China in the reign of Kublai, says he then found Nestorian churches in Cashgar, Carkam, Tangut, Ergimul, Kerguth, and Tenduk.* Kublai died in the year 1302. Fourteenth to the Sixteenth century. Early in the fourteenth century Mohammedanism had gained the ascendency in Hyrcania, Khorassan, and Transoxiana; and the Nestorians, Jacobites, and Latins were obliged to retire before it. Already had it been extended beyond its former limits in the East by the zealous Mahmoud of Gizni, who ascended the throne of Persia A. D. 997, and is supposed to have converted millions by his sword. He made several expeditions into India, and also repeatedly contended in battle with the principal ruler of the Tartar tribes on the north of his kingdom.† The sword of Tamerlane only was wanting to complete the destruction of the Western Tartar churches. This was drawn upon them about the year 1380. Tamerlane extended his conquests into Mongolia, India, Persia, Asia Minor, and Russia. He died A. D. 1405, after commencing his march for the remote regions of China.‡ From this time we hear no more of the churches of Transoxiana, Turkistan, Hyrcania, and Khorassan, and multitudes of the Nestorians of Persia did this fierce disciple of Mohammed persecute unto death.§ But their missions still existed. In China the witnesses continued to 66 prophesy," though in deep sackcloth The Romish missionaries were banished from that empire about the year 1369; but the Nestorians, though persecuted by the Chinese, and suffering under inauspicious influences which gradually diminished their number, were permitted to remain. The patriarch Simeon sent a metropolitan into southern China in 1490. About this time India and China were united into one metropolitan see. In 1502 the patriarch Elias sent four bishops-Thomas, Jaballaha, Denha, and James-into India and China. James was living in 1510. In 1540 a persecution was raised in China against the Nestorians. "It thus appears," says the writer from whose valuable pages we have drawn so freely, "that the Nestorian missions in Central and Eastern Asia continued from about the third to the sixteenth century. The more active periods of their missions were from the seventh to the middle of the thirteenth century: a long period of time, evinc * Bib. Orient., v. iv. p. 503. † Malcolm's Hist. of Persia, v. i. p. 223. Ibid., p. 459. || Bib. Orient., v., iv. p. 523. ing great perseverance, and showing, one would think, that the true spirit of Christ must have been, at least, one of the grand actuating motives," though "the Gospel which they preached was not in all respects the pure Gospel." The patriarch and his people, during my late visit to the mountains, often spoke of the early labours and success of their forefathers, and eagerly drank in the encouragement I presented to put forth untiring efforts and prayers for a return of those golden days, when, as they themselves say, their missionaries, churches, and schools were spread throughout the East, even in India and China; remnants of which they confidently believe may yet be found in those remote lands. In the bold, independent bearing of the Nestorians of the mountains, I saw abundant evidence that they were the true sons of "the missionaries of Balkh and Samarcand," who, according to the testimony of Gibbon, "pursued without fear the footsteps of the roving Tartar, and insinuated themselves into the camps of the valleys of Imaus and the banks of the Selinga." 66 If, in the early age of the Church, according to the same writer, "In their progress by sea and land, the Nestorians entered China by the port of Canton and the northern residence of Singan," and were found in great numbers on the pepper coast of Malabar and the isles of the ocean, Socatora and Ceylon," what may we not hope from their dauntless courage and untiring zeal, when the power of the press and all the increasing means of modern times are brought to their aid! My soul is fired in view of the prospect. But then there is a great preparatory work to be done, and there is no time for delay. We must not shrink back in view of difficulties and dangers. If the Nestorian missionaries "pursued without fear the footsteps of the roving Tartar," we must without fear enter their mountain fastnesses, pour the light of life around their pathway, arouse and direct their dormant or perverted energies, and, under the Captain of our Salvation, lead them forth to conquest and to victory. No effort must be spared, no time should be lost. Men of giantlike faith and energy must gird themselves to the work. Everything combines to render this field one of the most important and interesting of which we can possibly conceive. The early history of the people, their relative geographical position, their present character and eagerness for instruction, their adherence to the word of God as the rule of their faith and practice, and the portentous signs of the times in these lands, indicating some momentous crisis, in which a host of faithful soldiers of the cross should bind on their armour and prepare for the approaching conflict-motives the most weighty, and encouragements the most cheering, urge us onward. (C.) JEWS OF MEDIA AND ASSYRIA. We have incidentally spoken of an unconverted remnant of the Ten Tribes dispersed through the Nestorian country, and it may be well to give a more particular account of them. They are said to excel their two neighbours of the two tribes in general morals, and particularly in virtue of chastity, which is held in high estimation by them, while the Jewesses in other parts of Persia (as we are told by Mr. Wolff, who draws the comparison) are a very dissolute class. In their toleration of Christianity they excel any other Jews that I have seen; and, on the principles already advanced, we might reasonably look for this in the posterity of the ten tribes. They not only gladly receive the Scriptures of the Old Testament at our hands, and enter with a degree of seriousness into discussions of the claims of Jesus of Nazareth to the Messiahship, but some of them have come to us with no other errand than to obtain the New Testament in Hebrew, that they might examine for themselves this all-important subject. And when we have been obliged to defer their request till we could obtain copies from Constantinople or Smyrna, they have gone away expressing deep sorrow. On one occasion I lent two of them a copy of the Hebrew New Testament, telling them they might return it within a certain time. They accordingly brought it back, but with the petition that they might retain it still longer, as they wished to read it more thoroughly. Like the Jews in other parts of the world, they have been looking for the Messiah to make his appearance the present year (1840), and this may have led them to more serious reflection on the subject. Some of them have avowed their belief that the Messiah had already come, but with this singular explanation: that he had come and remained eight days, when he was circumcised, and received back again into heaven, whence he would soon come to reign on the earth, and gather together the remnant of Israel and the dispersed of Judah to reign with him at Jerusalem. Others have said that the Messiah had come, and afterwards, as if afraid they had said too much, have explained it away by saying that our Messiah had come, but not theirs. It would seem, from these incidents, that they are beginning to question the principles of their unbelief, and to entertain fears lest they are rejecting the only Saviour. In this state of mind, they meet with a great stumbling-block in the conduct and principles of professing Christians about them. They have repeatedly asked how it is that these Christians make religion to consist so much in stated facts and other observances not commanded in the Gospels. Many of the Jews of Ooroomiah have expressed a wish that we would open a school for the instruction of their children, and have expressed a willingness to have the New Testament read as a class-book in the school. It seems not improbable but this last measure would meet with opposition from some quarter. The petition, in its present form, amounts to a request that we would teach their children the Christian religion, and we think much might be hoped from judicious efforts for the improvement of this people. That something should be attempted for them, at least in connexion with our labours for the Nestorians, I cannot entertain a doubt; nor is there a question of their need of instruction and of the word of God. Above all do they need the regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit, to make that word effectual to the salvation of their souls. Their dispersed situation would perhaps be an objection to the commencement of a mission exclusively for them at present; but one or more individuals, who should direct their attention particularly to their improvement, would find enough to do, at least in itinerary labours. THIS UNCONVERTED REMNANT OF THE LOST TRIBES appears to possess much of the characteristic simplicity of the Nestorian Christians among whom they live; and, excepting the latter, I know of no people in the East who, considering my comparatively limited acquaintance with them, have won more upon my affections than they have done. In common with the Jews in other parts of the world, they are a despised and persecuted race; and they are not exempt from the calumnious charge which is brought upon that people of killing the children of their Gentile neighbours, to obtain their blood to mingle with the bread of the Passover!* During my residence in Ooroomiah * As groundless as this accusation doubtless is, it seems as though it was sent in judgment upon the Jews for bringing this very charge upon the early Christians, who met in the night for worship "for fear of the Jews;" when the latter, in their implacable hatred to Christianity, accused them of killing children and drinking their blood! a Jew was publicly burned to death in that city by order of the governor, on an allegation of that pretended crime! Naphtha was freely poured over him, the torch was applied, and the miserable man was instantly enveloped in flame! In Meshed, another city of Persia, the same accusation was last year brought against the Jews of that place: a Mohammedan child having been missing, no one knew how. It was charged upon the poor Jews, and their entire extermination was at once resolved upon! Fifteen of these unhappy people were thus murdered in cold blood, when the remainder, to escape the same fate, embraced the only alternative-the religion of the Korân! And who has not mourned over the fate of those sons of Israel whose blood has still more recently stained the streets of Damascus ? Is this the people of whom God hath said, "He that toucheth you, touches the apple of mine eye ?" O when wilt thou arise and have mercy upon Zion? When will the blood-bought Church of Christ awake to compassion for thy woes?" bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask of thy peace ?" Who shall The present is an interesting moment for the Jews, and it may prove an important crisis in their history. With "a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind," they have looked for the long promised Messiah, till "all faces are turned into paleness.' As a cordial to their fainting spirits, they have been assured, by calculations made by their learned rabbis, that their expected deliverer would make his appearance within a certain definite period, or during a particular year. That period (1840) has now expired, but it has brought them no deliverance! And where is Messiah their king? Many of the Jews in Poland, as we learn by a letter from the Rev. Mr. Brown, of St. Petersburg, have openly avowed, that if he did not make his appearance before the end of this year, they were shut up to the conclusion that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. The day that I left Constantinople, a learned Jew called upon the Rev. Mr. Goodell, and told him that there were then forty Jews in that city who were accustomed to meet for religious worship on the first day of the week, having come to the deliberate conclusion that they could look no longer for a Messiah to come after the end of the present year (ending October, 1840), but must believe in Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Saviour. On my way to Smyrna, one of my fellow-passengers in the steamer was an intelligent Christian Jew, who informed me that in that city there was the same general state of |