Chapter xxviii

.

The necessity had become obvious, but it was a trying process. It was too much for Mar Yohanan. He must be spoken of kindly, for he had long stood in friendly relations with the mission, though the evidence of his piety was never entirely satisfactory.

Priest John, of Geog Tapa, gave unquestioned evidences of piety in early life. But in 1868, if not earlier, his gold had become dim, and his proceedings and their consequences must have a place in this history.

Becoming extravagant in his habits, and thus involved in debt, he was disaffected because the mission could not accede to exorbitant demands, and relieve him from pecuniary embarrassments. So he went abroad to collect money for this purpose, and made his way to England, where he succeeded in interesting several of the dignitaries of the Established Church. Returning home in the autumn of 1869, he made such a report of his visit, and excited such expectation of the coming of Episcopal clergymen, and large patronage for ecclesiastics and civil protection for all classes, that many of the simple-hearted people were carried away. The mission had been hoping to get some of the evangelical churches, ere long, upon a self-supporting basis; but the hopes thus excited of their burdens being assumed by the Church of England, put back for a time this work of self-support.

The narrative is continued in the language of Mr. Cochran: "Priest John returned from England flushed with the apparent success of his mission. At Geog Tapa, the next Sabbath after our communion, at early dawn he baptized fifteen children with much display. More than two hours were spent in reading the English Liturgy, chanting Psalms, and explaining and vindicating the usages of the English Church. He announced his intention to give the communion to all who desired it. This innovation upon the evangelical usage of more than a dozen years (though he had once previously practiced indiscriminate baptism), was not inappropriately followed by the suspension of the Sabbath-school and preaching service, and the turn-out of the whole village, headed by Malek Yonan and Priest John, to meet the son of the master of their village, who happened to return on that day from a long absence in the army. In the delay of the young Khan's arrival, a young deacon, more zealous than discreet, proposed a service by the roadside, but many voices cried, 'We have become Episcopalians, and don't want any more preaching.' This public and flagrant violation of the Sabbath, headed by the two leading Christians of the village, painfully illustrates the material found there, and sadly contrasts with the better days of the excellent and lamented Malek Agha Beg and Mar Elias.

"We have heard nothing from friends in England, but from other sources infer the probability of at least a visit of Episcopalians to Mar Shimon, and possibly to Oroomiah, the coming spring. Priest John states, that Dr. Perkins did him harm in England by his published statement, that he (Priest John) had come, not as an accredited agent to secure Episcopal interference, but rather on a private and personal begging expedition (the truth of which is well known in Oroomiah, and confirmed by a written stipulation lodged with friends here, that his companion should receive one third of the avails of the excursion). To destroy the force of Dr. Perkins' statement, Priest John has secured the signature of a large number of names, including Patriarchs, Bishops, Maleks, and principal men among the people. The paper was circulated privately, but we learn that only one of our employees, and very few, if any, of our communicants, could be persuaded to sign it.

"If asked, what is the true state of feeling among our communicants, an extensive and familiar acquaintance with them enables me to testify with great confidence, that, with the exception of a very small high-church party, headed mainly by Mar Yohanan, I discover no special tendency to Old Churchism of any kind, and if let alone, they are more than satisfied with the gospel simplicity and spontaneity of worship."

Under date of January 10th, 1870, Mr. Cochran adds, "Geog Tapa continues to witness novel scenes under the eccentric and reckless Priest John. At the close of the fast of the nativity, the communion was administered to the whole village, and numbers from surrounding villages were also invited in. Many who had not communed for from ten to thirty years, as well as the more superstitious and the lowest rabble, participated. Four priests, all of whom are of doubtful piety (though two were in our communion), officiated, clothed in white. The whole Old Church service was read in ancient Syriac, and long Psalms were chanted in the same. The baser sort were exultant, but the thoughtful, even of those not with us, were sad. Every artifice was used to draw in our communion, but we were rejoiced to find that all except ten,--consisting of the family of Priest John, and the priests and deacons who officiated,--refused to partake with them.

"I have preached there three times since. Yesterday was our communion. The house was crowded at both services. It was judged that seven hundred were inside, and not less than one hundred and fifty outside. I preached in the morning on the spiritual character of a true church, and newness of life as the condition of admission, and that the ordinances belong exclusively to the church, and not to those outside. All listened attentively, though a disturbance was feared. In the afternoon I 'fenced' our communion fully, but Priest John had the effrontery to partake. I have since learned that had it been withheld, he, with the rabble, would have taken it by force. A perfect separation seems called for, and with it a casting out of unworthy members from the church. But the heart of the body is right, and will, I trust, stand by the truth."

"Enlightened villagers," adds Mr. Shedd, under date of January 20, 1870, "besides members of the evangelical communion, did not partake. It shows the movement for high-church aid in its true colors. Such aid on the part of the English bishops is nothing more nor less than salarying Mar Shimon and his ecclesiastics, for reading their old prayers and using their dead forms and rites, as they have done for ages past. We rejoice in so simple an issue, and are sure it can do no injury to vital Christianity."[1]

[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1870, p. 190.

The time having come for separate and independent church organizations, these painful occurrences seem to have been providentially designed to promote that result.

Mr. Cochran thus writes: "The progress of the gospel and providential occurrences, are bringing us into many new relations to the old Nestorian Church, and grave questions, affecting the purity and future growth of our churches, are now forcing themselves upon us. So long as the Old Church did not oppose evangelical labors, so long as she freely opened her doors to our services, consenting to a separate administration of the ordinances for the hopefully pious, and silently tolerating many ecclesiastical and social reforms, and an abandonment of the liturgical service; in short, so long as we could see, under the preached gospel, the hold on the old superstitions steadily lessening, and the masses being leavened with evangelical truth, we were more than content to labor on without a separate church organization.

"But experience in other fields, as well as our own, has proved that such labors can only be prosecuted for a time. From year to year we have found the old ecclesiastics more restive under their loss of support, and more jealous of the progress of spiritual life. Mar Shimon, as you are informed, has for years openly opposed the gospel, and now so intimidates the interior mountain districts under his immediate control, that it seems preposterous to attempt to prosecute labors there, unless on a separate foundation. And we now find the opposition on the plains, and all over the field, not less positive, and daily becoming more concerted and potent.

"Mar Yohanan has also, for years, secretly, and often openly and most offensively, opposed spiritual and reformatory labors. Priest John, a most untiring and reckless man, is arousing a furor of zeal for Old Churchism,--a fanaticism that will not be likely to subside with the spasmodic efforts he may make. He and others are now administering the communion every few weeks to the whole people, without distinction of character. They also enjoin the fasts and saints' days, resume the use of the liturgy in ancient Syriac, burn incense daily, bow before the altar, and make the sign of the cross; though some, as yet, refuse to come into all these measures.

"With the return of these old superstitions, there is also a painful throwing off of moral restraint, and intemperance and kindred vices have greatly increased.

"In these circumstances the question has arisen, first in Geog Tapa, and subsequently in other places; Can 'the evangelicals' further unite in the morning and evening service conducted by priests--and there happen to be five or six in that village--who are reviving these superstitions? Almost the whole church are surprisingly united in the decision to withdraw. This has been done for the last two months, and we find upwards of one hundred members there, who are firm, and daily waxing stronger in faith and opposition to the old superstitions."

These and other distractions seriously hindered the spiritual growth of the churches in the winter of 1869 and 1870. But in the spring, a very thorough work of grace was enjoyed at Degala, and it was believed that there were more than twenty genuine conversions, mostly among the aged and middle-aged. The church in that place paid half the salary of its pastor, and was expected soon to pay the whole. Mar Yooseph, the young bishop at Bootan, wrote that his congregation had increased to one hundred and fifty, and that, for much of the time, Christ and his salvation formed the only theme of conversation. He had hopes concerning considerably more than a score of new converts. Deacon Toma, who had spent a year in the Seminary, was with him as a helper, and promised to become another Deacon Guwergis.

The immediate foreign mission field of the Nestorians, is among the Armenians in Russia, and the same people at Tabriz, Hamadan (the ancient Ecbatana), Teheran, and Ispahan in Persia, with the numerous villages in the intervening regions; descendants, to a great extent, of Armenians carried captive, in the year 1605, from the regions of Ararat by Shah Abbas the Great. They furnish the field providentially offered to the Nestorians, as the Koords do for the Armenians in Turkey. Hamadan is about three hundred miles southeast of Oroomiah, on the great caravan road between Tabriz and Bagdad. On the 28th of May, 1870, the mission resolved, that they considered it a duty urged upon them to embrace at once within their efforts the Armenians and the Mussulman sects of Central Persia, by planting a station at Hamadan; and they expressed the hope that the Board would heartily endorse this action, and help them to carry it out without delay, and also to occupy Tabriz.

The members of the mission, in the spring of 1870, were the Rev. Messrs. Coan, Labaree, Cochran, and Shedd, and Dr. Van Norden, with their wives, and Miss Dean, principal of the female seminary. The mission was now known as the "Mission to Persia," in view of plans to reach the entire population of the country. To Mr. Cochran was assigned the superintendence of twenty out-stations in Oroomiah, Sooldooz, and Tergawer, and the field outlying these, together with the male Seminary, To Mr. Coan was committed the press, the editing of the "Rays of Light," care of the treasury, and the oversight of the city church, and of two out-stations. To Messrs. Shedd and Labaree, jointly, was given the care of twenty out-stations in Oroomiah and Salmas, besides Tabriz and Hamadan, with the Armenian work in general; and, separately, to Mr. Shedd the mountain field, and to Mr. Labaree the Mussulman work. Dr. Van Norden was to carry on his medical department, and to translate the Gospel of John into Turkish.

In the autumn of this year the Mission to Persia was formally transferred to the care of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions; reserving, however, the Armenian work in the northern portion of the field, from its intimate connection with the mission to the Armenians of Turkey.

It remains only to speak of the honored founder of the mission.

Dr. Perkins lived through the entire connection of the mission with the American Board, and died at Chicopee, Massachusetts, on the 31st of December, 1869, when he had nearly attained the age of sixty-five; having been born on the 12th of March, 1805. He graduated at Amherst College in 1829, taught the next year in Amherst Academy; spent the two following years in Andover Seminary; and was tutor in his Alma Mater for the greater part of another year. The engagement last named was shortened by his call to commence the mission among the Nestorians. His life, from the time of his sailing from Boston, with Mrs. Perkins, in September, 1833, for six-and-thirty years, is largely the history of the Nestorian mission.

The careful reader of this history will not need a portraiture of his character. He was evidently made for the position he so long occupied. He was an acknowledged leader in the Lord's host; a Moses and a Joshua, with traits of character resembling those both of Elijah, and of the Apostle Paul. To idleness, vagrancy, and drunkenness, besetting sins of the Nestorians, he was the old prophet; and in his longing desire to make them savingly acquainted with the gospel, he was the apostle. Their spoken language he reduced to a written form, and gave them, in their vernacular, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; with a commentary on Genesis and on Daniel. Is it too much to pronounce him the Apostle to the Nestorians? He came to his end as a shock of corn fully ripe; and glorious results of his self denying, and in some respects suffering mission, he will assuredly behold in the heavenly world. Where in his native land could he have labored, with the prospect of so large a spiritual harvest, taking no account of the widely reacting influence of his labors on the churches at home? And we might propose the same inquiry with respect to the departed Stoddard, and Rhea, and Grant, and Fidelia Fiske, and others, both among the dead, and the living.

##