Woman and Her Saviour in Persia: By a Returned MissionaryLaurie, Thomas
History
Woman and Her Saviour in Persia: By a Returned Missionary
Laurie, Thomas
Church of the East -- Missions; Missions -- Iran; Women missionaries
For ten long years we hear nothing of either of the three; till, in
September, 1861, Yonan--the same who found them in 1850--and another
preacher visited the mountains. In a village of Tiary, some two
thousand people were keeping the feast of the cross--eating, drinking,
dancing, and carousing. They sat down among the quietest of the crowd.
Heleneh came up and saluted them. Though she had not seen her teacher
for eleven years, she recognized him at once. They talked from morning
till near sunset. As they spoke of old friends, Yonan asked, "Heleneh,
do you remember where our Lord was crucified?" "On Calvary. Can I
forget _Calvary?_" as though grieved that he should think she could
forget. Yonan gave her a kerchief for the head, saying, "Take this, and
remember me by it." "Shall I remember you by this?" was the reply. "I
will remember you in my prayers." "Do you pray, Heleneh?"--She was the
last one converted, and left Oroomiah soon after her conversion; so he
wanted to know whether she still held on her Christian way.--"Always,"
was the answer. They sought a place to pray together; and though they
might not go away alone, yet there, in sight, but not in hearing of the
crowd, they approached the mercy seat, the spectators little dreaming
of the nature of their intercourse. It was delightful to find that she
had not forgotten the language or the spirit of devotion.
The accompanying sketch of a Tiary girl will show how the kerchief is
worn. It also exhibits the mode of using the Oriental spindle, which is
probably a facsimile of the article mentioned by Solomon. (Prov. xxxi.
19.)
[Illustration: A TIARY GIRL]
The other two were not at the feast; so, next day, they left to seek
them at their homes. Nazee was absent, but came home in the morning--a
widow with two children. She was delighted, and even her children
seemed to recognize in the strangers their mother's friends. She was
poor; her house had been burned, and almost all it contained; but a
stone was on her Testament, and that was saved. They talked long with
her, and gave her a copy of the Rays of Light (the monthly periodical
issued by the mission), and a pencil to write to her friends. She gave
them letters written ten years before, which she had penned in secret,
and carried about with her ever since, waiting an opportunity to send
them.
The next day, another long journey brought them to the home of Sarah;
she saw them coming and hastened to meet them; but that very night she
had to leave for a distant village: yet not till in answer to prayer
they had an opportunity to pray together; and the friends left that
village happy; for, as Yonan said, they "found her, like the others,
having the love of our Christ in her heart."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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