THE OUTLOOK IN PERSIA by Benjamin Labaree

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 1, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 22.

THE OUTLOOK IN PERSIA.

By Benjamin Labaree

[By Rev. Benjamin Labaree, D. D., Urumia, Persia, missionary of the American Presbyterian Church (North).]

SINCE the first onset of the Russian excitement six years ago, which swept the greater part of the Nestorians of Urumia into nominal relations with the Greek Church, gathering in also not a few from our Presbyterian fold, our churches have seemed as if benumbed in their spiritual life. Happily there seems to be coming a change for the better. The withdrawal of the Russian mission, probably only for a time, has given our pastors and people fresh courage and some larger freedom of action. A turn in the tide of popular interest toward the evangelical faith is quite apparent. In many villages faces once familiar in our congregations, but now absent for months, are reappearing. The old desire to hear the Gospel, as preached from our pulpits and taught in our Sunday-schools, is reviving. "What brought you back?" was asked of some young men, heads of families, in one of our congregations. They replied, "We have never been able to get rid of the convictions we received in our boyhood while attending the mission schools." Messages are coming, too, from villages wholly Russian in name, "Come and preach to us."

A number of churches have held revival services since the week of prayer, some with and some without missionary aid. As a rule, they have been attended by large numbers, and many, we hope, have found the Saviour. But there has not been the general and deep spiritual awakening that we have known in some former years.

The Syrian (Nestorian) nation is a small one, and, as a Christian nation, has suffered much at the hands of Islam. But it is likely to have an influence on the future of Persia beyond its numerical standing. Intelligence is spreading in the community; a new sense of inherent capacities for higher duties and responsibilities animates the thoughtful classes; poverty is giving way to more prosperous conditions; eagerness for education is growing rapidly; and there is an increasing number of our Christian men and women engaged in missionary efforts for the non-Christian populations.

Probably in the eyes of the great Moslem population around us no branch of our missionary work stands so high in honor as the medical institutions—

hospital, dispensaries, medical students, and graduates, with the revered physician-in-chief at their head. From a scientific standpoint many interesting facts and signal results might be given, but its moral and spiritual influence is its highest honor from the missionary point of view. Religious services on Sunday in two languages and daily evening prayers, which the patients able to do so, are expected to attend, emphasize not alone the purposes of the institution, but also its dependence on the divine blessing for its highest success. Our physician reports that in his private practise among the nobility he has found an increasing disposition to religious inquiry, which has led to many important conversations.

A prominent Moslem ecclesiastic was seriously ill last winter. Sending for our missionary physician, he urged him to say frankly what were the prospects for his recovery. When informed that he could not hope to live many weeks, he was deeply agitated. Being asked why the thought of death should trouble him so greatly if his entrance into Paradise was assured through his Moslem creed, he replied that there was the trouble; he could not be sure of what was before him at the judgment-seat of God. The Christian's confident and joyous hope was tenderly explained to the dying mollah, and he remarked that with such a hope death would be a very different matter.