History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches.

Volume I.

by Rufus Anderson.

VOL. I.

PREFACE.

Missions to the Oriental Churches occupy a large s.p.a.ce in the forty-nine volumes of the Missionary Herald, and in as many Annual Reports of the Board; and in view of the mult.i.tude 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 a.s.syrian (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, ill.u.s.trating 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, "G.o.d 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 antic.i.p.ations of the heavenly world. He is thankful in being allowed to commemorate their labors and virtues, and only regrets the want of s.p.a.ce 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 pa.s.sed 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 Const.i.tution of the Board, which was adopted at its first meeting only a few weeks after its organization. The second article of the Const.i.tution 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 dest.i.tute 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 const.i.tuency, 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,--dest.i.tute 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 embarra.s.sed 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.

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 a.s.sociated 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 const.i.tute 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 a.s.sent 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 G.o.d and the rites of the church.

These rites were fasting, ma.s.ses, 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 cla.s.s denominated venial. These could be canceled by the rites of the church, the most important of which was the ma.s.s, 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 p.r.o.nouncing 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 subst.i.tuted for a ministry to feed the flock of G.o.d with sound doctrine, and the spiritual worship of G.o.d is converted into the formal adoration of a wafer. Preaching is nowhere regarded as the leading duty of the clergy, but to say ma.s.s. 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 ma.s.s 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 subst.i.tuting 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 h.e.l.l, 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 ma.s.ses 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 a.s.sYRIAN Mission; The MISSION TO THE JEWS; and that to The MOHAMMEDANS.

MISSIONS TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.

CHAPTER I.

PALESTINE.

1819--1824.