"His early training, whereby he came to know Hebrew better than any other language, specially fitted him to become a translator of the Old Testament. This peculiar fitness was soon recognised by his missionary colleagues, who about 1865 entrusted him with the translation of the Old Testament into Northern Mandarin. He also worked on the Peking Committee as a translator of the New Testament. His version of the Old Testament, first published by the American Bible Society in 1875, has since been repeatedly issued by both the A.B.S. and the B.F.B.S. A revised edition appeared in 1899. But a still greater work was his translation of the whole Bible into Easy Wenli; he added the New Testament in this case, in order to secure uniformity; both Burdon and Blodgett"s, and Griffith John"s versions of the New Testament being in a somewhat different style. This Bible the A.B.S. published in 1902.
"The significance of Bishop Schereschewsky"s achievements, however, lies not so much in their extent and scholarship as in their testimony to the indomitable courage of the man and his devotion to his work. Six years after his consecration as Bishop he became paralysed, and had to resign his episcopal jurisdiction. His malady increased till it left him with the use of only the middle finger of each hand. Fortunately his intellect remained unimpaired, and with these two fingers he was able to type out his MSS., which were afterwards rewritten in Chinese characters by his secretary.
"But the toil was well worth while. To this man alone has it been granted to give to the two hundred and fifty million Mandarin-speaking Chinese, as well as to the ma.s.s of readers in China, the Oracles of G.o.d as found in the Old Testament. Reviewing, therefore, his life in the light of these facts, we may surely trace the divine purpose in taking him from one task, for which a successor would without difficulty be found, and setting him free for another, for which his whole previous life had been a unique preparation. As a translator his influence has been far wider than it could have been as a Bishop, and Chinese Christians will ever remember, with grat.i.tude to G.o.d, the great scholar who out of weakness was made strong--who laid so well and so truly the foundations of the Bible in their greatest vernacular, and in the more popular form of their written language."
SCHLOCHOW, Rev. Emmanuel, was born at Wingiz in Silesia. His father being indifferent to religion, he had no religious education, and became only aware that he was a Jew when his fellow-Christian scholars mockingly reminded him of it at school. This he could not endure, and his father advised him to go to a Roman Catholic priest and be baptized.
However, he was then a thorough infidel, and at one time, on account of some disappointment that he had met with, he bought a pistol and was about to commit suicide, when the Scotch missionary Cerf knocked at the door of his room, and not only rescued him from taking away his life, but by G.o.d"s help enabled him to devote that life to His service. He was converted and baptized in 1848. In 1851 he became connected with the L.J.S., and was sent as a missionary in 1853 to Ja.s.sy, where he remained three years. In 1856 he was appointed to Alsace, and had his station at Stra.s.sburg, whence he itinerated to France and the Rhine provinces, and met everywhere acceptance among Jews and Christians. In 1874 he went with the Rev. A. Bernstein on visits to several rabbis in Alsace and Lorraine, when they were cordially received and had profitable conversations. He then was transferred to Crefeld, but much suffering from asthma obliged him to retire to Worthing, where he died in 1876, and upon his tombstone in the churchyard there can be read the words in Hebrew, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," so that he still preaches to Jewish visitors.
SCHoNBERGER, Rev. C. A., after embracing Christianity, studied at Pesth and Basle and Leipzig, laboured for some time as a Scotch Free Church missionary at Pesth, where many Jews attended his lectures. He was ordained in Stuttgart in 1867, laboured then at Prague till 1872, when he entered the service of the British Society, and was sent back to Prague, and from there he was transferred to Vienna, where he was very efficient and realized the fulness of blessing upon his ministry. Some of his converts became preachers of the Gospel among Jews and Christians. About 1892 he returned to England, and on account of illness resigned his office. After the death of his brother-in-law, Dr. Saphir, he felt that he was called to supply in some measure his influence on behalf of the Jews, and he connected himself with the work carried on by Rabbi Lichtenstein at Pesth, and joining the Rev. David Baron, they both founded a mission in East London, under the name of the "Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel," where a great work has been going on ever since in their own mission-house in Whitechapel Road, whence the Gospel has been carried by word and literature to Hungary, the Danubian Princ.i.p.alities, and Russia.
SCIALITTI, Rabbi Moses, an Italian Jew, was baptized on Trinity Sunday, 1663 by Dr. Warmestre, Dean of Worcester, at the Church of St. Margaret, when the Bishop of Chester, Dr. Samuel Collins, the Countess Lucy of Huntingdon, and other persons of high standing were sponsors by proxy.
Scialitti subsequently addressed a letter in Italian and English to the Jews, stating the grounds for his embracing Christianity, and exhorting them to go and do likewise.
SCHUFFAMER, Rabbi Elisha, came from Salonica to Jerusalem, and was through the preaching of Dr. Ewald converted to Christianity and baptized in 1848. He then returned to Salonica to fetch his family, but four of his children had died, yet his wife followed him to Jerusalem.
There he was employed for a time as layreader, and was afterwards transferred to Cairo, where he had a Bible depot.
SCHULHOF, Dr. M., a Jewish convert, was a medical missionary of the British Society. In 1854 he published: "Notes on Diseases in Turkey in reference to European troops and Memoir of the remittant fever of the Levant."
SCHWARTZ, Rev. Dr. Karl (Solomon), was born at Meseritz in Posen in 1817. His father, Isaac Schwartz was a merchant, and gave him a strict rabbinic education, cherishing the hope that he would one day become a teacher in Israel. To this end he was sent to Berlin in 1832 to study at the rabbinic Seminary there. In the lectures the professors occasionally compared Judaism with Christianity, to the disadvantage, of course, of the latter. This excited in Schwartz a desire to examine Christianity for himself, so he took the first step by exchanging the Seminary for the Gymnasium. During the course of his studies he was instructed in Christianity and baptized October 18, 1837. He then studied theology for a year at Halle, under Tholuck, and then under Neander, Hengstenberg, and Twesten, for four years at Berlin. At that time he used to give lessons in foreign languages to the inmates of the Berlin House for foreign missions, when his landlady said to him once, "It is all very nice for you to teach these young men foreign languages in order that they may be qualified to preach the Gospel to the heathen. Have you at all thought of your own brethren who live in your own neighbourhood without the light of the Gospel?" This was a word in season. Thereupon he entered into correspondence with the L.J.S., joined the Church of England, and was ordained deacon by the Bishop of London on March 20, 1842, and was sent by the Society to Constantinople. On his way there he sojourned for awhile at Pesth, where his lectures on Isaiah liii. bore good fruit, and it seems that he then got engaged to Maria Dorothea, a daughter of Israel Saphir. He did not remain very long in Constantinople, because his connexion with the Scotch Mission at Pesth caused him to join the Free Church of Scotland, and he was sent by that Church to Berlin, where he was stationed from 1844 to 1849, and he went then to Prague, but settled in the same year at Amsterdam. There he found that the Dutch Jews were not so accessible as the Jews in Hungary, Turkey, and Germany, so he adopted the method of preaching special sermons in churches and inviting the Jews through advertis.e.m.e.nts to attend them. In 1850 he issued a Dutch paper, giving expositions of Messianic prophecy and the like, for circulation among the Jews. This he edited for several years. In 1856 a mission church was built for him, and his first sermon then was on Zech. iv. 6. In that church he baptized quite a number of Jews. On Sunday, August 1, 1858, Schwartz ascended the pulpit to preach to a congregation of 1,200, on St. John xii. 26, and while bowing down to offer up prayer, a young Jew quietly crept up the steps and stabbed him with a dagger in the left shoulder so that he was saturated with blood, and had to be carried home in a fainting condition. The attempted a.s.sa.s.sin was put into prison, where Schwartz, after his recovery, visited him but did not succeed in bringing him to a better mind. However, a near relation of his became a Christian after that event; and a Jewess, too, was thereby induced to come to Schwartz for instruction and baptism. After fifteen years" arduous labours in Holland, Schwartz accepted a call in 1864 from the congregation of Trinity Chapel, Newnham Street, London, to succeed Ridley Hersch.e.l.l. In London he founded a home for enquirers; and edited a periodical ent.i.tled, "The Scattered Nation." In 1866 he founded "The Hebrew Christian Alliance," and delivered lectures, besides preaching twice every Sunday. In this good work he continued till August 24, 1870, when he died on his knees at the age of fifty-three, and was buried near his friend, Ridley Hersch.e.l.l.
SCHWARZENBERG, Rabbi Abraham, lived in the little town of Kasimir in Poland, and was employed by a Jewish merchant who at last became a bankrupt, yet on account of his Talmudic learning was chosen as rabbi at Lublin. Schwarzenberg, who was an upright, conscientious man, knowing that his master had deceived many poor people, took offence thereat, and reproached the Jews for not acting according to the law in this matter.
After this some one gave him a New Testament which missionaries had left in the town. After reading it he persuaded others also to read it, and exposed himself to persecution. He then went in search of the missionaries, and coming to a Roman Catholic priest he expressed a wish to be instructed and baptized, but the priest told him that he must first of all lay aside the New Testament. Schwarzenberg concluded that he was not a missionary, and went to Lublin, where he had heard there was an Evangelical minister. This worthy man looked upon him with suspicion and received him coldly, so he went to a river and dipped himself three times in the name of the Holy Trinity. At last he heard that the missionaries resided in Warsaw, so he tramped at once to Warsaw, where Dr. McCaul instructed and baptized him in 1828, in his 65th year. In spite of his age Schwarzenberg began to learn German in order that he might intelligently take part in the services of the Church of England. His mode of life was quite that of a Polish Jew, with long fore-locks and dressed in a long kaftan with girdle. He used to say that a converted Jew must have a changed heart, but not a change of dress. He maintained himself by selling fruit in the street, and also worked voluntarily as a missionary. The police had an order to protect him against the Jews, though when he was in a lonely street he was often stoned by them. In this manner he ran the Christian race until 1842, when he departed at the age of eighty to be with Christ.
SEGALL, Rev. Joseph F., a native of Piatra (Moldavia), came with a number of young friends into possession of missionary literature which a colporteur from Bucharest had left in the town in 1874. This they studied secretly in rotation. After being solemnly impressed by the truth, they wrote a letter to the Rev. F. G. Kleinhenn, asking for admission to some inst.i.tution in which they might learn more of the Gospel. Mr. Kleinhenn replied that he had no such home, and could not encourage anyone to come to him except on his own means and on his own responsibility. However, one day Segall and his friend Suffrin appeared at Mr. Kleinhenn"s house, and he had to take them in. They were then instructed by Mr. Kleinhenn and Mr. Bernstein for some considerable time, and then baptized. The history of the two runs to some extent together. The relations of each tried their utmost to win them back to Judaism, but they had grace given to them not to yield. In the same year Mr. Bernstein, then stationed at Strasburg, was the medium of their being admitted by Dr. Heman, at Basel, into his home for proselytes, to be trained for future usefulness. After finishing their course of study they applied to the L.J.S., pa.s.sed through its missionary college, and were appointed missionaries. Segall was stationed at Birmingham, and ordained by the Bishop of Worcester in 1877-8 to the curacy of St.
Martin. Subsequently he was appointed to the charge of the mission at Damascus, where he also acted as chaplain to the English colony there.
SIMON, Erasmus, was one of the earliest converts of the L.J.S. This excellent man seems to have been a native of Holland. In London he made the acquaintance of J. Frey, and heard the Gospel from him and was baptized. In 1820 he was appointed to work under the Rev. A. S. Thelwall at Amsterdam. In 1829 he formed a society called the "Friends of the Hebrew Nation," under the patronage of the Bishop of London. This society rented three houses in Camden Town for Jewish enquirers, and started the "Operative Jewish Converts" Inst.i.tution." Amongst its inmates were the future founder of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews, Ridley Hersch.e.l.l, and Wertheimer, the future well-known bookseller. The former was one of twelve candidates for baptism presented by Simon to Bishop Blomfield, who baptized them in St. James", Piccadilly.
SIMSON, Martin Eduard, son of a banker, German jurist and statesman, born Nov. 10, 1810, at Konigsberg, and died at Berlin, May 22, 1899. He embraced Christianity as a young man, studied law, and in 1833 he became professor of Roman law, and three years later a judge. In 1848 he received the t.i.tle of "Rath" in the higher court. In 1848 he was sent as a deputy from Konigsberg to the National Congress at Frankfurt, and was soon raised to be its president, and had the honour to offer the crown of the German Empire to King Frederick William IV. of Prussia.
Subsequently he held high offices of state, and in 1879 he was appointed first president of the German Supreme Court at Leipzig; in 1888 he received the decoration of the Black Eagle of Prussia and was enn.o.bled.
In 1892 he retired to private life. He was the author of "Geschichte des Konigsberger Ober Tribunals." Of his three baptized brothers, one became professor of Oriental languages at Konigsberg, and the other two lawyers at Berlin.
SKOLKOWSKI, J., was a native of Calwary in Russian Poland, baptized at Konigsberg, and then studied at the L.J.S. Missionary Training College in London. In 1849 he laboured as a missionary in London, Cairo, Lublin, Gnesen, and Posen, and then, in 1869, at Konigsberg. "His annual reports," says the Rev. W. T. Gidney, "supplied most interesting details of mission service, together with glimpses of the social condition, pursuits, and religious opinions of Jews, among whom he devotedly carried on the work of preaching Christ and Him crucified, until his retirement in the beginning of 1888, after a long service of very nearly forty years."
SOBERNHEIM, Dr. Joseph Friedrich, an earnest convert in Berlin in the middle of the nineteenth century. The history of his conversion is as follows. A student had p.a.w.ned a New Testament with a Jew for a paltry sum of money, and when he came to redeem it, the p.a.w.nbroker, having in the meantime read it and become a Christian, gave the student a hundred Louis d"or as a token of grat.i.tude because he had through this book come to a saving knowledge of Christ. This Jewish convert was instrumental in the conversion of nine other Jews, among whom was Dr. Sobernheim and his father. He was esteemed as an author of medical works. He wrote: "Handbuch der Praktischen Arzenimittelehre" (Berlin, 1844), "Beitrage zur Phanomenologie des Lebens," _ib._, 1841. He died in 1846. ("Jewish Intelligence," December, 1864.)
SOLOMON, Rev. Benjamin Nehemiah, was born at Lemberg in 1791, and in due time became a rabbi. In 1814 he came to London, and through the instrumentality of J. Frey became a Christian, and was ordained in 1817.
He then accompanied Lewis Way on his missionary journey through Holland, Germany and Russia, both preaching the Gospel to the Jews everywhere.
Lewis Way having obtained for him permission from the Emperor Alexander to work in Poland, he first of all translated the New Testament into Yiddish, for the use of Polish Jews. In 1821 he accompanied McCaul to Warsaw, but from Amsterdam he wrote to Thelwall that the condition of his wife and children in Galicia obliged him to return home. His own father declared to the missionary Smith, in 1827, that he was living as a Christian.
STAHL, Friedrich Julius, son of a banker, jurist and publicist, was born at Munich, January 16, 1802, and died at Bruckenau, Aug. 10, 1861. He became a Christian in his eighteenth year, and was baptized at Erlangen in 1819. Already at the age of fourteen he discussed religious topics with his fellow scholars. The writings of Thiersch had a great influence upon him. After he had become a Christian, he acted as a missionary to his own family and brought his parents and brothers and sisters to the Saviour. He studied law at the Universities of Wurzburg, Erlangen, and Heidelberg. In 1834 he represented the University of Erlangen in the Bavarian Parliament. In 1840 he became professor of law at the University of Berlin, where his lectures drew an audience of all cla.s.ses. His idea of Christianity was that it should pervade the whole life and also the State. According to Lord Acton, Stahl had a more predominant influence and shewed more political ability than Lord Beaconsfield (Acton, Letters to Mary Gladstone, p. 103, London, 1904).
His writings are as follows, "Die Philosophie des Rechts nach Geschichtlicher Ansicht," 2 vols. (Heidelberg, 1830-37); "Ueber die Kirchenzucht" (1845-58); "Das Monarchische Princip" (Heidelberg, 1845); "Der Christliche Staat" (_ib._, 1847-8); "Die Revolution und die Const.i.tutionelle Monarchie" (1848-9); "Was ist Revolution?" (_ib._, 1852), of which three editions were issued; "Der Protestantismus als Politisches Princip" (_ib._, 1853-4); "Die Katholische Widerlegungen"
(_ib._, 1854); "Wider Bunsen" (1856); "Die Lutherische Kirche und die Union" (1859-60). After his death were published, "Siebenzehn Parlamentarishen Reden" (1862), and "Die Gegenwartigen Partien in Staat und Kirche" (1868).
STEINHARDT, son of the landlord for many years of the L.J.S. schools at Bucharest naturally came in contact with the mission there, but no one of the family shewed any inclination towards Christianity, yet the seed sown in the son"s heart bore fruit in time. He went to Constantinople and was baptized there. Then he became a city missionary in New York, studied theology, and became, in 1871, pastor of a Swiss congregation in Fountain City, Wisconsin, and in 1882 at Louisville, Ky.
STERN, Dr. Henry A., was born of Jewish parents on April 11, 1820, at Unterreichenbach, in the Duchy of Hesse Ca.s.sel. Subsequently the family removed to Frankfort-on-the-Main, where they resided in the quaint old "Judenga.s.se," now a thing of the past. Though educated in this town with a view to the medical profession, Stern, when about seventeen years of age, decided to follow commerce, and to that end repaired to Hamburg. It was there, in the providence of G.o.d, that his attention was first drawn to Christianity, by noticing some Christian literature in a gla.s.s case near the house of the London Jews" Society"s missionary, Mr. J. C.
Moritz. The impression subsequently obtained by its perusal was increased when, on arrival in London, in 1839, Stern was induced by a fellow-lodger to attend a Sunday afternoon Hebrew service in Palestine Place, conducted by Dr. Alexander McCaul. Thoroughly awakened, Stern sought the missionary the next day, and, indeed, for many days, until he became a recognized enquirer, and was eventually admitted into the Operative Jewish Converts" Inst.i.tution. There he was further carefully prepared in Christianity, and baptized on March 15, 1840. For two years longer he remained in the Inst.i.tution, working at his trade, but it was very evident that Stern, by his learning and gifts, was eminently fitted to be a missionary, and consequently he was taken into the Society"s College for a further term of two years.
In 1844 Stern received his first missionary post, and was sent to Bagdad. He left London under the direction of the Rev. Murray Vickers, accompanied by three other young missionaries. They broke their journey at Jerusalem, where Stern was ordained deacon by Bishop Alexander, on July 14 of the same year. Arriving at Bagdad, Stern threw himself into his work with great zeal and ardour.
The Jewish population of Bagdad then consisted of about 16,000 souls.
The whole trade of the town was in their hands, and they were supposed to be the most wealthy cla.s.s of the community. They manifested the greatest anxiety to obtain the books published by the Society. Day after day the house of the missionaries was filled to overflowing with Jews of all ages, ranks and stations, and the streets near were crowded all day by numbers of Jews, Stern being constantly stopped as he walked along them. The bazaars, khans, and the Beth Hamedrash, were visited, and supplied frequent opportunities for proclaiming the Gospel.
The eagerness manifested by the Jews of Bagdad to enter into discussion on the subject of Christianity, and more especially the application of two enquirers for regular instruction, stirred up active opposition on the part of the rabbis, and an excommunication was issued against all who should have intercourse with the missionaries. This had the desired effect. For six or seven months no Jew was seen in the mission house.
Then, gradually, some ventured to come by stealth; and, soon, from twelve to twenty again visited the missionaries on Sat.u.r.days, several of whom were of the most respectable Jewish families in Bagdad. The Jewish authorities, however, did not relax their vigilance, but threatened to repeat the anathema.
In the winter of 1844 Stern made a journey to certain places on the banks of the Euphrates, going to Hillah, where he visited the synagogue and Jewish schools; the tomb of Ezekiel, greatly venerated by the Jews; Meshed-Ali, a Moslem town with a few Jews; Cufa; the tower of Belus (Babel) or Birs Nimroud; and the ruins of Babylon. In 1845 Stern and a fellow-labourer, the Rev. P. H. Sternchuss, improved the time during which missionary operations in Bagdad were suspended, in consequence of the _cherem_ mentioned above, in making a missionary journey into the interior of Persia. They held much interesting intercourse with the Jews of Kermanshah and Hamadan. On November 21 of the same year, the two missionaries embarked on the Tigris for the purpose of undertaking a second journey in Persia. They visited Bussorah, Bushire, Shiraz, and several other places where Jews resided. Both in synagogues and Jewish schools, and also at their lodgings, they proclaimed the unsearchable riches of Christ to considerable numbers of their Jewish brethren.
The deadly scourge of cholera prevailed in Bagdad to an alarming extent in 1846, and in a very few weeks several thousands were suddenly taken off by it, and missionary work was consequently suspended. The Jews thought the visitation was owing to the fact that many of their brethren had imbibed the doctrines of Christianity, and their opposition became most violent. A second _cherem_ was p.r.o.nounced in the synagogues against the missionaries and all holding intercourse with them.
Notwithstanding the violence of the rabbis and the ignorance which prevailed, especially amongst Jewesses, the missionaries met with many to whom they were able to declare the love of the Redeemer, and several received regular instruction. Of the Bagdad Jews in general they said:--"A spirit of enquiry pervades all cla.s.ses of Jews in Bagdad The rabbis are fully sensible of it, and endeavour to do everything in their power to check this extraordinary movement."
In 1847 a temporary retreat to Persia was thought advisable, during which Stern preached the Gospel to many hundreds of Jews, both in Chaldaea and Persia, and extensively circulated the Scriptures in the Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Armenian languages. This was a great achievement in a region hitherto noted for intolerance, bigotry, poverty, fanaticism, and superst.i.tion.
On the arrival from home of fresh supplies of books, the lodgings of the missionaries were crowded for days together, from morning till evening, with eager applicants for the sacred treasure. The missionaries were now well known to many of the Jews in the surrounding countries, from the journeys which they undertook from time to time. They sent the Word of G.o.d to the wilds of Kurdistan, the deserts of Khorasan and Turkistan.
They were privileged to admit two Israelites, one of Bagdad and the other from Bushire, into the Church of Christ by baptism. Others received instruction from them for a longer or a shorter period.
On their return to Bagdad, a room belonging to the mission was fitted up for Divine Service, and usually from twelve to fifteen Jews attended the daily morning service, at dawn of day; the instruction of enquirers taking place immediately afterwards. An English service was held on Sunday morning, and a Hebrew service in the afternoon during winter. An operative converts" inst.i.tution was opened.
In August, 1850, a Jewish doctor was baptized, which incident produced another severe anathema from the rabbis against all who should have any intercourse with the missionaries. "In order to make the interdict more impressive," wrote Stern, "the horn was blown, and all the books of the law unrolled." This was repeated several days. Jews, in large numbers, however, began to call at the depot which Stern opened; and he affirmed that there were many who had learned the Truth from reading the New Testament. In 1851 and 1853 two other baptisms were recorded. After eight or nine years spent in Mesopotamia, where Mrs. Stern"s health had greatly suffered from an attack of cholera, Stern was transferred to Constantinople in 1853.
There he found a larger and even more important sphere of work--totally different, as he had now to deal with Spanish instead of Eastern Jews.
They were down-trodden and oppressed, and their pitiable state was not improved by the extensive conflagrations, which periodically devastated their quarter. Numbers, however, became enquirers, notwithstanding severe persecution, and some were baptized. The mission schools were well attended, and the medical mission, conducted by Dr. Leitner, did excellent service. Stern visited Adrianople, Salonica, and other towns with large Jewish populations.
The year 1856 was signalized by a visit to the Karaites and other Jews in the Crimea. At Baktchi-Serai, Stern was surrounded by Jews, "all anxious to buy Gospels," and was the guest of the chief rabbi, who shewed him the cemetery of the Karaites--strangely called "The Valley of Jehoshaphat"--with its 40,000 sculptured tombs, and in which myriads more had been interred, to whose memory poverty or indifference had raised no monument. At Simpheropol, Stern preached in the synagogue and sold a number of New Testaments and Pentateuchs. On one occasion he had the privilege of addressing British troops in their quarters in the Crimea.
Stern made a second journey in the same year--to Arabia.
The s.p.a.ce at our command is totally inadequate to describe the incidents of that romantic and perilous journey, in the wake of Joseph Wolff who, just forty years before, had engaged in the same pioneer work. Stern had to take precautions for his safety, adopting native dress and pa.s.sing as the "Dervish Abdallah." At Safon, a beautiful mountain town, the report that a man who spoke Hebrew, and yet was no Jew, dressed like a Mohammedan and yet ignored the Koran, caused much sensation amongst the Jews, who flocked to see him, and to whom he preached in a synagogue.
This was repeated at other places. At Sanaa he was occupied for twelve days, with very little rest at night, preaching to the mult.i.tudes who congregated wherever he went. The last day of his visit there he characterized as "the happiest of my life, the happiest of my missionary career."
After a visit to England in 1857, Stern returned to Constantinople, taking up again the threads of his settled missionary work there.
In 1859 Stern embarked on the first of his most memorable journeys to Abyssinia. Mr. J. M. Flad had been working in that country as one of the "Pilgrim Missionaries" from St. Chrischona. More Christian labourers, however, were needed; and so Stern was despatched from Constantinople to found an English mission, if possible, amongst the Falashas--some thousands of Jews dwelling in the highlands of the interior. Flad now joined Stern, and the two worked hand-in-hand together. The results of this preliminary visit were thus summed up by Stern, who, having accomplished his purpose, repaired to England in 1861:--"I visited, in company with Mr. Flad, the Bishop of Jerusalem"s Scripture Reader, upwards of thirty Falasha settlements, and saw the priests, and all those that could read, from more than fifty-five other places. The desire to obtain the Word of G.o.d exceeds all description; young and old, the man standing on the verge of the grave, and the youth just rushing into life"s happiest whirl, heedless and indifferent to the pain and difficulties of the road, followed us for days and days, till we yielded to their unwearied entreaties, and from our scanty stock supplied their communities with copies of the sacred volume."
Speaking in Exeter Hall in May of the next year, Stern said, "During my stay in that country, I was amazed at the excitement created by our preaching through the various provinces we visited. Frequently, hundreds of Christians and Jews would meet together near our tent with the Word of G.o.d in their hands, converse and investigate those truths which we had been preaching."
Flad and a fellow-labourer named Bronkhorst, who had joined him, continued to carry on the work with much success, and on July 21, 1861, the first fruits of the mission were gathered in, twenty-two Falashas receiving Holy Baptism. On August 4, nineteen more were baptized. This encouraging success led to Stern going out again to Abyssinia in September, 1862, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Rosenthal. We cannot follow the details of the work for the next two years, but must sum them up in Stern"s own words:--"We have in the course of two years, without being allowed to form a separate community, rescued a considerable number of Falashas from their unbelief, and nominally, but not virtually, united them as a living, active and spiritual element, to the dead Church of the Amharas. We have circulated about one thousand whole copies and portions of Scriptures; we have given an impulse to the study of the written vernacular; and we have stirred up a spirit of enquiry among Jews and Amharas, which must either terminate in a spontaneous reform, or lead (which is far more probable) to our expulsion and a relentless persecution." The latter surmise proved to be only too true.
The following circ.u.mstances eventually led to the imprisonment of the missionaries. King Theodore had despatched to the Queen of England, by Consul Cameron, a letter, to which, from some strange reason, no reply was vouchsafed. A similar letter to Napoleon III. was indeed answered, but the verbal message accompanying it gave dire offence. Theodore resolved to be revenged on all Europeans, and to "humble the pride of Europe," as he said, meaning England and France.
Some expressions in Stern"s book, "Wanderings among the Falashas in Abyssinia," as to Theodore"s humble origin, also gave offence to the dusky monarch. When Stern paid him a visit, in order to ask permission to return home, the opportunity thus offered for revenge was seized.
Stern had with him two servants. The hour of the visit was unfortunately ill chosen, and his servants" knowledge of Arabic so limited, as to render their mode of interpreting so offensive to the King, that he ordered them to be beaten,--an order so effectually obeyed, that they died in the night. Stern, unable to endure the scene, turned round, and in his nervousness _bit his finger_,--unaware, or forgetful, that such a gesture was in Abyssinia indicative of _revenge_. At first, the King seemed inclined to overlook the matter, but subsequently, urged on by those around him, Stern was struck down insensible, and, on recovery, bound hand to foot and consigned to prison.
For four and a-half years Stern remained a prisoner. It is impossible to describe his terrible sufferings and perilous position during that long protracted "period of heart-rending and heart-breaking martyrdom."
Rosenthal was the next victim; subsequently Consul Cameron, Flad and his wife, Mrs. Rosenthal, Consul Ra.s.sam, Lieutenant Prideaux, Blanc, Kerans, and others, were in turn imprisoned. Flad was shortly afterwards released, in order to be sent to England on an emba.s.sy to Queen Victoria, his wife and children being held as hostages for his return.