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
It may strike the reader as strange that a man so notorious for
wickedness as Deacon Guwergis was, should be allowed in the Seminary;
but Oriental notions of hospitality are widely different from ours; and
in order to do good to a people, however rude, they must feel that you
are their friend. No protection from government can take the place of
this feeling of affectionate confidence from the people; and while
sufficient help was at hand to repel any overt wickedness, the highest
usefulness required that patient love should have its perfect work, and
in this case, at least, its labor was not unrewarded.
The usefulness of the Seminary among the relatives of its pupils was
illustrated in another case that occurred about the same time. March
2d, 1846, the father of one of the girls called and inquired, with
tears, if his daughter was troubled for her sins. Surprised at such an
inquiry from a notorious drunkard, he was exhorted to seek his own
salvation. He then told how he had been taught the plague of his own
heart, and, as a ruined sinner, was clinging to Christ alone. His
prayers showed that he was no stranger at the throne of grace. Father
and daughter spent the evening mingling their supplications and tears
before the mercy seat. The daughter had given more trouble than any in
school, and several times had almost been sent away. Four days later,
her mother came, and remained several days, almost the whole time in
tears, and hardly speaking, except to pray. Her daughter and the pious
members of the school were unwilling to let her go till she came to
Christ, and she seemed to take him for her Saviour before she left. She
was a sister of Priest Abraham, and had been so exceedingly clamorous
and profane in her opposition to religion, that her brother had for
years dreaded to see her. How did he rejoice, when, instead of the
customary oath, he found her uttering the praises of her Saviour! The
sister of her husband had been one of the vainest of the vain, wearing
an amount of ornament unusual even for a Nestorian; but she no sooner
put on the righteousness of Christ than she sold her ornaments, and,
giving the proceeds to the poor, clothed herself with that modest
apparel which becometh women professing godliness. The husband himself,
though an illiterate laborer, preached the gospel while at work in the
field, and often took two or three of his associates aside to pray with
them, and to tell them of Christ and his salvation.
But these cases must suffice: we can only indicate the ways in which
the school became a centre of holy influence, especially for woman; but
it is impossible to narrate all the facts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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