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1824–1843.

In February, 1824, the Grand Seignior, influenced, as it would appear, by Rome, issued a proclamation to the Pashas throughout Western Asia, forbidding the distribution of the Christian Scriptures, and commanding those who had received copies to deliver them to the public authorities to be burnt. The copies remaining in the hands of the distributors were to be sealed up till they could be sent back to Europe. But few copies were obtained from the people, and the Turks seemed to take very little interest in the matter.

Messrs. Fisk and King made their third and last visit to Jerusalem in the spring of 1825, arriving there on the 29th of March. On their way, they had stopped a few weeks in Jaffa, where their labors gave rise to some very absurd reports, which yet appeared credible to the superstitious people. Some said, that the missionaries bought people with money; that the price for common people was ten piastres, and that those ten piastres always remained with the man who received them, however much he might spend from them. Others said, that the picture of professed converts was taken in a book, and that the missionaries would shoot the picture, should the man go back to his former religion, and he would of course die. A Moslem, having heard that men were hired to worship the devil, asked if it were true, saying that he would come, and bring a hundred others with him. "What," said his friend, "would you worship the devil?" "Yes," said he, "if I was paid for it."

The brethren were cordially received by their acquaintances at Jerusalem. Two days afterwards, the pasha of Damascus sat down before the city, with three thousand soldiers, to collect his annual tribute. The amount to be paid by each community was determined solely by his own caprice, and what he could not be induced to remit was extorted by arrest, imprisonment, and the bastinado. Many of the inhabitants fled, and the rest lived in constant terror and distress. So great was the confusion and insecurity within and around the city, that the brethren decided to return to Beirût, where they arrived on the 18th of May. From 1822 to 1825 they and their associates had distributed nearly four thousand copies of the Scriptures, and parts thereof, in different languages, and about twenty thousand tracts. After staying a month at Beirût, Mr. King passed six weeks at Deir el-Kamr in the study of Syriac, with Asaad el-Shidiak for his teacher, a remarkable young Maronite, who will have a prominent place in this history. On returning to Beirût, Mr. King wrote a farewell letter to his friends in Palestine and Syria, which Asaad translated into excellent Arabic, and afterwards multiplied copies for distribution. It was a tract destined to exert an important influence.

Mr. King's term of service had now expired; and on the 26th of August, 1825, after three years of active and very useful missionary labors, he left Syria homeward bound. He went first to Tarsus by ship, and thence, by what proved a tedious land journey, to Smyrna. His clothes, books, papers, and several valuable manuscripts were sent by a vessel, that was taken by a Greek cruiser, and only a part of them were returned. On his arrival at Smyrna, December 4, he received the painful intelligence of the death of his beloved associate at Beirût.

Mr. King remained several months at Smyrna, waiting the recovery of his effects, making good progress, meanwhile, in the modern Greek language, and doing much service for the Greeks. He then visited Constantinople with the Rev. Mr. Hartley, of the Church Missionary Society, where he was received by several high Greek ecclesiastics with a kindness similar to that he had received from the Greeks of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor. It was after his departure, that a copy of his Farewell Letter found its way into the hands of Armenians, who brought it before a council convened for the purpose, as will be related hereafter. He returned to France just four years from the time of his departure to enter upon his mission. Pious people were everywhere exceedingly eager to hear his statements. Enough was contributed by friends in Paris, to purchase a font of Armenian type for the press at Malta, which he ordered before leaving the metropolis. When in England he obtained funds for Arabic types, and left orders for a font in London. Mrs. Hannah More, then at an advanced age, was among the contributors. He returned home at the close of the summer of 1827, and soon after the annual meeting of the Board made a tour as agent through the Southern and Middle States, which occupied him till April of the following year. The Rev. Edward N. Kirk (now Dr. Kirk of Boston) was associated with him in this agency.

Mr. Fisk had a good constitution, and would probably have endured the climate of Syria for many years, with no more strain upon it in the way of travel, than subsequent experience warranted. The reader of the preceding pages will be prepared to apprehend special danger from his return to Beirût in a season, that was sickly beyond the recollection of the oldest of the Franks. He first spoke of being ill on Tuesday, October 11, having had a restless night. His experience was similar on several succeeding nights, but during the day he seemed tolerably comfortable, enjoyed conversation, and frequently desired the Scriptures to be read, remarking on the importance of the subjects, and the preciousness of the promises. His devotional feelings were awakened and his spirits revived by the reading or singing of hymns, such as he suggested. On the 19th his mind was somewhat affected, and he fainted while preparations were being made for removing him to his bed. The next day, according to a request he had made some time before, he was informed of the probable issue of his sickness. He heard it with composure; remarking that he believed the commanding object of his life, for the seventeen years past, had been the glory of Christ and the good of the Church. During the day he dictated letters to his father, and to his missionary brethren King and Temple. On Thursday he asked for the reading of that portion of Mrs. Graham's "Provision for Passing over Jordan," where it is said, "To be where Thou art, to see Thee as Thou art, to be made like Thee, the last sinful motion forever past,"—he anticipated the conclusion, and said, with an expressive emphasis, "That's Heaven." As the evening approached, he was very peaceful, and in the midst he spoke out, saying: "I know not what this is, but it seems to me like the silence that precedes the dissolution of nature." Becoming conscious that the fever was returning, he said, "What the Lord intends to do with me, I cannot tell, but my impression is, that this is my last night." The fever, however, was lighter than usual, and the next forenoon there was some hope that it might be overcome. Yet it returned in the afternoon, with all its alarming symptoms. At six o'clock he had greatly altered, and the hand of death seemed really upon him. At eight a physician, who had been sent for, arrived from Sidon, but Mr. Fisk was insensible. Though the physician expressed little hope of saving him, he ordered appliances which arrested the paroxysm of fever, and restored him temporarily to consciousness. He was quiet during Saturday, the 22d, and there were no alarming appearances at sunset. But before midnight all hope had fled. "We hastened to his bedside," say his brethren, "found him panting for breath, and evidently sinking into the arms of death. The physician immediately left him, and retired to rest. We sat down, conversed, prayed, wept, and watched the progress of his dissolution, until, at precisely three o'clock on the Lord's day morning, October 23, 1825, the soul, which had been so long waiting for deliverance, was quietly released. It rose, like its great Deliverer, very early on the first day of the week, triumphant over death, and entered, as we believe, on that Sabbath, of eternal rest, which remaineth for the people of God."

His age was thirty-three. As soon as the fact of his death became known, all the flags of the different consuls were seen at half-mast. The funeral was attended at four P. M., in the presence of a more numerous and orderly concourse of people, than had been witnessed there on a similar occasion.

Mr. Fisk had a strong affinity, in the constitution of his mind and the character of his piety, to the late Miss Fidelia Fiske, of the Nestorian mission, who was his cousin, and whose praise is in all the churches. He was an uncommon man. With a vigorous constitution, and great capacity for labor, he possessed a discriminating judgment, an ardent spirit of enterprise, intrepidity, decision, perseverance, entire devotion to the service of his Master, facility in the acquisition of languages, and an equipoise of his faculties, which made it easy to accommodate himself to times, places, and companies. He was highly esteemed as a preacher before leaving home. "And who," said a weeping Arab, on hearing of his death, smiting on his breast, "who will now present the Gospel to us? I have heard no one explain God's word like him!" Aptness to teach was the prominent trait in his ministerial character, and in a land of strangers, he was esteemed, reverenced, and lamented.

The following tribute to his memory is from the pen of Mr. Bird:—

"The breach his death has made in the mission, is one which years will not probably repair. The length of time which our dear brother had spent in the missionary field, the extensive tours he had taken, the acquaintances and connections he had formed, and the knowledge he had acquired of the state of men and things in all the Levant, had well qualified him to act as our counselor and guide; while his personal endowments gave him a weight of character, sensibly felt by the natives. His knowledge of languages, considering his well-known active habits, has often been to us a subject of surprise and thanksgiving. All men who could comprehend French, Italian, or Greek, were accessible by his powerful admonitions. In the first-mentioned language he conversed with ease, and in the last two, performed with perfect fluency the common public services of a preacher of the Gospel. Even the Arabic he had so far mastered, as to commence in it a regular Sabbath service with a few of the natives. At the time of his death, besides preaching weekly in Arabic, and also in English in his turn, and besides his grammatical studies under an Arabic master, he had just commenced a work, to which, with the advice of us all, he was directing, for the time, his main attention. Having in a manner completed the tour of Palestine and Syria, and having become quite at home in Arabic grammar, he felt more than ever the need of a dictionary to introduce the missionary to the spoken language of the country. The ponderous folios of Richardson are for Persia; Golius, and the smaller work of Willmet, explain only the written language. We were therefore of the unanimous opinion, that a lexicon like the one in contemplation by Mr. Fisk, was needed, not only by ourselves, but by the missionaries who should succeed us. Our dear brother had written the catalogue of English words according to Johnson, and had just finished the catalogue (incomplete of course) of the corresponding Arabic, when disease arrested him. Had he lived, he hoped to visit his native country, and probably publish some account of his Christian researches in the Levant.

"Such were some of the plans and employments of our brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, when he was called off from all his labors of love among men. He is gone, but his memory lives. Never till called to sleep by his side, shall we forget the noble example of patience, faith, and zeal, which he has set us; and the churches at home will not forget him, till they shall have forgotten their duty to spread the Gospel."¹

The station at Jerusalem was suspended for nearly nine years, when unsuccessful efforts were made to revive it. The Rev. William M. Thomson, and Asa Dodge, M. D., were sent for that purpose. Mr. Thomson was the first to remove his family to Jerusalem, which he did in April, 1834. Mr. and Mrs. Nicholayson, of the London Jews Society, went with them to commence a mission among the Jews. Everything looked promising for a few weeks, and Mr. Thomson went down to Jaffa to bring up his furniture. During his absence, the Fellâhîn, roused by an order to draft every fifth man into the army, rose against Mohammed Ali, the then ruler of Syria. Jerusalem was the centre of this sudden rebellion; and Mr. Thomson, for nearly two months, found it impossible even to communicate with his family, so closely was the city besieged by the rebels. The first sense of personal danger to the mission families, arose from an earthquake of unusual severity, which extended to the coast and shook their old stone habitation so roughly that they were compelled to flee into the garden, and sleep there. Here they were exposed to the balls from the muskets of the Fellâhîn outside the walls. At length the rebels within the city somehow let in their friends outside, and it was an hour of terror when they took possession of the mission house, which was near the castle, dug loopholes through its walls, and began to fire on the soldiers of the fortress. The fire was of course returned, and the building, already shattered by the earthquake, was torn by the Egyptian cannon; while both it and the garden were filled with a multitude of lawless and angry rebels. The families found refuge in a lower room of the house, where the walls were thick, and there listened to the cannon balls as they whistled above them. The arrival of Ibrahim Pasha at length quieted the city.

Able to return to his family on the 11th of July, Mr. Thomson found his wife suffering from ophthalmia, with high inflammatory fever. Two days afterwards, Mr. Nicholayson was attacked with a fever, and the children were all sick. The case of Mrs. Thomson baffled all their skill. Convinced herself that she would not recover, the thought did not alarm her. For many weeks, she had been in the clearer regions of faith, enjoying greater nearness to God in prayer than ever before, with greater assurance of her interest in the covenant of grace through the Redeemer. She had indeed cherished the hope of laboring longer to bring some of the degraded daughters of Jerusalem to the Saviour; but the Lord knew best, and to His will she cheerfully submitted. She died peacefully on the 22d of July, 1834. The bereaved husband was apprehensive of difficulty in obtaining a suitable place for her burial; but the Greek bishop gave permission, and took the whole charge of preparing the grave.

Mr. Thomson now visited Beirût to confer with his brethren, and was advised to remove to that place. The Rev. George B. Whiting and wife and Dr. and Mrs. Dodge, were to occupy the station thus vacated, aided by Miss Betsey Tilden. Dr. Dodge accompanied Mr. Thomson on his return, and assisted him in removing his babe and his effects to Beirût; and on the 22d of October he and Mr. Whiting were on their way with their families to Jerusalem.

Early in the winter, Dr. Dodge was called to Beirût to prescribe for Mrs. Bird, who was dangerously sick. Mr. Nicholayson returned with him to Jerusalem, arriving there on the 3d of January, 1835, cold, wet, and exhausted with fatigue, having traveled on horseback nearly seventeen hours the last day. The peril of such an exposure in that climate was not realized at the time. Both were soon taken sick, and Dr. Dodge rapidly sunk, though a physician from one of the western States of America arrived at the critical moment, and remained with him to the last. He died on the 28th of January, and Mrs. Dodge removed to Beirût. The arrival of Rev. John F. Lanneau in the spring of 1836, furnished an associate for Mr. Whiting. A school was opened, and numerous books were sold to the pilgrims. Early in the next year, Tannûs Kerem of Safet was engaged as a native assistant. He was born and educated in the Latin Church, but in thought and feeling was with the mission, and enlarged their personal acquaintance and influence. In the summer the cholera appeared, and swept off four hundred victims in a month. Mr. Homes, of the mission to Turkey, was there at the time, and all devoted themselves to the gratuitous service of the sick, a thing unknown before in that region. They gave medical aid to many, nearly all of whom recovered, and thus gained many friends. Preaching was commenced in September to a small but attentive congregation. Mrs. Whiting and Miss Tilden had an interesting school, composed chiefly of Mohammedan girls. There was also a school for boys under a Greek teacher, with twenty-four pupils. In 1838, Mr. Whiting was obliged, by the protracted sickness of his wife, to visit the United States, and Mr. Lanneau was alone at Jerusalem, with Tannûs Kerem, and suffering from extreme weakness of the eyes; but was encouraged by the arrival of Rev. Charles S. Sherman and wife in the autumn of 1839. The new missionary expressed his surprise at finding the different classes so little affected by the prejudices of sect in their intercourse with members of the mission. The illness of Mr. Lanneau became at length so distressing, as to require his absence from the field for nearly two years. Before his return to the East, which was early in 1843, the Committee had expressed an opinion, that it was expedient to suspend further efforts at Jerusalem. Mr. Lanneau, however, resumed his abode there until the visit of the writer, with Dr. Hawes, in the spring of 1844, This was after there had been a protracted conference with the mission at Beirût, at which nothing appeared to affect the decision of the Prudential Committee, and Mr. Lanneau removed with his family to Beirût. Writing of Jerusalem to the Committee, Dr. Hawes says: "In regard to this city, viewed as a field for missionary labor, I saw nothing which should give it a special claim on our attention. It has indeed a considerable population, amounting perhaps to seventeen or eighteen thousand. But it is such a population as seemed to me to bear a near resemblance to the contents of the sheet which Peter saw let down from heaven by the four corners. It is composed of well-nigh all nations and of all religions, who are distinguished for nothing so much as for jealousy and hatred of each other. As to the crowds of pilgrims who annually visit the Holy City—a gross misnomer, by the way, as it now is—they are certainly no very hopeful subjects of missionary effort; drawn thither, as they are, chiefly by the spirit of superstition; and during the brief time they remain there, kept continually under the excitement of lying vanities, which without number are addressed to their eyes, and poured in at their ears."

The burying-ground belonging to the Board, on a central part of Mount Zion, near the so-called "Tomb of David," and not far from the city, inclosed by a stone wall, was reserved for a Protestant burying-place, to be for the use of all sects of Protestant Christians.

¹ Missionary Herald for 1827, pp. 101, 102.