Nestorian Mission CHAPTER I. Importance of a Physician-Embarkation Smyrna― Constantinople — Black Sea-Trebizonde — Tabreez Ooroomiah-Character of the Nestorians-Notice of the MissionDescription of the Country-Independent Nestorians-Koords. THE Nestorian Christians, so memorable in the early annals of the Church, are emerging from that state of obscurity in which they have for many ages been almost lost sight of by the civilized world. In consequence of the favourable report of Messrs. Smith and Dwight, who visited the Nestorians in Persia in the spring of 1831, under the patronage of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, that body soon resolved upon the formation of a mission among that interesting branch of the primitive Church. It was an untried and difficult field, but fraught, as was believed, with the brightest promise. At their annual meeting, held at Utica, N. Y., October, 1834, the Board of Missions presented a convincing and urgent plea for a suitable physician to engage in the incipient labours of that important mission. The healing art, it was believed, might procure favour and protection, by affording convincing proof of the benevolence of our motives; for it is well known that to relieve the sufferings of the body is the most ready way of access to the heart. It would also procure access to places where none but a physician could go. But for more than a year the call had gone through the length and breadth of the land, and not a physician could be found to go. In view of these considerations, I abandoned an increasing and delightful circle of practice in Utica, and, with Mrs. Grant, was on my way to Persia the following spring. A pleasant voyage of forty-eight days brought us to Smyrna, the site of one of the Seven Churches in Asia. From thence, one of the first of those numerous steamers, which are now producing such changes in the East, conveyed us to Constantinople, the proud metropolis of Turkey. No steamer then ploughed the waves of the stormy Euxine, and we were wafted by the winds in a small American-built English schooner -once a slaver-to the port of Trebizonde. From the shores of the Black Sea, the saddle became our only carriage for seven hundred miles, over the mountains and plains of Armenia to the sunny vales of Persia. On the loftier mountain summits, a corner of a stable sheltered us from the cold and storms: by the verdant banks of the Euphrates, and beneath the hoary summit of Mount Ararat, we reposed under the canopy of our tent, while the bales and boxes of merchandise from the seven hundred horses and mules which composed our caravan were thrown around in a hollow square, and served as a temporary fortress to protect us from the predatory Koords by whom we were surrounded. An escort of armed horsemen had been furnished by the pasha of Erzeroom to guard the caravan, and the stillness of the midnight hour was broken by the cry of the faithful sentinel who kept watch to warn us of danger. The strange customs and usages of an Oriental land, and the thousand novelties of the Old World, served to while away the hours as we pursued our onward course for twentyeight days at the slow pace of an Eastern caravan. We arrived at Tabreez, one of the chief commercial cities of Persia, on the 15th of October, 1835, and met with a cordial reception from the few English residents in the place, and from our respected associates, the Rev. Justin Perkins and lady, who had preceded us to this place. From his Excellency the Right Honourable Henry Ellis, the British ambassador and envoy extraordinary at the court of Persia, with whom we had already formed a pleasant acquaintance at Trebizonde, we received the kindest offers of aid and protection; and I seize this occasion to acknowledge the same kind and unremitted favours from his successors and other English gentlemen with whom we have met in the East. After resting a few days at Tabreez, I proceeded to Ooroomiah, to make arrangements for the commencement of our contemplated station among the Nestorians in that province. My professional character secured the favour of the governor and of the people generally. Comfortable houses were soon provided, and on the 20th of November my associate arrived with our ladies. We entered upon our labours under the most encouraging auspices, and they have gone on prosperously up to the present time. The sick, the lame, and the blind gathered around by scores and hundreds, and my fame was soon spread abroad through the surrounding country. We were regarded as public benefactors, and our arrival was hailed with general joy. The Nestorians, in particular, welcomed us with the greatest kindness and affection. Their bishops and priests took their seats at our table, bowed with us at our family altar, drank in instruction with child-like docility, and gave us their undivided influence and co-operation in the prosecution of our labours among their people. They regarded us as coadjutors with them in a necessary work of instruction and improvement, and not as their rivals or successors. We had come, not to pull down, but to build up; to promote knowledge and piety, and not to war against their external forms and rites. In We found much in their character to raise our hopes. They have the greatest reverence for the Scriptures, and were desirous to have them diffused among the people in a language which all could understand. their feelings towards other sects they are charitable and liberal; in their forms, more simple and scriptural than the Papal and the other Oriental churches. They abhor image-worship, auricular confession, and the doctrine of purgatory; and hence they have broad common ground with Protestant Christians, so that, not inappropriately, they have been called the Protestants of Asia. But they had, as a people, sunk into the darkness of ignorance and superstition: none but their clergy |