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74 yOiVAS KING. Thus this young missionary became connected more or less directly with three societies, the A. B. C. F. M., the Dutch Missionary Society, and that of Paris, besides having the advantage of personal interest felt in him by many English Christians. There was an important ob ject gained by this Christian alliance. Missions were then a "new departure." Regular reports from Dr. King were required by each society. These were print ed ; so that this special missionary information was soon very extensively circulated. In this way too, Dr. King became better known in Europe than any other Ameri can missionary. The Bible Society of Paris gave several boxes of Bibles and Testaments ; and the Paris Tract Society about one thousand French tracts. It now remained but to secure suitable letters of in troduction. Here again God's hand was plainly seen. The Asiatic Society of Paris, of which Dr. King had been elected a member, while the Duc d'Orleans, after wards Louis Philippe, was President, gave letters to consuls at Malta, Corfu, Aleppo, Beyrout, and Egypt. To this society he was to make regular literary contribu tions, to be published in its " Journal." Sir Charles Stuart, then British ambassador at the Court of France, provided a passport into the Turkish dominions, with pri vate letters to friends in the East. One of the professors of the "Ecole Royale," gave him an introduction to one of the sheikhs in Syria, with whom he was well acquaint ed ; also other letters, one to a bishop. Through Miss Mary Elliott, a letter to Lady Hester Stanhope (a niece MISSION TO PALESTINE ACCEPTED. 75 of William Pitt), who had for a long time resided on Mt. Lebanon, and acquired great influence there, was offered and obtained from William Wilberforce, who thought it would be of no use, as she refused to receive English men, but still she might be willing to see an American. General Macaulay also (father of the historian), Sir Henry Lushington, Baron de Stad, and others, gave letters, and offered aid. Thus, In ways truly providential, was this once New England farmer lad thoroughly furnished unto the good work before him. Dr. King had encouragement in the example of Bu chanan, who sailed for India when at the same age as he—which was the age when Martyn and Brainerd had entered into glory—and the same at which our Lord en tered on his public ministry. He gave himself much unto prayer, and so was made "strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." During the last few weeks before leaving France, frequent record is made of sea sons of prayer at Mr. Wilder's, in Paris, or in the garden at Nanterre. Sunday eve, Sept. 22, 1822, was an espe cially affecting and interesting season. Mr. and Mrs. Wilder, Dr. Spring of New York, and Dr. King, celebra ted together the Lord's Supper. "The time, the place, the occasion, the little company so dear to his heart," Dr. King always remembered with peculiar emotion. On Sunday, the 29th, he preached a farewell sermon to a large audience in the Oratoire. Books, and tracts, and the " font of type," had been sent on beforehand to Marseilles. The last night in Paris came. The evening 76 JONAS KING. was spent in prayer. One after another, Mr. Wadding ton, Mrs. Wilder, Dr. King, left the room, the latter not until 2 A. ri., but his friend Mr. Wilder remained all night, looking unto God. In the morning he accom panied his missionary friend to the diligence for Mar seilles. There, after reading together from John 14, they parted, commending each other unto God. FRANCE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN 77 CHAPTER VI. THROUGH FRANCE AND THE MEDITERRA- NEAN.
Distribution of Tracts and Preaching on the Journey through France—Nismes—Malta—Discussion on Missionary Topics with Rev. Pliny Fisk and Others. " WHY, on parting with your friend at Paris, did you point your hand towards heaven ?" asked of Dr. King a gentleman in the same compartment of the diligence when a few miles only on their way. This gave oppor tunity, in literally the first stage of his missionary life, for Dr. King to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified—in this case, as it proved to be, to an avowed skeptic, but . one who yet, after the conversation held, actually helped with much respect in the distribution of tracts in the little village of Essonne. This incident typified the whole character of the journey. At Fontainebleau, where the pen with which the Emperor Napoleon signed the act of abdication was even then on exhibition, there was some danger our missionary would be arrested by the gens d'armes as a disturber of the peace, the crowd, after receiving the tracts, loudly wishing him a safe journey and every blessing. At Nemours the same scene was repeated. The conducteur ordered the people. away, as he could not drive on for them, they asking earnestly for 7*
more of the books. A lady of apparently high respecta bility living near, sent a servant for a tract, saying she would use it in prayer night and morning. At Fontenay, where a bridge and house remained from the Caesar,f Julius Casar, Dr. King took special pleasure in giving one of these messages of peace to a military officer. Also, after a woman with cross and beads, asking for charity, had said she prayed to all the saints, in answer to the question which of them she ad dressed, he said it was "very strange that none of these would hear her and give her the few sous she wanted," which made all the bystanders laugh. However, Dr. King did give her a trifle, urging her to pray to God alone. At St. Pierre one of his fellow-passengers, whom a woman had asked to get a tract for her, said, " You have converted everybody since we left Paris." At Ro anne the conducteur helped in the giving away of tracts, driving off just in time to escape arrest, as two priests were hastening to make complaint. On going up the steep hill of Fourvieres, tracts were received by some of the sisters belonging to a convent near. From this mountain the city of Lyons, of a hundred and twenty thousand souls, appears as a little village. ThougL.s connected with early Roman conquest, and the blood of the martyrs shed there, crowded the traveller's mind, yet he felt that, as an ambassador to Jerusalem from the King of kings, he was a man morCæsarored than Cmsar or Hannibal. In the cathedral he saw a bull of the pope, recently put up, saying that " St. Peter had changed the indulgences ; that they were now to be had in full every clay, both for the living and the dead, by coming to this church, and at the sound of the bell praying for the church, the state, the city, and the diocese." The church of St. Irenæus he approached as indeed a sacred place ; for here hundreds, perhaps thousands, of martyrs had been slain. In the middle of it was a deep well into which their blood had run. The bones were piled up behind a grating to the height of fifteen or twenty feet. These bones may not all have been those of martyrs. Irenæus suffered martyrdom June 28, A. D. 202. In this church Dr. King, ina formal manner, addressed the peo ple crowding round on the nature of true faith and vital piety as not consisting in forms. Pothinus and Blandina also suffered in the prison here. The holes into which they were crowded before execution yet remain. Dr. King could not help joining in the prayer, recorded Rev. 6 : io. In Lyons, while waiting at night for the stage for Nismes, Dr. King was struck with the temptations to which the traveller was exposed there, the same of which Solomon gave warning. Yet even here to the most de graded he preached the gospel, and was heard with attention. At Tain, where was an ancient altar, Dr. King felt as if he would have to record " a day lost," for he had not spoken to any one on the subject nearest his heart ; but towards night "a respectable-looking gentleman, who ap peared quite intelligent, got into the stage with us. Some question was soon proposed which made it necessary for me to vindicate the authority of the Sacred Scriptures. The gentleman at once demanded if I believed in the
passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, the twelve plagues of Egypt, etc. I replied that I did firmly believe in ten. At this all in the stage burst out into a loud laugh. I told them they might laugh if they pleased ; that did not do away with the fact that the Scriptures were true and given by inspiration of God ; that I had read their Voltaire and their Jean Jaques Rousseau and our own infidel writers, and that I was ready to prove to them what I affirmed ; that I did not wish them to be lieve blindly; that I only demanded that they should hold to maxims generally received. • I then went on to show them that if it were not beneath God to create a world consisting of many little things, it was not beneath him to take some care of it ; that he that made their minds had access to them and could make communica tions to them, as certainly as we could communicate with words; that he who held the heavens and the earth in his hands could arrest the course of nature, and might be expected to do so if any great object were to be attained by it ; but that they had commenced in the wrong place ; they were trying to ascend a mountain on the perpendicular side ; that is, to look at the miracles ; that I would lead them round the other side of the moun tain that was easier of ascent; that is, show them, by what passed within themselves and what they saw in others, that the doctrines of the gospel were true, that its precepts bore upon them the stamp of divinity, and that after they should see this they would easily believe in miracles. I then showed them that their hearts were naturally alienated from God ; that they knew it and felt FRANCE AND THE JIEDITERRANEAN, Si it, if they would only compare their thoughts and feel ings with what they acknowledged of God from the works of nature ; that from the very nature of things their souls could not be happy after leaving their bodies and all means of sensual gratification had ceased, without a ren ovation, a change of heart, of feeling; that if ever they had tried to reform their lives in the least respect they had found it difficult, if not impossible, without aid from without themselves ; that if all men followed the pre cepts of the gospel, this would be a happy world ; that it was by leaving these precepts, and adhering to forms and ceremonies and superstitious rites, or by running into infidelity, that they as a nation had drawn down upon their heads the judgments of the Most High ; and that, if they did not repent, other vials of wrath were ready to be poured out upon them. Thus I spent about half an hour in reasoning, in making appeals to their consciences, and in setting forth at last the beauty, the simplicity, and the sublimity of the Bible, in comparison with which all their boasted poetry sunk into insignifi cance ; and that Voltaire, Rousseau, and all their infidel writers, when put by the side of David, Job, and Isaiah, looked like mere pigmies ; that the only reason why they rejected the Bible was because they did not love its truths. " When I had finished, four out of the five promised to send to Paris and purchase each a Bible. The gen tleman before mentioned then asked me if I knew a Mr. Wilder, a merchant of Paris, with whom he was acquaint ed, and who often talked to him as I did. From this
moment I was treated with the utmost respect and po liteness." At Nismes it is strange to read of a Sunday-school attended by about seventy women from fifteen to thirty years of age. In 1815 some houses there had been razed to the ground by some Catholics while persecuting the Protestants, seventy of these being massacred that year, some, like our Lord, being betrayed by a kiss. The Sab bath Dr. King stopped at Nismes he passed an amphi theatre where thousands were assembled to see 'a bull fight. The ruins at Nismes are of great interest on account of their antiquity and remarkable preservation. From one of the altars, where once victims were sacrificed to Diana, Dr. King discoursed of the Lamb offered once for all. FRANCE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN. 83 organized auxiliary to that of Paris. When the vote was called almost every hand was raised. Some of the ladies lifted both hands. The subscription-paper was then laid on the table, and three hundred and four francs at once subscribed. "This was as interesting a scene as I ever witnessed. So much joy seemed to pervade this little assembly. I also proposed to them to observe the Monthly Concert of Prayer, to which all seemed to assent with one heart. To the three hundred and four francs mentioned was added the donation of a poor woman, seventy-five years old, of seventy francs, which was her whole living. Hav ing heard of the missionary society, she observed, ' I am going to die. I have neither parents nor children. I will give this money to spread the gospel of my Saviour before whom I am about to appear.' This interested my heart very much, and I determined to go and call on her immediately, which I did the next day. She is a poor widow, and has always labored hard, and by the strictest economy has amassed the sum above mentioned for the purpose of paying the rent of the house which she had hired ; but as the gentleman who owned the house is a pious, benevolent man, he forgave her the debt, and told her to make what use she pleased of the little sum she had gained ; and it gave him the highest pleasure to hear her say, ' I will give it to the Missionary Society at Paris !' " Called on Madame Vizie to thank her for what she had done, and to comfort her heart by telling her what God is doing at the present day in our world. She is 84 yON. S KING. now in the poorhouse, and lives by the charity of her pious friends, who were all much delighted on hearing what she had done for the missionary society, As I en tered the room where she was, I saw a little, old woman standing near the bed supporting herself by a staff, en deavoring to arrange some little articles of clothing, and not noticing our approach. Her face was finely wrinkled, and showed that age alone had triumphed over beauty and a firm constitution. Her gray hairs were covered with a neat white cap, and her arms were bare and with ered like the husks of harvest. As my friend who was with me addressed himself to her, she slowly raised her light blue eyes, which seemed to me to bespeak an age not more than fifty-five or sixty. `Asking her if she put all her trust for salvation in Jesus Christ, she instantly replied, ' To whom else shall I go ? He has the words of eternal life.' As I began to speak of the donation she had made, she beckoned me to speak in a low tone of voice, as there might be spies present, who would make a bad use of what they might hear. At this I was surprised, but lowering my voice, told her that what she had done should be told in France and England and America, as a memorial of her, like the woman who broke the alabaster-box of ointment to anoint the feet of Jesus. At this the tears came in her eyes, and lifting up her withered hands she clasped them, and devoutly raising her eyes towards heaven, exclaimed, ' I know my unworthiness. I am nothing but dust and ashes.' On asking her if she feared to die, she once more clasped her hands, and said with more than usual energy,
We must die in order to see God. It is Christ who has increased my faith. Of myself I am nothing.' I asked her to give me a little history of her life, which she did in broken accents, and among other things informed me that she was born a Catholic, but that at the age of thir teen it had pleased God to touch her heart, as she hoped by Divine grace, and that since that time, she had been a Protestant, and had lived in the constant hope of im mortal glory beyond the tomb. Giving her my benedic tions, and receiving hers, I quitted this interesting spot." Another missionary meeting was held near Nismes ; after which Rev. Mr. Lusignol and a Mr. Porter accom panied Dr. King to Marseilles. Here there seemed a wide opening for work among seamen, which Mr. Porter was willing to undertake, as the Protestants there seemed to take but little interest in religious things. With Mr. Shaler, American consul at Algiers, just then at Mar seilles, Dr. King had much serious conversation, and was warned by him against trying to convert Moham medans, an Italian having just been executed at Tripoli for attempting it. In conversation with some Catholic ladies, one of them said she believed the commands of the church were to be obeyed, even though contrary in some respects to the Bible. From Marseilles, Dr. King wrote to Amherst college, asking how he should expend in the East, for the bene fit of that institution, a hundred dollars given him for that purpose, by Mr. S. V. S. Wilder ; and speaking of the mission in which he himself was to engage as a Jonas King. 8
" new Crusade to drive out the infidels from the Holy Land, not by human power, but by the weapons of the Spirit." After a storm, followed by a wind called the Mistral, had detained the ship for several days after the one ap pointed, Dr. King sailed Oct. 29., 1822. As France was fast receding from his view, he wrote as follows : " Land of science and of sin, of gayety and pleasure, I bid thee farewell ! The sun shines brightly on thy beautiful fields, the gales of Eden breathe gently on thy enchant ing hills, and along the borders of thy streams, in the midst of vines and olives, lie scattered the cottages of peasants and the mansions of nobles. Thou hast within thy bosom all that can gratify genius, and taste, or sense. Thou art indeed lovely. But thou hast drunk the blood of martyrs, and God will visit thee ! He has visited thee, and given thee blood to drink. He has withdrawn His judgments, but thou hast not repented of thy sins. Thou bast here and there a little band, who fear God, and love the Saviour, but most of thy inhabitants are given to su perstition, or infidelity, or never-ending scenes of gayety and pleasure. Oh, when shall the light of millennial glory dawn upon thee? When shall the spirit of Massi Ion rest upon thy priests and missionaries, who are erect ing crosses at the corners of the streets of all thy villages ? With fervent prayers for thy salvation, I bid thee fare well." On this voyage Dr. King commenced the study of Italian, thus beginning to acquire another of the several languages he was afterwards able to use with so much fluency. One of the captains spent most of his time FRANCE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN 87 praying for the soul of his father, which he supposed was in purgatory, and said that perhaps some day he would have a son who would do as much for him. The other captain, an Italian Catholic, laughed at this one for his devotion. After two or three days, the voyagers got a taste of the sirocco, putting a stop to every usual em ployment. This continuing longer than usual, the cap tain came, saying, " It is not God's will Dr. King should go to Palestine," yet asking him to pray for a fair wind, because, being a priest, God would sooner hear him than a sailor. When in sight of Sicily, Dr.. King was reminded of St. Paul there, 1800 years before. Now he himself was here, on his way to carry the gospel to that place from which the apostle had brought it. The same reflections filled his heart when Malta at last came in sight, after a passage of fourteen days. Mr. Fisk was still here, having been detained by sickness in Rev. Mr Temple's family, with whom he lodged. It can easily be imagined how these mission-
ness, ' Darkness, go away,' but ` Let there be light,' and the darkness instantly fled away as a matter of course. So with us ; we may look at our own hearts, and dwell upon our vileness, and try to chase away sin and make ourselves better, and all to little or no purpose. But the moment we turn away from ourselves, and look at Jesus Christ, the soul feels itself transformed, quickened, in vigorated, and rejoices with joy unspeakable. I feel more and more, that the best means of growing in grace is to look at Christ, and that the first thing to which a missionary should point a Jew, a Mohammedan, a pagan, or any sinner whatever, is Jesus Christ, and that every minister should preach Christ continually. This will not indeed give the world a very high idea of our wisdom or talents. We may appear simple and foolish, but God will be glorified, and our preaching will have effect, and souls will be saved. Jesus Christ is all and in all, and it pleases God ' by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.' " Again, when sick, and thinking how his constitution from infancy had been such as to need much care, Dr. King writes : " Silence, thou sinful body of mine, which would have ease and attention, and the kindness of friends, and would let the Jew and the Mohammedan and the pagan perish ! Why dost thou so often shrink and tremble at the thought of perils and hardships, of persecutions and death ? 0 God, grant me more of thy grace. Saviour of sinners, thou knowest that I would not go back if I could. If thou wilt grant me thy presence, then come life, come death, come what will, I shall be happy." FRANCE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN. 89 Rev. Mr. Jowett, of the Church Missionary Society of England, was in Malta at this time, also the Rev. Jo seph Wolff, the converted Jew. An audience of about seventy to a hundred usually attended the Sunday ser vices. On one occasion the friends celebrated the Lord's Supper, a time of special interest, because Chris tians from seven different nations were present. The missionaries, while together, held prolonged friendly discussions, on points connected with the special work of each. Rev. Joseph Wolff asked how far he "should conform to Jewish customs, such as wearing a beard, and not eating swine's flesh," or not " lodging with Armenians, whom the Jews considered descendants of Amalek, whose name was to be blotted out." The conclusion was for Mr. Wolff to conform in things non essential, but not to give in to prejudices against Amalek. Mr. Wolff mentioned a fact confirming the truth of the New Testament, and not perhaps generally known. " In the Talmud of Babylon, which was com piled fifty years after Christ, the four gospels are men tioned under the name of Evangelion—Mattheus, Mor decai (which is Mark), Lukas and Johannen. This text is also quoted: ' Whosoever shall smite thee on the one cheek, turn the other also,' and is said to have been adopted as a practice by the disciples of Jesus. It is also said in the Baba Rama (one of the books of this Talmud), that Jacob, one of the disciples of Jesus, cured deadly sick persons by the name of Jesus." Other subjects of importance were talked over by the little band, such as whether almsgiving in the East 8*
might be connected with preaching to the poor. Answer in short : " Relieve distress as far as possible. Preach to one's servants and household, as Christ did to his disci ples, in a way that others would also have an opportunity to hear. Endeavor to form institutions for the poor and blind." Another question related to preaching to Mus sulmans at the risk of life. Mr. Jowett advised, Spend a considerable time (five years, or perhaps on the spot three years) in learning the language, customs, and prej udices of the people, before attempting publicly to com bat their errors ; after which time it is a positive duty to gird ourselves with primitive courage and zeal, and openly combat Mohammedanism." Mr. Fisk thought it "perfectly consistent with Christian principles, and expedient, to talk about our mission, and feel as if.it were for Jews, Greeks, and Armenians, and not for Mussul mans, quoting this passage, ` When ye are persecuted in one city, flee ye to another,' and saying the Mohamme dans do persecute, and we must wait till God opens the way ; that should we attempt to preach to them, we should in all probability lose our lives, or at least be ex pelled from the country, and the mission would be stop- ped. Preach,' said he, among the Christians, and re- vive Christianity, and let Turks see what it is. Ask them about their religion, and tell them about ours ; give them the Bible, but not with the avowed object of converting them.' Others were of the same opinion, that there would be little danger among Arabs, but that among Turks we must be cautious. We need not tell them that they were in error, but show them the light. FRANCE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN. 91 God protected Henry Martyn when the Mohammedans talked of cutting out his tongue. We must go without dependence upon ourselves, but be mighty in Christ." Dr. King adds: "This discussion was to nee most impressive and solemn. I felt as though my own life was involved in it. I know not whether I have grace sufficient to carry me forward. But I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and cannot go back. I must gird up the loins of my mind, prepared to go forward to meet with persecution and death ! This is a serious business, and I feel my utter weakness of myself. I can only cast myself upon the Saviour, and beg of him all that strength and faith and love and courage which I need." A call of some interest was made by the missionaries upon the Chevalier de Greisches, the only knight of the Order of St. John remaining there. " He appeared like a withered stalk in the field after harvest." Thus passed away " one of the most illustrious Orders of men that perhaps ever existed, if we look at their military prowess." In the church of St. John, also in a convent of Francis can monks, Dr. King spoke boldly against the worship of images. One priest admitted that it was forbidden in the Old Testament, but not in the New. He was re minded of the text, " Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Entering the outer door of another con vent, and seeing several nuns who quietly retired, ex cept one, who turned her face to the wall, Dr. King, with something of the humor of Mark Twain, asked a bystander, " What have these women done, what crimes have they committed, that they have to be shut up here ?" 92 JONAS KING. " Oh," was the answer, " they are not in prison. They pay i,000 or 1,200 scudi in order to be permitted to come here." While at Malta, in a packet of letters forwarded from Paris, came a welcome offer from the Netherlands Bible Society, to furnish Dr. King with as many copies of the Scriptures as he might wish. Friday, Jan. 3, 1823, Dr. King, with Messrs. Fisk and Wolff, left the island of Malta, receiving substantial tokens of the best wishes of Messrs. Jowett and Temple. While now again at sea, he wrote these lines : Tossing, rolling on the ocean, when the winds and waves are high, I'll not fear their wild commotion, Jesus Christ my Lord is nigh; At his bidding 't was I ventured to come down into the sea, He will bring me to the haven where my spirit longs to be. Earth is troubled like the ocean, man is tossed from wave to wave, Finds no calm, no place of resting, till he finds it in the grave. At thy bidding, Lord, I'll venture upon death's dark, boisterous sea, Thou wilt bring me to the haven where my spirit longs to be.
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. THE port of Alexandria was reached January Jo, being Friday, the day of Mussulman worship. Flags accordingly were hoisted on twenty or thirty Turkish ships-of-war then in the harbor. Before landing, Dr. King asked the captain to call the crew together, " that thanks might be returned to almighty God for his pro tection during the voyage." The mate offered to buy an English Bible. The captain afterwards came to hear Dr. King preach at the British Consulate, and also had reli gious services again on his own vessel. He expressed the "new conviction he now had of the truth of the Bible and of Jesus as the food of the soul." Board was obtained by the missionaries in the family of a Jew, some member of which was overheard by Mr. Fisk to say " their lodgers were probably conjurers." Descriptions of scenes in Alexandria agree with those of more recent date. One spot of sacred interest could not be forgotten—the grave of Parsons. Upon the slab which covered it, level with the pavement, Dr. King with his two friends kneeled with uncovered heads, feeling as if he were in deed "baptized for the dead." After prayer Mr. Fisk 94 . JONAS KING. addressed him, saying, " Brother King, I welcome you with all my heart to the place rendered vacant by my brother Parsons' death." And Parsons' work was immediately taken up by his successor, in season and out of season. Just now it was especially among the Jews, in company with Mr. Wolff. The two missionaries would sometimes seat themselves cross-legged on the divan, according to Eastern custom, and as the Jews came in would begin talking first of Old Testament facts, in believing which all were agreed ; and thus securing attention, would go on to speak of the Mes siah as already come. The conversation was usually in Italian. When a Hebrew word was used the Jews seem ed much pleased. On one occasion a woman called out angrily to the most intelligent Jew present, "Thou curs ed, why do you not answer him ?" Some of the Jews avowed themselves skeptics, and proposed the same ques tions as other worshippers of human reason elsewhere do. Four rabbis from Galilee, when spoken to of the Mes siah, answered, "My lord, we are come from a distant land, and at sea we were sick with great sickness, and therefore our mind is a little confused, and we cannot therefore speak to-day words of wisdom. But we will return unto you and open our mouth with wisdom, and speak about the Holy One, blessed be he and blessed be his name, and you will be astonished with great aston ishment." Thus it may be seen that there is such a thing as true pharisaical succession. Visits were paid in Alexandria to Roman-catholics also. With the superior of a Francisan convent Dr. EGYPT 95 King had in some way before become acquainted. Call ing to see him, Dr. King. says, "Two of the monks met us at the door and said that he had gone out. I made some little conversation, and they invited us into their room. ' Do you devote yourselves,' said I, ' continually to prayer and fasting ?' ' Yes, we pray to God the Fa ther, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the Virgin and the saints.' Ah,' said I, ' to the Virgin and the saints ? This is a thing that I have never seen in the Bible. We are com manded to pray to God and to Christ, but I have no where seen that we are commanded to pray to saints.' Quite a discussion followed, in the course of which the curate talked very loudly against the English, who, he said, were all excommunicated, were without a priest hood, were all going to the house of the devil, and would be damned, All that was said showed that these monks believed that the Word of God, without note and com ment, was pernicious and destructive. The curate actu ally behaved like a madman, saying again, ' We are the true church. We are illuminated by the Holy Spirit. I can teach you, and not you me ;' then stamping on the floor with all his might, ' When men go about vomiting poison I would crush them under my feet.' The monks who stood by seemed a little ashamed. " It may be thought rash and imprudent by some to address the Roman-catholics with so much plainness as I did the curate, but I know not what else to do. They have perverted the Word of God and taken away the key of knowledge from the people, and introduced into the church as real an idolatry as the worship of Venus or of
Let no one think an acute mind, thoroughly trained and well-informed, was thrown away when called to meet the varieties of error into which the Oriental churches have lapsed. There were at this time one hundred Cop tic convents in Alexandria, one of them claiming to have been founded by St. Mark. By the superior of one of them Dr. King was excommunicated, yet succeeded in selling a hundred Bibles and giving seventy away. Mr. Gliddon, so well known as an Egyptian scholar, showed the missionaries much Christian hospitality, and his son accompanied them up the Nile. Friday, January 17, appears the following entry : " Mr. Fisk and myself sold to-clay, by way of exchange, four New Testaments for fifteen Egyptian gods. This seems to be a new kind of traffic. I would gladly buy all the gods of the heathen in the same manner." The next Monday they left Alexandria for Cairo on board a large sailboat, called a maash. Soon a violent wind almost upset the boat, yet the Arabs in charge re fused to furl the sails except on actual compulsion. The story of the whole voyage is but as an early edition of " Boat-Life on the Nile." In every place, wherever pos sible, religious conversation was held with the Copts and Mussulmans, and Bibles and tracts were sold and distrib uted. Fishermen's huts; built of reeds, reminded the travellers of Moses. Near Cairo immense heapJONASwheat,
supposed at first to be sand, and farther on buffaloes standing in water up to their heads then coming up out of the river, also took them back to the times of Joseph and Pharaoh. While stopping at a small village, an eclipse of the moon filled all the Mussulmans there with terror. " We could hear distinctly the cries and screams and howlings of men, women, and children, and their pray ers : ' O God and his prophet ! 0 God and his prophet ! Most merciful God ! 0 beneficent God! 0 Lord, 0 Lord ! Waa, waa, waa! 0 God, have mercy upon us ! O Mohammed !' " Such sounds filled the air while the eclipse lasted. The people did not seem to understand how those who believed on the Lord Jesus were not afraid as well as they. Sometimes when the missionaries went on shore the captain of the maash would come, saying there was clan ger; that if anything happened to them he should be answerable for it with his head. Arrived at Cairo, the missionaries called immediately on Henry Salt, Esq., consul-general, having letters to him from Sir Charles Stuart. In his courtyard, among other mummies, they saw one of a woman strangely de scribed as "very beautiful." Mr. Salt himself was deeply interested in missions, and more than once gave warning when arrest threatened; for the Mussulmans often, with great excitement, accused these strangers of introducing infidelity. In encouraging contrast to this, Mr. Warton, a military man in the service of the king of Persia, spoke of the missionaries in India in the highest terms of re spect; said his first serious impressions were made by (~ Jon. King. 9 98 ,ONES KING. their preaching; that it was a current report among the Mussulmans in Persia that their king once observed in one of his assemblies, that "if ten such men as Henry Martyn were to come into Persia, his kingdom would soon become entirely Christian." Dr. King preached here, not only at the English con sulate, but on the top of the largest pyramid, reading there 2 Peter, third chapter, and expounding it to a num ber of persons who were up there at the same time. Thus this monument, recording, as is now conjectured, mathematical and scientific, as well as historical, facts, was used as a noble pulpit for a grander purpose: The Koraite Jews at Cairo were peculiar in many ways, having also long and very large noses, which easily distinguished them. They reject the Talmud, receive only the written word of the Old Testament, and derive their name from the Hebrew word Nni, (kara), to read. One of their rabbis gave Dr. King his benediction about as follows : " 0 Lord, bless with a blessing Jonas King, the son of King, and give him of the dew of heaven above and of the fatness of the earth, and permit him to enter Jerusalem." The degradation and wickedness of the people here and elsewhere in Egypt were beyond description, remind ing one, both in its political aspect and as regards its cit izens, of the prophecy, " It shall be the basest of king doms." Ezek.29:15. In Cairo were sold or given away 256 Bibles. Leaving this city on their onward journey, although great excitement followed everywhere the arrival of the
Calling upon the Governor at Siout, the travellers saw his "hand and seal" applied in a decidedly literal 100 JONAS KING. way, They had asked for a passport. A writer (the Copts were usually employed as such) wrote it in their presence, and gave it to the governor, who " took from the pen of the writer a little ink on his little finger, on which he rubbed for some time the seal on his ring. This seal he then pressed upon the letter where the name is usually signed. This being done, the writer took the letter again, folded it, and delivered it to us." Although schools have been mentioned above, so few of the people could read and write that it was most diffi cult to secure a competent instructor, and also to buy any Coptic books. One bishop, when asked for them, said he had a "very great number." This proved to be a library of six or seven volumes, and an Arabic copy of the Old Testament which he refused to sell at any price. This bishop invited the missionaries to dinner, after wri ting out for them the Coptic alphabet, which strange characters are preserved in the " Journal," with pronun ciation affixed. "The dinner consisted of one plate of boiled eggs, with a little melted butter, two plates of cheese served up in a different manlier, and one plate of date dessert, and nineteen cakes of bread. These were all placed in order upon a pewter server, which was placed upon a little stool about one foot and a half in height. Around this we gathered, six in number, and took our seat on the floor. Water was brought by the servant for us to wash our right-hand, as this was to serve us both as knife and fork. After washing, the bishop took one of the cakes and made some crosses over it, saying some thing in a low tone of voice which I did not understand.
Then he broke the cake and began to dip his hand in the different dishes, inviting us to follow his example. Du ring our meal, which lasted perhaps half an hour, the conversation turned on various topics. We learned from him that the bishops and priests have no fixed salary, and live by the charities of the people ; that the priests do not generally marry, but that some of them are mar ried, and are generally more esteemed by the people than those who are not married." Afterwards they dined with a koumus, an ecclesiastic between priest and bishop. "The first room was filled with smoke, and the floor was entirely covered with dirt, and appeared like a stable. At our approach the women drew their veils over their faces and retired into an ad joining room. In a few moments we were invited into the parlor and seated on the floor. The parlor was about twelve feet square, and but a little more decent than the other rooms. Presently raki was ordered. Of this I did not taste. The koumus drank very plentifully. After the raki, dinner was served. It consisted of soup, boiled meat, and bread. A candle was stuck in one of the loaves of bread to give us light. Such a scene I never witnessed before. The koumus was a large, brawny man, with a long white beard, and looked filthy as the swine in the streets. His eyes were sore, and this rendered him still more disgusting. His long bony fingers soon found their way to the bottom of the soup, and we dove after him. The boiled meat he tore in pieces and handed round to us. When his mouth was well filled with bread and meat and soup, he washed the whole down with a good
dose of raki. After dinner I bought a Coptic manuscript of him, and sold six New Testaments in Arabic and eight of Genesis. Made him a present of a copy of each, and after mutual salutations he accompanied us down stairs through the two stables into the street and even to the en tering in of the village. Some of the clergymen in Amer ica think their salary rather small, and so it is ; but there is not one, at least I never saw one, who does not live like a prince in comparison with most of the Coptic priests in Egypt." Passing on up the Nile, the travellers meeting now boat-loads of black slaves for the market at Cairo, or see ing on the banks women wearing nose-rings, or anon some crocodiles, or having live scorpions brought to them for inspection, felt impelled to visit Thebes. No previous description in detail had prepared them to see ruins so vast and impressive, which brought, with com fort, to their minds the text, "They shall perish, but thou remainest." The tombs in the Necropolis had not been so utterly despoiled as at present. In one room were to be seen two or three thousand little wooden gods. Dr. King describes mummies and statues with exceeding particularity, also the grottoes in a mountain on the east side of the river, which were inhabited by Eremites in the fourth century, and where perhaps Antonius and Athanasius lived, and prayed for their persecutors. The views from some of these caves were of peculiar beauty, showing the good taste of the hermits in their selection of a retreat. Soon a report having come of a general massacre of E'G YPT. I03 the Franks at Constantinople, which would render life unsafe for them in all parts of the Turkish empire, and being two hundred miles away from an English consul, the missionaries hurried on their way back to Cairo. The alarm proved a false one, but had been none the less startling. At Cairo Dr. King visited the pacha's palace, finding it truly an abode of sinful luxury ; but it is amusing to read the full description of a camelopard in the court yard there as of an animal almost unknown. On his way to this palace Dr. King met several young Arabs tied together, and followed by five or six hundred women, besides men and childen, weeping and wailing, and cry ing, " My liver ! my liver !" These were young men whom the pasha had pressed into his service as soldiers. IIe had agents who went about in the villages, and when ever they saw a young man capable of bearing arms they took him from his parents and friends by force. At Heliopolis, where Joseph found his bride, Dr. King attended a Jewish wedding. "At one end of the court was a kind of gallery, in which the bride was making preparation for the ceremony, and in front of which hung strips of different colored paper, red, pale red, and yel low, interspersed with gold leaves. Occasionally I saw the bride through the lattice, or wood network, which was in front of the lower part of the gallery. This brought to my mind Cant. 2 : 9. The bridegroom was a queer-looking young fellow, and seemed hardly to know what to do with himself. At about four o'clock the high priest, with five rabbis, came in and took their seats, and 104 JONAS KING.
his name.' One of the rabbis then took a ring and put it on the finger of the bridegroom and then on that of the bride, and then gave it to the bridegroom, who put it on the forefinger of the bride, and said, ' Verily art thou espoused to me by this ring according to Moses.' A large camel's-hair shawl, called ' talis,' was then spread over the newly-married couple, and the rabbi twice gave them wine to drink, saying, ' Blessed art thou, 0 Lord our God, King of the world, who hast created all things for thy glory,' and repeating many other texts, the peo ple responding, ' Blessed be he, and blessed be his name.' Then, after some drinking of wine and all the company repeating ' Semeantob' (good sign), the nuptial torch was extinguished, but immediately lighted again, and the bride was reconducted to her room by the women to the sound of cymbals." While in Egypt the missionaries had sold or given away 900 Bibles and 3,70o tracts. God's word never re turns unto him void. In 1866, Rev. W. C. Roberts, D. D., of Elizabeth, N. J., more than once found in Egypt old men, Christians, who well remembered Dr. King's work there, saying it had been blessed to their souls. io6 ,ONES KING. CHAPTER VIII. THE DESERT AND JERUSALEM. Emir Bushir—Kindness of Mr. Salt—Jerusalem—Gethsemane Scenes at Church of Holy Sepulchre—Deliverance from Ar rest—Bethany—Letters from Jerusalem—Visits to Ramah Jericho and the Dead Sea. By this time, March 29, 1823, Dr. King had received letters from the A. B. C. F. M., and from other friends in America, approving the course he had taken. Before leaving Egypt, Dr. King had an interview with the Emir Bushir, prince of the Druses and Maron- ites on Mount Lebanon, who had been temporarily ban ished for attempting to make Syria free, but was now about to return there. He treated the Americans with great kindness, and said he should expect to see them at Mount Lebanon. His attendants had much the appear ance of New England men, one of them being almost the facsimile of Professor Stuart of Andover. Also the missionaries saw Aboul Hassim, a Persian Sufi, whose business it was to copy the Koran. His writing was very beautiful, but it took him two and a half years to make a single copy. A particular friend of his, Seid Ali, had helped Henry Martyn to translate the New Testament, and to him Aboul Hassim gave Dr. King a note of introduction. Mr. Salt continued his efficient THE DESERT AND YER USALEhl 107 kindness to the last, taking much pains to set the mis sionaries properly on their way. During their last night in Egypt a death occurred in a house near by, and the loud crying and wailing called forcibly to mind scenes in this same land long ago, just before another departure from it. The first night on their way, the Monthly Concert was observed by the missionaries, in strangely Oriental surroundings—a caravan, with camels and asses, of which there were, about a hundred, and a noisy, incongruous crowd of persons from eight or ten nations. To see barren sand far as the eye can reach, varied by appearances, now and then, of the mirage, was at this time nota wornout experience ; and Dr. King gives de tails of desert-life with a zest such as cannot be expect ed from a more recent traveller. He found it easy to sympathize with the Israelites in their murmurings for want of water, so offensive soon became that carried in the goatskins. He writes, " Oh, that my soul thirsted for the living God, as it does for the water-brooks ;" yet some times he went singing on his way, " Guide me, oh, thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land," and reading from day to day those parts of the Bible which seemed almost reproduced before their eyes. Having passed the Isthmus, then undivided by Les sep's canal, and vexed on their way by thieving Bedouins, almost destitute of clothing, who would come to salute the sheikh of the caravan by butting heads in true Oriental style, and then insist on tribute, the travellers arrived in the land of the Philistines. Here it was something in- io8 JO)YAS KING. deed new to see an actual shepherdess with crook in hand, with the skin of a lamb over her shoulders as a shawl, while women and children near by thrashed out barley on the ground with long sticks ; then to pass met aphorically through the "gates of Gaza," into the public khan, its courtyard filled with merchandise, camels, horses, asses, and men, and where of course little rest could be secured. Here were sold or given away 38 Testaments, or copies of Genesis and the Psalms, some of them to Mussulmans. This distribution was contin ued at Esdud (Ashdod), and a prayer is recorded, that before the word of God the Dagon of Mohammedanism might fall, till not even his stump should be left. At Yaffa (Joppa) the missionaries lodged in what is called the house of Simon the tanner, where upon the housetop they had prayer together, and Dr. King writes, "This is the city to which Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord ; like him, may I, Jonas, not flee, but go and preach the preaching' that the Lord bids me." Here the sheikh was dismissed, receiving besides the back sheesh an Arabic Testament and Psalter. The road through the mountains of Judea proved to be worse than even the most rocky and uneven in New England, and was infested too by robbers. " The country continued nearly the same as I have described, till we came within half an hour of Jerusalem, when all at once the Holy City opened on my view. Thus, thought I, is it often with the last hours of the Christian. He is obliged to pass over a rough and wea risome way, where he is continually exposed to the at-
tacks of enemies, till near the close of life, when his feet are just about to stand within the gates of the New Je rusalem ; then he is favored with some bright visions of the place he is soon to enter. The first I saw was the Mount of Olives, and supposed this to be a part of the Holy City ; but I soon saw that Jerusalem lay lower down, between me and the Mount of Olives. "As our Lord made his entrance into Jerusalem, riding on an ass, I alighted from mine, and went on foot. My feelings seemed to revolt at the idea of my entering Jerusalem in the same manner as he did, who was Lord of heaven and earth, and who came thither to make expiation for the sins of the world." The sacred places in and about the Holy City are perhaps best unvisited, would one retain in full the charm with which a sanctified imagination cannot fail to invest them. Dr. King, however, in his journal, gives place to reflections, such as must after all crowd upon the mind and heart of every true believer. The scenes of four thousand years rushed upon him. Here God had rendered his glory visible ; hither the tribes came up to worship; here David had tuned his harp to the praise of Jehovah. Here Jesus, our Lord and God, had poured out his soul unto death, and heaven and earth seemed to approach each other. It was fitting that special prayer should be offered, that the name of Christ should be here honored and the work of the Lord revived. The missionaries found lodgings—Mr. Wolff among the Jews; the others in a small Greek convent looking out towards the Mount of Olives. Dr. King writes, " Jonas King. 10 110 YON/IS KING. looked all around on the Holy City, and could not help saying often, ' Is it possible that my feet stand within thy gates, 0 Jerusalem 1' " The next day it was impossible to visit the garden of Gethsemane, for a Turkish woman had just been mur dered near there, which made it not safe to go where such an excited crowd of Mussulmans had collected. That day, however, they sold twenty New Testaments while walking about Zion, noting sadly the changes there since the time when David called it "the joy of the whole earth." The next clay being Sunday, after a sea son of prayer with his friends, Dr. King was able to go to the garden of sorrow. Here, leaving the two guides to sit under an olive-tree, he went under the shadow of another of those eight old sentinels of the past, where, reading the New Testament account of the scene once witnessed there, he kneeled down, made confession of sins and renewed his covenant with his Saviour. There, too, he prayed for some of his dear friends and their children by name. The account Dr. King gives further of Jerusalem in detail, is of interest, but the ground has now been visited so often that it is the more easy here to pass it over. The demand for Bibles was remarkable; thirty Greeks came for them the day of the missionaries' arrival. Also the sheikh Abou Ghoosh, who had two thousand Bedouins under his control, honored the missionaries with a call. " We were glad to form his acquaintance, and to ingratiate ourselves a little in his favor, though we should have preferred to have him call another day. THE DESERT AND DER USALEIJt As soon as I was introduced to him, I took him by the hand (which is contrary to Eastern custom), and shook it, and he simultaneously squeezed mine, and shook it as cordially as if he had been an old friend from America. It seemed as if done by a kind of inspiration. He seemed much pleased, looked at me, and I sat down close to him, and looked at him, and conversed with him. All who were present laughed when they saw us shaking hands. He seemed friendly, offered us his services, and invited us to come and take lodgings at his house whenever we had occasion to pass by his village. After we had made him a present of a loaf of fine sugar, which we brought from Malta, and two boxes of phosphoric matches, with which he was highly pleased, having never seen any be fore, he went away." The next day, when walking about Mount Zion again, and "marking well" the desolations there, a Mussulman Arab looked at the missionary with all the wildness of a man possessed of a devil, and endeavored by the distor tions of his countenance to express the highest contempt possible. Many Mussulmans had come from Damascus and other places to visit the tomb of Moses, and it was really dangerous to go among them. " As we walked along and heard the wild noise and roar of the mixed multitude, feeling some little fear with regard to our selves, Mr. Fisk repeated a verse from the 74th Psalm, which, had it been made for the occasion, could not have been more appropriate : "Where once thy churches prayed and sang, Thy foes profanely war, ' etc. Yüklə 0,75 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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