Grace illustrated ...

Contents

PAGE.

I. A WORD WITH THE READER. . . 5 H. BLIND JOHN CONCORDANCE . . .11

III. BLIND DONABED ..... 58

I. A Word With The Reader

gINCE the enjoyment of a book by both writer and reader depends much upon their mutual good understanding, and as the aim of this little volume is liable to be misunderstood, before going out to gather our missionary nosegay, let us have a plain, frank chat about it.

Methinks I hear you asking, "Are not you the same pastor whom we saw, some twenty years ago, selecting a library for his

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sabbath school, and casting out from the hundred volumes before him more than a score of " Memoirs " as not worth the labor of examination ? And didn't this same little wife of yours approve the deed? And do you two now put your heads and pens together to impose upon the long-suffering public a score or more of memoirs in a single volume ! "

Yes, we are the same couple, and, strange as it may appear, we're of the same opinion still ; and that is one reason why, fearing that our little book may fare like poor Tray at the hands of other selectors of sabbath-school libraries, we propose to protect it from unsafe company by a different name ; and rightfully, for we shall aim to make it a different thing.

The purpose of these life and death sketches is not at all to immortalize certain surprisingly good little saints, or large ones,

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such as we used to read about in our childhood, and despairingly wish that we too might have been born such angels. For, to tell the truth, though the gospel has in some cases had wonderful power in subduing stubborn hearts here, and though Jesus has put his hands upon the heads, and by his grace touched the hearts, of some little ones, yet we have still to wait for the first saint, large or small in all our mission-field, who could equal the sample in most of those old-style memoirs. It is a gratifying though surprising fact, that, in more modern days, professedly fictitious religious writers have, while printing fiction on the titlepage, so far removed it from their delineations of the Christian life, as to give us a juster portrait of the actually existing Christian militant than had his preceding biographers. Biographical angel wings take time to grow now, and are not made to order.

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We may as well confess to some perplexing questionings in fixing upon a name for our humble messenger. Nothing high-sounding or pretentious will do, of course : so we search on the common level. 44 Call it 'Living Stones,'" says one. But we do not feel at all in an architectural frame of mind. 44 4 First-Fruits,' then, or 4 Sheaves,' " adds a second; to which we reply, 44 4 Handfuls ' shall be the s name, if any thing in that line ; for the sheaves are yet to come." — 44 But 4 Bouquet ' is tame and commonplace." — 44 Yes, and truthful and comprehensive too; for, while it hints just the thing we wish to do, it suggests, also, the way of doing it.' We don't propose to talk of missionary policy, which some may think was done too exclusively in a preceding volume, nor of the missionary work in any form as seen from its human side, nor even to speak of results as such, however heart-cheering this employ-

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ment might be, but only to take a quiet stroll with you, if you will, in the garden of the Lord, plucking, meanwhile, here and there a flower, a bud, a twig, a leaf, a blade of grass, as pleasant mementoes of our visit. Wearied and harassed by the toils and anxieties of even the joyous missionary work, it will be well for us thus to turn aside and rest a while, and not unpleasant for you to join in contemplating these more spiritual manifestations, which, though but incidental to the one great result of missions, are more potent than mere material effects to cheer and sustain the followers of Christ in the hard work of evangelism which they have to do. As our bouquet is to consist of natural flowers, not artificial, or, in other words, as the aim of these sketches is to give the reader a view of their subjects just as we have seen or are seeing them, we shall try to make the portraits true to life, even when

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disclosing blemishes we would gladly conceal. We shall thus gain a juster conception of the character of the missionary work, and be able more intelligently and heartily to glorify the grace that is carrying it on, when reminded that our bouquet was gathered not from the primitive paradise, but from one as yet but partially regained and restored.

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II. Blind John Concordance

TN the spring of 1864, when our theologi- * cal seminary was four years old, and the female seminary two, two equivocal candidates knocked at their doors, — a blind man and his wife from the village of Mashkir, on the Euphrates, some thirty-five miles north-west from Harpoot. The man, Hohannes ("John") byname, had in early life, like thousands in this land, lost his eyes by small-pox, and then paid, if possible, a heavier penalty for loss of sight and beauty by wedding such a wife as he could get.

The unfortunate blind man — or "Enlightened one," as the poetic sympathy of the Orient names him — who has not wealth or

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high reputation, must accept a wife who is at the same discount as himself, either byloss of both eyes, or of one eye plus partial want of beauty and brains, or, finally, one who has two eyes, but very little or none of the last two accomplishments. Unfortunately, Hohannes, or his friends for him, had only supplied his most sorely felt deficiency, by taking a wife with eyes only; and the result was, that the female-seminary candidate said by her first look, " To be sure, I can't learn even my a, 6, c's ; but then I can attract the attention of all by my Esquimau style of beauty." Trial had proved her truthful; and so she could not be admitted.

And what should we say to the other candidate ? " Paradise Lost " and the " Iliad " witness, indeed, that pre-eminent ability may exist behind sightless eyeballs ; while Milton, Socrates, and, for aught we know,

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old Homer too, combine to bid us beware of rejecting, without further examination, a literary aspirant because of conjugal infelicities. But, then, they do not encourage us to hope that blind men tied to uncongenial wives will be hopeful theological students. Yet Hohannes was admitted to examination, and, like Pope's traditional toad, turned out to have, beneath his far from handsome exterior, a very " precious jewel " in both head and heart. While his wonderful acquaintance with the Bible had won for him in his native village the surname of Hamapapar (" Concordance subsequent events showed him to be possessed of an innate power of using his acquired gift, which, in spite of all his disabilities, made him surely the most gainful candidate to the cause who ever spent two years in Harpoot Seminary, or perhaps any other, even if it does not justify " The New

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York Independent " in saying, that " perhaps no man of the age has done a more important work than blind Hohannes."

Surely, at least, that brother missionary stands rebuked, who, alluding to our receiving him to the theological, and " Kohar " to the female seminary, taunted us with " receiving the lame, the halt, and the blind to our schools, because," as he said, " they are cheaper; " which reason is so far from being true, that blind students cost us more than others ; and this one, at least, was worth many times what it cost to train him, and support him in the work. He left the seminary in October, 1865, and died in March, 1869 ; yet in that brief time he made for himself a name both in this and other lands, which will not soon die. But we have promised to be strictly truthful in painting our characters, and may as well confess here, that, stored as head and heart were with the word of truth

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which sanctifies the soul, he was yet apparently a good way from attaining complete sanctification. His wife complained that he didn't love her as well as he should, and died — was it from a broken heart? — not long after he entered the seminary. We are quite sure, however, that if the philosophic theory were true, which subjects the affections to the will, the poor man would have been less faulty here. But he was by no means the exemplary student we wished to see him, since he expected, and rather demanded, as a condition of obedience to the few necessary rules of the seminary, that we should imitate his habit in dealing with those whom he sought to win to the truth, and " satisfy his conscience " by giving chapter and verse to justify each requirement. I have sometimes imagined that there is something in the loss of the eyes which makes one unreasonably exacting. Perhaps he was thinking of the

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scriptural declaration in regard to bestowing more abundant honor on those members which lack, and so felt that he had a biblical claim to be petted.

He, at least, put in his claim as a blind man to be excused from compliance even with such rules as he could find no chapter and verse to invalidate. Annoyed by the fumes of new, and the stench of old tobacco-smoke elsewhere, we resolved to enjoy exemption from it on the theological premises ; but " of course the rule didn't apply to a man without eyes." This notion, that no rules applied to him, was indulged to such an extent as to lead, at length, to a crisis, and a somewhat ludicrous exorcism of the troublesome spirit.

Near by the door of the theological seminary was that of the female-seminary harem, over which all Oriental customs and prejudices, as well as our own promise to parents to leave to them their daughters' matrimonial arrangements, compelled us to write, " Taboo to lovers and love-letters." Hohannes' inability to love satisfactorily her who had died did not prevent him from being insnared by the sweet tones of the assistant teacher, into whose hands, by lying in wait at the forbidden door, he one day succeeded in slipping, not the usual romantic nonsense, but a plain, outspoken epistle on the business in hand ; and, having done this, he waited somewhat impatiently for the expected reply, little suspecting that she, as in duty bound, had handed the letter unread to her superiors. So when, a few days later, the students were sent forth, two and two, for a brief vacation preaching-tour, and Hohannes' name was not read with the rest, to his prompt inquiry, " And where shall I go ? " came the reply, " You, brother, can stay here, and attend to your matrimonial affairs."

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The Harpoot parsonage was then in building, and a man needed to sift dirt for mortar : so when Hohannes added, " But how shall I earn my bread?" we replied, "If you feel penitent enough over that love-letter, we suggest that you do it by sitting in dust and ashes, and using that sieve." He did it ; but the joke leaked out, and from that day to this there have been no more liers-in-wait at the tabooed door.

During his " short course " of two years* Hohannes made more than average progress in his studies, which were, exegesis of Scripture, theology, and preaching, and graduated with his class in 1865. He had meanwhile manifested much shrewdness and enthusiasm in evangelistic labor in the vicinity, frequently succeeding, partly from the fact of his blindness, but mostly from his natural sagacity, in gaining access to Armenian churches. He was specially skillful in

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silencing opponents, chiefly by a ready and dexterous use of Scripture, but often by an adroit turning of his antagonist's weapons against himself. A single incident will illustrate this latter trait. The priest of a certain village frequently visited by the students had a trick of asking them whether they had studied a certain branch of knowledge, of which he was, doubtless, even more ignorant than most of them, and then, on their confessing that they had not, turning to the people, who knew not even the name of the wonderful study, with the triumphant inquiry whether a man so ignorant as that was fit to preach the gospel. When several unfortunate theologues had in this way been worsted, Hohannes started for the place, declaring that he would silence the wily priest. So, having committed" to memory a long list of authors who have treated on the old man's favorite study, he replied to the usual question by glibly rattling off those authors' names, and inquiring to which of them he referred. It was now the priest's turn to bear the laugh ; and he never again dared attack a Protestant preacher.

Hohannes' blindness, of course, caused him much inconvenience in getting about, sometimes even when he had companions. Once, in a hilly region, his two fellow-travelers left him for a moment, going in different directions to decide on the correct road, and, on their return, could find no Hohannes, but at length tracked his mule down a very steep hillside, into a ravine, at the bottom of which, on one side they discovered the animal, and on the other his master. When left alone, the mule, with something of his rider's originality of purpose, decided to choose a path for himself, and, spite of all his opposisition, had carried him off. Finding that

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the beast was taking him down such a road, and resolved not to be lost, even if the mule was, he had slipped off to wait the issue of events.

But, in spite of obstacles, his zeal and energy carried him on, resolved to accomplish feats of travel and evangelism deemed difficult even for men with eyes. Among other things, learning of the darkened condition of the Armenians in Eussia, he resolved, at all risks, to visit and supply them with portions of the Scriptures. So he ordered a box made of thick boards, so hollowed out by mortising, that he might fill the cavities with very thin copies of the separate Gospels, and thus take them, undiscovered, across the border. But by our advice this plan was given up ; and, shortly after graduation, he went to Shepik, a wretched little village of some forty houses, about fifty miles north-west from Harpoot,

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in which was a church whose pastor's lack of energy had put to sleep that small part of the people who adhered to him, and so deprived himself of all support.

When he appealed to the Evangelical Union for aid, they advised him to leave for a time, and go to a hostile village and get roused up, and invite Hohannes to come and wake up his people. He went ; and, when the people met him with lamentations over poor crops and poverty, he bade them begin their lamentations at another place, and remove the cause by repaying God that of which they had robbed him. Then taking for his text, " Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse," &c. (Mai. iii. 10), he enforced the duty of paying into the Lord's treasury one-tenth of all their earnings.

His sermon we reserve to be reported as subsequently preached in the Harpoot pulpit ; but its immediate fruit in Shepik was re-

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markable. 1 The pastor was called back to find a different church from the one he left. Would that as great a change might have been wrought in his good but sluggish nature ! But Hohannes' work went on. The little mustard-seed, thus sowed in this insignificant village, soon became a tree of so wide-spreading branches, that multitudes of churches and communities in this and other lands rested under the shade, and partook of the fruit of it. In the hard struggle to lead the people out of the Egyptian bondage of dependence on foreign aid, and introduce self-support, and consequent independence, among the churches, we missionaries had apparently reached a Red Sea, through which God only could open a way to go forward; and by the hand of this humble man he did it, and we were soon

1 Those wishing to do so can find the particulars in ehap. x. of "Ten Years on the Euphrates."

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singing songs of deliverance on the other side of the flood. We have not, indeed, yet crossed the Jordan, and begin to fear that our sins may deprive some of us of the privilege of leading the people into the goodly land by completing in our field the work to be done here by the American churches- This is not the place to go into particulars of results of the tithing movement, the good fruits of which are increasing with the advance of time. While no attempt is made to constrain persons, churchmembers or others, to pay tithes, yet the feeling is becoming more and more widespread, that while the giving of this exact proportion of income is not divinely fixed as an invariable rule for all, and while each person may decide for himself to what special department of Christian expenditure he will appropriate his tithes, yet the system offers the simplest and most practicable

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method of providing for evangelistic expense, and is at the same time most beneficial spiritually to the contributor. Though the sermon of Hohannes, as reported by Miss West for "The Missionary Herald," of October, 1868, has been scattered by tens of thousands of copies over England and America, it may profitably find a place here. We give, of course, only a brief abstract. Blind men don't write their sermons, nor even preach from notes. Miss West says, " I wish you could have seen for yourself how interested the people were in the discourse. The blindness of the preacher added to the interest. Saying, 6 We will read ' such a 6 chapter ' or ' hymn,' he would repeat the same, word for word. When he called upon the people to read, it was for their sake rather than his own ; and, when the reader had reached just the point he desired, he never failed to say, ' Stop,' that he might take it up just there.

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" He began by repeating that striking passage, 4 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein haye we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings,' &c. (Mai. iii. 8-10.) He then, in few words, told us that he proposed to show from the word of God that giving a tenth to the Lord was a primitive institution, attended with great benefits and blessings to the givers, and perpetuated and enforced under the new dispensation no less than the old. 4 Open your Bibles,' said he, 6 at the fourteenth chapter of Genesis, and let some one read the eighteenth and twentieth verses.' Bibles were instantly opened all over the house, and the passage read in clear tones by one of the congregation. 6 Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek,' said the preacher, 4 more than four hundred years before the giving of the law to Moses, — Abraham, "the father of the faithful," whose children the Jews glory

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in being, — Abraham, whom even Moslems honor, and call " the blessed." Now turn to the twenty-eighth chapter, and read the twentieth, twenty-first and twenty-second verses.' Jacob's vow was read, concluding with the words, 6 And of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee.' He then rapidly drew the contrast between Jacob's going to Padan-aram, — alone, and in utter destitution, — and the return, with his flocks and herds, and camels, menservants and maid-servants ; for, in spite of Laban's covetousness, the man had increased greatly. ' And now,' he said, 6 open at the twenty-seventh of Leviticus, and read the thirtieth verse. "And all the tithe of the land is the Lord's" 9 repeated the preacher. 'Nine-tenths for yourselves; but one-tenth "is holy unto the Lord." Open at Numbers eighteenth, and read the twentieth, twenty-first, twenty - sixth, twenty - eighth and

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twenty-ninth verses.' This was done ; and then Hohannes briefly commented on each verse. He said the Levites, who ministered in the house of the Lord, were to have no part or inheritance in the land ; for the tithes of the people were to be their inheritance ; and of these tithes they were to offer a tenth to the Lord, 4 even of all the best thereof.' ' Read Deut. xiv. 22, and xxvi. 12. See the abundant provision made, not only for the Levites, but also for the " stranger, the fatherless, and the widow." Read, also, 2 Chron. xxxi. 4-10, where the people are described as obeying the command of God, and bringing in " abundantly " of the " increase of the land." And the chief priest answered King Hezekiah, when he questioned him concerning the " heaps :" " Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat, and have left plenty ; for the Lord hath blessed Ms

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people; and that which is left is this great store." Now read Neh. xiii. 10, 13, and 14. Mark the contrast ! The people no longer gave tithes: the house of the Lord was desecrated; and the Levites had forsaken their sacred office, and "fled, every one to his own FIELD."

" ' And now,' continued the preacher, 6 we will turn to the new dispensation. Open at the twenty-third of Matthew, and read the twenty-third verse : " These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone," are our blessed Saviour's words to the scribes and -Pharisees. Ye do well to pay tithes: it is your duty. But ye ought also to do judgment, mercy and faith. Now turn to Luke xi. 42 : " Woe unto you Pharisees ! for ye tithe ... all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God : these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." Read Luke iii. 7-12: " Bring so

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forth fruits worthy of repentance" ' repeated the preacher. ' John the Baptist was a connecting link between the Jewish and the gospel dispensations ; and he spake as he was moved by the Spirit of God. " Now, also, the ax is laid at the root of the tree." What tree ? It was nothing less than the tree — the root — of self and selfishness.

" 6 What this good fruit is he tells us in the eleventh verse : " He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none ; and he that hath meat [food], let him do likewise." Where, now, remains the tenth?' he exclaimed. ' Under the new dispensation, not one-tenth merely, but one-HALF, is required.' (At this announcement, there was an evident sensation in the audience, many a face lighting up with a smile, as the electric current shot through the assembly.)

" The preacher continued, Read now the sixth of Luke, thirty-eighth verse : " Give, and it shall be given unto you." Give, <md you shall have wherewith to give. Shut /our hand and your heart, and you shut the windows of heaven ; you keep back the blessing of God. See what Christ sajs in Luke xii. 33 : " Sell that ye have, and jive alms," &c, which means, consider yourselves as stewards of God's grace on the earth, seeking your inheritance in the ^ jrld to come. You are to set light store by • our earthly possessions, and lay up treasuia in hdTlven. Now read Luke xiv. 33.' Slowly and solemnly the preacher repeated the words of the Master: '"So, likewise, who soever he be of you that forsaketh not ALL that he hath, he can not be my disciple.' Ah, my brethren,' said he, ; it is not merely a tenths or even a half, of our worldly possessions, that Christ claims : it is our ALL ! Think upon the meaning of those words. It is thus he speaks to you: If you wish

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to be my disciple, you must count the cost You can not serve two masters, "^ou must give up every thing that the children of this world seek after. You must hold yourselves aloof from your earthly possessions ' [such is the Armenian version of Luke xiv. 33], 4 holding to them loosely, setting your affections on things above. Your comfort, pleasure, honor, ease, yea, your very life, you must esteem as nothing in comparison with my service. And in thus losing all, you will find all, and that for ever.

" ' Open your Bibles at Matt. xix. 29, and Mark x. 29, and read the glorious promise to those who truly " forsake all " for Christ and his cause. See ! ' exclaimed Hohannes, after solemnly repeating the passage, — 6 see how rich the reward ! a hundred-fold in this life, and life everlasting beside ! Now open at Luke nineteenth, and read from the second to the tenth verse. Note the words of Zaccheus,

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" The half of my goods I give to the poor," and mark the answer of our Saviour. But what say you ? Is salvation to be bought with money? We all know that it is " without money, without price." Why, then, this blessing upon Zaccheus ? ' — 6 Because,' answered one of the congregation, 8 the giving was the fruit of his faith.' — ' Yes,' rejoined the preacher, ' Zaccheus brought forth fruit worthy of true repentance, and immediately received the promised blessing.

" 4 Now let me tell you a story. When I was in the class in sermonizing, in the seminary, our teacher was very anxious that we who were soon to go forth as preachers, and perhaps become pastors, should work upon right principles ; and he often talked to us of our duty as leaders to teach the people to do for themselves. He sometimes told us of places where much money (of the Board) had been expended by missionaries, and but

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little real good accomplished, because the people had not been taught to give for Christ's cause. " In one little village," he said, " forty thousand piasters" [sixteen hundred dollars] " of the Board's money was spent ; the people only giving fifty piasters during thirteen years. And the work in that place amounts to nothing to-day, because of this unwise course." It so happened, that, when my course of study was finished, I was appointed to that village. It was the last place I should have chosen. I had no desire to go to that field ; but God had so ordered, and I went. The missionaries told me that my wages would be fifteen hundred piasters per year, of which the people were to pay six hundred ; and, before I left, one of them took me aside, and counseled me to make it as easy for the people as possible, by eating at their houses, &c, because it would come hard to them at first to do so much.

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" ' Soon after I went there, a neighboring pastor came over to the village, and we held a meeting with the brethren. We talked about my support ; and it seemed that they had, with much difficulty, subscribed five hundred piasters per year. I told them the missionaries had said they would pay six hundred. "Never!" they exclaimed. " We cannot raise another para " [one-fortieth of a piaster] . And pastor M said

it was impossible ; they were too poor. "Where, then, shall I get my other hundred?" I asked. "We will help you from our place," he replied.

" 6 But my mind was not at rest. . That night I thought much on the subject. I said to myself, " Suppose the American Board should one day withdraw its support from this and other 'feeble churches, what' will become of them ? " And I prayed, " O thou who knowest all things, and with

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whom are all plans, sliow thy ignorant servant how thy kingdom can best be established in this land." And it seemed to me that a voice said in my soul, " It can be done by giving one in every ten" When I thought it over, it occurred to me to test it first in my own case. One-tenth of my fifteen hundred per year would be one hundred and fifty piasters. "No," I said, "I can't give so much as that : I should suffer for it." But, when I took it out of every month's salary, it did not seem so much. " One-tenth of my one hundred twenty five will be twelve piasters and a half. I can do it" , I said, " and I will, even if I do have to pinch a little." It happened that pastor