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 is one thing to pray for our degraded sisters while in America, but
quite another to raise them from their low estate. When I saw their
true character, I found that I needed a purer, holier love for them
than I had ever possessed. It was good for me to see that _I_ could do
nothing, and it was comforting to think that Jesus had talked with just
such females as composed the mass around me, and that afterwards many
believed because of one such woman."
Sometimes the revilings of the women were almost equalled by similar
talk among the men, as in a village of Gawar, where they said, "We
would not receive a priest or deacon here who could not swear well, and
lie too." In the same village, a young man spoke favorably of Mr.
Coan's preaching in Jeloo. Instantly a woman called out, "And have you
heard those deceivers preach?" "Yes," was the reply, "both last year
and this, and hope I shall again." Hearing this, her eyes flashed, and
drawing her brawny arms into the form of a dagger, with a vengeful
thrust of her imaginary weapon, she cried, "The blood of thy father
smite thee, thou Satan!" and dreadful was the volley of oaths and
curses that followed. Yet she was only a fair specimen of the village.
We of the calmer West do not know what it is to have a mob of such
women come forth in their wrath. In one town was a virago, who often,
single-handed, faced down and drove off Moslem tax-gatherers when the
men fled in terror. No one who has ever heard the stinging shrillness
of their tongues, or looked on their frenzied gestures, can ever forget
them, or wonder why the ancients painted the Furies in the form of
women. Words cannot portray the excitement of such a scene. The hair of
the frantic actors is streaming in the wind; stones and clods seem only
embodiments of the unearthly yells and shrieks that fill the air; and
yet it was such beings that grace made to be "last at the cross and
first at the sepulchre."
The East is notorious for profanity, and among the Nestorians women
were as profane as men. The pupils in the Seminary at first used to
swear, and use the vilest language on the slightest provocation. Poor,
blind Martha, on her death bed, in her own father's house, was
constantly cursed and reviled. She was obliged sometimes to cover her
head with the quilt, and stop her ears, to secure an opportunity to
pray for her profane and abusive brother; and though, in such
circumstances, she died before her prayers were answered, yet they were
heard, for he afterwards learned to serve his sister's God. "Do you
think people will believe me," said a pupil to her teacher, who was
reproving her for profanity, "if I do not repeat the name of God very
often?"
Lying was almost as common as profanity, and stealing quite as
prevalent as either. It was a frequent remark, "We all lie here; do you
think we could succeed in business without it?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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