| About this document (click for more) Notes: Author note: Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States
Classified in Book excerpts |
Missionary Principles and Practice:
A Discussion of Christian Missions and of some Criticisms upon them
by Robert E. Speer
pages 365-367New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1902-08
[page 365]
Missionary Principles and Practices:
FOUR LIFE STORIES
THE Church of Christ which is growing up in Persia is composed of
diverse elements. Mohammedans, Nestorians, Armenians, and Jews make up the
population of the country and the membership of the Church. But in the state
the seven and one-half millions of the Mohammedans dominate severely the
twenty-five thousand Nestorians, the forty-five thousand Armenians, and the
twenty thousand Jews, who made up the non-Moslem population until the massacres
in Turkey drove down tens of thousands of both Armenian and Nestorian refugees
to increase these numbers, and find shelter under the more tolerant government
of the Shiah Kajars. In the Church, naturally, the predominant element still is
from the Gregorian and Nestorian Churches, which have maintained the Christian
name, and the forms, at least, of a Christian faith, under twelve centuries of
Moslem oppression. Each of these four peoples, however, has its first fruits in
the little Church of which at least as much can be said as was written to the
church in Philadelphia: "Thou hast a little power, and didst keep my word, and
didst not deny my name."
Desirous of seeing how men of these different races came into the society of
Christ, when in Persia I asked four representative types to tell their stories.
The first was a converted Moslem gentleman in Tabriz, attached to the suite of
a prominent nobleman, who, though a Mohammedan, protected his Christian friend
from persecution. He had left Islam for Sufism, but its petty laws brought yet
greater unease and burden upon him.
[page 366]
He was taught, for example, that, if a man carried an ant on his person from one section of the city to another, he should take it back, and deposit it where he found it. From Sufism he turned to Babism, but the Bab, he said, had been a dissolute and drunken young man, and wrote ungrammatically. He could not believe that the Bab was God.
After that, this was his story: "A statement of the way I found the mercy of the Lord Jesus, and escaped from the bonds of the law, and from the heavy load which I have borne. For a long time I gave myself to eating, sleeping, and frivolity, and had no portion in the spiritual life. Little by little I came to this thought that, of necessity, from the beginning of creation to the last day, there must be a person pure and holy, without sin, and full of kindness, a Mediator between the Creator and his creatures, to free all the creatures from sin and uncleanness. With this thought, I began to read the books of the teachers of my native city. I could not find the Mediator. On a certain day it happened that I was at the house of a friend, and saw a copy of the Old Testament. I read in it, and found wonderful and heart-pleasing things. I borrowed the book, asking whence it had come. My friend said that about forty-five years ago an Englishman had translated it. I took it home, and read it continuously, and sought also the New Testament. My heart was drawn to the words of these books, and I obtained some comfort, but not to my heart's desire. And I cried and prayed, 'O God, lead me to the road which is straight, and in which Thy pleasure is.'
"Then, on a certain night, I dreamed that I was in a ruined city, where there was no living thing, and it was unutterably dark. I was afraid and speechless. Wherever I turned I sank to my waist in mire.
[page 367]
I saw myself near to destruction, and began to weep. I continued to say, 'O God, by Thine own dear honour free me from this.' Then I heard a voice from heaven, the speaker being invisible, which said: 'If thou wouldst be delivered from this city of destruction, thou must believe on Jesus, else thou must stay here till the judgment day.' Thrice I heard this voice in the same way. Then I said, 'I believe on the Lord Jesus, O God.' The voice replied, 'Art thou firm in thy confession?' And I answered 'Yes.' Immediately that city of destruction became as heaven, and now I am unable to describe its beauty. After that, I awoke from my sleep, and said I must see the teachers of these books. I saw my remedy in this. There were a few people from America in Tabriz, and I sought them, and they became my leaders in the road which I travel. After many temptations, I received baptism, and by the mercy of the great One, I have remained near Him until this day, being of the number of the followers of the Lord Jesus, who said, 'Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.' I hope to my last breath to remain in the love of the Lord Jesus, and to be of firm step in the day of judgment before the Father and the Son, and that I shall not have a black face (be ashamed), and be cast out of heaven. During life I praise the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."
|
|
