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
On the morning of July 28th, the infant daughter of Priest Eshoo, named
Sarah, after her sainted sister, lay on her death bed; and to punish
her father for his preaching, Mar Shimon forbade her burial in the
Nestorian graveyard. He collected a mob ready to do his bidding as soon
as she should die; but she lingered on, and so disappointed him for
that day. Next day she died, and at once he anathematized all who
should assist in her burial. A pious carpenter, however, forced his way
through the mob, and made her coffin. He remained steadfast throughout
the storm, replying to every dissuasion of his friends, "I must go
forward, even to the shedding of my blood."
The missionaries appealed to a former governor, who owned that part of
the city, for leave to bury in the cemetery used by the Nestorians from
time immemorial; but the patriarch paid no attention to his messages,
and the child remained unburied. Miss Fiske wrote, "As we look out on
this troubled sea, and sympathize with these afflicted parents, we love
to look up and think of the dear child as sweetly resting on the bosom
of the Saviour. May the Sabbath bring us a foretaste of heavenly rest."
But it found them still "where storms arise and ocean rolls." The
governor sent men to demand the digging of a grave, which the mob would
not allow. Meanwhile, the profligate Mar Gabriel craftily suggested
that a promise from the priest not to preach any more, might end the
trouble. "Never," was the prompt reply. "Let my dead remain unburied,
but I will not go back from the service of the Lord." This so enraged
the patriarch, that, for the sake of peace, the governor advised to
bury the body in one of the villages. The sorrowing parents then locked
their house, and leaving their babe alone in its slumbers, went to the
chapel. There they found comfort from a sermon on the text, "Through
much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God." About twenty
men returned with them to the house. Then one bearing the little coffin
went before; the rest followed, singing the forty-sixth Psalm. Even
Moslems gazed with wonder, as they passed close by the door of the
patriarch, and went out of the city gate. The engraving (page 154)
gives a very good representation of this gate. On the green hill-side
at Seir the little one was laid to rest, and the father, thanking the
company for their kindness, hastened them back, to be in time for the
afternoon service.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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