A MISSIONARY SERMON, AND A REMARKABLE TRADITION.
By George I. Butler
Last evening I had the privilege of listening to a very interesting discourse from Mr. Coon, a missionary to Persia. This man has spent the better part of his life laboring among the Nestorians and Mussulmans till gray-headed. He has now come ten thousand miles to arouse the cooling ardor of American Christians to the importance of missions to the heathen. His description of the difficulties encountered by missionaries in heathen lands was striking. In many places they had no books, no tracts, no churches, no schoolhouses, no Sabbath-schools, no newspapers, none of the comforts of our civilization; few of the people could read or write, and in many places they had no literature. Everything had to be made. The spoken language had to be reduced to its elements, characters chosen to represent sounds, these combined into words and sentences, and books written. Then the children had to be taught to read and write, the Bible had to be translated into this tongue, and its principles taught. As these scholars grew up, they were sent out to instruct others, till after many years’ labor, churches would be raised up, and civilization established. In many instances, men and women commencing as missionaries in early life would grow gray before seeing any marked growth. Ten years, Mr. Coon said, they labored in their mission, scarcely seeing a single conversion; but then the work advanced with greater rapidity. Not only were these difficulties to be met, but oppressive laws and every kind of hindrance. To proselyte from one sect to another was punishable with death. For one who had ever been a Mussulman to give up his religion for another was subject to the same penalty, and though the lecturer had never known this penalty to be inflicted, yet he had known of cases where persons were bastinadoed till their flesh hung in strips. The Nestorians were professedly Christian, being descended from apostolic churches; but their religion was all a form. It consisted of services in an ancient and dead language which many of the priests themselves did not understand, the observance of many fasts, and other outward rites. They were very “religious,” but their religion did not keep them from lying, stealing, getting drunk, &c. It was many years before they could be made to feel that they needed converting; but after they were made to feel their need of a Saviour, and found him to the joy of their souls, their zeal and love far surpassed that of most professors in our more favored land. He drew a striking contrast between their zeal in attending meetings, and that of church members here. Women would come from ten to sixty miles on foot to attend meeting, often carrying their children, wading through mud and sleet, and even barefooted in the winter season. Their liberality in giving of their scanty substance, notwithstanding their abject poverty, was something marvelous, when it is considered they were tenants who had to give three-fourths of all they raised for rent. Yet they felt it was a great privilege to give to Christ, in gratitude for the wonderful change wrought in them, and would even come and beg the missionaries to receive their donations. His contrast between these, and the course of genteel Christians in this land of plenty, who could hardly go a single block to attend religious services if the evening was a little unpleasant, and who were glad indeed if the contribution box got past them while hunting for the smallest piece of coin in their pocket, was something startling, and greatly to the disadvantage of the Christianity of our land of light. The great changes in the characters and lives of these Nestorian Christians wrought by means of missionary labor, was almost the only avenue to the Mohammedans. These changes astonished them. They began to inquire what could be the cause, and many were led to see it was the Bible, with its precious instruction; and thus their confidence was gained and access to their hearts was obtained, and a few of them were brought to Christ. Of course, the missionary, with his belief in the world’s conversion, drew a glowing picture of the great work to be done through the multiplication of missionary operations through the earth. We can accept his interesting facts, and reject his unscriptural conclusions. We cannot doubt that God has had a hand in the missionary operations of the past one hundred years. Indeed, they are one of the signs of Christ’s coming. We would not question but that many genuine conversions have been made, and many noble men and women have given their lives to the salvation of poor heathen. They have lived up to all the light they have had. And while a superficial kind of Christianity has become popular among men, and in the same ratio religion has lost its fervency, very likely in those countries where men embrace Christ at the peril of their lives this loss is not so apparent; and many honest souls will embrace the last message of mercy and be prepared for Christ’s coming. The speaker mentioned a tradition which he declares prevails through all those countries where Mohammedanism is in the ascendancy, and which is universally believed by them. They say there are to be in the history of the world twelve Imaums, i. e., great teachers, before the great day of Judgment. Of these great personages eleven have already passed off the stage of action. To the memory of some of these, shrines have been erected, and multitudes of pilgrims throng thither with rapt devotion. Among these, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed figure conspicuously. Mohammedans believe Jesus was a true prophet and teacher, and that his religion, as first taught, was good and true; but they claim that it became corrupted, and Mohammed followed and taught the only true religion. But the lecturer stated that the twelfth Imaum, for whom all Mohammedans are looking, is Jesus Christ; and there is a general expectation among them that his coming is to be very soon. He stated that this expectation has had so much effect upon them that many look upon Christianity with far more favor than formerly, and that many small sects are springing up among them whose existence is more or less directly traceable to a belief in this tradition. I confess this was a startling thought to me. While the speaker, of course, drew the conclusion from it that there was to be a mighty movement through the 180,000,000 of Mohammedans toward the acceptance of Christ as the Saviour and the world’s conversion, it looked to me as though God had, through his inscrutable providence, caused even the many millions of the followers of Arabia’s false prophet to contemplate the return of Jesus our Lord. Who shall say that in the loud cry of the closing message rays of glorious light shall not reach these far-off missionary stations, and that these poor and oppressed disciples of Jesus, who have taken their lives in their hands to follow him, will not receive his last work; and that this tradition so widely disseminated and believed may not prepare the way for many honest souls? However this may be, it is most remarkable that at the very time the proclamation of Christ’s soon coming is being made through all the nations of Christendom, a tradition to the same effect already exists among the 180,000,000 of Mohammedans. How these facts showing the zeal of missionaries to these distant lands should excite us to emulation! With a truth so much clearer than their creeds, with a hope almost consummated, a message founded on the sure prophetic word, and so near fulfilled that it has become almost a matter of sight instead of faith, how ardently should we labor. Our pathway is strewn with roses compared with the thorny path of missionaries to the heathen. Why should these excel us in zeal? Oh, for more of the self-sacrificing spirit among ministry and people that characterizes those who take their lives in their hands, and go away from the earthly associations they love, to live and die for the salvation of the ignorant and degraded! Missionary fields exist all around us, where we may labor for God. The heart to labor is the great thing needed. May the Lord give it to us all. Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, Nov. 8.