sent off about four months after we left, and therefore have been
about eighteen months on the road. The best way is to put all letters
into the post-office, paying the postage, and they will then come
generally in about eight months by Bombay, free of all expense but
that paid in England; and it would afford us peculiar pleasure if
our dear friends would write regularly by this route, for the
opportunities by Constantinople are either rare or expensive.
How strikingly do these letters prove the truth of our Lord's
declaration, that those who leave father or mother, &c. for his sake
and the gospel's, shall find a hundred fold, fathers, mothers,
brothers, sisters, houses, lands, with persecutions. Surely we are
rich indeed, in the love of the saints of our Lord, and in their
prayers for us. These letters prove that our weak childish faith has
not been without the Lord's blessing on his own work. Oh! then, what
might be expected if we had been strong in the Lord and in the power
of his might? Perhaps, however, he who has led us hitherto,
insignificant as we are, may lead us onward still to magnify his grace
in our weakness. Surely no missionaries, with so few pretensions to
the love and confidence of the church of God, ever received more solid
proofs of deep and hearty interest than we have during these ten
months; this is no small point gained, and I think we may go further,
and add, that many have been led by this weak effort of faith in us,
to take steps they might not otherwise have ventured upon. I do not
desire, for one moment, to set myself in opposition to those blessed
institutions whose labours roused us from our lethargy: but only this
I must say, that I do not think their plan is the best, or the only
good one. Notwithstanding, I desire to bless God for them, and to
co-operate with them, whenever I can. I do rejoice, with most
unfeigned joy, at any honour God bestows upon them, and I should
rejoice to see them multiplied a hundred fold; for whosoever brings a
stone to the temple of our Lord and king, by whatever different means
they may have laboured with from ourselves, shall be our father,
mother, sister, brother. The only end we know of existence is the
manifestation of that temple, and may the king's blessing and favour
rest on the head of every one who labours for it, at home or abroad,
under established institutions, or in any other way. By all, Christ is
preached, and God the Father glorified, and the power of the Holy
Ghost manifested. Unprofitable servants as we are, weak in faith, and
infirm in purpose, except as the Lord day by day lifted us up, as it
were, with one hand, and covered us with the other, and enabled us to
stagger on our way; still, we cannot but feel that the Lord's goodness
and care, which our weakness has elicited, may have moved in some
small degree the hearts of the little band of six, who are coming to
join us; and I hear that their simplicity and faith has yet further
stirred up the spiritual affections of others to go and do
likewise--but these are early days; if it be of the Lord, he will
bless it; if not, we desire to be the first to lay our hands on our
lips, and our faces in the dust, saying, We were deceived; the cause
is the Lord's, not ours; with him we will leave its prosperity and
defence.
_March 28._--The plague has now absolutely, we believe, entered this
unhappy city. Major T. and all those connected with the residency are
preparing to leave for the mountains of Kourdistan; they have most
kindly invited us to go with them and form part of their family; this
is most truly kind, and there are many things to recommend it--the
opportunities it would afford M. for learning Armenian, and me Arabic,
and for observation on the country and people, besides our being
delivered from all apparent danger either from the sword which
threatens us from without, or the pestilence within. The absence of
all these friends and so many of the principal Christian families who
are going with them, leaves us exposed to the bigotry of the people in
any tumults that may arise--all these things presented themselves to
our minds. But there are considerations that outweigh these in our
minds: in the first place, we feel that while we have the Lord's work
in our hands we ought not to fly and leave it; again, if we go, it is
likely that for many months we cannot return to our work, whereas the
plague may cease in a month; opportunities of usefulness may arise in
the plague that a more unembarrassed time may not present; and our
dear friends from Aleppo may come and find no asylum. The Lord gives
great peace and quietness of mind in resting under his most gracious
and loving care, and as the great object of our lives is to illustrate
his love to us, we believe that in the midst of these awful
circumstances, he will fill our tongues with praise as he does fill
our hearts with peace.
I have just heard, that some Englishmen have been circulating tracts
at Julfa, an Armenian town in the neighbourhood of Ispahan, and that
the bishop has prohibited their circulation; this shews what we have
to expect.
I believe I have many times mentioned the deeprooted opposition which
exists among the clergy and literary men in the East, to having any
thing translated into the vulgar dialects: they are worse than the
literati of Europe used to be with their Latin, many among whom, but
lately came to see that it was no disgrace to communicate their ideas
in a vernacular dress: as the common sense of mankind has triumphed
over the literary pride of the learned, so we shall find that babes
will one day overthrow the literary pride of these orientals. I
obtained, the other day, a translation of one of Carus Wilson's little
stories, into the vulgar Armenian of this place, for the little girls.
The contrast between the effect produced by reading this in an
intelligible language, and their usual lessons, was most striking: in
the one there is of necessity a perfect indifference; but on reading
the other, they begged and entreated they might have it to carry home,
which is promised them for next week. Of this I had no doubt before;
but the experiment has been most gratifying and encouraging.
_March 29._--Yesterday Dr. Beagrie and Mr. Montefiore went and saw
several patients they thought afflicted with the plague; but their
minds were not perfectly made up. To-day, there is no longer any
doubt. I accompanied Mr. Montefiore, in his visits, and now there are
about twenty, and the number is increasing. Thus, then, this long
expected scourge has visited this city, and our Father only knows when
the awful visitation may cease. We can only cast ourselves on his holy
and loving hands for safety or peace: into these hands we do cast
ourselves, with all that is dearest to us in this world. We have
proved our Jesus to be the Captain and Author of our hopes, and always
found that in the power of his name we have obtained the victory.
Nothing but the Lord's loving pity can prevent the most awful
extension of the disease; not only are the people crowded together,
two or three dying in one room, but the intercourse is perfectly
unrestricted in all parts of the city, so that I fear what is now
confined to one quarter, and might possibly, by a vigilant government
be kept there, is spreading in all directions. We have, therefore,
been forced to the most painful step of breaking up our school, for it
would have been quite impossible to collect together eighty children
from different parts of the city, without exposing all to danger. May
the Lord enable us profitably to avail ourselves of our retirement, to
cultivate a more extended communion with him who is our life. Dear M.
is much staid on her God, and feels that as he has been, so he will be
to us a hiding place in every storm.
_April 1._--The plague is still increasing, but apparently not
rapidly. We wait the Lord's pleasure in our own house. The only
inconvenience is want of water, which cannot be had from without; and
they say that when the plague becomes intense all the water carriers
cease to ply; but the Lord hath said, in the time of famine ye shall
be satisfied; on this promise we rest in peace.
Two English gentlemen set off to-morrow across the desert with a
single guide to Damascus, to examine the means of communication by
water between the Mediterranean and Aleppo. From thence, should they
be spared, they purpose going to Beer, and thence pass down the
Euphrates with the view of ascertaining its fitness for steam
navigation. Surveys have already been completed between this and
Bussorah, of both the Tigris and Euphrates, by Mr. Ormsby, in part
assisted by Mr. Elliot, and from Ana to Felugia by Captain Chesney
of the Royal Artillery, and there remains between Beer and Ana to
be examined. Through all that has yet been surveyed there is no
obstruction, but it is expected there will be a little labour required
in one or two points of what remains to be surveyed, before steam
communications could proceed on the rivers. If these gentlemen thus
labour for what perishes in the using, and run such risks, going as
they are across the desert with a guide, whose language they do not
understand, ought it to be called tempting God, in us going for such a
work as ours is, to run similar risks and encounter similar dangers.
The deaths at present from the plague are confined to the Mohammedans
and the Jews. To avoid it, many of the Jews have gone to Bussorah,
and the Kourds who brought it here have fled from the city; a large
caravan of Christians are now thinking of returning to Mosul, who were
driven from Mosul three or four years ago by plague and its attendant
famine.
The poor Jews have been robbed of every thing by the Arabs, and sent
naked back, and there seems little better prospect for those who are
going to Mosul: they have the Arabs on one side the road, and the
Kourds on the other.
It is striking how fully and simply the Mohammedans admit the expected
coming of our Lord and the end of the world. The end of our Lord's
coming they conceive to be to set his seal to Mohammed's mission, and
that all Christians will become Mohammedans. Still these fundamental
errors in their views do not prevent a clear and distinct expectation
similar to that of the heathen at the time of our Lord's coming.
Certainly no people can have a worse opinion of the state of the
professors of their religion than the Mohammedans have; still, with
the loss of zeal for their own, their heart seems full of a strong
delusion to believe a lie, and hate the way of life, and above all,
the Lord who is the true God and eternal life.
How blessed the 91st Psalm feels at such moments as these, in looking
round on one's little family, to know that every arrow that flies,
winged with death, is no random shot, but that the Lord who is your
life, and by whom your life is hid in God, directs them all. Call upon
me, says the Lord, in the day of trouble, and I will deliver _thee_,
and thou shalt _glorify me_. Blessed Lord, when thou hast (as thou
most assuredly wilt do) delivered us, may we never forget to glorify
and bless thee. Oh! what a blessed feeling it is to know that you are
not under the general but especial and particular government of
Jehovah--that he has redeemed you, and you are his--that he has
engraven you on the palms of his hands; and that day and night he is
watching to preserve you.
_April 3._--An immense crowd of poor Jews left the city this morning,
to escape the destruction of the plague. The Christians also are
leaving in every direction they can find open. I fear these poor
creatures in their flight can hardly fail to carry the plague with
them.
I have lately read several of Erskine's works, or little portions of
his writings, and never did I see the pernicious effects of system
displayed more legibly than in several of his most interesting, but as
a whole, most delusive publications. In his view of Gospel freeness,
and other places where similar views to those contained in that little
work are promulgated, there seems, to my mind, a radical defect, that
nothing in so good a man accounts for but the baneful effects of a
system, and a secret insurmountable repugnance to the sovereignty of
God's government, and the individuality of God's election in Christ
Jesus, from before the foundation of the world. I do not mean that
these doctrines are denounced; but they evidently are not entertained
as the comfort and consolation of the soul, nor as they are
represented by the Apostles, as the most overwhelming reasons for
unlimited devotion to his service, who has thus chosen us with our
bodies, souls, and spirits, which are his. He talks of spreading the
beauty of the Lord Jesus, and the excellency of God's love, not only
as the pasture of their souls, who are born again of the Spirit, of
which they undoubtedly are the legitimate, the only food and means of
their spiritual growth, but as the cause of spiritual life in the
unregenerate by being believed. Now, this appears to me a radical and
fundamental error. Food does not give life, though it sustains and
expands it. What he says of the effects of love, in moulding the soul
to the likeness of the object beloved, is most true; but in order to
the existence of this love, not merely faith in God's love seems to be
necessary, nor the reality of the things promised, but such a new
creation in the soul, as shall see a desirableness in it and them.
As we see in nature, when the heart is engaged by one object of
affection, any demonstration of affection from another, which involves
the relinquishment of it, not only does not give pleasure, but
positive pain, though you know its reality, purity, and intensity; the
fact is, the affections are occupied, and there is no place. So it is
by nature with every man, and while he remains in this state, no
knowledge of love, however real, intense, and devoted, when he sees
its tendency to disconnect him from the only source of known
enjoyment, by the substitution of that which he has no senses to
appreciate, will ever be found available. It appears to me, that the
spiritual immortal generation of the second Adam, the Lord from
heaven, is in Scripture represented to be as real and absolute as the
generation from our earthly head, and only invisible from being
spiritual. It has its proper food, its proper growth. Without being
thus begotten from above, though you could display all the beauties of
him who is the chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely, though
you could display all the Father's love to the church from the day he
commanded his gathering it, till this day, it would be as powerless as
spreading the most sumptuous banquet before the dead.
With respect to the general design of vindicating the government of
God from the charge of partiality, which I feel to be at the bottom of
Mr. Erskine's views, I do not see that the Lord has committed it to
us, but, whenever in the Old Testament or in the New, he pleads with
his children against their ingratitude, it is from the specialty of
his love. He does not say to the Israelites, I have dealt with you
after a common dealing with all; but, with what nation has the Lord
dealt as with Israel. So, in the New, he says, "I have chosen you, not
you me." In the prayer of our Lord, in John xvii. in the Epistles of
Paul and Peter--in the Revelations, and so in all the called and
chosen, and faithful, who are written in the Lamb's book of life, and
have been from the foundation of the world, from the beginning to the
end, I see a constant reference made, and the warmest and most
enlarged attachment of the affections demanded, on the ground of
peculiar, especial, and personal choice on the part of God. That all
this is consistent with every perfection of God's character, and,
therefore, with his equal justice and mercy, I have the fullest
assurance, but that we are in possession of the means of shewing it,
or that the Lord requires it at our hands, I feel fully assured of the
contrary. And the danger Mr. E. seems to apprehend from stating the
doctrines of election as they are usually stated, are more imaginary
than real. For God, who by his Holy Spirit begets the soul again in
the likeness of the divine nature, gives to that nature thus begotten
the power of discriminating in its food between night-shade and sweet
pasture.--When he has created in the soul of any human being the love
of himself, he gives him, with this love, the privilege to rejoice
that his name is written in heaven, and the minister of Christ is by
no means embarrassed by all these apparent difficulties, for he has to
display all the beauty of Christ, all the love of the Father, all the
graces of the Spirit before the assembled world, knowing that all the
sheep will hear, and feed, and grow, and that the goats will cavil and
stamp down the pasture with their feet. But, ye believe not, because
ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you, My sheep hear my voice and
I know them, and they follow me. Again, he that is of God hath God's
words, ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. How and
why this is we are not able nor willing to try to answer: all we can
say is, hath not the Lord right to do what he will with his own. Shall
the thing formed say to Him that formed it, "What makest thou?" And
"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right." And many, many more
like it.
_April 4._--We were last night alarmed by the voices of apparently
thousands of persons on the other side of the river; by degrees the
discharges of guns were mingled with the cries, which gradually
extended also to this side the river. We concluded it must be from a
tribe of Arabs having broken into the city, the noise being exactly
similar, only much more violent, to that of the two tribes of Arabs
who were contending the other day. But after an hour's suspense, we
heard it was a concourse of Arabs to supplicate from God the removal
of the plague from them.
The deaths from the plague do not seem to increase with any rapidity,
these two or three days; 150 perhaps is the highest any day. On a
preceding occasion, about 60 years ago, it amounted to near 2000 a
day. There is with us the father of our schoolmaster, who had the
plague at that time, and says you might have walked from one gate of
the city to the other, and hardly have met a person or heard a sound.
We trust it may be the Lord's gracious purpose to take off the
heaviness of his judgment, and spare yet a little longer this sinful
city.
The news from Europe also--how strange--how anxious; surely the Lord
seems sifting the nations, and shewing their rulers that without the
Lord's blessing their confidences, plans, and speculations, can never
stand. That they should have discovered also that the spiritual and
temporal character of the Pope's government are incompatible--surely
these are signs in the times that may make the most sceptical enquire.
Oh! how joyful a thought it is that the Lord is at hand, and our
pilgrimage near ending.
_April 7._--We had thought the Lord had removed the sword from us, but
we hear it is now near at hand; and the plague seems extending, or
every one is running away. Sometimes, on looking round on our dear
little circle, the old heavy faithless flesh would seek its quiet,
sheltered retreat under the lofty elms, but the Lord never allows the
spirit for one moment to desire otherwise than to wait and see the
salvation of our God, who will for his name's sake do wonderfully for
us, that our hearts may rejoice in him. We hear the enemy is within
three days of the city, and the Pasha is going out with all his Haram,
whether to contend or fly we do not know, but we think from his
character, the latter; but where shall he fly? If he flies with gold,
there are those who will plunder him: if he flies without, he cannot
stir a step. In fact, the moment his affairs are actually sinking, all
the miserable elements of his present comparative strength turn
against him.
_April 9._--Stillness still prevails over the city, like the calm
which precedes a convulsion; our neighbours are preparing for defence,
by getting armed men into their houses, but we sit down under the
shadow of the Almighty's wings, fully assured that in his name we
shall boast ourselves. The Pasha, however, has not gone out as he
intended yesterday.
We have just heard that the reports of the plague has stopped for a
little the approach of the enemies of the Pasha, still every thing is
exceedingly unsettled. He is going to shut himself up in the citadel
till the answer comes from Constantinople to his overtures, but all
those about him are against him, and wishing for the arrival of his
enemies. About fifty went out the other day, and seized on Hillah,[22]
but they were driven out.
[22] Hillah is a small town on the river Euphrates, a little
below the ruins of Babylon. It was built in the year 495 of the
Hegira, or 1115 of the Christian era, in a district called by the
natives El Aredh Babel; its population does not exceed between 6 and
7000, consisting of Arabs and Jews, there being no Christians, and
only such Turks as are employed in the Government. The inhabitants
bear a very bad character. The air is salubrious, and the soil
extremely fertile, producing great quantities of rice, dates, and
grain of different kinds, though it is not cultivated to above half
the degree of which it is susceptible,--See Mr. Rich's Memoirs on the
Ruins of Babylon.--_Editor._
_April 10._--The Lord has in many respects this day altered our
position here. One of Major Taylor's seapoys has died of the plague,
and now four of the servants are attacked. This has so alarmed Major
T. and the family, that they are immediately going off to a country
house, built by order of the Government of Bombay, for the Resident in
the neighbourhood of Bussorah, and they may or may not return to this
place. They have kindly offered us an asylum with them, and a passage
in their boat. Having no immediate occupation here at present, I feel
quite free to accept it, but there are considerations that prevent
us.--Hitherto the Lord has kept us safe, and no symptom of plague has
appeared in our dwelling--though it is all around us. We cannot move
without coming in contact with numbers of people for many days, and
being shut up in a small boat with the Arab sailors,[23] and even the
very plague we may leave this city to avoid, may have reached Bussorah
before we arrived there, as thousands have already set off from hence
for that place; besides which, should it be the Lord's pleasure that
the plague terminate soon, and we then wish to return, it may be many
months before we may meet with an opportunity. The only advantage
seems to be, that we should thus be apparently further removed from
those troubles which seem likely to arise in the threatened attempt to
depose this Pasha; yet, on the whole, we feel we may hold on with the
Lord's blessing; but if we were once to leave our present post, it
might be very difficult again to regain it.
[23] The whole of those who took down the boats died.