalem. During the last nine of these years, he was a bishop. On account of his age, his services and acquirements, he was regarded as having the standing of an archbishop. Though in darkness on many points, and giving no satisfactory evidence of piety, he made himself useful as a teacher and interpreter, and in his intercourse with the people.
Several English missionaries were added to the Protestant force at that time, and the Papal Church became thoroughly alarmed. Letters were addressed from Rome to the Patriarchal Vicar of Mount Lebanon, the Maronite Patriarch, and the Vicar of Syria and Palestine, urging them to render ineffectual, in every possible manner, the impious undertaking of those missionaries. These letters were dated in the first month of 1824, and the firman against the circulation of the Scriptures was issued by the Grand Seignior very soon after. Though feebly enforced by the Turkish authorities this gave weight and influence, for a time, to the "anathemas," of the Maronite and Syrian Patriarchs against the "Bible men." Peter Ignatius Giarve, the Syrian Patriarch, some years before, while Archbishop of Jerusalem, had visited England, and there obtained, under false pretenses, a considerable sum of money from Protestant Christians, to print the Holy Scriptures according to the text of his own Church. He now issued a manifesto, first defending himself from the charge of deception, and then warning his flock "not to receive the Holy Scriptures, nor any other books printed and circulated by the Bible-men, even though given gratis, and according to the edition printed by the Propaganda under ecclesiastical authority." Notwithstanding all this, the brethren took a hopeful view of their prospects. "To get a firm footing," they say, "among a people of a strange speech and a hard language; to inspire confidence in some, and weaken prejudice in others; to ascertain who are our avowed enemies, and who are such in disguise; to become acquainted with the mode of thinking and feeling, with the springs of action, and with the way of access to the heart; to begin publicly to discuss controversial subjects with the dignitaries of the Church, and to commence giving religious instruction to the common people; to be allowed to have a hand in directing the studies and in controlling the education of the young; and to begin to exert an influence, however circumscribed at first, yet constantly extending and increasingly salutary,—all this, though it be not 'life from the dead,' nor the song of salvation, yet is to be regarded as truly important in the work of missions."
In the year 1824, the schools were commenced at Beirût, which have since grown into an influential system. The first was a mere class of six Arab children, taught daily by the wives of the missionaries. Soon an Arab teacher was engaged, and before the end of the year the pupils had increased to fifty. In 1826 the average attendance in the free schools of Beirût and vicinity, was more than three hundred; in the following year it was six hundred in thirteen schools, and more than one hundred of these pupils were girls. The Arabs were thought to have less quickness than the Greeks, to be less studious and ambitious, and more trifling, inconstant, and proud of little things; but many of them were lively and promising, and did themselves honor by their punctuality and application. The Romish ecclesiastics were very hostile to all these schools.
It was in the summer of 1825, that Asaad el-Shidiak became first personally known to the mission, as the instructor of Mr. King in the Syriac language. His case soon acquired an extraordinary interest, and will occupy a separate chapter.
In March, 1826, several Greek vessels entered the port of Beirût, and landed five hundred men. They were unable to scale the walls, but plundered the houses of natives on the outside. The wild Bedawîn, whom the Pasha of Acre sent to drive them away, were worse than the Greeks. They plundered without making any distinctions, and among other houses the one occupied by Mr. Goodell, but Consul Abbott obliged the Pasha to pay for what they took from the missionaries. It was afterwards ascertained, that the Maronite bishop, having learned that the leases of the missionaries would soon expire, came to Beirût just before this invasion, with an excommunication for every Maronite who should permit his house to be hired by a missionary; and prepared by bribery and intrigue to bring also the Greek bishop and the Moslem rulers to act in concert with himself, in driving Protestant missionaries from the country. The sudden landing of the Greeks obliged him to flee in the night, leaving his wicked devices unaccomplished, while the Maronites were glad to place their best houses in the hands of the missionaries.
In 1827, the missionaries hoped that about twenty of those among whom they labored, had been created anew in Christ Jesus. Among them were Asaad and Phares Shidiak, from the Maronite Church; a lady from the Latin Church; Dionysius, Gregory Wortabet, Jacob, and the wife of Dionysius, of the Armenian Church; the wife of Wortabet and Yooseph Leflufy, of the Greek Catholic Church; and Asaad Jacob and Tannûs el-Haddad, of the Greek Church. Leflufy was described as a youth of great boldness and decision, and as thoroughly convinced of the errors of his Church. In April of this year, Dionysius revisited Jerusalem, as the interpreter of German missionaries. The Armenian Convent owed him a sum of money, which it refused to pay, and forbade any Armenian in the city to speak to him. The Greeks, on the other hand, treated him with attention, and so did the Moslem governor. He returned to Beirût in company with three hundred of the Armenian pilgrims, who were no sooner out of Jerusalem than they began to treat him with kindness and respect, while they were full of inquiries as to what he and the Protestants believed, what ordinances they had, and how they observed them, with many more such questions. He was engaged in conversation with them day and night, and had full opportunity to explain his religious views, and to show them the difference between the Christianity of the New Testament, and that of the Oriental Churches; and they expressed much astonishment at his statements. Some of them were persons of respectability and influence, and declared their indignation at the treatment he had received from the convent. It is probable that these conversations had some connection with the spirit of reform among the Armenians, which not long after appeared at Constantinople.
The Rev. Eli Smith reached Beirût early in 1827. At the monthly concert in March, kept as a day of fasting and prayer, and closed with the Lord's Supper, sixteen persons were present, who were all regarded as hopefully pious. They were from America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and were members of nine churches,—Congregational, Episcopal, Lutheran, Reformed Lutheran, Moravian, Latin, Armenian, Greek Catholic, and Abyssinian. Dionysius Carabet, Gregory Wortabet, and their wives were then received into the mission church, as was also the wife of Mr. Abbott, the English Consul, a native of Italy. This admission of converts into a church, without regard to their previous ecclesiastical relations, was a practical ignoring of the old church organizations in that region. It was so understood, and the spirit of opposition and persecution was roused to the utmost. In the Maronite and Greek Catholic churches, severe denunciations were uttered against the missionaries, and all who should render them any service.
Messrs. Goodell and Bird gave more or less time, with the help of their native assistants, to preparing useful works in the native languages. These, with Mr. King's "Farewell Letter," were copied by the pen, and were eagerly sought and gladly transcribed, and the need of a printing-press on the ground began to be felt.
Beirût was visited by the plague in the spring of 1827, but the deaths were not numerous. In August Mr. Bird, finding it needful to take his family to the mountains, ascended to Ehden by way of Tripoli, from which Ehden was distant seven hours. He went by special permission of the Emir Beshir, and was received in the most friendly manner by the Sheikh Latoof, and his son Naanui. The "Patriarch of Antioch and all the East," who resided at Cannobeen, hearing of this, proceeded at once to excommunicate the sheikh and his family, who had dared to associate "with that deceived man, and deceiver of men, Bird, the Bible-man." An infernal spirit appears in the excommunications of the Romish Church. This of Latoof and family ran thus: "They are accursed, cut off from all the Christian communion; and let the curse envelope them as a robe, and spread through all their members like oil, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel, and wither them like the fig tree cursed by the mouth of the Lord himself; and let the evil angel reign over them, to torment them by day and night, asleep and awake, and in whatever circumstances they may be found. We permit no one to visit them, or employ them, or do them a favor, or give them a salutation, or converse with them in any form; but let them be avoided as a putrid member, and as hellish dragons. Beware, yea, beware of the wrath of God." With regard to Mr. Bird and his family, the Patriarch said: "We grant no permission to any one to receive them; but, on the contrary, we, by the word of the Lord of almighty authority, require and command all, in the firmest manner, that not one visit them, nor do them any sort of service, or furnish them any sort of assistance whatever, to protract their stay in these parts or any other. Let no one receive them into his house, or into any place whatever that belongs to him, but let all avoid them, in every way, in all things temporal as well as spiritual. And whoever, in his stubbornness, shall dare to act in opposition to this our order with regard to Bird, and his children, and his whole family, shall fall, ipso facto, under the great excommunication, whose absolution is reserved to ourself alone."
A copy of this document was furnished to Mr. Bird, by the Bishop of Ehden; who, though feeble in health, was second to no prelate of his sect in knowledge, prudence, and evangelical sentiment. On hearing the Patriarch's proclamation read in church, he is said to have fainted, and did not recover his health for weeks afterwards. As a consequence of this proclamation of the Patriarch, a rival sheikh was encouraged to make a violent assault upon Latoof, in which the latter received a severe contusion on the head, and his wife's mother had her wrist broken. Being warned of a still more determined effort to drive the missionary away, Mr. Bird thought it due to his friend to leave the place; which he did, accompanied by Naanui, leaving his wife and children, and descending to the Greek convent of Hantûra, and from thence to Tripoli. Thither the Patriarch followed him with his maledictions. He however obtained a quiet residence at Bawhyta, under Moslem protection, where he was rejoined by his family, and afterwards in the convent of Belmont. Naanui was his faithful companion through all his wanderings and sojourning on the mountains.
Mr. Bird returned to Beirût on the 22d of December, and was received by his Maronite acquaintances with unwonted cordiality.
The battle of Navarino was not the immediate cause of the suspension of the mission; but, in all the ensuing five months, there was constant apprehension of war between Turkey and the allies engaged in that battle, which was so destructive to the naval power of the Turks. The British Consulate was closed, and Mr. Abbott, their friend and protector, was obliged to withdraw privately. No reliance could be placed on the Pasha; and the Prince of the mountains had sent word, that no Frank refugees would be received in his dominions, in case of war. In the utter stagnation of trade, the missionaries could obtain no money for their bills, and no European or American vessels of war visited the port. Messrs. Goodell, Bird and Smith, in view of all these facts, thought it their duty to avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by an Austrian vessel to remove, for a season, to Malta.
They accordingly embarked on the 2d of May, 1828, taking with them Carabet, Wortabet, and their wives, and arrived at Malta on the 29th. No opposition was made. "The parting scene at our leaving, was more tender and affecting than we could have expected, and afforded a comforting evidence that, whatever may be the impression we have left on the general population, there are some hearts in Syria, which are sincerely attached to us. Many, as we passed them, prayed that God would protect us on our voyage. And others, notwithstanding the plague, came to our houses to bid us farewell. One thoughtful youth, who was with us daily, belonging to one of the first Greek families, was full of grief, and earnestly begged us to take him with us, though contrary to the will of his parents."
CHAPTER IV.
SYRIA.
THE MARTYR OF LEBANON.
1826-1830.
The conversion, life, and martyrdom of Asaad Shidiak,1 so very early in the history of this mission, is a significant and encouraging fact. He not only belonged to the Arab race, but to a portion of it that had long been held in slavish subjection to Rome. His fine mind and heart opened to the truths of the Gospel almost as soon as they were presented; and when once embraced, they were held through years of suffering, which terminated in a martyr's death. With freedom to act, he would have gone forth an apostle to his countrymen. The Arab-speaking race is estimated at sixty millions, and they must receive the gospel mainly from those to whom the language is vernacular. It will tend greatly to strengthen the faith of Christians as to this result, to contemplate the grace of God as seen in the case of this early convert. Space cannot be afforded to do full justice to the facts, which were chiefly recorded by the Rev. Isaac Bird, but the reader is referred in the margin to more ample sources of information.2
1 Written also Asaad el-Shidiak, and Asaad esh-Shidiak.
2 See Missionary Herald for 1827, pp. 68, 71-76, 97-101, 129-136, 169-177, 268-271, 369-372; for 1828, pp. 16-19, 115-119, 165, 373, 375; for 1829, pp. 15, 47, 111, 115; and The Martyr of Lebanon, by Rev. Isaac Bird, Boston, 1864, pp. 208.
Asaad Shidiak was the fourth son of a respectable Maronite, and was born about the year 1797, at Hadet, a small village a few miles from Beirût. His early training was among the Maronites. Such was his ability and fondness for learning, that his family aided him in preparing for the Maronite college at Ain Warka, the most noted seminary on the mountains. He entered the college at the age of sixteen, and remained nearly three years, applying himself diligently to rhetoric, and to natural and theological science, all of which were taught in the Arabic and Syriac languages.
Having completed his college course with the highest honor, he became a teacher, first of a common village school, and then of theology and general science in a convent. Occasionally he was permitted to deliver public lectures. His text-book in the instruction of the monks, was the theological treatise of St. Anthony of Padua, translated into Arabic; of which he made an abridgment, that is still used among the Maronites.
From about the year 1820 to 1824, Asaad was successively in the employ of the Maronite bishop of Beirût, and of several Arab chiefs. These frequent changes were apparently not for his advantage.
He next made application in person to his old college instructor, who had been elevated to the Patriarchal chair. His holiness gave him a cool reception, and reproached him for having preferred the service of sheikhs and princes to that of his bishop. Yet so valuable were his services, that he remained a while with the Patriarch, copying, illustrating, and arranging certain important documents of the Patriarchate, and making out from them a convenient code of church-laws for the Maronite nation, which has since been adopted for general use. But for some reason Asaad felt himself unwelcome, and returned home dissatisfied.
At this time the Maronite priesthood began to be alarmed by the distribution of the Scriptures, and the spread of Protestantism. The Patriarch issued a proclamation against the missionaries, and they replied. Asaad set himself to answer their reply. It was in this connection that his name first became known to the missionaries, to whom he was reported as a man of talent and high education. The dignitaries of the church did not see fit to allow his essay to be published.
In March, 1825, a well-dressed young man, of easy manners and sedate countenance, came to Beirût and asked to be employed by the mission as a teacher of Arabic. As soon as he gave his name, he was recognized as the man who was to have answered their reply to the Patriarch. He took no pains to conceal his agency in the matter, and even frankly begged the liberty of examining the original book, containing one of the most important quotations in the reply by the mission.
There was then no special need of another teacher; and though his very gentlemanly appearance and apparent frankness, and his good sense pleaded in his favor, it was thought prudent to decline his proposal. Little did those excellent brethren think, as this young man turned to go away, how soon they would welcome him to their hearts and homes, and how many thousands of Christian people, even across the ocean, would thrill in sympathy with his sufferings as a martyr for Christ.
Providence so ordered it, that Mr. King arrived from Jerusalem just in time to secure the services of Asaad before he went elsewhere. He was for several weeks Mr. King's instructor in Syriac. The two were well met, and in their frequent discussions, on the differences between the doctrines of the Gospel and those of the Papacy, Mr. King found him one of the most intelligent and skillful reasoners in all the mountains. He was shrewd, sensible, and inquisitive, candid and self-possessed, and was always as ready to hear as to speak. His age was then twenty-nine. There is no good reason to believe that Asaad was actuated, at this time, by higher than worldly motives.
At the close of his connection with Mr. King, he made another effort to secure employment from his Patriarch. Not succeeding, he became Arabic teacher to Mr. Fisk; at the same time assisting Mr. King, then about leaving the country, in preparing his celebrated "Farewell Letter" to his Arab friends. After having put this into neat Arabic style, he made a large number of copies, to be sent to different parts of the country.
On the day of Mr. King's departure from Beirût, Asaad, at the request of the mission, commenced an Arabic grammar-school for native boys. His leisure hours were devoted to composing a refutation of the doctrines contained in Mr. King's "Farewell Letter." This is his own account: "When I was copying the first rough draught of my reply, and had arrived at the last of the reasons, which, he said, prevented his becoming a member of the Roman Catholic Church; namely, their teaching it to be wrong for the commom people to possess or to read the Word of God, I observed that the writer brought a proof against the doctrine from the prophet Isaiah; namely, that if they spoke not according to the law and to the testimony, it was because there was no light in them.
"While I was endeavoring to explain this passage according to the views of the Roman Catholic Church, with no other object than the praise of men and other worldly motives, I chanced to read the twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah from the fifteenth verse to the end. I read and was afraid. I meditated upon the chapter a long while, and feared that I was doing what I did with a motive far different from the only proper one,—the glory and pleasure of God. I therefore threw my paper by without finishing the copy, and applied myself to the reading of Isaiah.
"I had wished to find in the prophet some plain and incontrovertible proofs of the Messiahship of Christ, to use against Moslems and Jews. While thus searching, I found various passages that would bear an explanation according to my views, and read on till I came to the fifty-second chapter, and fourteenth verse, and onward to the end of the next chapter.
"On finding this testimony, my heart rejoiced and was exceeding glad, for it removed many dark doubts from my own mind. From that time, my desire to read the New Testament was greatly increased, that I might discover the best means of acting according to the doctrines of Jesus. I endeavored to divest myself of all selfish bias, and loved more and more to inquire into religious subjects. I saw, as I still see, many doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, that I could not believe, and which I found opposed to the truths of the Gospel, and I wished much to find some of her best teachers to explain them to me, that I might see how they proved them from the Holy Scriptures. As I was reading an appendix to a Bible printed at Rome by the Propaganda, and searching out the passages referred to for proving the duty of worshipping saints, and the like, I found that these proofs failed altogether of establishing these doctrines, and that to infer them from such Scripture texts was even ridiculous. Among other things, I found in this appendix the very horrible Neronian doctrine, 'that it is our duty to destroy heretics.' Now every one knows, that whoever does not believe that the Pope is infallible, is, in the Pope's estimation, a heretic. And this doctrine is not merely that it is allowable to kill heretics, but that we are in duty bound to do it.
"From this I was the more established in my convictions against the doctrines of the Papacy, and saw that they were the doctrines of the ravenous beast, and not of the gentle lamb. After I had read this, I asked one of the priests in Beirût about this doctrine, and he assured me that it was even as I had read. I then wished to go even to some distant country, that I might find a Roman Catholic sufficiently learned to prove the doctrine above alluded to."
Receiving two letters from the Patriarch, requiring him to leave the missionaries on pain of the greater excommunication, and promising to provide him a situation, he went to his friends at Hadet. But his thoughts were drawn to the subject of religion, and finding nothing in which he could take delight, he returned to Beirût, and engaged himself to Mr. Bird for a year. This was in December, 1825. For greater security, a consular protection was now obtained for him from Mr. Abbott, which ensured him, while in the employ of the mission, all the liberty and safety of an English resident. There was no American Consul in the country at that time. He now applied himself to searching the Scriptures, and discussing religious doctrines. Discarding all unwritten traditions, the Apocryphal books, and all implied dependence on the fathers and councils, he found himself standing, in respect to his rule of faith, on Protestant ground.
With all his strong points of character, Asaad had the constitutional weakness of being artless and confiding. In January, 1826, the Patriarch sent his own brother, as a special messenger, inviting Asaad to an interview, and making him flattering promises. The consultation with the priest was private, but it soon appeared, that Asaad was disposed to comply with the patriarchal invitation. It was suggested to him, that the Patriarch was meditating evil against him; but his reply was that he had little fear of it, that the Maronites were not accustomed to take life, or to imprison men, on account of religion. So confident was he that good would result from the visit, that the brethren in the mission ceased to urge their objections. On reaching the Patriarch's convent, he thus wrote:—
"I am now at the convent of Alma, and God be thanked, I arrived in good health. As yet, however, I have not seen his blessedness.
"I pray God, the Father, and his only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, that He will establish me in his love, and that I may never exchange it for any created thing; that neither death, nor life, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor riches, nor honor, nor dignity, nor office, nor anything in creation, shall separate me from this love. I beg you to pray to God for me, which request I make, also, to all the believers."
Several weeks brought no farther direct intelligence, and there were conflicting reports, which awakened apprehension as to his safety. In the latter part of February, a messenger was sent to obtain accurate knowledge of his situation. The man saw him at the convent of Alma, and had a short private interview. Asaad said, that three things were before him; either to be regarded as mad, or to commit sin, or to offer up his life; but he was ready, he said, to go to prison, or to death. He was engaged in daily controversy with the Patriarch, the Bishop, and others. The main topics on which he insisted, were the necessity of a spiritual religion in distinction from mere forms, the sufficiency of Scripture, and the absurdity of holding the Pope to be infallible. The Patriarch was highly displeased with these bold sentiments, and gave utterance to cruel threats, though at other times offering promotion and money.
Asaad objected to the plan of rescuing him by consular authority, as it might endanger his life. He thought it best to await some providential opening for his escape. One soon occurred. After a week, he left the convent at midnight. The mountain paths were narrow, stony, and crooked, and he often found himself astray, stumbling over rocks and hedges, wading in brooks, or miring in mud. Reaching the sea-shore, he found a shelter under which he rested for a while, and then walked on to Beirût, where he was received most joyfully. The Patriarch and his train were engaged in morning prayers when Asaad's escape was announced. There was great excitement. One man among them, who had sympathized with Asaad, ventured to speak out in his justification. "You had reason," he said, "to expect nothing else. Why should he stay with you here? What had he here to do? What had he to enjoy? Books he had none; friendly society none; conversation against religion abundant; insults upon his opinions and feelings abundant. Why should he not leave you?" Messengers were sent in quest of him in every direction, but in vain.
Asaad's written account of his experiences during his absence on the mountains, is very interesting, but there is not room for even an abridgment of it.1 A few of the incidents may be noted. The chief object of the Patriarch was to induce him to say, that his faith was like that of the Romish Church. This he declined doing, as it would be a falsehood. The Patriarch offered to absolve him from the sin of falsehood, to which Asaad replied, "What the law of nature condemns, no man can make lawful." Accompanied by a priest, he visited his own college of Ain Warka, but gained no light; and the same was true of his visit to the superior of the convent of Bzummár, who desired to see him. It is a suggestive fact, that the infallibility of the Pope, even then, was everywhere a controverted point between him and the priesthood. The weakness of the reasoning on the papal side was everywhere so apparent to him, as greatly to strengthen his evangelical faith. In one of his interviews with the Patriarch he said: "I would ask of you the favor to send from your priests two faithful men to preach the Gospel through the country; and I am ready, if necessary, to sell all I possess and give it towards their wages." He afterwards offered to go himself and preach the Gospel. But neither of these proposals was accepted.
1 See Missionary Herald for 1827, pp. 71-76, 97-101.
He was at length deprived of his books, and severely threatened by the Patriarch. "Fearing," he says, "that I should be found among the fearful (Rev. xxi. 8), I turned, and said to him, 'I will hold fast the religion of Jesus Christ, and I am ready, for the sake of it, to shed my blood; and though you should all become infidels, yet will not I;' and so left the room."
Asaad says, in his narrative: "A friend told me, that the Patriarch wondered how I should pretend that I held to the Christian religion, and still converse in such abusive terms against it. And I also wondered, after he saw this, that he should not be willing so much as to ask me, in mildness and forbearance, for what reasons I was unwilling to receive the doctrines of the Pope, or to say, that I believed as he did. But, so far from this, he laid every person, and even his own brother under excommunication, should they presume to dispute or converse with me on the subject of religion. Entirely bereft of books, and shut out from all persons who might instruct me, from what quarter could I get the evidence necessary to persuade me to accept the Patriarch's opinions?
"Another cause I had of wonder was, that not one of all with whom I conversed, when he thought me heretical, advised me to use the only means of becoming strong in the faith, namely, prayer to God Most High, and searching his Holy Word, which a child may understand. I wondered, too, that they should ridicule and report me abroad as insane, and after all this, be afraid to engage in a dispute with the madman, lest he should turn them away from the truth."
As the Patriarch, and the Bishop of Beirût, whose diocese included Hadet, were determined to shut him out from the people, and even threatened his life, Asaad resolved on escaping to Beirût, which he accomplished, as already stated, on the morning of Thursday, March 2, 1826.
Asaad's statement was forthwith copied and sent in various directions through the mountains, and afterwards it had a much wider circulation in a printed form.
The Patriarch's first effort to recapture the fugitive, was by means of a Turkish sheriff, and it failed. On the following Monday, an uncle and the two elder brothers of Asaad came to see what they could do; and they were followed by another brother, and then by the mother and her youngest son. The older brothers were loud and violent in their denunciations. All these the persecuted young Christian met with a calm firmness, but he was at one time almost overcome by the distress of his mother. She was at length pacified by the declarations, that he was not a follower of the English, that he derived not his creed from them, that he believed in the Trinity, that Jesus was God, and that Mary was his mother. Phares, the youngest brother, consented to receive a New Testament, and was evidently affected and softened by the interview.
On the 16th of March, Asaad received a kind and fatherly epistle from the Patriarch, begging him to return home, and relieve the anxieties of his mother and family, and giving him full assurance, that he need not fear being interfered with in his freedom. He was thus approached on his weak side. Too confiding, he really believed this insidious letter, and that he might now go home and live there with his religion unshackled. He wrote a favorable reply. The family was doubtless urged to make sure of the victim before anything occurred to change his mind, and the very next day four of his relations, including Phares, came to escort him to Hadet. The missionaries all believed it perilous, and so he thought himself, but he believed, also, that there was now a door opened for him prudently to preach the Gospel. At Beirût, he said, he could only use his pen, "but who is there in this country," he asked, "that reads?" One of the sisters of the mission said, as she took him by the hand, that she expected never to see him again in this world. He smiled at what he regarded her extravagant apprehension, returned some quiet answer, and proceeded on his way, never to return.
Asaad was treated harshly by his older brothers, and had reason to regard his life as imperiled: "I am in a sort of imprisonment," he said, "enemies within, and enemies without," Towards the last of March, twenty or more of his relations assembled, to take him to the Patriarch by force. He expostulated with Tannûs, the eldest of the family except one, as the chief manager in the affair, and besought him to desist from a step so inconsistent with their fraternal relations. The unnatural brother turned from him in cold indifference, which so affected Asaad that he went aside, and prayed and wept.
In the evening, he at one time addressed the whole assembled company in this manner: "If I had not read the Gospel, I should have been astonished at this movement of yours; but now I see through it all. It is just what the Gospel has told me to expect; 'The brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and a man's foes shall be they of his own household.' Here you see it is just so. You have assembled together here to fulfill this prophecy of the Gospel. What have I done against you? What is my crime, that it should have called together such an assemblage? Be it that I take the blessed Bible as my only guide to heaven, does that injure you? Is it a crime that renders me worthy of being taken as a malefactor, and sent into confinement?"
Surrounded, as he was, by men insensible to pity, the mother's heart was deeply moved seeing him arrested and borne away as if he had been a murderer. She wept, and Asaad sympathized with her, and turned his back on the home of his childhood, weeping and praying aloud.
He was first taken to the convent of Alma, and then to Canobeen. That convent, where he was destined to wear out the miserable remainder of his life, was in one of the wildest and least accessible recesses of Lebanon.
More than a mouth passed without intelligence, when the Mission received reliable information, that Asaad was in prison, and in chains, and that he was beaten a certain number of stripes daily. A cousin was afterwards permitted to visit him, and reported that he found him sitting on the bare floor, his bed having been taken from him, with a heavy chain around his neck, the other end of which was fastened to the wall. He had also been deprived of all his books and writing utensils. Fruitless efforts were made to effect his deliverance, and his family at last relented, and joined in the efforts. The mother accompanied one of the older sons to Canobeen, and found him in chains, which she had not been willing to believe till she saw it for herself. So decided were the two younger brothers in their movements on his behalf, that they had to consult their own safety in flight. Once they almost succeeded. Asaad himself, under the pressure of his sufferings, made several attempts to flee, but not knowing the way, he was easily apprehended, and the only effect was an aggravation of his misery. A priest gives the following account of his treatment, after one of these failures. "On his arrival at the convent, the Patriarch gave immediate orders for his punishment; and they fell upon him with reproaches, caning him, and smiting him with their hands; yet as often as they struck him on one cheek, he turned to them the other. 'This,' said he, 'is a joyful day to me. My blessed Lord and Master has said, Bless them that curse you; and if they strike you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also. This I have been enabled to do; and I am ready to suffer even more than this for Him who was beaten, and spit upon, and led as a sheep to the slaughter on our account.' When they heard this, they fell to beating him anew, saying, 'Have we need of your preaching, you deceiver? Of what avail are such pretensions as yours, who are in the broad road to perdition?' He replied, 'He that believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, hath eternal life.' 'Ah,' said they, 'this is the way you are blinded. Your salvation is by faith alone in Christ; thus you cast contempt on his mother, and on his saints. You believe not in the presence of his holy body on the earth.' And they threw him on the ground, and overwhelmed him with the multitude of their blows."
For three successive days he was subjected to the bastinado, by order of the Patriarch. Remaining firm to his belief, he was again put in chains, the door barred upon him, and his food given him in short allowance. Compassionate persons interceded, and his condition was alleviated for a time, but no one was allowed to converse with him. After some days, aided, it is supposed, by relatives, he again fled from the convent, but was arrested by soldiers sent out in search of him by the Emeer Abdallah, and delivered to the Patriarch. "On his arrival," says a priest who was with him at Canobeen, "he was loaded with chains, cast into a dark, filthy room, and bastinadoed every day for eight days, sometimes fainting under the operation, until he was near death. He was then left in his misery, his bed a thin flag mat, his covering his common clothes. The door of his prison was filled up with stones and mortar, and his food was six thin cakes of bread a day, and a cup of water."
To this dungeon there was no access or outlet whatever except a small loop-hole, through which they passed him his food. Here he lay several days, and its ever-increasing loathsomeness need not be described. No wonder he cried: "Love ye the Lord Jesus Christ according as He hath loved us, and given himself to die for us. Think of me, O ye that pass by; have pity upon me, and deliver me from these sufferings."
A certain priest, who had been a former friend of Asaad, was touched with compassion, and by perseverance succeeded in once more opening his prison doors, and taking off his chains. But he also became suspected in consequence of his kindness to Asaad, and it is not known how long the sufferer was allowed this partial freedom. One of his brothers visited him in 1828, and found him inclosed within four solid stone walls, as in a sepulchre "full of all uncleanness." In 1829, there appears not to have been any mitigation of his sufferings. For three years or more, the priestly despot had him under his heel, and inflicted upon him the greatest amount of suffering compatible with the continuance of life.
His death is supposed to have occurred in October, 1830. Public opinion was divided as to the cause and manner of it. The Patriarch said it was by fever. There is the same uncertainty as to the manner of his burial. But though thrown down into the ravine and covered with stones, as was alleged, his dust will ever be precious in the eyes of the Lord.
Asaad maintained his Christian profession to the last, and he must ever have an honorable place among the Christian martyrs of modern times.
Soon after the capture of Acre by Ibrahim Pasha, in 1832, Mr. Tod, an English merchant, accompanied by Wortabet, obtained an audience with him, and made known the case of Asaad. The Pasha directed the Emir Beshir to furnish ten soldiers to Mr. Tod, with authority to search the convent of Canobeen by force, if necessary. He was received by the Patriarch and priests of the convent with dismay. They asserted that Asaad had died two years before, pointed out his grave, and offered to open it. The convent was thoroughly searched, but he was not found, and Mr. Tod was convinced that he was really dead.1
1 Missionary Herald for 1833, pp. 51-57.
When it is considered how severely and in how many ways Asaad was tried, his faith and constancy appear admirable. His pride of intellect and authorship, and his reputation for consistency, were opposed, at the outset, to any change in his religious opinions. Then all his reverence for his ecclesiastical superiors and his former tutors, some of whom were naturally mild in their tempers, and his previous habits of thought, withstood his yielding to the convictions of conscience and the authority of Scripture. Next, the anathemas of the Church, the tears of a mother appalled by the infamy of having an apostate son, the furious menaces of brothers, and the bitter hatred of masses stirred up by an influential priesthood, combined to hold him back from the truth. All these things were preparatory to being seized by indignant relatives, chained to his prison walls, deprived of the New Testament and other books, and of every means of recreation, refused even those bodily comforts which nature renders indispensable; in such a forlorn condition, exposed to the insults of a bigoted populace and the revilings of a tyrannical priesthood, beaten till his body became a mass of disease, and held in this variety of grief for years, without one ray of hope, save through the portals of the tomb, who expected that he would endure steadfastly to the end?
On the other hand, if he would only recant, promotion awaited him, and wealth, indeed everything that could be offered to prevent a dreaded defection. How many are there, with all our knowledge and strength of religious principle, who, in his situation, would like him be faithful unto death?
CHAPTER V.
THE PRESS AT MALTA.
1822-1833.
The location of the press at Malta, was not the result of design, but because printing could not be done safely, if at all, either at Smyrna or at Beirût. Its operations were begun under the impression of a more extended taste for reading and reflection in the several communities of the Levant, than really existed; and it is doubtful whether the larger part of the earlier publications were well suited to the apprehension of the Oriental mind. However this may be, it was decided, in the year 1829, to make it a leading object, for a time, to furnish books for elementary schools; making them, as far as possible, the vehicles of moral and religious truth. The wisdom of this course was seen among the Greeks. A first book for schools of sixty pages, called the Alphabetarion, went into extensive use. Twenty-seven thousand copies were called for in Greece before the year 1831.
There had been more or less of printing since 1822; but it was not until the close of 1826, that the arrival of Mr. Homan Hallock furnished a regular and competent printer. In the year following, Mr. Temple was bereaved of his excellent wife and of two children, and at the invitation of the Prudential Committee he visited the United States. Meanwhile the presence of Messrs. Bird, Goodell, Smith, and Hallock kept the press in operation. Mr. Temple returned in 1830.
The establishment consisted of three presses, with fonts of type in English, Italian, Modern Greek, Greco-Turkish, Armenian, Armeno-Turkish, and Arabic, but the greater part of the printing was in the Italian, the Modern Greek, and Armeno-Turkish. The most important work was the translation of the New Testament in the Armeno-Turkish, which was printed at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society. It was prepared from two translations, one by Mr. Goodell, with the efficient aid of Bishop Carabet, the other by an Armenian priest at Constantinople, in the employ of Mr. Leeves, agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Mr. Goodell's version was made conformable to the original Greek, and the last sheet was printed in January, 1831. During that year, there were printed seventy-eight thousand copies of fourteen works, amounting to nearly five millions of pages, all in modern Greek. The whole amount of printing at Malta, from the establishment of the press in July, 1822, to December, 1833, the time of its removal to Smyrna, was about three hundred and fifty thousand volumes, containing twenty-one millions of pages. Nearly the whole were put in circulation, and additional supplies of some of the books were urgently demanded. The Roman Catholics opposed this work from the first, and anathematized the books issued.
The labor and expense were increased by the singular use of alphabets in the Levantine regions. The Maronites and Syrians spoke the Arabic language, but employed the Syriac alphabet in writing. The Armenians, to a large extent, spoke the Turkish language, but wrote it with the Armenian alphabet. The Greeks in Asia generally spoke the Turkish language, but used the Greek alphabet. The Grecian Jews spoke the Grecian language, the Spanish Jews the Spanish, the Barbary Jews the Arabic, but all three used the Hebrew alphabet. Then, too, the worship of the Syrians, Greeks, and Armenians was in the ancient languages of those nations, which were for the most part unintelligible to the common people.
Mr. Temple began preaching in Italian early in 1826, and during his
whole residence on the island he preached every Sabbath, either in
Italian or English. The rule he prescribed for himself, whether
preaching to Gentiles or Jews, was to preach the great truths of the
Bible plainly and faithfully, appealing as little as possible to
Fathers, Councils, or Rabbins. Contemporary with him were Mr.
Jowett, of the Church Missionary Society, Mr. Wilson, of the London
Missionary Society, and Mr. Keeling, of the English Wesleyan
Society, and all were on the best terms of Christian fellowship.
In December, 1833, Messrs. Temple and Hallock removed to Smyrna, with the printing establishment, and Dionysius Carabet accompanied them as a translator. Wortabet had previously returned to Syria.
CHAPTER VI.
PRELIMINARY EXPLORATIONS.
1828-1831.
Enough was known, in the year 1828, to encourage the belief, that Greece and Western Asia would soon demand a more extensive prosecution of the missionary work; but more specific information was indispensable to an intelligent enlargement. The temporary suspension of the Syrian mission had brought the whole of the missionary force of the Board in that part of the world to Malta (except that Mr. Temple was on a visit to the United States), thus making consultation easy. Other reasons called for a more free and extended official intercourse than could be held by letter. Accordingly the author, then Assistant Secretary of the Board, was sent to Malta at the close of 1828, with instructions to confer with the brethren, and afterwards to visit Greece and other parts of the Levant. The conferences at Malta occupied two months, and aided much in determining subsequent measures. When these were over, the author, in company with the Rev. Eli Smith, afterward so favorably and widely known in the Christian world, visited the Ionian Islands, the Morea, and the Grecian Archipelago. Count John A. Capodistrias was then President of Greece, and had his residence on the island of Ægina. Athens was still held by the Turks. It was made incumbent on the author to propose inquiries to the President on certain points, and this was rendered easy by his urbanity and his frank and explicit answers. The inquiries were mainly for gaining the needed information; and they elicited some facts which deterred the Committee from a class of expenditures, that would have been in accordance with the popular feeling at that time, but might have proved a fruitful source of disappointment. Mr. King was then in Greece as a philhellene, in charge of supplies sent by ladies in New York to be distributed among the impoverished people. Perhaps the most important result of this negotiation with the Greek government, besides facilitating Mr. King's protracted and useful connection with the Greek mission, was a written assurance by the chief ruler of the nation, that among the books to be used in the schools of Greece should be the Bible, the New Testament, and the Psalms, all translated and printed in modern Greek.
Among the results of the consultations at Malta, was Mr. Bird's visit to Tripoli and Tunis on the African coast, for which he was specially qualified by his free use of the Arabic language. He had opportunities at Tripoli for conversing with Jews, Moslems, Papists, and persons of no religion. His books and tracts were chiefly in the Hebrew and Arabic languages. At Tunis, he distributed copies of the Scriptures, but in neither place did there seem to be a sufficient opening for instituting a mission.
Another result of the Malta conferences was the distribution of the mission forces; Mr. Bird to Syria, Mr. Goodell to Constantinople, and Mr. Smith for an exploring tour among the Armenians of Turkey. Soon after the return of the Assistant Secretary, the Rev. H. G. O. Dwight was designated to accompany Mr. Smith in his proposed tour of exploration, and the Rev. George B. Whiting as the companion of Mr. Bird on his return to Syria. Mrs. Dwight was to remain at Malta during her husband's absence.
The two explorers sailed for Smyrna in March, 1830, in the same vessel which had brought Mr. Dwight from Boston. After some days at Smyrna, in the family of Mr. Brewer, who had returned to that place in connection with a society of ladies in New Haven, they went overland to Constantinople. This was a journey of eight days, and was made necessary by the long detention, to which sailing vessels were liable from north winds at the mouth of the Dardanelles. The time for steamers had not yet come in these regions.
The departure from Constantinople was near the close of May, in the most charming season of the year. As in the journey from Smyrna, they put themselves under a Tartar, who, for their greater security, had set his seal to a written contract in presence of the Tartar aghasy. The government became thus responsible for their persons and property. Instead of trunks, they had two large bags, two saddle-bags, and two valises, all of thick Russian leather, fastened with padlocks, and impermeable to water. Instead of mattresses, each had a carpet and coverlet rolled in painted canvas, that served as a floor at night, when it was their lot to lie on the ground. Each had an ample Turkish pelisse, lined with the fur of the Caucasian fox. Four copper pans, a mill for grinding coffee, a pot, cups, and a knife, fork, and spoon for each, were their utensils for cooking and eating. A circular piece of leather served for a table when spread upon the ground, and when drawn together like a lady's reticule, and suspended from the saddle, it formed a bag to carry their bread and cheese. The whole was so compact as to require, on ordinary occasions, but a single extra horse. As the Turkish post furnished only horses, they were obliged to add saddles and bridles to their other accoutrements; and to their saddles, as was usual, were attached holsters, to deter from hostile attacks upon them. To avoid unnecessary notice, expense, and trouble, if not insult, they wore loose Turkish robes, the Oriental turban, and the enormous Tartar stockings and boots. Of course they had also the needful firmans, passports, and letters of introduction.
Their route lay along what at that time might be called, for the most part, the high road to Tabriz, and passed through Tokat, Erzroom, Kars, Tiflis, Shoosha, Nakhchevan, Echmiadzin, and Khoy, a distance of more than fifteen hundred miles. At Tokat, the travellers visited the grave of Henry Martyn, who died there in 1812. On the 13th of June, they entered Erzroom, then in possession of an invading army of Russians; which soon retired, and was accompanied by a large portion of the Armenian population in that district. The Turks of Erzroom found it hard to comprehend from what country the travellers came. Kars, Tiflis, Shoosha, and Echmiadzin had been subjected to Russian rule. Tiflis was the capital of Georgia. Shoosha, where they arrived about the middle of August, worn down by fatigue in descending the insalubrious valley of the Koor, or Cyrus, was then the seat of a German mission, which gave a cordial reception to their American brethren. The cholera prevailed in all that region, and it was estimated that as many as seventy thousand people died of it, during the two months and a half our travellers spent in Shoosha. They gave an interesting account of the German colonies in Georgia, which had their origin in extravagant views concerning the millennium. "Previous to 1817, several popular and ardent ministers in the kingdom of Würtemberg maintained, in commentaries on the Apocalypse and other publications, that the wished-for period would commence in 1836, and would be preceded by a dreadful apostasy and great persecutions. These views, in addition to the fascinating interest always connected with prophetical theories, being enforced with much pious feeling, acquired so great credit as to be adopted by nearly all the religious people in the kingdom, and by many others. At the same time, the advocates of the neological system, being the predominant party in the clergy, succeeded in effecting some alterations in the prayers and hymns of the Church in accommodation to their errors. This grieved exceedingly all who were attached to evangelical principles, and was taken to be the apostasy they expected. Their prophetical teachers had intimated that, as in the destruction of Jerusalem the Christians found a place of refuge, so would there be one now, and that, somewhere in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea. Many, therefore, of the common people determined to seek the wished-for asylum, that they and their children (for whom the better sort were particularly anxious) might escape the impending storm, and also be able to form an independent ecclesiastical establishment according to their own notions. To these were joined others desirous of change, or in straitened circumstances, who though not at heart pious, professed for the time to be influenced by the same principles and motives. In fact the latter became the most numerous. The company, when it left Würtemberg, consisted of fifteen hundred families. But no adequate arrangement having been made for the journey, and the sinister motives of the majority contributing to create disorder, they suffered exceedingly on the way, and before they reached Odessa, two thirds had died."1 The number of the colonists, in 1832, was about two thousand, but their enterprise had not been successful.
1 Missionary Researches in Armenia, vol. i. p. 264.
On the way from Echmiadzin to Tabriz, a distance of nearly two hundred and fifty miles, Mr. Smith suffered greatly from illness. When seventy miles from that city, his strength gave out entirely, so that he could go no farther with the conveyances then at command. His life was probably saved by Mr. Dwight's sending a messenger to the gentlemen of the English embassy at Tabriz, requesting the aid of a takhtirewán, the only native carriage known to the Persians. It resembles a sedan-chair, except in being borne by two mules or horses, and closed from the external air, and in requiring a lying posture. The vehicle soon arrived; but was preceded by Dr. McNeill, the physician and first assistant of the embassy, who then commenced those acts of kindness which ever endeared him to the Nestorian mission. Colonel McDonald, the ambassador, had lately died, and Dr. McNeill was soon obliged to leave for Teherán. Dr. Cormick, who had healed Henry Martyn of a similar disease, then took the medical charge of Mr. Smith. After their long experience of filthy stables, the comfortable, well-furnished apartments provided for them at Tabriz, through the generous hospitality of Major Willock, former commander of the English forces in Persia, and Captain Campbell, the acting Envoy, were more grateful to the weary travellers than can well be conceived. Mr. Nisbit, an officer in the commissariat department, together with his wife, entered fully into their feelings as missionaries, and sympathized with them in their views of the spiritual wants of the country.
Messrs. Smith and Dwight were required by their instructions, to investigate and report on the condition of the Nestorians inhabiting the northwestern province of Persia. In former ages, this people had been distinguished beyond any other Christian people—except perhaps, their contemporaries in Ireland—for missionary zeal and enterprise. From the seventh to the thirteenth centuries, they had missions both in central and eastern Asia. Previous to the overthrow of the Califate, A. D. 1258, their churches were scattered over the region forming modern Persia, and were numerous in Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. They had churches in Syria; on the island of Cyprus; among the mountains of Malabar; and in the extended regions of Tartary, from the Caspian Sea to Mount Imaus, and beyond through the greater part of what is now known as Chinese Tartary, and even in China itself. The names of twenty-five metropolitan sees are on record, embracing of course a far greater number of bishoprics, and still more numerous congregations.
These facts, though known to learned historians, had fallen out of the popular mind. Indeed, they were not in the recollection of the executive officers of the American Board, when the author drew up the instructions to Messrs. Smith and Dwight. But while preparing them, his attention was incidentally drawn to a brief article in a Virginia publication, from the pen of Dr. Walsh, British chaplain at Constantinople, entitled "Chaldees in Persia;" and it was the impression made by that article, which led to a positive direction to visit that people, should it be found practicable, and see whether the churches in this western world had any duty to perform to them. The English at Tabriz confessed to an almost entire ignorance of the religious doctrines and character of the Nestorians. The only important fact our brethren could learn there was, that a considerable body of them were accessible in the provinces of Oroomiah and Salmas, at the distance of somewhat more than a hundred miles.
Our travellers remained at Tabriz from the 18th of December to March, 1831, when restored health and the opening season permitted them to resume their journey. In Salmas, they first came in contact with the Chaldeans, as those Nestorians were called who had been won over by Roman Catholic missionaries since the year 1681. The name means no more than papal Syrians, or papal Armenians. Some of their bishops and priests had been educated in the college of the Propaganda at Rome, and spoke Italian fluently. The Chaldeans were reported, at that time, as a neglected and declining sect.
Passing from Salmas into the province of Oroomiah, the travellers were received by the Nestorians in the most friendly and confidential manner, and the week passed among them was intensely interesting. While showing very clearly the need the people were in of religious instruction, they gave as additional considerations in favor of sending missionaries to them, their extreme liberality towards other sects, their ideas of open communion, and their entire rejection of auricular confession.
The return of Messrs. Smith and Dwight was by way of Erzroom and Trebizond, thence by sea to Constantinople and Malta, at which last place they arrived on the 2d of July, 1831, after an absence of fifteen months and a half. In this time, their land travel exceeded two thousand and five hundred miles.
The results of their inquiries were embodied by Mr. Smith, during a visit to his native land, under the title of "Researches in Armenia, including a Journey through Asia Minor and into Georgia and Persia, with a Visit to the Nestorian and Chaldean Christians," and were published in two volumes in Boston, and republished in London. Though nearly forty years have since elapsed, there is still a freshness of interest in the entire work, which makes it matter of regret that it is now out of print. The religious condition of the Armenians at that time, is comprehensively stated in the following paragraphs:—
"The slightest acquaintance with ecclesiastical history may convince one, that before the commencement of the fourth century, Christianity had extensively degenerated from its original purity as a religion of the heart, into a mere profession of theoretical dogmas, and the observance of external rites. Such, it is natural to suspect, was the form of it to which the Armenians were at that period converted; and the circumstances of the event, if national tradition has correctly preserved them, confirm the suspicion, that they have from the beginning known extremely little of true conversion. We are told that immediately upon King Durtád's embracing the faith, the nation followed his example in a body, and were baptized. To say nothing of the doubtfulness of all national conversions, the very hastiness of this proceeding, by allowing no time for competent instruction, shows that the Armenians could not have been enlightened converts; the fact that the Scriptures were not translated into their language until a century afterward, is an additional indication of the scantiness of their religious knowledge; and the confessed backsliding of many of the nobility into the most scandalous immoralities and the blackest crimes, even during the lifetime of Durtád, proves how superficial was their conversion.
"Thus the Armenian Church was a soil well adapted to the rapid growth of all the corruptions, which from that time sprang up, in such speedy succession, in different parts of the Christian world. Even those which then existed were, it would seem, not sparingly introduced by St. Gregory. For, by the immediate consecration of four hundred bishops, and a countless number of priests, he betrayed a disposition to multiply an idle and unqualified priesthood; and by the construction of convents and nunneries, and spending the last of his days in a solitary cave, he showed that he was ready to foster the monastic spirit of his age. So deeply, indeed, was the taste for monkhood implanted, that his fifth successor is said to have built two thousand convents.
"Of the rites and dogmas subsequently adopted by other bodies of Christians, there was a free importation for the two centuries that the Armenians formed a regular branch of the General Church. A special messenger was sent to Jerusalem for the ceremonies observed in that church, and brought thence eight canons regulating the sacraments and other rites. For a similar object, a correspondence was carried on with the Bishop of Nisibis. One Catholicos, who had been educated at Constantinople in the influence of all the secular ideas and regulations introduced into the Church under the patronage of Constantine and his successors, brought from thence 'various observances, which, like precious stones, he inlaid into the old.' And several who followed him distinguished themselves by their improvements in the services and laws of the Church. So that when, by rejecting the Council of Chalcedon, A. D. 491, the Armenians cut themselves off from the communion of the great body of Christians, they were doubtless in possession of all the legendary dogmas and observances which had then been adopted by the Christian world."1
1 Researches in Armenia, Amer. Edition, vol. ii. pp. 290-292.
CHAPTER VII.
THE ARMENIANS.
1827-1835.
Mr. King's "Farewell Letter to his Friends in Syria and Palestine" was translated into the Armenian language by Bishop Dionysius, and a manuscript copy was sent by him, in the year 1827, to some of the more influential Armenians in Constantinople. Its effect was extraordinary. A meeting was called in the Armenian patriarchal church, at which the letter was read, and the marginal references to Scripture were verified. It was then agreed, by common consent, that the Church needed reform. The famous school of Peshtimaljian grew out of this meeting, at which it was decided, that no person should be ordained in the capital to the priest's office, who had not completed a regular course of study at this school. In the year 1833, the missionaries were invited to be present at the ordination of fifteen Armenian priests in the patriarchal church; and they were then informed, that no one had received ordination in the metropolis since the adoption of the rule above stated, and that only such as had received a regular education at that school were regarded as eligible for ordination. As the result of this, nearly all the candidates were comparatively well-educated men, and one of them, hereafter to be more specially noted, had a high reputation for learning.
Peshtimaljian, the head of the school, was an uncommon man. His inquisitive mind was ever gaining knowledge, and what he acquired his memory retained. He was a critical and accurate scholar in the language and literature of his nation, and made himself familiar with the theology and history of the Eastern and Romish Churches, and with the general history of the Church from the earliest ages. He was able to quote from the Scriptures with wonderful facility and accuracy. His confidence in the Bible, as the true Word of God and the only standard of faith, had indeed been shaken for a while by his disgust with the superstitions of his Church, and by the low character of many of its clergy, but he had recovered from this. Though timid and cautious to a fault, like Erasmus, and sometimes open to the charge of time-serving, he gradually led his pupils into new paths of inquiry, until they came to believe that the Church not only may err, but that it had actually erred in many of its teachings.
Peshtimaljian became convinced at length, that his pupils were consistently carrying out the principles they had learned from him, and he strongly, though still privately, encouraged them in their labors for the spiritual good of their countrymen. Until his death, which occurred in 1837, he was the friend of the missionaries, and had much intercourse with them; though he never acquired the courage distinctly to avow himself an evangelical man. Up to that time, however, there had been no open persecution of the followers of Christ, and consequently no formal separation of the evangelical brethren from the Armenian community. All the first converts in Constantinople, and many of the later ones, were from his school.
There can be no doubt that, owing to these and other less apparent causes, there was a preparation in the Armenian mind of Turkey for the reception of divine truth, before the arrival of the American missionaries. Though more evident at the capital than in the provinces, there seems to have been some degree of this preparation wherever Armenians were found. In this respect, there was a marked difference among that people, as compared with Jews and Greeks. The common people, where not intimidated by the clergy, almost everywhere heard the Word with gladness; and it was so with many of the parochial priests, when not dreading the wrath of their superiors. In all this we should gratefully acknowledge an overruling Providence in the ordering of events, and the divine agency of the Holy Spirit, making it apparent that the "fullness of time" had come for the entering in of evangelical missionaries.
Messrs. Smith and Dwight, before leaving Constantinople on their eastern tour, earnestly recommended the forming of a station at the metropolis, with special reference to the Armenians. In April, 1831, Mr. Goodell, then at Malta, received instructions from the Prudential Committee to remove to that city. This he did, after having carried the Armeno-Turkish New Testament through the press.
The splendid scene which opened to Mr. Goodell as he drew near the city on the 9th of June, he thus describes: "As we approached Constantinople, the most enchanting prospect opened to view. In the country, on our left, were fields rich in cultivation and fruitfulness. On our right, were the little isles of the Sea of Marmora; and beyond, the high lands of Broosa, with Olympus rearing its head above the clouds and covered with eternal snow. In the city, mosques, domes, and hundreds of lofty minarets, were starting up amidst the more humble abodes of men, all embosomed in groves of dark cypresses, which in some instances seemed almost like a forest; while before, behind, and around us, were (besides many boats of the country) more than twenty square-rigged vessels, bearing the flags of different nations, all under full sail, with a light but favorable breeze,—all converging to one point, and that CONSTANTINOPLE. When we first caught a glimpse of Top-Hana, Galata, and Pera, stretching from the water's edge to the summit of the hill, and began to sweep round Seraglio Point, the view became most beautiful and sublime. It greatly surpassed all that I had ever conceived of it. We had been sailing along what I should call the south side of the city for four or five miles, and were now entering the Bosphorus, with the city on our left, and Scutari on our right. The mosque of St. Sophia, with the palaces and gardens of the Sultan Mahmoud, were before us in all their majesty and loveliness. Numerous boats were shooting rapidly by us in all directions, giving to the scene the appearance of life and business. The vessels before us had been retarded, and those behind had been speeded, and we were sweeping round the Golden Horn in almost as rapid succession as was possible,—every captain apparently using all his skill to prevent coming in contact with his neighbor, or being carried away by the current; and every passenger apparently, like ourselves, gazing with admiration on the numerous objects of wonder on every hand."
Mr. Goodell took a house in Pera, one of the suburbs of Constantinople, where the European ambassadors and most of the foreign Christians resided. Scarcely two months elapsed, before that populous section of the metropolis was almost wholly destroyed by fire. The missionary lost house, furniture, library, papers, and nearly all the clothing of himself and family; and was obliged to remove fifteen miles up the Bosphorus, to Buyuk-Dereh, and to remain there the rest of the year.
The fire had separated the missionary almost entirely from the Armenians, and being thrown into the midst of the Greeks, he established several Greek Lancasterian schools, with the New Testament for a class-book. In most instances the copies were purchased by the parents. To furnish himself with competent instructors, he made arrangements for a normal school among the Greeks of Galata, a central place in which many children were begging for instruction, and he was evidently encouraged by the smiles of heaven upon his labors.
Not long after, he called upon the Armenian Patriarch, a man of dignified manners and venerable appearance, and asked his coöperation in establishing schools among his people on an improved plan. The Patriarch declared, with even more than Oriental politeness, that he loved Mr. Goodell and his country so much, that if Mr. G. had not come to visit him, he must needs have gone to America. After numerous inquiries, he assented to the introduction of the new system of instruction, and promised to furnish suitable persons to learn it; which promise, however, he failed to remember.
Mr. Dwight joined Mr. Goodell, with his family, on the 5th of June, 1832, intending to devote himself wholly to the Armenians, and to labor for them chiefly through the Armenian language, though he afterwards acquired also the Turkish. The Rev. William G. Schauffler arrived in the following month, as a missionary to the Jews.
The Armenians at Constantinople were estimated at one hundred thousand. As a body, they were intelligent, ingenuous, and frank; and many were found who regarded the ritual of their Church as encumbered with burdensome ceremonies, unsustained by the Scriptures, and of no practical advantage. The outset of the Armenian mission was in some respects unlike that to the Maronites of Syria, among whom the converts were at once excommunicated, and treated as outlaws. The object of the missionaries was not to break down the Armenian Church, but, if possible, by reviving the knowledge and spirit of the Gospel, to reform it. They were content that the ecclesiastical organization remain, provided the spirit of the Gospel could be revived under it. They regarded the ceremonies of the Church as mere outworks, not necessarily removed before reaching the citadel; and believed that assaults upon these would awaken more general opposition, than if made upon the citadel itself, and that, the citadel once taken, the outworks would fall of course. They felt, therefore, that as foreigners their main business was to set forth the fundamental doctrines and duties of the Gospel, derived directly from the Holy Scriptures.
This early position of the mission is stated merely as historical truth. When their converts were excommunicated, after some years, the case became changed, and of course their methods of proceeding were greatly modified, so far as the hierarchy was concerned.
Obstacles soon arose that had not been anticipated. First, the plague, with terrific violence, then, the cholera; and lastly, the Egyptian civil war, which shook the capital, and endangered the throne. There could be little intercourse with the people in these circumstances; and during the latter part of 1832, the missionaries were employed chiefly in their own houses, studying the languages, and preparing elementary cards and books for the schools.
It would seem from the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, that his affections were early drawn to certain favored individuals among those first awakened by the Holy Spirit. It was so with the brethren at Constantinople. Among the earliest students of Peshtimaljian, was Hohannes Sahakian, who had been fond of books from childhood, and for some time had longed to see his countrymen better furnished with the means of education. Before entering the school, which he did in 1829, he had commenced reading the New Testament, a cheap copy of which his father had purchased, and he was delighted to find his preceptor so ready to sympathize with his views, and to aid him in his investigations. In 1830, he began to converse on religious subjects with his friend Senekerim, the teacher of a school in the Patriarch's palace. Senekerim was startled on hearing sentiments avowed, that were not taught in their churches; but his mind became gradually enlightened, and they both painfully saw how much their nation needed to be brought to a knowledge of the Gospel. They had no funds for establishing schools and publishing tracts and books. As their zeal and fervor increased, they made a formal consecration of everything pertaining to them to the Lord Jesus Christ, declaring their purpose to execute his will. One day Senekerim made a discovery of the words, "If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." Rejoicing over this, they both prayed: "O God, we agree to ask, that our nation may awake, may know the Gospel, and may understand that it is the blood of Jesus Christ alone which purgeth away sin." Yet neither of them was at this time fully aware of the great doctrine of salvation by grace, nor did they know of the existence of any nation having a knowledge of the pure Gospel. In this isolation they continued their prayerful study of God's Word, making gradual progress in knowledge of the Gospel.
At length it became noised abroad, that two Americans were residing in a village on the Bosphorus, ostensibly for a good purpose, but really to spread infidelity. The young men heard the report, and their curiosity was awakened. Hohannes visited them alone at first, and afterwards with his friend, to find out what kind of persons they were. They soon perceived, that the great object of their pursuit was attained, and earnestly requested to be taken under the care and instruction of the mission. As a means of support, Senekerim was to open an Armenian school at Pera, to which place the missionaries intended to remove, and Hohannes was to translate the Psalms from ancient into modern Armenian. These were labors for only part of each day, and the remainder was devoted to the study of the English language and of the Bible. As they gained an insight into the nature of true religion, they had fears lest they were building on a wrong foundation; but by the grace of God they were soon brought into the clear light of the Gospel, and led joyfully to trust in Jesus Christ as the all-sufficient Saviour.
An Armenian jeweler of wealth and influence was wrought up to a state of great alarm in reference to the course of these two young men, by the secret insinuations of a Romish priest. Having persuaded Peshtimaljian to summon the delinquents, he severely charged them with violating their obligations to the Church, and dishonoring God. They were about to vindicate themselves, when Peshtimaljian took the business wholly out of their hands, and poured a flood of light from Scripture and history upon the astonished jeweler; and when the young men afterwards spoke for themselves, Peshtimaljian aided them in their references to the Scriptures. The result was, that the jeweler became himself an open and strong advocate of the evangelical doctrines.
The conversion of Sarkis Vartabed, teacher of grammar in the school of Peshtimaljian, may be dated from this period. He was in high repute as a scholar in the ancient language of the Armenians, had many amiable and valuable qualities, and became highly useful as a translator in connection with the mission.
Among the fifteen alumni from the school of Peshtimaljian, who were ordained as priests in the autumn of 1833, was one highly respected for learning. His appearance was peculiarly devout, and when the missionary brethren called upon him, some days afterwards, in one of the cloisters of the patriarchate, he was deeply impressed by what they said to him as to the responsibilities of office-bearing in the Church of Christ. This was Der Kevork,1 whose subsequent influence in promoting the reformation was by no means unimportant.
1 Der means Priest.
The removal of the press from Malta to Smyrna, at the close of 1833, was eminently seasonable. The importance of the measure was well understood by the enemy, and a combination of Roman and Armenian influences induced the Pasha to order Mr. Temple's departure from Smyrna, with only ten days' notice. The Romanists opposed, because of their settled hostility to Protestantism, and a free Protestant press. The Armenians were specially scandalized by the presence of Bishop Dionysius as a Protestant, after he had broken the rules of the Church by taking a wife. The opposition was increased by an ex-patriarch of the Armenians then residing at Smyrna, who was a personal enemy of Dionysius, and took part in these proceedings. The Pasha had acted under misapprehension, and revoked his order, on hearing the explanations of the American consul; but it was thought best for the bishop to return to his former home at Beirût.
The Armenians were found to be well supplied with spelling-books, reading-books, arithmetics, and grammars in the modern language, also with works on geometry and trigonometry. There was, therefore, much less preparatory work to be done for them in the way of education, than was supposed. A geography was needed, and the part relating to ancient Armenia was prepared by Peshtimaljian. A high school for the Armenians was opened at Pera in October, 1834, under the superintendence of Mr. Paspati, a native of Scio, who had been educated in America, and was regarded as well fitted for the post. The next year, however, he went to Paris to study medicine, and Hohannes was appointed his successor. The school had its full number of scholars, which was thirty. There were classes in the English, French, Italian, Armenian, Turkish, Ancient Greek, and Hebrew languages, and lectures on various branches of natural science, illustrated by apparatus.
In 1834, the Rev. Messrs. John B. Adger, Benjamin Schneider, and Thomas P. Johnston, and their wives, joined the mission; the first taking up his abode at Smyrna, the second at Broosa, and the third at Trebizond. In the following year the Rev. Philander O. Powers joined Mr. Schneider, and the Rev. Henry A. Homes arrived at Constantinople. Such was the beginning of missionary efforts among the Armenians of Asia Minor. Broosa is situated in Bithyniâ, at the western base of Mount Olympus, and was the capital of the Turkish empire for one hundred and thirty years previous to the taking of Constantinople. Trebizond is situated on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea, and competes with Constantinople on the score of natural scenery. The author retains a vivid impression of it, as seen in the winter of 1844. The city, half surrounded by verdant trees, had cultivated fields rising gently behind it, and beyond were forest-clad hills, looking green as in midsummer. And back of all, far in the distance, rose a lofty range of snow-clad mountains, as if to guard this earthly paradise, stretching from sea to sea, and forming a magnificent amphitheatre.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE ARMENIANS.
1836-1840.
The first visit of Mr. Johnston to Trebizond was in 1834. Through priestly interference, he failed in three successive attempts to procure a house, and at last secured a contract for one only on condition of obtaining a firman from Constantinople. The United States Minister at the Porte procured a vizierial letter, directing that Mr. Johnston suffer no further molestation, and he removed his family thither in the spring of 1835. The breaking out of the plague prevented him for a time from having much intercourse with the people. In August of the next year, he had the pleasure of welcoming the Rev. William C. Jackson and wife as associates.
The Patriarch of the Armenian Church at this time was Stepan, who was averse to severe measures; and Boghos, his vicar, though inclined to oppose the spreading reformation, thought it prudent to do nothing openly. Several high ecclesiastics were on terms of intimacy with the missionaries, and some of them seemed on the point of yielding to the influence of the truth. But generally they were without fixed religious principles, and were ready to follow the lead of the men most able to favor their own advancement in office or emolument. Matteos, the newly appointed bishop of Broosa, was one of these. While residing on the Bosphorus, he was a professed friend of the mission; and after his removal to Broosa, he expressed by letter the most friendly sentiments, and assured Mr. Schneider of his approbation of the school then recently established in that city. But this school, after a few months, was entirely broken up through the agency of this same prelate, who also sought in other ways to weaken and destroy the influence of the missionaries. Somewhat later, having been elevated to the Patriarchate, he became a reckless persecutor of the Protestants of Turkey, as will appear in its proper place.
The beautiful type used by the Catholic-Armenians at Venice, made it necessary for the mission to procure new fonts of type adapted to the taste of the Armenians. The monks of Venice refusing to sell to the mission, Mr. Hallock, the printer, visited the United States, and superintended the cutting of the needful punches. The Prudential Committee, appreciating the new demands, authorized an expenditure of five thousand dollars for punches and types in the Armenian, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and for foundries of types and stereotype plates. After Mr. Hallock's departure, the mission succeeded in procuring two Armenian fonts of great beauty from Vienna.
Meanwhile the Turks were making some advance in civilization. Lancasterian schools were established by them in the barracks of Dolma Baktche and Scutari, which were carried on with remarkable success. The missionaries being present by invitation at a public examination, Azim Bey publicly declared, that the Turks were indebted to them for everything of the kind. Travellers were no longer obliged to depend on slow sailing vessels, since steamers ran every week from Constantinople to Smyrna and Trebizond, and every fortnight to Galatz on the Danube. A road for carriages was constructed from Scutari to Nicomedia, a distance of sixty miles; and as a means of arresting the ravages of the plague, the European style of quarantine was extensively introduced.
The most determined opposers of the mission at this time were the Papists, who spared no pains in exciting prejudice among the Armenians. The Papal Armenians were estimated at from fifteen to twenty thousand, and according to usage in Turkey they had a Patriarch of their own. This functionary came out with a public denunciation of all Protestant books, including the New Testament. He even forbade the receiving of copies of the Armenian Scriptures in the ancient language, which had been printed at their own press in Venice, and were purchased, several years before, by the British and Foreign Bible Society for sale at a reduced price or gratuitous circulation.
There was so much desire for religious instruction among the Armenians, that two weekly meetings, in the Turkish language, were established in Constantinople, one conducted by Mr. Goodell, the other by Mr. Schauffler. Their houses were frequented by ecclesiastics as well as by laymen, and some of the former seemed to be sincere inquirers after the truth. One of them, attached to the patriarchal church, proposed that they publish a revised edition of the modern Armenian New Testament; and offered to subscribe five hundred piastres, or somewhat more than twenty dollars, towards the object, and also to procure aid from others. It was a favorable sign, that bishops and vartabeds began now to give instructions from the sacred Scriptures, instead of the legends of the saints. It subsequently appeared, indeed, that most of them were influenced in this more by public opinion, than by personal interest in the subject. They probably had exaggerated notions as to the actual prevalence of evangelical sentiments.
Female education, which had been almost entirely neglected, began now to receive attention, both at Constantinople and at Smyrna. No regular school, indeed, had as yet been opened for females in the former place, but a few parents were providing means for the instruction of their daughters, and one of the evangelical brethren had a class of twelve Armenian girls. In Smyrna, a school for Armenian girls was opened by the mission in a commodious room, with desks, benches, and cards, and was commenced with the express approval of influential men in the community. More than forty girls attended it the first week. But an influential Armenian made such an appeal to the national pride of his countrymen, that the community assumed the charge of the school, and refunded what the mission had expended on it.
At Constantinople, Der Kevork, the most learned of the fifteen priests ordained in 1833, was at the head of a school of four hundred boys, supported by his countrymen and having no connection with the mission. Kevork boldly introduced the custom of daily reading and explaining the Scriptures. He also selected twenty of his most promising scholars for the critical study of the New Testament.
The learned and amiable Peshtimaljian died in the year 1837. In the same year, Mrs. Dwight and one of her children became victims of the plague. Her husband escaped the contagion, though of course greatly exposed. This terrible disease had been almost an annual visitation at Constantinople, and was believed to be imported from Egypt. As soon as it made its appearance, schools must be closed, public worship suspended, and the giving and receiving of visits in great measure interrupted. The quarantine appears to have been an effectual preventive.
In the course of this year, the missionaries had a meeting at Smyrna, at which Messrs. King, Temple, Goodell, Bird, Adger, and Houston were present. Its results were important and interesting. During the sessions, Mr. King preached two sermons to a Greek audience in the chapel of the Dutch Consulate. This was seven years after the commencement of his mission in Greece. Mr. Bird was there, on his way from Syria to his native land, and wrote, on hearing Mr. King preach and seeing the apparent effect, that he became quite reconciled to his laboring among the Greeks, rather than the Arabs.
In the same year Boghos, vicar of the Patriarch, encouraged by certain bankers, resolved to break up the mission High School for Armenians in Pera, of which Hohannes was the principal. In preparation for this, a College had been built at Scutari, some months before, on an extended scale; and the public school in Has Keuy, superintended by Kevork, had been committed to the general supervision of one of the great bankers residing there, that it might be remodeled according to his own wishes, and made a first-rate school. This was deemed a needful preliminary to shutting up the mission High School. Early in the year, the parents were summoned before the vicar, and ordered to withdraw their sons from that school. The plan of the opposing party was, in this case, after breaking up the school, to procure from the Turkish government the banishment of Hohannes. But they had misapprehended the banker, and great was their astonishment when they heard that Hohannes was no sooner released, by their own act, from his connection with the mission school, than he was engaged by the banker of Has Keuy to take the superintendence of the national school they had placed in his hands. In vain they remonstrated. To their assertion, that it was the American system he had adopted he replied, that he knew nothing of the Americans, but had adopted the system because it was good. To their objection, that the principal was evangelical, he responded, "So am I." He at length declared, that unless they permitted him to manage the school in his own way, he would withdraw from the Armenian community. They could not afford to lose one of the leading bankers; and one of the principal opposers, finding it necessary, in a business transaction, to throw himself on his clemency, opposition ceased for a time, and a school of six hundred scholars went into successful operation, with Hohannes for its superintendent, and Der Kevork, the active priest, for one of its principal teachers.
It is worthy of special note, that up to this time, the banker was wholly unknown to the missionaries, and to the evangelical brethren generally. He was evidently raised up by divine Providence for the occasion. Not only did the Has Keuy school greatly exceed the mission school at Pera in the number of its pupils, but it was formally adopted as the school of the nation, and Hohannes was appointed its principal by the Armenian Synod. Having liberty of action, he devoted an hour each day to giving special religious instruction to a select class of sixty of the more advanced pupils, besides his more general teaching, and the daily good influence exerted by Der Kevork and himself. The course of study was liberal, the philosophical apparatus of the mission was purchased by the directors, lectures were given on the natural sciences, and the school obtained a temporary popularity.
Yet there were secret opposing influences too powerful to allow this state of things long to continue. In the middle of the year 1838, the distinguished patron understood, not only that there was a growing dissatisfaction among the leading Armenians with the school, and especially with its principal, but that his munificence was attracting the attention of the Turks; and he deemed it prudent to withdraw his patronage. Before the close of the year, the teachers were dismissed, and the school was reduced to its former footing. The leading men of Has Keuy sent a delegation to the Patriarch deprecating the disaster, but obtained only fair promises. Hohannes now renewed his connection with the mission, and was placed in charge of the book distribution. Der Kevork spent much time in going from house to house, reading the Scriptures to the people, and exhorting them to obey the Gospel.
At Broosa, the number of visitors at the house of the missionaries was increasing, and among them were two young teachers in the Armenian public school, who were specially interested in the subject of personal religion. They were among the first to make the acquaintance of Mr. Powers, on his coming to take up his residence in their quarter of the city. One of these young men, named Serope, had the sole charge of about fifty of the most advanced scholars, whom he instructed daily in the Word of God. The principal men in the Armenian community at Broosa soon decided to place a select class of boys under his instruction, to be trained for the priest's office, and eight were thus set apart. Before the end of the year both of these teachers gave hopeful evidence of piety.
Very interesting cases of conversion occurred at Nicodemia, at the head of the gulf bearing that name. Mr. Goodell, when passing through this place in 1832, gave several tracts to some Armenian boys. One of these, a translation of the "Dairyman's Daughter," came into the hands of a priest, whom Mr. Goodell did not see. This led him to study the Word of God. A brother priest, on intimate terms with him, was induced to join in the study, and the result was the hopeful conversion of both. Their united efforts were now directed to the conversion of their flock, and a spirit of inquiry was awakened. In the spring of 1838, Mr. Dwight found sixteen at Nicomedia, who appeared to be truly converted men. He was surprised at the seriousness and intelligence with which they conversed on the great truths of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit had evidently been their teacher, and the doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone, was the foundation of their hopes. The joy with which they greeted the missionary of the cross for the first time, was most gratifying to him, as was the earnest attention they gave to his instructions. Compared with their countrymen in the same place, they might be called intelligent men, and some of them were in very easy circumstances. The two converted priests, Der Vertanes and Der Haritûn, became afterwards well known in the mission. Of their own accord they removed to Constantinople, and were placed together in charge of a village church on the Bosphorus; and the Patriarch Stepan, being an old acquaintance, spent several weeks with them, and generally assented to the views advanced by them in their free conversations.
We now enter the year 1839, which was a year of severe persecution. Of this persecution, in which the Porte itself became a party, I am now to give a brief account.
The missionary force at Constantinople had become unusually small. Mr. Dwight was absent until September, on a visit to the United States. Mr. Schauffler left in May for Vienna, to superintend the printing of the Hebrew Spanish Old Testament. He went by way of Odessa, and both there, and among the German churches in that part of Russia, he did much to sustain a religious revival that had been long in progress. Mr. Homes left in the spring to join Dr. Grant in exploring Kurdistan. Mr. Hamlin arrived early in the year, but was occupied in the study of the language. Mr. Goodell was, therefore, almost alone in this trying season.
The extent and violence of the persecution were convincing proof of the progress of the reformation. A corrupt priesthood dreaded its tendency to deprive them of their sinful gains. Certain persons no longer enjoyed a monopoly of Armenian printing. Education ceased to be exclusively in the hands of a few bankers. And the popularity of Hohannes and Boghos Fizika was thought to operate against the great Armenian college at Scutari. Nor were the members of the Romish Church idle.
The patriarchs were elected by the primates, who were chiefly bankers, and were in an important sense their creatures. The bankers were divested of much of their power in 1839, by the rise of three men of the artisan class, who suddenly stood before the nation as its guides and dictators, and more especially as extirpators of heresy. These were the two chief architects of the Sultan, and the superintendent of the government powder works. The two first, being employed in erecting the most splendid of all the imperial palaces, were often in contact with the Sultan. The expulsion of Protestantism lay near their hearts, and they resolved to make use of the strong arm of Mahmood to effect it. What were the representations made to him is not known; but it is known that the three favorites were authorized to call on the civil power to aid them in extirpating the dangerous heresy.
The first thing was to get the tolerant Patriarch out of the way. For some reason they did not at once remove him from office, but procured from the interior a man named Hagopos, notorious for his bigotry and sternness, whom they appointed Assistant Patriarch. A month later, Stepan was deposed, and permitted to retire to his convent near Nicomedia, and Hagopos was installed in his place. Before this, Hohannes had been thrown into the patriarchal prison, without even the form of an accusation; but every one knew that his crime consisted in following the Bible, rather than the Church. Boghos Fizika was arrested, and cast into the same prison; and four days after, they were both banished by an imperial firman. Their place of exile was a convent near Cesarea, four hundred miles distant. Stepan took leave of them with tears, well knowing the deep injustice of the act. This was in the month of February, and the Turkish police-officer sent back word from Scutari, that Boghos, being an invalid, was too feeble to bear the fatigues and exposures of such a journey in that inclement season; but positive orders were returned to carry him to Cesarea, either dead or alive. Nicomedia lay on their route; and the brethren of that place hastened in a body to the post-house, and had a season of prayer with the exiles, which greatly comforted them. This intercourse was kept up during a delay of several days authorized by the Nicomedia primate. When the Armenians of Cesarea were told, on their arrival at that place, that their banishment was for receiving the Bible as the only infallible guide in religious matters, they said the Patriarch might as well banish them all, for they were all of that opinion.
It was reported in Constantinople, that the Patriarch had a list of five hundred persons suspected of heresy, and that among them were bishops, priests, and bankers, some of whom were to be banished immediately. Few dared to visit the missionaries, and those only under cover of the night. A proclamation was issued by Hagopos, forbidding the reading of books printed or circulated by the missionaries, and all who had such books were required to deliver them up without delay. On the 14th of March, Der Kevork was arrested and thrown into prison; and when respectable Armenians of Has Keuy made application for his release, they were rudely told to mind their own business. After lying in prison for more than a month, he and several others were banished into the interior. A rich banker, who had long been on friendly terms with the missionaries, was arrested and imprisoned in a hospital as an insane person,—a method of persecution not unfrequently resorted to in Turkey. He was released after a week's confinement, on paying a large sum for the college at Scutari.
Nor were the Greek ecclesiastics behind the Armenian in hostility to the reformation. The Greek Synod and Patriarch issued a decree, excommunicating all who should buy, sell, or read the books of the "Luthero-Calvinists;" and condemning in like manner the writings of Korai, the illustrious restorer of learning among the Greeks, and of the learned Bambas, the friend of Fisk and Parsons. An imperial firman was also published, authorizing, and even requiring, the several Patriarchs to look well to their several communions, and to guard them from infidelity and foreign influence; thus connecting the Porte itself with the persecution.
A strong effort was made to procure the expulsion of the missionaries. Multitudes were active, from diverse motives, to secure this end. One of the most conspicuous of these was a renegade Jew, once baptized by an English missionary, but now an infidel who seemed to have satanic aid in the invention of slanders against Protestants and Protestantism. Another was a disappointed infidel teacher, whose malice and bitterness made him a fit ally for the Jew. The enemy seemed to be having everything in his own way, and strong was his confidence of success.
At this crisis, Divine Providence interposed. The army of the Egyptians was on the march towards Constantinople, and the Sultan deemed it necessary to call upon all the Patriarchs and the chief Rabbi of the Jews, each to furnish several thousand men for his army. It was an unprecedented demand, and occasioned great consternation, but must be obeyed. The army was raised, and was estimated at eighty thousand. It encountered an Egyptian army of about the same number on the plains of Nezib near Aleppo, on the 24th of June, and the Turkish troops were scattered in all directions. The tidings of this disaster never reached Mahmood, as he died in his palace on the first day of July. A few days after, the Capudan Pasha surrendered the Turkish fleet to Mohammed Ali; and on the 11th of July, Abdûl Medjid, a boy of seventeen, was placed upon the throne. The news of the entire loss of his army and navy arrived in a few days, and the empire seemed on the verge of dissolution. It was saved by the intervention of the great powers of Europe. The apostate Jew, to avoid punishment for various crimes, professed himself a Mohammedan; and for crimes subsequently committed, he was strangled by the Turks, and thrown into the Bosphorus. On the 12th of August, between three and four thousand houses in Pera were consumed by fire, with the loss of several lives and an immense amount of property.
The persecution had extended to Broosa and Trebizond; and at Erzroom, in ancient Armenia, where Mr. Jackson had commenced a new station, a letter was read from the patriarchate, warning the people against the Americans, and their schools and books.
The Egyptian war and its consequences broke the power of the persecution. The Armenian Synod voted to recall all the exiles, except Hohannes, whom they adjudged to perpetual banishment as the ringleader of the "Evangelicals." At length an English physician, of humane feelings, being informed as to the facts in the case, stated them to one of the sisters of the late Sultan. The result was that, on the fourteenth of November, an imperial request for Hohannes's release was sent to the Patriarch. He resorted to various devices, first to procure the reversal, and then to delay the execution of the order, which was addressed by the Turkish minister of foreign affairs to the governor of Cesarea, and had on it the Sultan's sign-manual, and the seals of several high offices of state. Not daring to delay longer, on the tenth of February, 1840, he placed the imperial requisition in the hands of the father of Hohannes, by whom it was immediately forwarded to Cesarea, and Hohannes arrived at Constantinople on the twenty-fourth of May.
The persecutors, one after another, were brought low. A change was made, about this time, in the mode of collecting the revenue of the empire, rendering the board of Armenian government bankers useless, and they were directed to settle up their accounts and close their offices. This reduced some of them to poverty, and stripped them all of a great part of their power. The Greek Patriarch was deposed, on complaint by the British Ambassador of his interference with matters in the Ionian Islands; and the Armenian Patriarch found himself in trouble with his own people. He was too overbearing, and was obliged, in November, 1840, to resign his office, to avoid a forcible deposition; and it was a significant sign of the times, that Stepan, who had been ejected from office on account of his forbearance towards the Protestants, was now re-elected; first, by the vote of the principal bankers, and afterwards by acclamation in an immense popular assembly convened for the purpose. He was immediately recognized by the Turkish government.