THE GOSPEL IN RUSSIA by Delavan A. Pierson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 15, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 41.

THE GOSPEL IN RUSSIA.

By Delavan A. Pierson

BY DELAVAN A. PIERSON.

THE land of the czars is almost as much a closed land to the Gospel as are Tibet and Afghanistan. No stone is left unturned to bring every inhabitant into the Greek Church, and no persecution is too severe for those who become apostate. Active proselyting is carried on in the Baltic provinces and elsewhere, and between bribes and threats many of the people have joined the Russian Church. Proselyting for Protestants is not forbidden among Jews and others who are not adherents of the Greek faith, but converts are often sorely persecuted, as has been so abundantly seen in the case of the Stundists. The Baptists in Russia also continue to suffer deep persecution, to which has now been added the confiscation of all religious literature. In spite of the great difficulties under which they labor the work goes on, and they now report a membership of more than 17,000, with 90 ministers, and the baptisms last year were more than 1,200.

The religion of the great majority of the European inhabitants of Russia is, of course, the Orthodox, or Greek Church. The absence of a celibate clergy gives it an advantage over the Romish Church, and, until now, little, if any, obstacle has been placed in the way of the free circulation of the Holy Scriptures. The monks and the higher clergy are, however, forbidden to marry, and any advantage which the Greek Church possesses over its great rival in the matter of doctrine is almost outweighed by the superstition and idolatry which press alike on priest and people. Strong pressure is now being brought to bear to drive outsiders into the bosom of the Orthodox Church, but secession is making far greater progress than forced conversions. God is, indeed, working mightily in Russia among Jews and gentiles, in the midst of so much sin and wrong. In the case of the Jewish population the old prejudice is found to be slowly but surely giving way before the spirit of inquiry, and the seed sown in the past is beginning to bear fruit. The outlook for Christian missions is more than hopeful, and, altho theoretically absolutely forbidden by the government, up to the present time there has been little difficulty in carrying on the work of the British Bible Society, tho the workers have been compelled to exercise much tact, patience, and forbearance. The spiritual harvest is indeed plentiful. Denied the liberties enjoyed by all civilized people, the Russians thirst for the better liberty of the sons of God.

A clergyman of the Russian Orthodox Church recently wrote to a Moscow paper, saying that the rigorously suppressive laws lately promulgated against the Stundist sectarians are not only unsuccessful, but would actually appear to have given a renewed impetus both to the open and to the clandestine spread of the schism; while the best efforts of the special missionaries appointed to counteract the teaching of Stundism, and to re-attach the Orthodox apostates to that creed, have been absolutely fruitless. The most lamentable feature of this propaganda, says the clerical writer, is its evident progress among the intelligent class of Russians who have practically abandoned the state church, or who attend the church service once or twice a year as a mere habit. It is also to this growing public inclination toward Stundism that the writer attributes the difficulty of getting the majority of the ordinary magistracy to convict the Stundist propagandists, and for the same reason large employers ignore the legal injunctions laid upon them with regard to the exclusion of Stundist work-people of both sexes.

This writer makes a significant admission when he candidly avows that a large number of intelligent and educated people who are gradually adopting the Stundist creed would otherwise become freethinkers. Unlike many other Russian sectarians, the Stundists, whose religious tenets very closely resemble those of the Baptists, do not proselyte, and hence the police authorities find it difficult to convict them. It is by the force of example only, by their exemplary lives, their high-toned morality, sobriety, industry, thrift, and honest dealings that they attach the adherence and cohesion of their Orthodox neighbors. Their bitterest opponents in the state church can not deny these many virtues of the "heretics," nor can they, if they bear truthful evidence, decline to acknowledge the reclaimed lives and material prosperity of the many thousands of ignorant, intemperate, and degraded peasants who have voluntarily adopted the Stundist teaching and copied the manners and morals of the sectarians. There are no more conscientiously law-abiding subjects in the czar's dominions.

With the exception of part of Turkestan, Siberia, or Asiatic Russia, comprises the whole of Asia lying north of the Chinese Empire, Afghanistan, and Persia (area 4,833,496 square miles larger than Europe).

The greater part of this "land of exile" consists of monotonous lowlands stretching away to the horizon "like a limitless ocean plain." But toward the east rises a vast tableland, the Great Divide (i. e., between the Arctic and Pacific oceans), connected with which are the Yablonovoi, or Apple Mountains, and other ranges. In the southwest is the famous mining district of the Little Altai Mountains.

To the north are the extensive Tundra swamps, covered with snow eight months of the year under dull, leaden skies, the long nights now and then relieved by magnificent Northern Lights. The nomadic tribes dwelling here depend on the reindeer for their existence.

South of the Tundra is a forest zone, or Taiga, reaching almost uninterruptedly across the continent. The noted Siberian pine is conspicuous, and berry-producing bushes are abundant, supplying food for man and beast, quantities of berries being preserved for winter use.

The water system of Siberia is the most extensive, but least serviceable, of any in the Old World. The Obi, Yenisei, and Lena, running north, with the Amoor and lesser rivers, cover the country with a network of about 30,000 miles of navigable waterway. But unfortunately all are ice-bound most of the year, and only serve as sledge roads.

The people are chiefly of Mongol (or Tartar) descent; but many of the native tribes seem to be dying out or becoming absorbed in the advancing Russian element. Population, 8,000,000.

Eastern Siberia is largely occupied by the Tunguses, of whom it is said: "Travelers are never wearied of extolling their many admirable qualities; and there can be no doubt that they are one of the very noblest types of mankind. They are cheerful under the most depressing circumstances, persevering, open-hearted, trustworthy, modest, yet self-reliant, a fearless race of hunters, born amid the gloom of their dense pine forests, exposed from the cradle to every danger from wild beasts, cold, and hunger. Want and hardships of every kind they endure with surprising fortitude, and nothing can induce them to take service under the Russians, or quit their solitary woodlands, where they cheerfully face the long and harsh winters, when the snow-storm often rages for days together."

The Yakuts, of Turkish origin, dwelling on the banks of the Lena, are the most energetic and versatile of all Siberian people. This tribe, unlike the others, is increasing in numbers. They are described as "men of iron," and more inured to cold than perhaps any other people in the world.

The Koriaks, belonging to the "Hyperborean" group, treat their women and children very tenderly, but put an end to their weak or aged kindred, thinking it an act of mercy to save them from lingering death. The Kamschadales (aborigines of Kamchatka) keep their houses scrupulously clean, but the doors are so low that they have to be entered on all fours.

The Buriats, on Lake Baikal, are much addicted to drink and tobacco; even young children may often be seen smoking Chinese pipes.

In western Siberia the aborigines are of Finnish race—Soyots, Ostiaks, Samoyedes, and Voguls. The Cassocks hold villages on military tenure, supplying man, horse, and uniform, in lieu of rent.

The principal races in Russian Turkestan are the Uzbeks and the Tadjiks; the former an agricultural, and the latter a commercial people. High walls of sunburnt brick surround the towns, and gardens and vineyards are interspersed among the houses, which are of mud, thatched with reeds.

Over the steppes northeast of the Caspian and Aral seas roam the Kirghiz hordes. Their square graves, made of the trunks of trees, look at a distance like log huts. On the borders of Persia and Afghanistan dwell the Turcomans, shepherds and farmers.

Siberian towns, which are not populous tho covering large spaces of ground, form both trading and military posts, the mass of their inhabitants being Russian. Irkutsk is the capital of eastern Siberia, Omsk of western; Tobolsk, the chief commercial depot, exchanges the produce of Siberian mines, fisheries, and hunting-grounds for manufactured goods. Tomsk is the sole Siberian university; Yakutsk, on the Lena, probably the coldest town on the face of the earth.

The religion is nominally that of the

Greek Church, but throughout south Siberia, or Russian Central Asia, Mohammedanism prevails, and toward the Chinese frontier Buddhism. The old religion of Siberia was Shamanism, a kind of nature-worship, based entirely on oral tradition. Many of the people, tho outwardly Buddhists or Greek Christians, are still at heart Shamanists, e. g., the Tunguses and Yakuts, who (tho under Russian compulsion most of them have been baptized) despise the rites of the Greek Church as mere formalities, and are true nature-worshippers.

They believe that two principles of good and evil took part in the creation, the former making the earth level, and the latter tearing it up in a rage, whence the hills and valleys. It is held that a Supreme Being reigns above all, but too far off to hear prayer, too good to need supplication; and the circumstances of life are controlled by good and evil spirits, the latter requiring to be propitiated, but not the former.

The Samoyedes are idol-worshippers.

Political prisoners are chiefly found in the Transbaikal District, but "whole regions of Siberia are simply huge prison regions." Many of the exiles are Jews and Stundists. "The Stundists, for sobriety, industry, and godliness, are the cream of the czar's subjects. They send them off to Siberia; but they can not abstract from the Stundist his religious belief, his love of God's word or his love of proclaiming that word. So pure and undefiled religion penetrates into the prisons."

There is not a single resident Protestant missionary in the whole country. But in this, as in other lands where little personal effort has been made, that silent yet most eloquent missionary, the Bible, has found its way and brought light into many a dark home. The colporters of the British and Foreign Bible Society during the last year distributed nearly 50,000 copies, and met with universal kindness from the authorities and others. One colporter had an interview with the State Inspector of Prisons, who greeted him warmly, thanked the society, and "fervently wished that the blessing of God might rest on it and its work in Siberia." He said it gave him much pleasure to grant the colporter a permit to visit the prisons.

Dr. Baedeker, well known in Siberian prisons as the "good old man, the Anglichanin with the fine gray beard," has within the last few years preached the Gospel to multitudes in these dreary abodes, journeying across the whole continent. Describing his last visit, from which he has but recently returned, he speaks of "the joyful service in having new congregations of real sinners in every place, and even in every ward; sometimes also hundreds together in the corridor or in the yard eagerly catching the sound of the Gospel, which they have never heard before." All prisoners who could read were supplied, gratis, with copies of the Scriptures.

To resolute hearts the door into Siberia stands open. Whole-heartedness invariably wins the day. But "the half-hearted measure in which we evangelize the age deserves and brings failure. Steam and electricity in religion will win; old-fashioned, easy-going methods mean defeat. We have not heretofore won the age; let us not put all the blame upon the age."—Missionary Review.