History of the missions of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions to the oriental churches, Volume II.Anderson, Rufus
Religion
History of the missions of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions to the oriental churches, Volume II.
Anderson, Rufus
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; Missions -- Eastern churches
"2. Partly as the result of this, but still distinct and beyond it,
he had a marvelous faculty of making every man feel that he was
especially an object of personal interest. Perhaps not that he alone
was such, but that he was one of those taken into the inner sanctum
of his affections. Love begets love, and believing that they were so
dear to him, he was soon very dear to them. And he was never lacking
in the outward expression of love. He was not afraid they would
think he loved them too much.
"3. He always had something to say. I suppose there is some good
done by public preaching, but it is the preacher who is ready, in
the face-to-face opportunity, who comes home laden with sheaves. Mr.
Walker was always ready. Meet a man when he might, where he might,
just the right word was on his tongue. And that warm grip of his
hand, into how many souls has it infused a new and spiritual life.
So he begot his children in the gospel; and by his sermons, which
were always thoughtful, he built them up into Christian characters,
as a workman who needeth not to be ashamed. Our Cutterbul deacon
says to me since his death, 'I _never_ saw such a man.' When he left
for Constantinople in 1859, perhaps one hundred men waited upon him
out of the city, and he spoke to every one, and repeated nothing,
but had a special word for each, exactly adapted to his case."
Mrs. Walker returned to the United States, with her four children,
in the following summer, and has since been recognized,--in
connection with a benevolent lady in New York city,--as sustaining
a relation of maternal guardianship to returned children of
missionaries.
At the close of the year Mr. Wheeler and others made a visit to
Choonkoosh, two days' journey from Harpoot. Many of the people came
several miles to welcome them, and crowds escorted them into the
city. "Nine years ago," says Mr. Wheeler, "I made my first visit
here in company with brother Dunmore, and we were hooted at, stoned,
and at last driven from our room, in the pouring rain and splashing
mud of a dark night." Now, every house seemed open to receive them.
"Their new place for Protestant worship testified to the remarkable
change. The men had brought all the timber, by hand, a distance of
from three to five miles, and it sometimes required thirty men to
bring one piece. Women and children brought water, earth, and
stones; and women were still busy in plastering the walls, so that a
meeting might be held there before we left!"[1]
[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1867, p. 108.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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