Jonas King, missionary to Syria and Greece

Contents

Introduction - page 7

Chapter I. Early Home-life

Birth and Home Training at Hawley, Mass. — Early Reading of the Bible — Modern Thought — Youthful Ambition — Conviction and Conversion — Work in Revival — Letter by Rev. W. A. Hallock, D. D. — Persevering Efforts to obtain an Education — Experiences as Singing Master and Teacher -- - - 11

Chapter II. College And Seminary Life

Williams College — College Revival — Doctrinal Doubts Overcome — College Honors — Andover Theological Seminary — Life of Faith — Classmates - - - 27

Chapter III. Early Missionary Efforts In This Country

Work in Charlestown, Boston, and Portsmouth — Licensed to preach at Andover, 1819 — Labors in Brimfield and Holland, Massachusetts, and Charleston, South Carolina — Letter from Rev, Edward Palmer - og

Chapter IV. Going Abroad And Life In Paris

Studies Continued — Way opened to prosecute them in Paris— Appointment as Professor in Amherst College — Gospel Meetings held in Europe— Serious Illness — Letter from Pliny Fisk, calling him to Palestine — Acquaintance with Baron de Stael, and other Men of Note — Tracts and New Testaments distributed at Notre Dame, Malmaison, Versailles, and Mount Calvary— Preaching in Paris — First Observance there of the Monthly Concert 46

4 CONTENTS,

Chapter V. Mission To Palestine Accepted

Reasons for accepting Pliny Fisk's Invitation — Letters to the A. B. C. F. M. and to his Father and Mother — Means for Going to the East provided — Formation of the Paris Missionary Society, and Appointment as their First Missionary — Connection with Three Societies — Farewell Meetings for Prayer ■-- 65

Chapter VI

THROUGH FRANCE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN. Distribution of Tracts and Preaching on the Journey through France — Nismes — Malta — Discussion on Missionary Topics with Rev. Pliny Fisk and others 77

Chapter VII. Egypt

Labors among Jews and Roman-catholics — Preaching on the Top of the Great Pyramid — Cairo — Thebes — Palace of Pasha — Jewish Wedding— Traces of Work - 93

Chapter VIII. The Desert And Jerusalem

Emir Bushir — Kindness of Mr. Salt — Jerusalem^Gethsemane — Scenes at Church of Holy Sepulchre — Deliverance from Arrest — Bethany — Letters from Jerusalem — Visits to Ramah — Jericho and the Dead Sea 106

Chapter IX. Study And Work In Palestine

Abou Ghoosh — Zidon — Lady Hester Stanhope — Rev. Lewis Way — Studying Arabic at Deir el Kamar — Discussions with Roman-catholics 128

Chapter X. Mount Lebanon And The Samaritans

Convents — Druses — Mount Lebanon — Arrival of Messrs. Bird and Goodell — Bey rout — M issionary Tour — Tyre — Acre — Nazareth — Mount Tabor— Ebal and Gerizim — Samaritans — Second Visit to Jerusalem — Arabic Bible 143

Chapter XI. Life In Palestine Continued

Jaffa — Discussion with Mussulmans and Catholics — The Koran — Oriental Dress — Return to Beyrout — Damascus— Aleppo — Antioch — Armenian Creed — Tyre — Third Visit to Jerusalem — Letters written from Calvary — Journey towards Home — Asaad el Shidiak, the Martyr of Lebanon — Farewell Letters 160

CONTENTS. 5

Chapter XII. Homeward Through Europe

Asia Minor — Death of Pliny Fisk — Smyrna — Spain — Nismes — Paris — Duke cle Broglie — Louis Philippe — Lafayette — Count Verhuell — Countess of St. Aulaire — Visits in England — Hannah More 183

Chapter XIII. Missionary Agency In America

Arrival in New York— Visits to Friends — Agency with A. B. C. F. M. in New York and the South — Dr. Kirk — Washington — Letter from Ladies' Greek Committee of New York — Becomes their Missionary — Sails from New York — Kind Reception at Paris -- 202

Chapter XVII. Life-work At Athens

I. Schools and Religious Services— Bible in Schools— Notice of Students in Gymnasiums and Seminaries — Testimony from Napoli Newspaper. 2. Direct Mission-Work— Reasoninc; out of the Fcriptures— Publishing of Bible with Notes from the Fathers Proposed— Letters to several_ Societies of Inquirj' — Qualifications needed for a Missionary — Delight in Christian Union— Letter to Dr. Goodell— "Greece as a Missionary Field."- 3. Bible and Tract Distribution.— 4. Efforts in the Temperance Cause. — 5. Visits to Prison 259

Chapter XXI. Tours, Travels, And Evangelical Alliance

Corinth — Smyrna — Thebes — Experiences with Robbers — Constantinople— Pesth — Maria Dorothea, Archduchess of Austria— Jewish Converts— Vienna — Baron de Rothschild — Munich — Reiche Kapelle — Paris — Geneva — Zurich — Italy — Rome — Sicily — Malta — Evangelical Alliance at Berlin — King of Prussia — Berlin 318

Chapter XXII. Last Visit To America

Many Changes — Warm Welcomes — Dr. W. A. Hallock— Hawley and

Plainfield, Mass. — Old Elm-tree — Chicago — Rochester — Clifton

Springs — New Haven — Meeting with Dr. Goodell at Elizabeth,

Chapter XXIII. Return To Greece— Death In 1869

Paris Revisited — Missionary Reunion — The Past and Present of Palestine—Rev. Mr. Tessup— Athens— Letter to Mrs. Doremus, Wilder, and Perit— His S'ickness, and Death— Dr. King's Manner and Character, in Letters from Mrs. Kalopothakes— His own Review of his Missionary Life 343

Conclusion

I. List of Texts heading Volumes of Journal.— 2. List of Books Written and those Revised. — 3. Articles from Napoli Newspapers relative to Dr. King's Work. — 4. Letter regarding Confessions of Faith for Greek Church.— 5. Letter to Professor Hopkins about Williams College Revival.— 6. The Only Son 357

Introduction

"All glory be to God, the High, the Mighty, the Everlasting, who exists mysteriously and incomprehensibly as the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost."

Thus begins the Journal of Jonas King, dated, Paris, September I, 1822, followed by a copy in Greek, Hebrew, and English, of the commission under which he served. Matt. 28 : 19. This Journal embraces twenty-four volumes of closelywritten manuscript, and is a library in itself. The first volume contains an account of his early life, written at the request of his friend, S. V. S. Wilder, who, in view of Dr. King's intended mission to Palestine, gave him the book, consecrating it formally "to the service of Christ."

These books are as a chain of exceeding beauty, of which only a shining link here and there can be lifted to the view of the present generation, which cannot take time to examine much into the past, so earnest is it in the present, so intent upon the future. The interest in biographies, however, is reviving ; they meet a want of the human heart, recognized in the many personal histories given us in the Old Testament and the New. It must be to the honor of our Lord that at the

8 INTRODUCTION.

present day some record should be made of those typical men v.'ho were used by him in the early days of missionary effort.

Foundation work does not appear upon the surface. Now that the Eastern w^orld is found honeycombed with truth, we begin to appreciate the labors in those Bible lands of the Lible-men, as they were called — Parsons, Fisk, King, Goodell, Eli Smith, Bird, and others. Old superstitions there are crumbling away. Christ's kingdom is becoming established as never before. Let us honor the pioneers in his service, who " out of weakness were made strong " through faith.

Delay in bringing before the church some of the facts regarding initial missionary work in Syria and Greece may be of no disadvantage. Its thorough and truly evangelical character, as time passes on and the superstructure rises to view, will appear. God is ever true to his promise. It could not be in vain that about half a century ago so many copies of the Bible and Testament were sown in that part of the world — those of one j'ear amounting to 6,847 copies. Prayers also were offered, and religious conversation held with old and young ; and the Lord has said, " My word 'shall not return unto me void." The laborers now cultivating those fields, and beginning to gather in the harvest, and even transient Christian travellers, often find traces here and there of the footsteps of those who sowed the precious seed long years ago, and who have passed on to be for ever wdth the Lord, and are now watching with him the great ingathering from every nation. Not "the least among these his brethren" is found, no doubt, the honored missionary, a succinct account of whose character and labors these pages are intended to record.

INTR OD UCTIOiV. 9

Jonas King — the name is as a household word in many Christian homes in this and other lands. An almost romantic interest is connected with it. Many have a general impression, through the mists of long years ago, of the course of his life, starting as it did among the western hills of Massachusetts, where he received the rugged New England training that so well fitted him for the work which proved to be in store for him. After unwearied perseverance in obtaining an education, came rapid promotion to a professorship in Amherst College. Then followed his sojourn in Paris, where more than fifty-six years ago the young American preacher, through his very uncompromising honesty and simplicity of purpose, conjoined with singular courtliness of manner, attracted attention to the pure doctrines of the cross.

Next God, by unexpected means, led him up to Jerusalem, then far distant, and the road to it but little travelled. Thence he " passed into Achaia also," and upon Mars' Hill, the very seat of the god of war, proclaimed the advent of the Prince of Peace. The apostle Paul, long years ago, once stood on these same steps of the Areopagus. Some modern Plutarch, without putting the two speakers on a par, might well find occasion for a parallel.

Then comes a time of work and of persecution in Greece, during which, under God, the triumphant power of our American flag was shown to Europe and to all the world.

Several of his later years Dr. King was privileged to spend in this his own native land. Everywhere was he greeted with special reverence. Many Christian people, in meeting him, felt, as one minister well expressed it, "as if shaking hands with lo INTRODUCTION.

one of the old apostles," for from early childhood the name Jonas King had been almost as familiar to him as those to be found in the New Testament.

Dr. King passed away from earth in Athens, the city of his adoption, comforted in his last hours by the ministrations not only of members of his family, for others were also at hand who by his means had been brought out into pure gospel light.

Let the earnest Christian student be encouraged, as he notes the providences of God as manifested all through the life of Jonas King.

JONAS KING.

Chapter I. Early Home-life

Birth and Home Training at Hawley, Mass. — Early Reading of tlie Bible — Modern Thought — Youthful Ambition — Conviction and Conversion — Work in Revival — Letter by Rev. W. A. Halloclc, D. D.— Persevering Efforts to obtain an Education — Experiences as Singing Master and Teacher.

Extracts taken consecutively from the " Journals of Jonas King," joined by a thread alone here and there, can best give graphic detail as to many parts of his life.

"I was born the 29th of July, 1792, at Hawley, an obscure town on the mountains of Franklin county, Massachusetts, about twenty-five miles from Northampton.

"My father was noted for extreme sobriety in his manner of living, rigid adherence to the truth, even in the most trivial things ; perfect uprightness in all his dealings with others ; the most strict observance of the Sabbath and its duties, love for the Sacred Scriptures, which are almost the only book he has read for thirty years past, and which are his meat and drink day and night ; and for a mind contemplative to such a degree that he is seldom known to smile. From my earliest recollection, his constant theme has been the love of Christ, and salvation by grace. During the first eighteen years and a half of my life, which I passed in the humble mansion of my father, I can scarcely remember a single day that he did not converse with me seriously morning and evening in the house or in the field, and sometimes by my bedside, speaking of the love of Christ, the glories of heaven, the deceitfulness of the world. Every object which arrested my attention, he endeavored to connect with something spiritual. The command to parents in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy he almost literally obeyed.

" Under his instruction, I found myself, at the age of four years, able to read with considerable fluency. My father then told me that if I would read all the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament before I should be six years old, he would make me some little present, which to my great joy I received, having performed my task within the time specified. From the age of six to sixteen, I continued to read through the Bible once a year. This I did because he desired it, and also because it was almost the only book in his library. That and the Primer, Watts' Psalms and Hymns, a few common schoolbooks, such as Webster's and Perry's Spelling-books and Dictionaries, the American Preceptor, Pike's Arithmetic, Alexander's Grammar, together with a few pamphlets, comprised nearly all the library to which I had access the first seventeen years of my life.

" My father's paternal inheritance consisted of one hundred acres. There he spent the vigor of his youtli, and impaired his health felling giant hemlocks, overgrown pines, and sturdy maples."

Rev. W. A, Hallock, D. D., long an honored Secretary of the American Tract Society, New York, and liimself an early as well as life-long friend of Dr. King, writes as follows :

" You have asked me to state any facts of the early life of Rev. Dr. Jonas King, which, should I pass away, it would be difficult to get ; but the main facts are given in the memoir of S. V. S. Wilder, the sketch of Dr. King by IMrs. Doremus, and elsewhere. In a word, there is no blot, or slur, or drawback whatever in his early life : all is fair and bright and creditable, as to morals, temperance, intelligence, fidelity to his parents and sister, and fulfilling all his relations in the school, the church, and the community.

" I knew him intimately from childhood ; for though born in Hawley, his father's house was but half a mile from the tovv'n of Plainfield (Hampshire Co., Mass.), where my father. Rev. Moses Hallock, was sole pastor for more than forty years, including the first forty years of Jonas' life. With my father he fitted for college, and though he was about two years older than I, it was my privilege to hear his first lessons in the Latin Grammar. Plainfield and Hawley were settled almost wholly by intelligent, church-going farmers, all very much on a level with each other, all sober and well-to-do ; all the children attending the common school, almost all the population attending church, not one servant in either town, nor one person who might not be welcome at the table of any other.

" Mr. Jonas King, Sr., and his wife were worthy members of the church, having but two children. Dr. Jonas and his sister ; and were above the average in intelligence and worth. Both the father and the son had active investigating minds on Christian doctrines, as well as in this world's knowledge. They were praying, devout, consistent Christians, as represented in my tract, * The Only Son,' which is in Mr. Wilder's Memoir.

" Mr. King's farm was, I suppose, about one hundred acres, with comfortable plain buildings, and a large sugar orchard, from which I know we often had very white and pure maple-sugar. A spring of beautiful mountain water was ever running to accommodate the family and the passers-by.

" The father and son resembled each other in very many respects. Neither of them was robust, yet the father was able to cultivate his farm, and both lived to an advanced age.

" It was the first object of Dr. King's parents to help him to prepare for and to enter the ministry. Father, mother, and son united in striving after this great end ; and although they possessed but limited means, they were blessed in the attainment of it."

The Journal goes on as follows .

" From the age of five or six years I went to school all the time that the district school lasted. If a teacher had studied as far as the ' Square Roots,' or ' Double Position,' he was thought to have a wonderful genius for Mathematics. I attended school with eagerness, though sometimes with much difficulty through heaps piled on heaps of snow. . . . Many and many a time have I lain down in the field and wept till the fountain of tears was exhausted, in thinking of what I considered was a hard lot — to have a father sick, no brother to accompany me, to be obliged to tug alone, and perform tasks upon the farm, which men alone are capable of performing with ease. But I now find that it is good for me to have borne the yoke in my youth. Had my father been prosperous, and had I enjoyed perfect health, I have little doubt but that I would have been ruined. ... At a very early age, I found within my bosom those germs of iniquity, which, without some check, would have grown rank, and brought forth a fruitful harvest of sin and death.

" I wished sometimes my father was an unbeliever, that I might sin as others did without remorse. I sometimes doubted whether there was anything of reality in what I saw and read and heard. I well recollect, that about the time that I finished the first reading of the Bible, I stood gazing at the woods and mountains around me, and at the clear sky which seemed to touch them, till I felt lost in a kind of amazement ; and said to myself, ' What does all this mean .^ Is it not possible that I am dreaming .-' I lie down at night, sleep and fancy that I am in such and such a place, and that I see and hear such and such things ; and in the morning awake and find that all I supposed real was nothing. Perhaps I and all the rest of the world are in another kind of sleep, from which we shall by-and-by awake and find that what we now think is real, is nothing but a dream ; that there are no woods, no mountains, no world, no heavens.' Such reflections as these, I consider as the young blossoms of infidelity."

What would some of the disciples of "modern thought" say to this young farmer-boy, sounding with untrained imagination into the dark though shallow depths of their philosophy .?

Dr. King goes on to write of his own unbounded ambition : " My heart would beat for hours at the thought of shining as a general or as a man of science, or of having my name uttered with respect by every child, like that of Washington or Franklin. How to attain this, I did not know. But I had read of David called from the sheep-cote to the throne; of Moses, and of many men of Greece and Rome, and in our own country, who had gone from the plough, and attained the most distinguished honors. I knew that 'with God all things are possible.' I often read in the Proverbs of Solomon ; and there I found written, * By humility and the fear of the Lord, are riches and honor and life.' I found also written, * Seest thou a man diligent in business .'' he shall stand before kings ; he shall not stand before mean men.' As I always received praise from my parents for diligence and faithfulness in everything they set me to do, I had the idea that one day I might be called to the court of some crowned prince. A few years of course informed me that these were idle fancies." Yet a few years more proved them to be almost prophetic.

But these early questionings were turned into a more practical channel by means of a month's dangerous sickness, when the young dreamer was about ten years old. The realities of eternity then pressed upon him, and great tenderness of conscience remained for about a year; which however passed away, when, through fear of being thought too serious or religious, he was persuaded by some young people much older than himself to attend a ball. The silent monitor in his heart then gradually ceased to perform its office. '

At twelve years of age, his attention was again arrested by the unhappy death of a very gay young lady with whom he was acquainted ; and who called in the hour of death upon her parents who professed religion, saying, "' Oh, why did you not restrain me .-* Now it is too late. I am dying, and must be miserable for ever ;" but the boy soon found rest by concluding that he had lived a very moral life, and that if he needed regeneration in order to be saved, God would certainly renew him.

Yet such comfort of course was but transient, for of his feelings soon after this, Dr. King writes,

" I regretted that my situation in life guarded me so effectually from the snares of vice ; when suddenly the word of God pierced through my heart like a two-edged sword, and made me feel that I was a dying sinner. It was a sermon from this text, * Quench not the Spirit.' I felt that I had done it ; that God had called upon me time after time, and I had refused. From this time I was engaged for about three months in searching what I should do to inherit eternal life, reading the Scrip-

2* i8 JONAS KING.

tures, praying, performing acts of mortification, sometimes refusing to eat fruit and other things pleasant to the taste, that I might appear humble in the sight of God and merit something in his sight. I also borrowed ' Alleine's Alarm,' and read it over and over again, taking care always to conceal it if any one came into the room where I was, and to appear as gay as possible, that I might not be suspected of being serious. For, though I knew it would afford my father the highest pleasure in the world to know what was in my mind, I could not for shame disclose it to him. At length, however, I ventured to do it, but instantly regretted having done so, and thought I had acted like a fool, and should now have to bear the stigma of being a religious boy, and give up all the youthful amusements to which I had looked forward with a high degree of pleasure.

" It was soon noised through the town, that I was what is there called, under ' concern of mind.' Christians rejoiced ; old men noticed me, asked me questions, gave me advice, and spoke of me in a flattering manner ; so that instead of losing anything in point of reputation, I found that I was gaining. Pride at once suggested to me that this might be one means of rising in the world. I found too, that twenty or thirty other young people had, unknown to me, been awakened, and were soon to make a public profession of their faith in Christ. This strengthened me, and I began to speak of religion without much shame, and to demand of others what I should do to obtain the same hopes and joys which they professed. All replied in the same manner, ' Repent, repent.'

This duty I was aware of ; but Jioiu to repent was the difficulty I wished solved. This they could not tell me. It seemed to me the height of folly to tell a man to repent, without telling him Jiozu to repent.

"At length I became vexed, and thought I was troubling myself about things in which there was no reality ; that all I read in the Bible might be a fiction ; that there might be no God, no state of retribution hereafter, no heaven, no hell ; that it would be a sorrowful thing to let my youth pass by the fountains of pleasure without tasting them, and at last find that annihilation closed the scene ; that if there were a God and a Saviour, I had been seeking them long enough, and without success ; and if He cast me eternally from his presence, why then I must suffer, I could not help it. These feelings I endeavored to cherish, having heard others say that they had experienced much hardness of heart, and opposition to the divine character a little previous to regeneration.

"It was the first of September, 1807. Towards evening I walked out alone for the purpose of meditation. The day was fine; the sun was just sinking behind the western forests, and not a cloud was to be seen in the heavens. Everything was calm and silent. Scarcely the voice of a bird broke in upon the stillness. For awhile I walked on with slow and pensive step, musing on what I was, and what I might be hereafter ; then stopped, looked around, and asked myself, ' What holds up this mighty, ponderous world in the midst of space.'' What makes the sun hold on his way in such a

20 !/ONAS KING.

regular manner ? and what sustains him ?' That moment light seemed to break in upon my soul, and \ felt that there is a God of almighty power, supporting, moving and directing all things with infinite wisdom. I reflected on his commands and they seemed just; on his mercy through a Saviour, and it appeared lovely. I was astonished that I never before had the same view. I thought that if love to God, and love to Christ, and love towards our fellow-men, were all that was required of us, nothing could be more reasonable and nothing more easy. My heart, which for several days had been hard and unyielding, now seemed to soften, and with eyes uplifted towards heaven I wept and prayed for mercy.

"This day I celebrated for several years, as the day of my spiritual birth. Whether I had at that time any genuine piety, I cannot say. Sure I am that I knew but very little of my own heart, and had very incorrect and low views of the great work of redemption. I had indeed read the Bible through ten different times, was familiar with its language, but had little acquaintance with its spirit. I am fully convinced that a man may read the Sacred Scriptures, just as he reads the volume of nature, without having the least view of that glory which fills heaven and earth, and which is inscribed in letters of light on everything around us. I had read it, for the most part, as a matter of duty, something meritorious in the sight of God, or as containing beautiful history, interesting parables, and sublime descriptions."

At the time when Jonas King joined the church at Plainfield, then under the care of Rev. Moses Hallock, there was a revival there of much power. Jonas was called on to speak one evening, and he gave an account of how he had been led to Christ. He was called the next morning, long before day, by the lady of the house, begging him to come and pray for her and her children. She and her husband were both professors of religion. He found them in the sittingroom, singing a hymn, with tears streaming down their cheeks. A few neighbors were called in, and the journal goes on to say, "As the morning dawned upon us from the east, it saw fifteen or twenty of us bowing before Him who called the light out of darkness, beseeching him to cause the dayspring from on high to visit our souls."

A great blessing followed this early prayer-meeting, felt throughout the church and community, -w

"Though much occupied with religious concerns, F felt an increasing desire after knowledge, an inextinguishable thirst for study, and entertained some very feeble distant hope that I might at a future period of my life obtain a collegiate education — how, I knew not."

Before attending a regular high-school, Jonas learned the whole of the English grammar by heart, studying it while hoeing corn — and in his seventy-fifth year could still repeat the whole long list of prepositions.

The following statement comes from Rev. W. A, Hallock, D. D.

"The Hon. William H. Maynard, Senator of the state of New York, was a native of Conway, Mass., and fitted for college with Rev. Moses Hallock.

"In an address before the Utica Lyceum, Mr. Maynard related some interesting facts, which had come under his own observation, illustrating the success of selfmade men.

"In December, 1807, Mr. Maynard was teaching school for a quarter in a district of Plainfield : as he entered the schoolhouse one cold, blustering morning, he observed a lad that he had not seen before, sitting on one of the benches. The lad soon made known his errand. He was fifteen years old, he said, and he wanted an education. His parents lived about six miles distant, and he had come from home on foot that morning, to see if Mr. Maynard could help him to contrive how to obtain it.

" Mr. Maynard asked him if his parents could help him to get an education. ' No, sir.' ' Have you any friends to assist you .-*' ' No, sir.' ' Well, how do you expect to get an education .''' ' I do n't know, sir, but I thought I would come and see you.'