of Christ literally, sold all he had and, in the spirit of Martyn,
began his remarkable attempt at mission work in Bagdad. His work was
stopped twice, by the plague and by persecution, and the story of
his life reveals how great were the obstacles which he vainly tried
to surmount.[135] From that day until long years after Northern and
Eastern Arabia were waiting once more for the light. The only effort
made in the Gulf was by Dr. John Wilson of Bombay who, before 1843,
sent Bible colporteurs once and again by Aden and up the Persian Gulf;
“he summoned the Church of Scotland to despatch a mission to the Jews
of Arabia, Busrah and Bombay. A missionary was ready in the person of
William Burns who afterward went to China, the support of a missionary
at Aden was guaranteed by a friend and Wilson had found a volunteer
‘for the purpose of exploring Arabia’ when the disruption of the Church
of Scotland arrested the movement.”[136] It was Henry Martyn’s life
that inspired John Wilson in 1824. It was the Free Church of Scotland
that afterward took up the work of Ion Keith Falconer the pioneer
of Yemen. So God’s plans find fulfillment.[137] Even Muscat was not
left without a witness in those years of waiting. It appears that the
captain of an American ship which called at Muscat every year for a
cargo of dates was a godly man and used to distribute Arabic Bibles and
Testaments, even before the Bible Society extended its work to this
place.
As early as 1878 the British and Foreign Bible Society sent Anton
Gibrail from Bombay to Bagdad on a colporteur-journey. And about the
same time the South Russia agent of the Society, Mr. James Watt,
visited Persia and Bagdad and pressed the needs of this field on the
committee of the Bible Society. He was seconded in his efforts by
Rev. Robert (now Canon) Bruce, a Church Missionary Society Missionary
in India. Arrangements were made between the two societies by which
Bible work was opened in Bagdad under the supervision of Mr. Bruce.
In December, 1880, a Bible depot was opened. Since then the work has
gone on continuously and extended, through the Arabian Mission, to the
entire east coast of Arabia.
The first reference to the needs and opportunities for work in Western
Arabia appears in the Annual Report of the British Bible Society for
1886, where the opening of a Bible depot at Aden is announced with
the hope that it would lead to “the circulation of the Holy Bible on
a larger scale and in a variety of languages.” Ibrahim Abd el Masih
was the first in charge of this depot, and his name was attached to
the call for prayer from South Arabia issued after the death of Keith
Falconer. Colporteurs from Egypt and from Aden of the British and
Foreign Bible Society have once and again visited the Arabian Red Sea
ports and penetrated to Sana, the capital of Yemen.
Between the years 1880 and 1890 more than one appeal went forth for
Arabia’s need. Old Doctor Lansing of the American U. P. Mission in
Egypt who for over thirty years had labored there waiting for the dawn
of a brighter day, when he heard of one of these appeals, was all on
fire, to start for Yemen. “For some years,” wrote an American minister
in the far West, “I and my people have been praying for Arabia.”
The Wahabi reformation in its time attracted the interest of those
who studied the political horizon. The bombardment of Jiddah in 1858
compelled attention to Mecca and the pilgrimage, while from 1838, when
England became mistress of Aden, until 1880 commerce and exploration
was specially active on all the Arabian coast. It was during this
period that the Anglo-Indian naval officers Morêsby, Haines, Elwon,
Saunders, Carless, Wellsted and Cruttenden carefully surveyed the
entire Arabian coast. What they did for commerce, Major-General F. T.
Haig did for missions in Arabia. He it was who first made the extensive
journey all around the coast of Arabia and into the interior of Yemen.
His articles pleading for the occupation of the Peninsula reached Keith
Falconer and finally decided his choice of a particular field, in the
wide Mohammedan world, to which his thoughts were already turned. It
was also the experience and counsel of this man of God that helped to
determine the final location as well as the preliminary explorations
of the American missionaries of the Arabian mission in 1890-92. The
reports of General Haig are even to-day the best condensed statement
of the needs and opportunities in the long neglected Peninsula while
his account of the problems to be met and the right sort of men to meet
them will always remain invaluable until the evangelization of Arabia
is an accomplished fact.
In 1886 General Haig was asked by the committee of the Church
Missionary Society to undertake an exploration of the Red Sea coast
of Arabia and Somaliland with a view to ascertaining the openings
for missionary effort. He set out from London on October 12th, 1886,
reaching Alexandria on the 19th, and proceeded by way of the Red Sea
coast in an Egyptian steamer to Aden, calling at Tor, Yanbo, Jiddah,
Suakin, Massawa and Hodeidah. Dr. and Mrs. Harpur of the Church
Missionary Society were already at Aden seeking an opening for mission
work; the former accompanied General Haig back to Hodeidah and occupied
that place for a time as the first _medical_ missionary in Arabia.
General Haig then took the journey inland by the direct route to Sana
with Ibrahim, the British and Foreign Bible Society colporteur and
from Sana they went straight across Yemen to Aden. Shortly afterward
General Haig proceeded to Muscat and up the Persian Gulf calling at
all the ports. From Busrah he journeyed along the river to Bagdad and
thence across the Syrian desert by the overland post route to Damascus.
It was this long and difficult journey which formed the basis of two
papers[138] entitled: “On both sides of the Red Sea,” and “Arabia as a
Mission Field.”[139]
A few brief extracts from these papers will interest the reader and
show the character of this first appeal to evangelize the land of the
Arabs. Writing of Yemen he says; “We have in this southwestern part
of Arabia a great mountainous country with a temperate climate, and a
hardy laborious race. This hill-country and its races extend northward
into Asir, eastward into Hadramaut for an indefinite distance, while
to the northeast they extend inland as far as the borders of the great
desert. The finest and most warlike races are those to be found to
the north and northeast of Sana. These have never yet submitted to
the Turkish yoke; in fact the limits of the Turkish territory to the
east of Sana are only a few miles distant from that place. Is it not
of extreme importance in connection with the evangelization of all
Southern Arabia that the gospel should be preached and the Word of God
brought to these hardy mountaineers? They are mostly Zeidiyeh, a sect
akin to the Shiahs in doctrine, but I saw no trace of fanaticism among
them, rather they seemed everywhere willing to listen to the truth. For
the most part I suspect they are but poor observers of the prescribed
religious practices of Islam. During the whole of my travels in Yemen
I never once saw a man at prayer, and in only a few of the larger
villages is there a mosque. The women are particularly accessible; in
the villages they wear no covering to the face, and those that we met
at the khans, or inns, were always ready to come forward and talk. The
little girls used frequently to run into our room, and, if invited,
would come and sit down by our side. Ignorance is, I should say, the
predominant characteristic of the whole population—ignorance of their
own religion, ignorance of the simplest elements of truth. I believe
that an evangelist, thoroughly master of the language, Arabic, might go
from village to village all over Yemen preaching, or quietly _speaking_
the gospel.”
This testimony is true. But the challenge has never yet been accepted
and all the highlands are still waiting for the first news of the
gospel. Speaking of the capital of Yemen the report goes on: “Sana is
a most important point. _It is impossible to exaggerate its importance
from a missionary point of view._ It is in the centre of the finest
races of Southern Arabia, and if a mission could be established there,
its influence would extend on all sides to a multitude of tribes
otherwise shut out from the gospel.”
After reviewing in detail the open doors in every part of Arabia, and
speaking of the special obstacles at each point together with the best
methods of inaugurating work, he writes toward the end of his report:
“_In one degree or another then, all Arabia is, I consider, open to
the gospel._ It is as much open to it as the world generally was in
apostolic times, that is to say, it is accessible to the evangelist
at many different points, at all of which he would find men and women
needing salvation, some of whom would receive his message, while
others would reject it and persecute him. In some parts of the country
he would not be molested or interfered with by the ruling powers; in
others, as in Turkish Arabia, he might be arrested and even deported.
Dangerous fanatics are, I believe, seldom met with but occasionally
the missionary might come across such, and then the consequences might
be more serious. But what if his lot were even worse than this, if he
were hunted from village to village, and persecuted from city to city?
Our Lord contemplated no other reception for His disciples when He sent
them forth. This was in fact His ideal of the missionary life....
‘When they persecute you in this city, (abandon the country? No.) flee
ye into another.’ The evangelist in Arabia need expect nothing worse
than this and even this would probably be of rare occurrence.... There
is no difficulty then about preaching the gospel in Arabia if men can
be found to face the consequences. The real difficulty would be the
protection of the converts. Most probably they would be exposed to
violence and death. The infant church might be a martyr church at first
like that of Uganda, but that would not prevent the spread of the truth
or its ultimate triumph.” The most remarkable thing about this report,
which occupies only forty pages, is its prophetic character, its
permanent value and the fact that it touches every phase of the problem
still before us.
The immediate result of General Haig’s report was the determination
of the Church Missionary Society to leave Aden and Sheikh Othman to
Keith Falconer and the Free Church of Scotland, while Dr. and Mrs.
Harpur went to Hodeidah to try the possibilities of work in that
city. There the skill of a Christian physician would have more of
strategic power than in Aden itself which had two hospitals under
government service. Everything was hopeful at the outset and the people
flocked in large numbers to the dispensary. Evangelistic work was
carried on, and Dr. Harpur wrote: “I try to read of the birth, death
and resurrection of Christ including Isaiah liii., and the simplest
parables.” One or two of the Arabs became specially interested and read
the Bible very eagerly. But the Turkish governor found objection and
required a Turkish diploma from the missionary, or to have his diploma
acknowledged at Constantinople. Work was at a standstill. Dr. Harpur
was compelled to return to England on account of severe illness and
Hodeidah was not again entered. In his letter to the _Church Missionary
Intelligencer_, dated April 12th, 1887, we read:
“Should the way be closed _now_, we trust that God will open it in
His own time, and whenever that time may be, I want now to say that
since I came here my great desire has been, and will continue to be,
that I might be allowed to live and work among the people of Yemen.
God knows best, wherever our work may be. Owing to the uncertainty
that exists about my diplomas being ratified, and being in the
meantime effectually stopped from any work, it seems advisable for us
to go back to Aden, there to wait until we get directions from the
Committee, using the time there for the study of the language. There
is a door here, as far as the people themselves are concerned, and I
trust we may not have to leave these poor people who have not rejected
the gospel. What a cause there is for prayer for them to Him who is
King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”
About the same time, a remarkable call to prayer was sent out by the
little band of workers in South Arabia, who were left to mourn the
sudden death of their spiritual leader, Ion Keith Falconer. It was the
first call to prayer issued for Arabia and it did not remain unheeded:
PRAYER FOR THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL IN SOUTH ARABIA.
“We earnestly invite united intercession to Almighty God for the people
of this land, that He will open doors for the preaching of the gospel,
and prepare the hearts of all to receive it.
We trust that many will respond to this request, and unite with us in
setting apart a special time every Tuesday for prayer for the above
object. We are, yours faithfully,
(Signed.) F. I. HARPUR, M. B.,
Church Missionary Society.
ALEX. PATERSON, M. B. C. M.,
Free Church Mission.
MATTHEW LOCHHEAD,
Free Church Mission.
IBRAHIM ABD EL MESSIAH,
_Yemen, S. Arabia._ B. and F. Bible Society.”
While the Church Missionary Society did not continue work at Hodeidah,
they were already occupying the extreme northeast corner of Arabia
and had begun work in Bagdad, the old city of the caliphs, with its
commanding situation on the Tigris, and its large, Arab population.
In 1882 Bagdad was occupied as an outpost of their Persia Mission
on recommendation of Dr. Bruce. Rev. T. R. Hodgson was the first
missionary there, but he afterward went into the service of the British
and Foreign Bible Society and greatly extended its work in the Persian
Gulf. He was succeeded by Dr. Henry Martyn Sutton and others. The
mission has had hard struggles with the Turkish officials and its
converts were compelled to flee. The medical work has had a vast and
extensive influence in all the region round about, and at present
the mission-staff is larger than ever before and the school recently
opened is flourishing. Mosul has been taken over from the American
Presbyterian Board by the Church Missionary Society, and in the words
of one of their missionaries, “we are watching for an opportunity of
carrying the gospel into the very heart of Central Arabia, where the
independent Prince of Nejd holds rule, across whose territory runs one
of the principal routes for pilgrims to Mecca.”
As early as 1856 Rev. A. Stern made missionary journeys to Sana, Bagdad
and other parts of Arabia to visit the Jews with the gospel. That
remarkable missionary to the Jews, Joseph Wolff, the son of a Bavarian
Rabbi and who was baptized by a Benedictine monk in 1812, also visited
the Jews of Yemen and Bagdad in his wanderings.[140]
In 1884, Mr. William Lethaby, a Methodist lay-preacher from England,
with his faithful wife, began a mission among the wild Arabs at Kerak
in the mountains of Moab; so populous and important is this mountain
fortress in the eyes of the nomads that they call it El Medina, “the
city.” This pioneer effort, after some years of struggle, was taken
up by the Church Missionary Society in connection with their Palestine
mission. Mr. Lethaby, after journeying in East Arabia, and attempting
in vain to cross the Peninsula from Bahrein westward (1892), is now in
charge of the Bible Society’s depot at Aden.
As early as 1886 the North Africa Mission attempted to reach the
Bedouin tribes of Northern Arabia in the vicinity of Homs. Mr. Samuel
Van Tassel, a young Hollander, of New York, trained at Grattan
Guinness’ Institute, went out under their direction and accompanied
a Bedouin chief on his annual migration into the desert in 1890. He
found good opportunities among the nomads for gospel-work, so that the
door to him seemed “wide-open,” but Turkish official jealousy of all
foreigners who have dealings with the Bedouin tribes, put an end to
his work and compelled its abandonment. His experiences, however, as
the first one who lived and worked for Christ among the nomads in the
black tents of Kedar is valuable for the future. The door of access
was not closed by the Bedouins themselves, but by the Turks. Mr. Van
Tassel found the Arabs very friendly, and willing to hear the Bible
read, especially the Old Testament. He found none of the fanaticism of
the towns, and even persuaded the sheikhs to rest their caravans on the
Sabbath day. It is interesting to note that the North Africa Mission
was led to enter North Arabia through the representations of General
Haig, then one of their council. At present they have no workers in
Arabia, although that name still finds a place in their reports every
month with the pathetic rehearsal:[141] “Northern Arabia is peopled by
the Bedouin descendants of Ishmael; they are not bigoted Moslems, like
the Syrians, but willing to be enlightened. This portion of the field
is sadly in need of laborers.”
In 1898 the Christian and Missionary Alliance of New York again called
attention to the needs of Northern Arabia through Mr. Forder, formerly
of the Kerak mission. He attempted to enter into the interior, by way
of Damascus, but met with an accident, which prevented the undertaking.
Before sketching the lives of the two great pioneer missionaries to
Arabia, we must chronicle the appeal for the dark peninsula that
came from the heart of the Dark Continent. Not only because this
appeal belongs to the early dawn of Arabian missions, but because of
its remarkable character and its author. Henry Martyn in 1811 wrote
at Muscat, “there is a promise in reserve for the sons of Joktan”;
Alexander Mackay, from Uganda in 1888, took up the strain, and, in
closing his long plea for a mission to the Arabs of Muscat, wrote: “May
it soon be said, ‘This day is salvation come to this house forasmuch as
he also is a son of Abraham.’”
This plea, written only two years before Mackay’s death, and dated,
August, 1888, Usambiro, Central Africa, is a great missionary document
for two reasons; it breathes the spirit of Christianity in showing
love to one’s enemies and it points out the real remedy against the
slave-trade. And yet Mackay accompanied his carefully written article
with this modest letter: “I enclose a few lines on a subject which has
been weighing on my mind for some time. I shall not be disappointed
if you consign them to the waste-paper basket, and shall only be too
glad if, on a better representation on the part of others, the subject
be taken up and something definite be done for these poor Arabs, whom
I respect, but who have given me much trouble in years past. The best
way by which we can turn the edge of their opposition and convert their
blasphemy into blessing is to do our utmost for their salvation.”[142]
In this article Mackay pleads for Arabia for Africa’s sake and asks
that “Muscat, which is in more senses than one the key to Central
Africa,” be occupied by a _strong_ mission. “I do not deny,” he
writes, “that the task is difficult; and the men selected for work in
Muscat must be endowed with no small measure of the Spirit of Jesus,
besides possessing such linguistic ability as to be able to reach not
only the ears, but the very _hearts_ of men.” He pleads for half a
dozen men, the pick of the English universities, to make the venture
in faith. His continual reason for the crying need of such a mission
is the strong influence it would exert in Africa because of the Arab
traders. “It is almost needless to say that the outlook in Africa will
be considerably brightened by the establishment of a mission to the
Arabs in Muscat.” “The Arabs have helped us often and have hindered us
likewise. We owe them therefore a double debt, which, I can see no more
affective way of paying than by at once establishing a strong mission
at their very headquarters—Muscat itself.”
Mackay was not unaware of the great difficulties of work among
Mohammedans and in Arabia; he calls it “a gigantic project” and terms
Arabia “the cradle of Islam.” But his faith is so strong, that at the
very beginning of his article he quotes the remarkable resolution of
the Church Missionary Society passed on May 1st, 1888, regarding work
for Mohammedans.[143]
The effect of Mackay’s pleading was that the veteran Bishop French took
up the challenge and laid down his life at Muscat. That life has “such
linguistic capacity as to be able,” evermore “to reach not only the
ears but the very _hearts_ of men” in a way even far above the thought
of Alexander Mackay of Uganda.
XXXI
ION KEITH FALCONER AND THE ADEN MISSION
“My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my
courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry
with me to be a witness for me, that I have fought His battles, who
now will be my rewarder.... So he passed over and all the trumpets
sounded for him on the other side.”—_Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress._
(Death of Valiant for Truth.)
Ion Keith Falconer and Thomas Valpy French, both laid down their lives
for Christ after a brief period of labor in the land they so dearly
loved. Keith Falconer died at the age of thirty after having spent only
_ten months_, all-told, on Arabian soil; Bishop French was sixty-six
years old when he came to Muscat and lived only ninety-five days after
his arrival. But both gave
“One crowded hour of glorious life,”
to the cause of Christ in Arabia and left behind them an influence,
power and inspiration which
“Is worth an age without a name.”
Ion Grant Neville Keith Falconer,[144] the third son of the late Earl
of Kintore, was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 5th of July, 1856.
At thirteen years of age he went to Harrow to compete for an entrance
scholarship and was successful. He was not a commonplace boy either
in his ways of study or thoughts on religion. With a healthy ambition
to excel and yet with a kindly modesty he made friends of those
whom he surpassed and loved those who were his inferiors. Manliness,
magnanimity, piety and unselfishness, rare traits in a lad, were in him
conspicuous. He loved outdoor sports and excelled in athletics as well
as in his studies. At twenty he was President of the London Bicycle
Club and at twenty-two the champion racer in Great Britain.
One paragraph taken from the close of one of his letters gives us a
glimpse of the boy at school and throws light on his future choice of
a profession. It is dated July 16th, 1873: “ ... Charrington sent me a
book yesterday which I have read. It is called _Following Fully_ ...
about a man who works among the cholera people in London so hard that
he at last succumbs and dies. But every page is full of Jesus Christ,
so that I liked it. And I like Charrington because he is quite devoted
to Him, and has really given up all for His glory. I must go and do
the same soon: how I don’t know.” This same year he left Harrow, and,
after spending a year with a tutor exclusively in mathematics, entered
Cambridge. His intentions were at first to compete for honors in
mathematics but after careful thought he changed his plans and began to
read for honors in the Theological Tripos.
During his college days he also distinguished himself as a master
in his two favorite pursuits, bicycling and shorthand. On the later
subject he wrote the article in the Encyclopedia Britannica. He
had a fine intellect, tremendous power of application and a genius
for plodding. His knowledge of Hebrew was extraordinary; he wrote
post-cards in that language to his professor on every conceivable
subject, and translated the hymn, “Lead Kindly Light” as a pastime.
No wonder that he received the highest honor in that language that
Cambridge can give and passed with ease the Semitic languages
examination at the close of his course.