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SECOND EDITION.

MISSIONARY ANNA! &

(A SERIES.)

LIFE OF

REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

PIONEER MISSIONARY TO PERSIA.

BY HIS SON,
REV. HENRY MARTYN PERKI.N?S

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY,
NEW YORK. CHICAGO. TORONTO.

Publishers of Evangelical Literature.

LIBRARY

COLLEGE

1273 i

PREFACE.

The object of this volume is to reflect the character and work of my
honored father, the late Rev. Justin Perkins, D.D., pioneer missionary to
Persia.

This work is attempted in response to the desire of many friends in the
United States, as well as in Persia. Friends of missions in England, Ger
many and elsewhere will be glad to renew their memories of the subject of
this biography.

Not long ago the Jubilee of the mission to Persia was observed. While
there is cause of rejoicing over present results, a tribute to the memory of
the earliest member of that mission becomes the more appropriate.

It is my hope that the following chapters will serve to increase interest
in the cause of missions, and especially as carried forward in Persia, where
thirty-seven years of an earnest life were consecrated to the Master's serv
ice. H. M. P.

Oopyriprht, 1SS7, l;y the

Woman's Presbyterian Itoanl of Missions
of the Northwest

KEY. JUSTIN PEERESS, D.D.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

SPECIAL interest is always felt in the work of a pioneer.
Some are pioneers with the purpose of seeking a fort
une. Others to aid some military project. Others to open
avenues for commerce. Others that they may add to the
xich treasures of science. Greater than that of any or all
of these combined, is the purpose of him who goes to open
paths of fresh conquest for the kingdom of Christ and to
carry the message of salvation to nations that for ages have
not felt the throb of spiritual life.

A glance at the missionary field in Persia will give the
reader an impression of its present prosperous condition.

The work begun and for years successfully carried for
ward by the American Board, was in 1871 transferred to
the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church.
The missions of this Board in Persia now comprise five
stations and several outstations.

In the Western Mission, at Oroomiah, are Rev. Messrs.
John II. Sliedd, I). D., J. E. Rogers and their wives ; Joseph
P. Cochran, M. D. and his wife; Mrs. D. P. Cochran, Miss
N. J. Dean, Miss M. Morgan, Miss E. Cochran, Miss M. K.
Van Duzce. At Tabriz are Rev. Messrs. J. M. Oldfather

6 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

and S. G. Wilson and their wives ; Dr. G. W. Holmes and
wife ; Miss M. Jewett, Miss G. Y. Holliday, Mrs. L. C. Yan
Hook. At Salinas are Rev. F. G. Coan and his wife, Miss
C. O. Yan Duzee and Rev. J. N. Wright.

In the Eastern Mission, at Teheran, are Rev. Messrs. J.
L. Potter, S. L. Ward and their wives ; W. W. Torrence,
M. D., and his wife ; Misses S. J. Bassett, Cora Bartlett and
Annie G. Dale.

At Hamadan are Rev. J. W. Hawkes, Mrs. Hawkes and
Miss Annie Montgomery.

It will thus be seen that there is access to a much larger
territory than when missionary effort was begun about fifty
years ago. Christian work and influence have been extend
ing from the Nestorians to the Mohammedan population.

Our interest in any place may depend somewhat on our
knowledge of the way to reach it. Making America the
starting point, a traveler to Persia can take passage by
steamer from New York or other Atlantic ports to Liver
pool or other ports in Great Britain or on the Continent.
A variety of routes are then open to Constantinople, some
by steamer and others partly by railway and partly by
steamer. Those sailing from Constantinople land at Batoum.
Those sailing from Odessa land at Poti. From both these
ports of the Black Sea, there is a railway eastward to Tiflis.
Missionaries for western Persia leave the cars here, go by
carriage to the Aras river, the boundary between Russia
and Persia, and from thence by horseback. Missionaries for
eastern Persia proceed by cars from Poti or Batoum to
Baku, on the Caspian Sea, from thence by boat to Enzelli.
Some parties recently making the trip to or from Persia
avoided the Black Sea entirely, continuing the carriage ride
two days' journey north of Tiflis and reaching the railroad
at Yladicofkas.

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, IXD. I

Vhen in 1833 Justin Perkins accompanied by Mrs.
Perkins first entered Persia, the route taken was somewhat
different. The facilities for traveling were far less. There
were more dangers and delays. Six months elapsed before
reaching the place of destination. So unusual was it in that
day to undertake such an enterprise, we cannot wonder the
friends of those pioneers in bidding them farewell, never
expected to meet them again on earth.

Justin Perkins was well fitted by his earnest consecration,
strong faith, Christian tact and constant purpose, to be the
pioneer of missionary work in Persia. Had he merely laid
the foundation for future labors and opened the resources
of that field, this alone would render his service of great
value. But his mission did not end with the important
work of a pioneer. He continued in that land for years, to
take part in nearly all the branches of missionary effort and
to witness great changes. Second only in the order of
time to what he did as pioneer, was the great task of con
structing a modern Syriac literature, lie thus gave the
Nestorians of Persia what they had never before enjoyed,
books in their own spoken language. By his scholarly
tastes, he was not only enabled to promote the cause of
Christianity in Persia, but to co-operate with those who
were engaged in Biblical research elsewhere. He had the
ability to discover and obtain manuscript treasures for
Europe and America through the personal regard with
which the Nestorians were inspired for him. This shows
indirectly the influence he had as a missionary, directly, his
character for integrity and brotherly kindness. It also
shows the influence he had on the ecclesiastics of that region,
together with the general confidence and esteem in which
he was held, even among Persian officials and Koordish
chiefs. Those who knew him felt that he desired their

8 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

highest good. His personal intercourse among the Kesto-
rians especially, might be characterized by the words of the
Apostle: "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God
for Israel is, that they might be saved."

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

CHAPTER II.

BIRTHPLACE — BOYHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE.

LIKE many who have made their lives significant of good
to the church and the world, Justin Perkins was born
and reared m a country home. This was near the Connecti
cut valley, and in the vicinity of Holyoke and Tom, two of
New England's classic mountains. He was the fourth son
of Mr. William and Mrs. Judith Perkins, and was born
March 12, 1805, in the northern part of West Springfield,
now a part of Holyoke, Mass.

His advantages of early education were limited to a
primary school. When out of school much of his time was
occupied with farming. From his parents he had the advan
tage of Christian instruction. He was thus early guided to
the love of what is good and true, and led to see the need
of taking a decided stand for Christ. At the age of eighteen,
and during the progress of a revival, serious thoughts were
awakened in his mind. Conscience henceforward became a
faithful monitor. His feeling of need increased, and he was
led to a personal and hearty acceptance of Christ as the
Savior. In his experience, as in that of many others, the
absorbing question became this, "Lord, what wilt thou have
me to do." He was desirous of knowing in what manner of
life he could best promote the glory of God. To him it
appeared very plain that God was honored in the salvation
of men, and that the preaching of the gospel was the special
method by which men are brought to repentance. lie thus

10 LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

had an earnest desire to become a minister of the gospel,
and was prompted to seek an education with the advice of
friends to whom he had disclosed his feelings.

He began fitting for college in April, 1823. These pre
paratory studies were conducted partly under the tuition of
Rev. Thomas Rand, of West Springfield, and partly at the
academy in Westfield, Mass. While there he made a public
profession of religion and united with the Congregational
Church in July, 1825.

He entered the freshman class at Amherst College, Sep
tember 21, 1825. He at once devoted himself with the
utmost ardor to the prosecution of his studies, and soon out
ranked many whose preparation for college had been better.
Having formed the habit of constant application to his
books, he gained the name of the " twenty-four-hour boy."
Recognizing the good purpose of college government, it was
one object of his ambition always to meet the requirements
that were made. In this he was successful to an unusual
degree. Through the whole course he never received a
tardy mark, and the habits of promptness here acquired
were of great value to him in subsequent years when differ
ent departments of missionary effort occupied his time and
thoughts. He graduated at Amherst with honor in 1829.
The following year he taught in Amherst Academy, and
then entered the Theological Seminary at Andover. He
studied there two years and then accepted the position of
tutor in his Alma Mater. Among others who there re
ceived instruction from him was the late Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher. When both Perkins and Beecher were speakers
at the New York anniversaries in May, 1860, the latter
made pleasant and humorous reference to the memories of
those early days.

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 11

CHAPTER III.

FROM BOSTON TO TABRIZ.

AS the result of much prayerful thought, Justin Perkins
accepted a commission from the "American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions." This was in Jan
uary, 1833, and when he was tutor in Amherst College.
This commission had primary reference to work among
the Nestorians, as the Mohammedans could not then be
easily reached. Yet it was believed that gospel truth among
that people would prove an entering wedge in the great Per
sian empire. These hopes have not been disappointed.

On the 21st of July, 1833, Justin Perkins was married
to Miss Charlotte Bass, of Middlebury, Vt. By her natural
resolution of character she was enabled to share in the early
experiences of this missionary enterprise.

Arrangements were made to embark from Boston the
following September, in company with the late Dr. Eli
Smith, of Syria. He. had already visted the Nestorians
and was able to give valuable information to those Avho
were about to labor among them.

Instructions were given in the chapel of the Theological
Seminary at Andover, September 8, 1833. The excite
ment of hasty preparation for the voyage had so prostrated
Dr. Perkins, that at the close of the impressive services of
that evening he found himself hardly able to walk to his
lodgings, and was reluctantly compelled, for the first time
in his life, to yield to the strong arm of a violent fever. It

12 LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PEKKINS, D.D.

was hoped the disease might be arrested, and the vessel ac
cordingly lingered a few days for his recovery. The fever
was not checked, and the result being left in doubt, it was
thought best for Dr. and Mrs. Smith to proceed without
delay. A day after the fever left him, Dr. Perkins received
word that the vessel had been detained by adverse winds.
He prevailed on his physician to place him in a wagon and
take him to Boston, in the hope of being able to secure the
advantages of a voyage with Dr. Smith. To this proposi
tion the physician yielded, as he Avasof the opinion that Dr.
Perkins' recovery would be rapidly promoted if he could be
placed in the cabin of the vessel without too much exhaus
tion. The first day, therefore, on which he was raised from
his pillow and dressed, he was put upon a bed in a wagon
and rode thus from Andover to Boston, the distance of
twenty miles. The next day he was carried on board the
brig George, Capt. Grosier, and immediately sailed. The
sorrow of parting with friends was, for the time, lost in grat
itude to God for the privilege of completing the arrange
ment originally made. The Captain was heard to remark,
" We shall very soon have to throw that man overboard."
Physicians generally might agree that the immediate effects
of the voyage would be helpful. Not many, however,
would have said, from appearances, that he was a prom
ising candidate for the exposures of Koordish mountains
or the malaria of Persian plains. Yet he outlived many
co-laborers, and the term of service he spent on missionary
ground has been rarely exceeded. His health generally was
good. Though not as robust as many, he had a constitution
capable of great endurance.

Soon after leaving Boston ,an equinoctial storm was
encountered. But the same cause which prostrated some,
acted as a restorative to him, and he was thus better fitted

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 13

for the work in his distant field. The voyage to Maita was
prosperous and very beneficial to his health. From that
place the company embarked in a Greek vessel to Constan
tinople. There the following winter was passed with be
loved misionary friends. That city was then the outpost
of missionary stations occupied by the American Board in
that part of the world. Tile lofty mountains east of the
Black Sea being regarded impassable by a lady in the winter
months, a delay in Constantinople was made necessary.

In the spring of 1834 Dr. and Mrs. Perkins started on
their adventurous way. They took passage in an English
vessel for Trebizond, a city of ancient Pontus, situated on
the southeastern shore of the Black Sea, and about 600 miles
east of Constantinople. Mrs. Perkins was the first Ameri
can lady that ever crossed that stormy sea. At Trebizond,
the missionary and his companion were hospitably enter
tained by the gentlemen of the English consulate. Prepa
rations were in a few days completed for the land journey
of nearly 700 miles to Persia. They were to pass through
regions, some of which were exposed to robbers and others
to pestilence. There was much to challenge faith and
courage. These qualities were not wanting, and gained an
additional strength by a recognition of God as a covenant-
keeping guide and protector. The promise, " Lo, I am with
you alway, even to the end of the world," was full of com
fort. The journey was performed on horseback. No
wheeled carriages were then used upon that road. The first
third of the journey, the part between Trebizond and Erz-
room, led across rugged mountains. The ascent and descent,
in some places, was so steep and rough, that Mrs. Perkins
could retain her seat upon the horse only by the aid of two
men, one leading the horse and the other holding the saddle.
So narrow were some of the footpaths skirting high precipices,

14 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.fr.

that a single false step must have plunged the travelers
into deep chasms below. Their tent was sometimes pitched
at night on heights so lofty that the clouds were far below
them. Before reaching Erzroom, they crossed the river Eu
phrates, and passed through some beautiful and fertile
regions. When seeing some shepherds with their flocks,
they were reminded of the great and good Shepherd who
had literally made them to lie down in green pastures, and
had led them beside the still waters.

At Erzroom, Dr. Perkins received intelligence that the
Jellalees, a powerful Koordish tribe in the neighborhood of
Mount Ararat, had intercepted the route to Persia, near the
frontier, and plundered a large caravan. It was then de
cided to pursue a circuitous route through some of the Rus
sian provinces of Georgia. This was the only means of
evading danger from the Koords. In the dominions of Rus
sia, though nominally a Christian land, trials awaited them.
These resulted from the combined agency of Russian laws
and the caprice of unreasonable officers. They were de
tained a long time in quarantine. Many of their effects
were sent back to Erzroom, a distance of 200 miles, these be
ing unjustly pronounced contraband articles of merchandise.
At length the detention in quarantine Avas over, and they
again set forth on the journey. During one of the stages,
the caravan had gone some distance in advance. Takvoor,
the interpreter, remained with Dr. and Mrs. Perkins. He
afforded them some amusement as well as inconvenience.
Dr. Perkins desired him to go forward and notify the cara
van to stop for the night, but he dismounted and at once be
gan to cry, fearing an attack from robbers before he might
reach the caravan. Dr. Perkins then rode forward with all
practicable speed,, leaving Mrs. Perkins with Takvoor. In
two hours and a half the caravan was overtaken and the

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 15

muleteers were glad to halt for the day. Mrs. Perkins having
had much trouble with the timorous Armenian, arrived
about two hours afterward. If she quickened her pace
faster than a walk, he would cry out after her, for fear of
being left alone, "You will not go after Mr. Perkins," and
he frequently interrogated in his broken English, " If we do
not soon find Mr. Perkins what will you make ? " meaning
what will you do . " We will make along" as often she re
plied. In crossing some of the tributaries of the Aras,
Takvoor stopped still in the middle of the current and
obliged Mrs. Perkins to drive his horse as well as her own.
In a few days they were in sight of the Persian frontier,
but before reaching there, they were virtually made prison
ers. Their passports were declared deficient, though they
had been examined and pronounced ample by the authori
ties in every Russian town through which they had passed.
Their detention was on the banks of the river Aras — the
ancient Araxes. It was in the month of August, when the
thermometer ranged from 100° to 110° in the valley of that
river. Their tent was guarded by Russian Cossacks. Hot
winds from the Caspian blew the fine grains of sand in
every direction, drifting them within the tent upon their
beds and provisions. The tent was frequently upset for want
of sufficient soil to hold the pins. They were not permitted to
go in search of provisions nor to send their attendant, and
the only means by which they were kept from starvation,
was by hiring the Persian boatman on the Aras, at an exorbi
tant price, to bring bread and melons from a village four
miles distant. The state of Mrs. Perkins' health was at
this time very precarious. There was much to dishearten,
yet earnest prayer was offered to God, and not in vain.
Soon a government courier was seen passing on his w ay to
Tabriz. Dr. Perkins hailed him and desired him to take a

16 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

letter to Sir John Campbell, then the English embassador
at Tabriz. Through his prompt and efficient aid, together
with that of the Russian embassador residing in the same
city, the missionary and his companion were soon released.
A takterawan, a kind of litter carried by horses or mules,
was sent for Mrs. Perkins' use. Temporary accommoda
tions for their reception were kindly prepared by the Eng
lish residents at Tabriz.

Three days after their arrival Mrs. Perkins became
the mother of a daughter, of whose existence she was not
conscious for several days. The privations of the journey
had prostrated her system and she was brought to the verv
brink of the grave. At one time, Dr. Riach tenderly but
frankly told Dr. Perkins there was no hope of her recovery,
yet through the mercy of God she was restored.

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

CHAPTER IV.

ENTRANCE UPON HIS MISSIONARY FIELD.

AS soon as circumstances permitted, and about two
months after reaching Tabriz, Dr. Perkins made
a journey to Oroomiah, 140 miles distant. This district
was to be the field for missionary efforts.

That the condition of this field may be better understood,
a fe\v words regarding the Xestorians will here be fitting.
Their name is derived from Nestorius, the founder of the
sect, and bishop of Constantinople, A. D. 428. They num
ber about 140,000, and reside chiefly in the mountains of
Koordistan, and the adjacent plain of Oroomiah. Reduced
in numbers, poor and oppressed, living in a state of
semi-serfdom to their Mohammedan masters, they have
yet attracted much thought and sympathy since the early
part of the present century, and with reason. For, though
surrounded by the gross darkness of Mohammedanism, it was
found they had clung to some of the forms of a pure
Christianity. Old stone churches were seen among them.
In these were manuscripts on parchment, containing parts
of the New Testament and various forms used in their ser
vice of worship. Their creed was what they recognized
as the Nicene. It accords very nearly with that venerable
document as it has come to us. The following is a translation
of it as it occurs in the liturgy of the Xestorians.

TITLE.
"The creed which was composed by 318 holy fathers

18 LIFE OF EEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

who were assembled at Nice, a city of Bithynia, in the
time of king Constantine, the pious. The occasion of their
assembling was on account of Arms, the infidel accursed.

CKEED.

" We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of
all things which are visible and invisible : And in one Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, the first
born of every creature, who was begotten of His Father be
fore all worlds, and was not created ; the true God of the
true God, of the same substance with His Father, by whose
hands the worlds were made and all things were created ;
who. for us men and for our salvation, descended from
heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and became
a man, and was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary, and
suffered and was crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate, and
died and was buried and rose on the third day according to
the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven and sitteth on the
right hand of His Father, and is again to come to judge the
living and the dead ;

" And we believe in one Holy Spirit ; the Spirit of truth
who proceedeth from the Father ; the Spirit that giveth
life;

" And in one Holy, Apostolic, Catholic Church ;

" We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins ;
and the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting."

It will then be asked, judging from the general correct
ness of such doctrine, what need there was of special Chris
tian effort. Much every way. Though having a name to
live, that people were dead. Various superstitions, and
some papal errors had crept into their belief. They needed
spiritual quickening. Their books were written and taught
in the ancient Syriac, a language unknown to the masses.

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 19

Only a few ecclesiastics could read. The people were igno
rant and degraded. Many forms of immorality prevailed.
There was need of the gospel, and the natural hospitality
of the people afforded an open door for missionary effort.

The object of Dr. Perkins' visit among this people was to
obtain a Nestorian teacher who would return with him to
Tabriz. He was to learn the language, and when joined by
other missionary associates, to plan for a permanent resi
dence in Oroomiah.

He reached Gavalan, a village forty miles northwest of
the city of Oroomiah, one morning before sunrise, having
traveled in the night to avoid the heat. He -there met Mar
Yohannan, a young bishop, the first Nestorian with whom
he shook hands. The reception was very cordial, and an
arrangement was made for him to return to Tabriz and be
come his instructor. Mar Yohannan accompanied Dr. Per
kins to different parts of the province of Oroomiah, and
their visit was everywhere hailed with delight. When he
returned to Tabriz, the Bishop not only accompanied Dr.
Perkins, but took with him Priest Abraham. Both these
men proved, in subsequent years, very efficient helpers.

The journey to Oroomiah \vas thus full of encourage
ment. The hand of the Lord was very manifest. A door
was opened for the entrance of gospel light.

Dr. and Mrs. Perkins were at Tabriz a year and three
months, awaiting the arrival of their associates, Dr. and
Mrs. Grant. During this time they met with a sore affliction
in the death of their first-born. The bereavement was spe
cially trying, as there was no physician in whom they could
place confidence, within 400 miles. The British embassy
and military detachment had removed to Teheran, the
Persian capital. In this hour of need they were sustained
and comforted by the presence of the Lord.

20 LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

The plague visited Tabriz that year, but was not per
mitted to come nigh their dwelling. Many of God's precious
promises of care and protection were thus fulfilled. While
Dr. Perkins was absent on a journey into Turkey, to meet
Dr. and Mrs. Grant and Mr. Merrick, and conduct them
through the difficulties of the Koordish region, that fearful
scourge, the cholera, visited Tabriz and swept away its inhab
itants by hundreds. When Dr. Perkins heard of the preva
lence of that disease, his anxiety was very great regarding
Mrs. Perkins, who was left alone in Tabriz. He was not
able to hear a word from her till he reached his dwelling on
his return. Inexpressible was his relief on finding that she
had been graciously spared and kept from fear, while thou
sands had fallen at her side. A fresh value and comfort were
seen in Psalm xci : 5, 6, 7.

It was late in November, in the autumn of 1835, that Dr.
and Mrs. Perkins accompanied by Dr. and Mrs. Grant went
to Oroomiah to commence missionary labors. Their arrival
at that district was the signal for a continued ovation. They
were met at different villages by processions with trumpets
and drums, nor could the earnest remonstrances of the
missionaries prevent these manifestations of joy. Even the
Mohammedan population were much gratified at the pros
pect of having schools.

Within two months after his arrival in Oroomiah, Dr.
Perkins furnished a room in the basement of his house as a
school room. A school was opened, the first of the kind
known in central Asia. This was the foundation of the
Seminary, which continues to prosper. Superintendence de
volved on Dr. Perkins, while Priest Abraham instructed
the scholars. At first only seven boys came. Soon the num
ber reached forty or fifty. The object of this seminary was

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 21

to raise up pious teachers and preachers. Great good has
been accomplished by this agency.

Dr. Perkins was met with a difficulty in the outset, as is
often the case in new missions. There was want of literary
matter for the seminary. The spoken language of the Nes-
torians had never been written. With the assistance of
Priest Abraham, Dr. Perkins began immediately reducing
the language to a written form, and translating parts of the
Bible for reading cards, which two of the oldest scholars
soon learned to copy for the use of classes in this their first
missionary school. During his first year in Oroomiah, Dr.
Perkins was occupied in laboring on the language to bring
it to a grammatical structure, and preparing school cards,
eight hours in the day, and teaching the English class two
hours. Besides superintending the affairs of the seminary,
he preached twice on Sunday, attended one or two meetings
during the week, and performed a large amount of miscel
laneous labor incidental to the beginning of a mission.

Before the expiration of the first year at Oroomiah most
of the members of the mission suffered from fever and ague,
and diseases of the eyes. The climate of Oroomiah is natur
ally good, though it is sometimes rendered unhealthy by
artificial causes, such as evaporation from its many irrigated
fields. Dr. Perkins' health continued good, and he per
formed all his labors until about the middle of August, when
he was seized with a bilious fever of a malignant character.
Violently did the fever rage for many days under the burn
ing sun of a Persian sky, and seemed to defy all efforts to
arrest its progress. Three days and three nights the mis
sionary was unconscious and no hopes of his recovery were
entertained. But He, at whose bidding diseases come and
go, raised him up to life and to his cherished labors.

22 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

CHAPTER Y.

PROGRESS THROUGH LIGHT AND SHADOW.

ONE of the most attractive features in any missionary
experience consists in providential interpositions. God
is thus proved to be a " sun and shield," a sun to guide and
open paths for usefulness, a shield to protect in times of
personal danger.

During the first year at Oroomiah the reputation of the
seminary had gained. God touched the hearts of proud
Mohammedan rulers to such an extent as to awaken friendly
feelings. Kahraman Meerza, a favorite brother of the king
and prince of Azerbijan, the northern and most important
province of Persia, sent his uncle to visit the missionaries and
inspect the seminary. As a result of this favorable visit
there was sent, though unsolicited, a firman, of which the
following is a translation :

" The command of His Highness is : Whereas, the very
honorable and respected gentlemen, Messrs. Perkins and
Grant, at Oroomiah, are attending to the education of the
people, and render the people useful by teaching them Euro
pean science, the grace of our Excellency and Highness
having become favorably disposed toward them, we order
and command three soldiers for their safety at this harvest
season and onward ; and in accordance with this grace, we
command that they shall be honored and have occasion to
praise our beneficence. It is our command that the exalted
and noble lord, Nedjelf Kooly Khan, governor of Oroomiah,

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 23

shall take care to protect them in every respect, and he shall
give to each of the three soldiers, the guard of their safety,
three dollars per month, and never shall he neglect it. It is
ordered that the trusty secretaries arrange and execute the
sum of this blessed command.

"Written in the month Jumady ul evvel, in the year 1252
(of the Hegira)."

Though Dr. Perkins realized the need of putting confi
dence in God rather than in princes, he gratefully discovered
divine agency in thus influencing the hearts of men. Had
that Persian ruler chosen, he could have placed many obsta
cles in the way of missionary work.

From the first, both Mohammedan rulers and people
showed their good will. In Oroomiah, as in other parts of
Persia, there is, however, a class of professional ruffians
called Lootee. Many have been their lawless acts of violence.
Through lax administration of law, a large number have
escaped punishment. On one occasion Dr. Perkins came
near losing his life at the hands of a few such ruffians. He
was on his way to visit one of the village schools, in com.
pany with Mrs. Perkins and Dr. and Mrs. Grant. As they
were walking quietly through the village three of the
Lootee, who were under the influence of liquor, hedged up
their path by stationing a horse across it just before them
and taking a stand on either side. Priest Abraham, a Xestor-
ian helper who was with them, stepped forward and mildly
asked them to turn the horse a little and allow the company
to pass by. Instantly one of them drew his dagger and
raised it to strike him, inflicting a wound. Seeing the
defenseless priest in such peril, Dr. Perkins sprang forward to
his aid. The weapon was then turned upon him with great
ferocity. He sprang back to evade the blow, and in doing
so, fell. Having just recovered from a fever, he had not

24 LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PEEKINS, D.D.

regained his strength. At that moment Dr. Grant, with a
sudden blow from his riding stick across the ruffian's eyes,
blinded him sufficiently to afford the whole company time
to run into a house near by, where the doors were barred.
Had he not fallen as he did, the dagger must have entered
his heart. As it was, the harm resulted only in a small
wound, a speaking witness against the bloody assassin.
" Hitherto shalt thou come and no further," had been said
alike to deadly disease and terrible weapon.

The governor of the district on hearing of the affair,
without any complaint having been made by the missionaries,
immediately arrested the assailant, and caused 250 lashes
to be laid upon his naked back ; the king hearing of it,
through the English embassador, ordered his brother to
seize the offender and send him to the capital. But being
apprised that officers were coming he fled from the province.
The prompt punishment he had received and the vigorous
efforts made by the king to apprehend him, deepened the
impression that the missionaries could not be injured with
impunity.

In the summer of 1837, the mission was reinforced by
the accession of Messrs. Holladay and Stocking and their
wives. Their arrival greatly cheered the hearts of the mis
sionaries in their constantly increasing labors.

In 1838 much anxiety was caused in the mission by the
political rupture which occurred between the English and
Persian governments. "War was imminent. The only
alternative seemed to be abandonment of the field or the
intrusting of themselves to the care of excited Persians.
Sometime, however, before the English embassy withdrew
from the country, the Persian authorities of their own accord
pledged their efficient protection, whatever might be the issue
of the pending difficulties. " Hitherto," said the governor

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 25

of Oroomiah to the missionaries, " I have regarded you as my
brothers ; now that the English embassador leaves the coun
try, I assume the place of father to you/' Thus there was
no interruption in the work of schools or in preaching. Every
department of missionary effort was carried forward. Dur
ing the absence of the English embassy, the pledge of pro
tection from the Persian government was fully redeemed.

In 1839 the mission was reinforced by the arrival of Mr.
and Mrs. Jones. In 1840 Dr. Wright and Mr. Breath were
welcomed to the broadening field of usefulness in Oroo
miah. Dr. Wright was for many years the " beloved plrvsi-
cian," and Mr. Breath rendered valuable service as mission
printer. lie had stood near Lovejoy, the abolitionist, when
he was shot at Alton, 111., and was wont to regard this cir
cumstance as giving him a fresh impulse in the cause of
Christ and of humanity.

From the outset, and during later years, one great ob
stacle to the progress of evangelical truth in Persia, has been
the effort of papal emissaries. Jesuits illustrated their
ruling principle, "the end justifies the means." By misrep
resentation and the offering of specious bribes, they secured a
few followers, more especially in the mountainous regions.
Yet they never have gained the adherence of the Nestorian
church as a body. Dr. Perkins believed that the steady
shining of gospel light would check, if not overcome any
temporary advantage gained by the papists. The truth
would commend itself to the hearts and minds of men. Some
times faith was put sorely to a test by the arrest and perse
cution of native helpers and converts. Yet God did not for
sake his own work, and calamity was averted. Notably in
one instance, which occurred somewhat later in the history
of the mission, the artful designs of enemies were thwarted.
A Persian general of high rank, being under papal influence,

26 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

stood pledged to the destruction of protestant missionary
work. About that time he led his troops to the frontier
mountains, where in the pride of power he levied heavy
exactions on the Koords. To effect this, a Koordish chief,
a man of might and daring, \vas decoyed to the camp and de
tained as prisoner, till he should consent to the enormous
demands. Incensed and desperate, he entered the general's
tent and told him he had a private proposition for him.
Being ordered to deliver it, he came forward, seemingly to
whisper it in the general's ear. But when near enough for
his purpose, he drew a dagger which had been concealed
under his garment, and immediately assassinated the gen
eral while reclining on his damask cushions. This death,
though so tragic and unexpected, had uivat signiiicance in
the progress of missionary work. The dark cloud of appre
hension was lifted. Schools that had been closed were now
re-opened. People gathered together without fear in the
various villages to hear God's word. So did there appear a
vivid illustration of the Psalmist's words: "Surely the
wrath of man shall praise thee ; the remainder of wrath
shalt thou restrain."

Owing to the malarial influences on the plain of Oroo-
miah and the consequent illness of different members of the
mission, it was deemed very important to secure a health re
treat or xiiiiinn r r< xiilntceoTL some higher ground. The place
iinally selected was at Seir — a village situated on a mountain
declivity, six miles from the city of Oroomiah. The last labor
which Dr. Perkins performed before his first return to
America, was to stand from morning till night among the
workmen, for thirteen weeks, laboring also himself that he
might prevent the waste of missionary funds, in the prepara
tion of that mountain residence. From that beautiful
spot, the eye ranges a hundred miles over some of the

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 2V

most charming scenery in the world. There some mis
sionary families have lived through the entire year, others
through the summer. The seminary for young men was.
also located there. Many passing through revival scenes of
precious memory, have dated a new life in Christ, and
received the baptism so needful for labor and self-denial
among their own countrymen.

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

CHAPTER VI.

FIRST RETURN TO AMERICA.

AFTER a residence of eight years in Persia, it became
advisable to take a journey to America. Mrs. Per
kins1 health had been undermined by the privations and
dilliculties incident to a pioneer's experience. Reference
has been made to these in a previous chapter. A constitu
tion naturally strong had been impaired. After careful
consideration it was the judgment of the entire mission, that
Dr. and Mrs. Perkins should return to America for a visit,
with the hope that Mrs. Perkins' health would be restored
by change of scene and climate, as well as medical treat
ment. This opinion was conveyed to Dr. Perkins in a letter
signed by the members of the mission. Great regret was
expressed at the temporary loss of his valuable labors, which
would thus be incurred, yet a belief was expressed that cir-
rumstances required that this sacrifice should be made on
the part of the mission.

In accordance with the advice thus given, Dr. and Mi's.
Perkins prepared to start for America as soon as the season
would permit of a long land journey to the Black Sea.
They left Oroomiah July 5, 1841. In company with them
was Mar Yohannan. the Xestorian bishop, who had given
the missionaries such a cordial welcome on their first arrival,
lie had taught Dr. Perkins the language of that country,
and had been largely identified with the progress made. The
bishop had set his heart fully upon seeing the New World.

LIFE OF KEY. JtSTIN PERKINS, U.D. 29

At that time very few orientals had landed on our shores.
Naturally doubting the expediency of it, Dr. Perkins did
not encourage his coming, nor did he oppose it. The bishop
was very anxious to obtain the consent of his father, and
earnestly importuned him to that effect. This evinced the
dutifulness of the son. He was at that time forty years of
age, and a bishop, whom custom requires even his parents
to address by the title of Aloona — our father. He was,
however, influenced by the strong impression that no enter
prise will prosper if undertaken without a father's sanction
and blessing. And this view prevails largely in all oriental
countries. The scene of departure from the village of

Gavalan was full of interest. Mar Yohannan had at the last

•

moment obtained permission of his father to start for
America. Mounting his horse he rode away from the group
of friends who protested against his leaving, and soon joined
the company who had preceded him. New York was reached
January 11, 1842. The route taken did not differ much
from that of the journey taken eight years before, when
Dr. Perkins first came to Persia. The time occupied was
about the same, though the journey was performed with
less danger and difficulty. On reaching Smyrna, they found
that 11,000 houses, one-third of the city, had been laid
waste by a terrible conflagration only a few days previous
to their arrival. Here they met Messrs. Temple, Riggs and
Calhoun, beloved Christian friends, who had entered the
same great cause, and who were then conducting work in
Smyrna and the adjoining country. After enjoying a
pleasant visit of a few days the company for America em
barked in the brig " Magoun," of Philadelphia, Capt. Haven,
bound for New York. In this company was Judith, " The
Persian Flower." She was at that time Dr. and Mrs. Per
kins' only child. At the time of leaving Smyrna she was

30 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

thirteen months old. She began to walk the day of embar
kation, and was soon running about the deck. Her activity
and playfulness easily won the heart of the kind and social
captain, and drew from him an eulogium upon her sailor-like
qualities.

The voyage was more than three months in duration. All

were Hud of the transition from the cabin of the "Macroun"

o

to the homes of friends in Nc\v York. After so long a voy
age and one not free from perils, the greetings of Christian
friends on their native soil were especially grateful to the
returned missionaries. Mac Vohaiinan also received a cor
dial welcome, and in passing through the great metropolis
of the New World, he ga/ed admiringly upon its wonders.
A special meeting of the A. B. C. F. M. was to take place
in New York the next week after their arrival. Dr. Perkins
rejoiced at the prospect of so soon meeting many of the wise
and good, who were to convene from different places to con
sult and pray for the prosperity of God's kingdom. Mar
Yohannan's arrival just at this juncture, with oriental cos
tume and novel appearance, naturally gave added interest to
the occasion.

Much of Dr. Perkins' time in America was spent in pre
senting the cause of missions. He published a book entitled
" Eight Years' Residence in Persia." He visited colleges and
theological seminaries, interesting students in the rapidly
increasing missionary work. Mar Yohannan accompanied
him on these tours. In city or village large crowds gath
ered. Dr. Perkins had often preached against the sin of
intemperance in Persia, where a comparatively light wine is
produced from grapes. It had often caused him deep regret
that New England nun was then almost the only commer
cial representative with which our Christian country had hon
ored the markets of distant Mohammedan Persia. In his

LIFE OF KEY. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. $

efforts to promote the cause of temperance in that land, he
found the bishop to be a warm supporter. Dr. Perkins and
Mar Yohannan took a journey to some of the leading cities
and towns of central and western New York. On one occa
sion the bishop's abhorrence of the liquor traffic was quite
manifest. In 1842 much of the traveling was of necessity
by stage coach. The bishop noticed that some of the passen
gers were in the habit of stopping at taverns, where a relay
of horses was required, and that they came out wiping their
mouths. This excited his curiosity and he soon went with
them. Entering the bar-room, and seeing decanters and
glasses, he asked of the bar-keeper " You sell rum, brandy,
gin, whiskey ?" The answer was a curt reply, and he soon
took his seat in the coach. He repeated the experiment at
two or three places, propounding the same question and with
much the same result. At last the bar-keeper in one of the tav
erns was more inclined to con verse with him, and on hearing
the usual question replied " Yes, sir, I do." He was met with
another question " What for you sell rum, brandy, gin, whis
key?" " Oh, to make money," was the answer, upon which
the bishop looking him intently in the eye said: "You sell
your soul for one dollar." A lasting impression was made on
the minds of the bystanders and it was said that a few in that
company were led to resolve upon better things for the future.
After a visit in America of a little more than a year, Dr.
Perkins and his family, together with Mar Yohannan, re
turned to Persia. The missionary party also included the
folio wing reinforcements: Mr. and Mrs. Stoddard, MissFisk,
Miss Myers, (now Mrs. Wright,) for Oroomiah, and Mr. and
Mrs. E. E. Bliss, for Trebizond. Mrs. Perkins' health had
been greatly restored by the visit and change of scene. All
looked fowar^ bravely and trustfully to the work and if need
be, the self-denials of future missionary experience.

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN 1'EKKINS, D.P.

CHAPTER YII.

LABORS IN PERSIA RESUMED.

A CCESSIONS to the membership of the mission pro-
-£JL_ moted systematic division of labor. Different depart
ments were more thoroughly organized. The translation of
books wtie carried forward mainly as in former years under

V */

Dr. Perkins' supervision. He entered into the details of this
work with untiring perseverance, consulting manuscripts
and versions with great care. The work of translation was
done with the help of one or more educated native assist
ants, who read proof sheets. Dr. Perkins preached regularly
in one or more villages of the district of O room i ah. Each
missionary had some precinct allotted for this work. These
religious services were held in the old stone churches of the
Nestorians, which had from the origin of the mission been
cordially opened for the proclamation of the gospel. In
warm weather these services were often held beneath the
shade of some wide-spreading tree.

Dr. Perkins thus refers to the importance of preaching
as one department of missionary effort : " The question
has sometimes been discussed as to what place preaching
should hold among missionary operations. I would say that
it should hold the first place and all places, everywhere
and at all times, though certainly not to the exclusion of its
auxiliaries, or rather subsidiary agencies, that I have men
tioned, as the school, the Sabbath school and the press. It
has little reason to repudiate those agencies. On the con-

LIFE OF KEY. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 33

trary, every village school may be a preaching center, where
not only the teacher may daily, nay hourly, ' expound
the Scriptures/ as well as teach them." Again, "It is
an unspeakable privilege to preach Christ in whatever
way to listening Nestorians. The common people heard
Him gladly while He journeyed and preached the gospel here
on earth. Our message has been emphatically good tidings
of great joy to those humble but deeply interesting Chris
tians. " — " Missionary Life in Persia" pages 114 and 117.
The seeds of truth thus scattered abroad by various agencies
resulted in a rich spiritual harvest. Conversions were known
soon after the missionaries went to Persia. This indicated
a spreading interest. The first marked revival, however,
occurred in 1846. Between that date and 1862, there were
ten precious visitations of the Holy Spirit enjoyed in the
male seminary, and eleven in the female seminary. These
revivals extended into Nestorian villages, where many were
converted. Dr. Perkins was an active participant in revival
labors. He thus describes some of these scenes :

" It is impossible to convey an adequate impression of
the intensely interesting character of these visitations of
mercy among the Nestorians. They have reminded me
more of the revivals associated with the labors of Nettleton,
in the days of my youth, than any others I have witnessed,
so far as the difference of the people thus blessed, and their
very diverse circumstances would admit of comparison. The
same deep and searching conviction of sin experienced by
the impenitent, his sins appearing to him like the sands of
the sea-shore, innumerable, and like mountains for magni
tude ; the almost overwhelming sense of his totally lost con
dition by nature, but not less of the boundless fullness and
freeness of salvation, through a crucified Redeemer; the
grasping of that provision with all the heart, casting the
3

34 LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

soul prostrate and contrite at the foot of the cross, and lay
ing its sins on the head of the atoning Lamb ; and the un
reserved surrender of soul and body into His hands, to be
His wholly and for ever.

"Then the joy and peace and love and gratitude and
praise suddenly welling up in that 'believing, penitent, grate
ful soul, before hardened and besotted, and but just now
writhing in bitter anguish, if not heart-riving agony ! Yet
in depth of interest I have never witnessed such scenes else-
where,nor expect elsewhere to behold them. Heaven itself,
while complete in bliss, will not present that peculiar form of
interest of beholding penitent Nestorians turning to ' The
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,' ex
cept as viewed in retrospect, and contemplated in those monu
ments of mercy among the blood-washed inhabitants of that
bright world. And afterward, to follow the new-born soul in
his career heavenward, sometimes halting, indeed, yet proba
bly less than the mass of believers in more favored lands ; to
listen to his songs of praise, his melting prayers, and moving
exhortations, and mark the good confession of Christ, which
he witnesses in his life, often under hardships and persecu
tions ; and in the case of those who have died, to see them
lie down on the bed of mortal sickness undaunted, their con
fidence in a personal and present Savior calm and unshaken,
and their faith, hope and joy waxing stronger and stronger,
as their outer man approached its dissolution, till, their face
often shining like dying Stephen's, they have slept peace
fully in Jesus ; these have been amid manifold trials, sore
bereavements, and untold sacrifices, the missionary's full
hundred-fold in this world." — "Missionary Life in Persia"
pages 119-121.

While the signs of the times in every part of the world
were watched with interest, Dr. Perkins specially appreciated

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 35

any intelligence from his own land. Patriotism led him
to rejoice in the progress of every good cause, and the same
principle produced sorrow for existing evils. Many of his let
ters give evidence of strong anti-slavery sentiments, and at a
time when apologists for that fearful evil were not wanting.
Every " Fourth of July," he was accustomed to hoist the
" stars and stripes v from the roof of the mission premises at
Mt. Seir. Usually some member of the mission gave an ad
dress, or preached a sermon suitable to the day. On one
occasion Dr. Perkins preached a sermon entitled, " Our Na
tion's Sin," having reference to the institution of slavery. By
request of the mission it was sent to America for publica
tion, and was widely circulated. About this time " Uncle
Tom's Cabin" was published. Dr. Perkins received one copy
as a present from the distinguished authoress, and another
from a member of the publishing firm — John P. Jewett
&Co.

The following is an extract from a letter of Dr. Perkins
to the late Lewis Tappan, Esq., and written in reply to a
letter from that distinguished reformer and philanthropist,
asking for his correspondence and prayers on behalf of the
anti-slavery cause in America.

"With my whole heart, I bid those God speed who are
praying and toiling to remove this mighty evil, and avert
these calamities, and I pledge them the only humble co-oper
ation I can offer, my fervent and unceasing prayers. Their
cause is the cause of God ; and however weak and fallible
may be the instruments engaged in it, the truth is mighty
and it will prevail. Nor can I help believing that the day
is not distant, when good people in America, much as they
are now divided, will be of one heart and one mind on this
momentous subject. It does appear to me that an evil, so
appalling in magnitude and in guilt as American slavery,

36 LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

incurring as it does the rebuke of the world, and provoking
as it must the frowns of heaven, cannot, when fairly spread
out to view, in the light of the present day, much longer
find advocates or apologists or neutrals among American
Christians or American patriots."

During his active, missionary life, Dr. Perkins carried
forward a vast deal of correspondence, and on a wide range
of topics. Here is an extract which bears upon a subject
under more or less discussion of late, " The qualifications of
missionaries." The words were written to the " Society of
Inquiry in Amherst College " and in reply to a letter from
that society. "It is the Holy Spirit, poured out upon
Christians, which is at once the only eificient influence that
will prompt them to give their prayers, their substance and
themselves to the work of converting the world, and the
most important of all qualifications in those who embark
personally in foreign service. ' "What are the qualifications
most essentially requisite in a missionary of the cross ? ' is
an inquiry contained in your letter, and one which has often
been proposed to me by candidates for this work since I
entered the field — an inquiry which a volume, rather than
a sheet, might reasonably attempt fully to answer.

"Among the few missionary qualifications which I would
suggest in this letter, you will doubtless expect me to men
tion piety as first in importance. Without this we know
that no minister or missionary has any right to hope for
the blessing of God to rest on his labors. But how import
ant ardent piety is in the missionary, is but very inade
quately understood in Christian lands. You can form but a
faint conception of the trials of the missionary's piety, which
he has to encounter in the field. He is suddenly removed
from every hallowed influence, save that which comes
directly from heaven, and placed in open exposure amid the

LIFE OF EEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 37

thickest and most fiery darts of the great enemy. It is a
sad mistake to suppose that the deep darkness which reigns
around him exerts in any way a hallowing influence on his
religious feelings. It is rather, chilling as the touch of death
to vital piety in the soul. The missionary in the field stands
alone, amid trial and discouragement and temptation, like
the solitary oak on the mountain top, beaten by the storm
and scathed by the lightning, and this not occasionally.
Hostile influences are a continual dropping that would wear
a stone. Therefore unless like the monarch of the hills his
roots are set deep, the missionary must fall. If he trust im
plicitly in God and hold habitual communion with him, which
is always his blessed privilege, he has indeed nothing to fear.
The storms and the lightning that rest upon him are harm
less, and tend even to give strength, beauty and symmetry
to his Christian character. But he must have on the whole
armor of God, or he will not be able to stand. He needs
the aid of all the Christian graces in vigorous exercise. His
must be the piety of the prophet which prompted the illus
trious declaration, 'Although the fig tree shall not blossom
neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive
shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall
be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the
stalls, yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of
my salvation.'

" Next to ardent piety in the missionary I regard sound
discretion, that is, good common sense, as indispensable. I
have never in my life met with more shrewd, discriminating
scrutinizes of human character than in this country. Let
the missionary then lack discretion, and it is soon known.
One blunder in a land like this may be productive of more
serious injury to the cause of God than a thousand in a
Christian land. Indeed, I hesitate not to say that an indis.-

38 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

creet missionary would be a very dangerous man in these
Mohammedan countries. Good talents, and particularly
taste and ability for the acquisition of languages are cer
tainly important in the missionary candidate.

" Practical talents are highly important in the mission
ary. His deportment should be manly, and his manners
gentlemanly and agreeable. These traits \vill give him
great advantage in gaining access to the natives. Asiatics
above all others regard the outward appearance. The most
ignorant and degraded even possess much external polite
ness. They bestow no care on the heart but much on the
exterior. The missionary should also be versed in the
knowledge of things as well as of men. He must superin
tend the construction of his own furniture, if he have any.
He must be able to fit up a school-room, and in an emer
gency, perhaps, to cast type or work at a press. Good health
is desirable in the missionary candidate. A very stout con
stitution is not, however, indispensable. One of a more
slender cast is perhaps more likely to encounter successfully
the hostile influences of a foreign clime. An elastic, yield
ing constitution which will readily bend and again recover,
as a general rule will best endure changes of climate."

The death of Dr. Perkins' eldest daughter, Charlotte, is
referred to in a former chapter as occurring at Tabriz. In
subsequent years Dr. and Mrs. Perkins were repeatedly
bereaved. The entire number of children they lost was six
—three sons and three daughters ; all of these died in in
fancy except Judith, " The Persian Flower." She reached
the age of twelve years. Her death occurred September 4,
1852. The family were absent from home on a journey to
meet Mr. and Mrs. Crane, who were coming from Trebizond
to join the mission. They passed through a region where
cholera prevailed, and where Judith took the disease. The

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 39

circumstances of her sickness and death are detailed in her
biography, " The Persian Flower." Judith's natural ma
turity of character had made her seem a companion to her
mother, and it was long before the bereaved parent could
become accustomed to the loss of her only daughter. The
effect on her health was manifest, and in 1857 a change of
residence became advisable. This fact, together with Dr.
Perkins' desire that his only surviving son, Henry, then at
the age of thirteen, should avail himself of advantages in
America for education, led to the planning of a journey west
ward. Thus, through the guiding of Providence, Mrs. Per
kins and her son, together with Mrs. Crane and her son,
started from Oroomiah for America in September, 1§57.
They were accompanied as far as Constantinople by the late
Kev. G. \V. Coan.

In 1858 Dr. Perkins returned to America. lie spent a
little more than three years in his native land and in Eng
land, presenting the cause of missions.^ As most of his pub
lications were completed before this, his second return to
America, it will be well to devote the following chapter to
that department of his work which relates to the press in
Oroomiah.

40 LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS. D.D.

CHAPTEK YIII.

PUBLICATIONS AT OKOOMIAH.

This chapter is kindly contributed by Prof. Isaac H. Hall, of the Metro
politan Museum of Art, Central Park, New York City.

IN attempting a sketch of the literary labors of a man like
Dr. Perkins, we are confronted with the difficulty that
attends the history of a man whose life was given to good
works, whose tongue and whose pen were continually busy
with the word of life, who served his own generation, and
neither was careful nor had the time to preserve a record
for perusal after he should have fallen asleep. Further than
this, his own modesty has been content to speak of a number
of his own works merely as issued by or at the mission at
Oroomiah, and to suffer them to go forth for usefulness or
mark, without any hint of their authorship.

Moreover, the mission itself has preserved neither a record
nor a collection of its publications. It is to-day owing more
to the scholarly instincts and labors of the Rev. James
E. Rogers, a missionary in the same field, that any
collection of their publications has been made. Any
account of Dr. Perkins' works must be gleaned from
his own writings and those of his co-laborers, from the back
numbers of the Missionary Herald, from the foreign biblio
graphers and learned periodicals; and even so must leave us
with a feeling that we do not know the Avhole. His own
"Residence of Eight Years in Persia" (Andover, 1842) gives
perhaps the best groundwork of information ; but the
scholars who know how frequently his important labors are

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PEEKIXS, D.D. 4:1

mentioned in the learned publications of Europe, know well
that he rendered to the world a vast service of which the
ordinary circles at home know little or nothing. His name
is to be seen here and there in the European works of every
grade on oriental subjects, and thus fills a scientific place
among the scholars of the world which is quite as conspicu
ous in its way as his other name among the ooble brother
hood of missionaries.

It is impossible, in this brief notice, to attempt any
sketch of the services he rendered to the European scholars
in acquiring manuscripts, or in communications respecting a
multitude of linguistic and ethnological matters. Those
who wish to follow up the subject may best begin with
searching the Zeitschrift des Deutschen Morgenlaendischen
Gesellschaft (Journal of the German Oriental Society) for
the years during which Dr. Perkins was in Persia, continu
ing it to the present time, and then by following up the clews
and references thus obtained. This, of course, should be
supplemented by a search through the Journal of the Amer
ican Oriental Society, the Missionary Herald, and other
(more or less transient) literature of the time. But all that
is recounted here, it should be remembe'red, has a back
ground of immense labor of another sort, of wonderful suc
cess in the mission, of a personal character of dignity and
influence which had its effect for good and profit not only
with oriental potentates and ecclesiastics but upon savage
robbers ; and while the labors here noted were a man's work
in themselves, they could not have been accomplished in
Persia — nor in America at that period — except by one who
had thoroughly commended himself by his excellence and
nobility as a man, and by his fidelity in all the more ordi
nary occupations. Without the confidence inspired by supe
riority in things which princes and people could understand,

42 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

support would have failed him for the higher works.

The present notes are intended to deal mainly, if not en
tirely, with Dr. Perkins' work in connection with the
ancient and modern Syriac. Those of us who have heard
from his own lips the effect of astonishment and the result
of good fruits, which followed his own and his associates'
labors in Persia, will despair of reproducing the impression,
and will feel that we are following the best track in writing
the simple facts.

When Dr. Perkins went to Persia, the Nestorian modern
Syriac language had not been reduced to writing. Although
he did not know it, the Mosul dialect of the modern Syriac
had been reduced to writing for at least a century and a half,
and manuscripts thereof are extant in the British Museum,
in the monastery at El Qosh, near Mosul, and (of late) in the
Union Theological Seminary in New York. Had Dr. Per
kins known this, it would have been of great help to him ;
although, as it is, his reduction of the language to writing —
for he did it as a pioneer — avoids many mistakes of the El
Qosh transcribers.

It was on December 10, 1835, that his first recorded at
tempt was made to reduce the modern Syriac to writing. His
own words* are worth quoting: "Commenced construct
ing a series of school cards in the Nestorian language, which
has hitherto never been reduced to a written form. Priest
Abraham writes a beautiful hand and bids fair to be an able
assistant. Our first attempt was a translation of the Lord's
Prayer, which I may denominate our first handful of corn
to be cast upon the tops of these naked moral mountains far
more sterile than the bare, parched, physical summits in
Persia, that most of the year are like the mountains of Gil-

* " Eight Years in Persia," p. 243.

LIFE OF EEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 43

boa, without rain or dew or fields of offering. May the
fruit thereof soon shake like Lebanon. Numbers of the
Nestorians were in at my study in the course of the day,
and all were much interested in the business in which we
were engaged. They were greatly delighted to hear reading
in their language — a thing they had never heard or con
ceived before. And even the sober priest was so much
amused to hear the familiar sounds of his native tongue read
as well as spoken that he could not refrain from immoderate
laughter as he repeated, line by line, what he had himself
just written." To this it may be added that within two days
the effect upon Priest Abraham was to make him inquire
whether Dr. Perkins did not think it would be a good thing
to have the Bible translated into their vernacular language.
" I had never," says Dr. Perkins, " suggested the idea to him ;
but now encouraged it. This evidently afforded him great
satisfaction. How many Nestorian hearts will leap with
joy and gratitude whenever that great work shall be accom
plished!"

On January 16, 1836, he met with his pupils and others
in their new school-room for religious worship. He had
labored with his own hands most of the previous week " in
company with tardy joiners, cold as the weather was, to
construct seats, sand-boxes and writing-desks," that they
might be ready to commence their school without longer de
lay. After this dedication, the school-room was opened the
next day for inspection. " Our school-room, fitted up in the
Lancasterian style, is an object of great curiosity. Multitudes
of both Mohammedans and Nestorians throng to inspect it.
It is the first Lancasterian school ever opened in Central
Asia."

On the next day, January 18, the school commenced.
" Seven boys from the city attended. They all took their

44 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.t).

stand in a semicircle around the manuscript card suspended
on the wall, which Priest Abraham, with my assistance, had
prepared. And as they learned their letters and then began
to repeat a sentence of the Lord's Prayer for the first
time, with a delight and satisfaction beaming from their
faces, equaled only by the novelty of their employment, I
could understand something of the inspiration of Dr. Chal
mers, when he pronounced the Indian boy in the woods, first
.earning to read, to be the sublimest object in the world."

The growth of the school is a most interesting topic, but
we must pass it by with just one more mention. K"ine days
after its opening Dr. Perkins writes : " Our school suc
ceeds very well. But we greatly need slates, pencils, and
other suitable apparatus. By constant toil, I succeed in
furnishing reading, two hours per day, on manuscript cards
m the Nestorian language. Two hours the scholars read
the Scriptures in the anc'tent Syriac, wThich they do not un
derstand, but learn to pronounce syllables, form words and
spell in that way ; and two hours they spend in writing
with their fingers in the sand-boxes, and in learning arithme
tic from the abacus. During the time devoted to the two
last-named exercises, a class from the older scholars read to
me in English. Two of the deacons, who belong to the
school, are very fine young men, and render important as
sistance to Priest Abraham, as monitors of classes; and by
alternating in writing, they are able to copy two cards a
day for the use of the school, in connection with their own
studies. My labors at this time, and indeed, during the
year, were very pressing. Eight hours in a day I was occu
pied over the language, in reducing it to a written and
grammatical form, and translating portions of Scripture into
it for school cards, and two hours I taught the English class
in the seminary ; in addition to superintending the general

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. * 45

affairs of the seminary — preaching twice on the Sabbath,
attending one or two meetings during the week, and per
forming an amount of miscellaneous labor incidental to the
commencement of a new mission, which seemed often of
itself well nigh sufficient to require my whole time."

Ho w much wrriting and card constructing was done before
the arrival of the printing-press at Oroomiah, it would be
hard to say. On February 14, 1836, Dr. Perkins "com
menced the great work of translating the Bible into the
Nestorian language." This was the work of years, and was
accompanied with many minor labors, of which some were
afterward printed, but some circulated only in manuscript.
The school prospered, and was attended by female pupils
also — though in that respect the missionaries were "careful
not to press what the Nestorians regarded as innovations,
lest we should become obnoxious as new measure men."
The missionaries had quite enough danger and suffering to
make their literary labors pointed and serious. In addition
to his employment in translating parts of the Scriptures,
which occupied most of his time, Dr. Perkins composed
many religious and temperance documents, tracts, and like
short works, not to mention his translation of "Peter Par
ley's Geography " and " Colburn's First Lessons in Arith
metic," from all of which reading lessons on cards were
prepared for the schools. A few hints reach us of the pro
gress of this period of mission manuscript literature. P'or
example, on December 3, 1838, Dr. Perkins writes :

" Mar Elias spent most of the day in my study, engaged
in reading my translation of the Epistle to the Philippians,
which we recently finished. He expressed himself highly
gratified with the accuracy of the translation, and was de
lighted with the beauty and vividness of the Epistle itself,
which he appeared for the first time to understand,"

46 LIFE OF EEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

But all such matters we must pass over, and hasten to
the arrival of the printing-press. This arrived, with the
printer, Mr. Breath, November 7, 1840. The press was un
boxed and set up two days after, and " appears as an ex
otic, in this dark, remote land."

On November 21 the press is put in operation, "by print
ing, on small scraps, a few copies of the Lord's Prayer, in
the ancient Syriac, merely to gratify the curiosity of the
natives, who had never before witnessed printing." Ap
plications came in from the natives to print works of
character quite other than those within the mission's scope.
But on November 30, they "commenced printing the Psalms
in the ancient Syriac language, a work we had long
promised to the clergy, as the first labor of the press."

After much effort, I succeeded, a few years since, in ob
taining a copy of this beautiful " first labor," now a very
rare book. It is a fine quarto, with the rubrics of the Nes-
torian church ( " cum canon-ibus" as the technical phrase
is ), and Scripture references. It would seem that the Nes-
torians themselves furnished the materials for the red ink
used in this publication. The book bears date 1841. Its
editing and printing were no small literary work. Its
original was the native manuscripts.

March 13, 1841, saw the proof sheet of the first tract in
the Nestorian language: the first sheet, indeed, ever printed
in that language and character. Says Dr. Perkins, " As it
was laid upon my table, before our translators, Priests Abra
ham and Dunka, they were struck with mute astonishment
and rapture, to see their language in print ; though they
themselves had assisted me, a few days before, in preparing
the same matter for the press. As soon as recovery from
their surprise allowed them utterance, ' It is time to give
glory to God,' they mutually exclaimed, ' that our eyes are

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 4:7

permitted to behold the commencement of printing books
for our people ! ' '

This first tract, or work, printed in the Nestorian (mod
ern Syriac) language and character was " On the Necessity
of a New Heart," and embodied in it a translation, in the
same language and character, of the fifty -first Psalm.

This was the beginning ; and though Dr. Perkins modestly
confines himself to the recital of facts, and utters no breath
of self-glorification, yet from that day the glory was im-
perishably his of having been the man to reduce the modern
Syriac to writing, to produce it in print, and to be and to
remain the father of a printed Syriac literature ( both mod
ern and ancient ), for the whole region of Persia and Mesopo
tamia. This, together with his subsequent labors and publi
cations, have made the works of his hands to be the founda
tion of avast variety and extent of linguistic superstructures
in the Oriental literature of the western nations, whose in
fluence it is scarcely possible to estimate.

It is perhaps impossible at this time to determine the or
der in which the early publications issued from the press.
They are not always, perhaps not generally, dated, and in
the various accounts given of the work of the press, there are
some trifling discrepancies. Foi1 reasons already given
above, it is not always possible to determine the author of a
given publication. In the modern Syriac grammar of the
Rev. D. T. Stoddard, published in Vol. V, of the Journal of
the American Oriental Society, 1865, is a list of the early
publications of the press at Oroomiah, but, unfortunately,
undated. This, with perhaps a few other stray sources of
information, probably forms the basis of the lists in the
European bibliographies. Dr. Perkins also left a manu
script account of " Labors of the Press among the Nesto-
rians," in which he expressly says that his data may need to

48 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

be corrected from his previous writings, as he is composing
from memory. Bnt with these helps, the task still remains
as difficult as before. The press has been busy, quite down
to the present time, and has furnished the Nestorians with
an abundant and diversified useful literature. Dr. Perkins'
labors continued down to 1868 or 1869, in which latter year
he left this world for a better, where we may be sure that
all his works have followed him, whether we now can trace
them or not. But, so far as can be ascertained, besides
those already mentioned, the following are pretty well as
certained to be from Dr. Perkins' pen — though he oversaw
all the early work of the press :

Instructions from the Word of God, in modern Syriac
(Scripture Extracts), pp. 196, 4to.

Acts and Epistles in ancient Syriac. 8vo.

Sixteen Short Sermons, modern Syriac.

A Preservative from the Sins and Follies of Childhood,
by Dr. Watts, translated into modern Syriac.

Aids to the Study of the Scriptures, modern Syriac.
pp. 109, 8vo.

Scriptural History of Joseph, and the Gospel of John,
modern Syriac. pp. 316, 8vo.

The Gospel of Matthew, modern Syriac. pp. 192, 12mo.

The Faith of Protestants, ancient and modern Syriac, in
separate volumes, pp. 164, 8vo.

Scripture Questions and Answers, in modern Syriac.
pp. 139, 8vo.

First Hymn Book, modern Syriac ( three hymns only ).
pp. 10, 12mo. The book kept growing for years.

The Dairyman's Daughter,, modern Syriac. pp. 136, 8vo.
(Translated by Mr. Holladay and revised by Dr. Perkins.)

Useful Instructions, modern Syriac.

The Four Gospels, modern Syriac. pp. 637, 8vo,

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 49

Arguments against the Papacy, in ancient Syriac.

The New Testament, ancient and modern Syriac, in par
allel columns. Translation made from the Peshitto Syriac,
and the Greek differences given in the margin, pp. 829, 4to.
This appeared in 184:6.

Book of Pleasant Anecdotes, modern Syriac. ( Dr. Per
kins was one of many contributors to this book.)

Second Scripture Manual, and a larger Hymn Book, in
modern Syriac, containing nearly seventy hymns, pp. 131,
8vo. ( The first Hymn Book, of three hymns, was made to
accompany the alphabet.)

Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, modern Syriac. pp. 712,
8vo. This book proved immensely popular, and still remains
so. This, with the last above mentioned, were translated
with help from Deacon Joseph.

(An Arithmetic, modern Syriac. In Dr. Perkins' MS.; he
says it was prepared by Mr. Stocking ; but in his " Eight
Years in Persia " — earlier and better authority — he speaks
of it as his own work. The first of two subsequent larger
ones was prepared by Mr. Stocking subsequently. This
smaller one had pp. 24, 8vo.)

The New Testament, in modern Syriac ( an 8vo reprint),
made in 1854.

A Spelling Book, in modern Syriac. pp. 54, 8vo.

The Lord's Prayer, Ten Commandments, and Catechism
for Children, in modern Syriac, pp. 78, Svo.

The Rays of Light, a monthly, in modern Syriac, which
lasted eight months, was extinguished by retrenchment,
revived, and is continued in the mission to this day. De
voted to " Religion, Education, Science, Missions, Juvenile
Matters, Miscellany, and Poetry."

The Old Testament, ancient and modern Syriac, in par
allel columns, pp. 1061, large 4to. It bears date 1852.
4

OO LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

Hymn Book, in modern Syriac, enlarged to 240 hymns.
Published in 1854 — another edition in 1860. Most of the
hymns in this and preceding hymn books were translated
by Dr. Perkins from standard English hymns.

Scripture Narratives, in modern Syriac.

The Young Cottager, in modern Syriac. pp. 98, 8vo.

The Saints' Everlasting Rest ( Baxter's ), in modern
Syriac.

The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, in modern Syriac.
pp. 70, 8vo.

The Threefold Cord ( translation ) , in modern Syriac.

Green Pastures for the Lord's Flock, in modern Syriac.

Doddridge's Rise and Progress, in modern Syriac.

Earth's Church History, in modern Syriac ( with an ap
pendix consisting of a translation of Dr. Anderson's article
on the missions of the Nestorian church).

A System of Theology, " prepared with great care and
labor by Mr. Stoddard," and translated by Dr. Perkins after
the former's death.

The Old Testament with references, in modern Syriac. 8vo.
The references were prepared under Dr. Perkins' super
vision, by Deacon Joseph. The book is a stout 4to, and
bears date 1858. This is the last edition of the Old Testa-
men^ in modern Syriac. The corresponding (and uniform)
New Testament was prepared by Dr. Wright during Dr.
Perkins' absence in America, and bears date 1860. Both
were reprints, with some revision of the former translation
of Dr. Perkins.*

This list is not intended to be chronological, but it is very
nearly so. But it is and must be defective ; since no list

*Were this a catalogue of the issues of the Oroomiah press, quite a number
of other useful works would be included, for the other members of the
mission have done a noble work.

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 51

that I have seen includes certain anonymous works of that
press, which I have either seen or had good testimony to
their existence. Were the collection of Mr. Rogers accessi
ble, the whole matter would be clearer. The list, however,
must come down as late as 1865 or 1866, or within three or
four years of his death. Whatever it omits, it contains all
that he has himself seen fit to designate to the public as his
own.

Concerning Dr. Perkins' other publications, it is at least
as difficult to give a satisfactory account. That he now and
then helped a European library to the possession of a greatly
desired manuscript may be easily understood, when we con
sider that probably the bulk of Prof. Sachau's Berlin
Syriac manuscripts were acquired through the American
missionaries. It is certain, also, that a shameless, unauthor
ized use was made of his name by Syriac vendors, who, for
venal purposes, represented Dr. Perkins as ready to purchase
at a high price a manuscri pt they had for sale. In particu
lar, one story of his offering $300 for a manuscript of the
Revelation of Paul, was often repeated, and may be seen,
with an inferential refutation, in Theodor Benfey's introduc
tion to Gustav Bickell's " Kalilag und Damnag." (Leipzig,
1876.)

But Dr. Perkins did obtain a manuscript of the (apocry
phal) Revelation of Paul. The manuscript was brought to
America by Mr. Stoddard, and is now in the library of the
American Oriental Society. Dr. Perkins translated it,
and published it in the Journal of the American Oriental
Society, vol. viii (the paper was presented October 15,
1863). At that time this was the only copy of the treatise
known to scholars ; and when Tischendorf, not long after
ward, published the Greek original, from a manuscript he
had discovered, he reprinted a large portion of this transla-

52 LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

tion in his edition ; his own judgment respecting the age of
the composition fully confirming Dr. Perkins' previously
published judgment. It should be said, however, that Tis-
chendorf reprinted his extracts from the reprint in the
(English) Journal of Sacred Literature, which had eagerly
republished it from the Journal of the American Oriental
Society (Benfey is mistaken in saying that Tischendorf
reprinted the whole of the Revelation of Paul, from Perkins'
translation. It is perhaps the major part only, or such
passages as exhibited marked differences between the Syriac
and the Greek.)

Another discovery of importance was a Syriac Life of
Alexander the Great, of which a notice is given in Journal
American Oriental Society, vol. iv, p. 357. The " Life " is
fictitious, and evidently based on the Greek of the Pseudo-
Ctesiphon. Roediger published a portion of the Syriac text
in the last edition of his "Chrestomathy ;" and English
scholars in Cambridge and London are busy preparing the
whole " Life " for publication ; having borrowed the manu
script from America for the purpose.

To Dr. Perkins is also due chiefly the existence of the
manuscript lexicon, modern Syriac and English, which Syriac
scholars well knowr by reputation ; though the native dea
con, Joseph, was the chief compiler. The principal copy is
owned by Yale College, but was loaned abroad for use, first
in the lexicon of Bernstein, and then in the Thesaurus of
Dean R. Payne Smith.

In vol. ii of the Journal of the American Oriental Society
is a most interesting Journal of a Tour from Oroomiah to
Mosul and the Koordish mountains, and a visit to the site of
Nineveh. This, with a remarkable letter from a Persian
lady to Dr. Perkins, translated in vol. iii of the Journal Amer
ican Oriental Society (which is worth publishing at length,

LIFE OF KEY. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 53

but space forbids), and other communications in various vol
umes of the same journal, form exceedingly valuable supple
ments to his " Eight Years in Persia," mentioned above.

It would be interesting, were there time, to follow out
the various linkings of Dr. Perkins' literary work in Oroo-
miah ; but that would require a volume, not a sketch ; and
would best be written from the abundant material in the
library of the Congregational denomination in Boston -
where also sundry Syriac manuscripts of value (among them
a 12th century Peshitto New Testament) bear testimony to
the confidence inspired by him and his fellows among the
better Nestorians. But a word should be said about his
crowning labor, the Bible in the ancient and modern Syriac.

The ancient Syriac is not merely a reprint of the London
Polyglot, or of the later edition of Prof. Lee. It is
largely based on ancient manuscripts found among the Nes-
torians, to which also the voweling generally conforms. It
thus is an almost independent authority for the Peshitto
text, and as such is valued in Europe, as it will be in America
when Syriac studies are as widely spread here as they should
be. Moreover, especially in the Old Testament, this Bible
is the authority in the learned world for the Nestorian vowel-
points ; and to it, in that respect, go all the savants of the
world. As a conscientious and excellent work its fame is
equally great. Unfortunately the work will become rarer
and rarer as its indispensable quality becomes better known ;
but most of our better libraries contain it.

The modern Syriac of the Old Testament is translated
from the Hebrew ; and that of the New from the Peshitto,
with differences from the (common text) Greek noted in the
margin. The whole work is beyond all praise ; and in every
respect a grand monument of Dr. Perkins' learning, ability,
fidelity and piety. Into its particular merits as an edition.

54: LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

this is hardly the place to go ; but it is enough to say that
Dr. Perkins was much in advance of his generation in critical
knowledge, as well as in knowledge of the history and ne
cessities of the Nestorians. Furthermore, by a remarkable
providence, he found on arriving at his field, several learned
and indispensable works, with which he could never have
been furnished from America, since their rarity and cost
would have forbidden; not to mention other obstacles, of
which the difficulty of transportation was not the least.

Dr. Perkins furnished the Nestorians with a better text
of the New Testament, (indeed they had it already, in their
Peshitto manuscripts), than he himself had been accustomed
to in English. The notes " from the Greek," however, were
based on a text no better than those of the times ; for Tis-
chendorfs great works were not then published. It is greatly
to be regretted, that when his modern Syriac New Testa
ment was reprinted in New York, the impurities of the
common text were ordered to be put into the text, instead
of being left in the margin. But that was not Dr. Perkins'
doing, and was against his own practice and desire. It is,
however, the New Testament still ; and though it may cause
many a shock to an educated Nestorian who is used to the
Peshitto, it had to be printed in that shape or not at all.

Besjdes the Oroomiah editions above mentioned, the
ancient and the modern Syriac New Testaments have been
published in New York in separate volumes, the former with
the Psalms. The Psalms, ancient and modern separately,
have also been published in New York. All are in volumes
of pocket size, are of great beauty, and have gone through
several editions. The last edition of the ancient Syriac
New Testament and Psalms was issued from corrected
plates ; and in the Second Epistle of Peter, the Second and
Third of John, and Jude, presents by far the most accurate
text of those Epistles ever put in type.

LIFE OF REV, JUSTIN PEKKtNS, D.D. 55

The effect of Dr. Perkins' Syriac Bible, both in the foster
ing of learning and in the progress of Christianity, is in
calculable. Among the deeper scholars, for scholarly purposes,
the Old Testament, both ancient and modern, has made
and will make for itself the greater place in learned litera
ture ; but the New Testament, on the whole the best an
cient, as it is the only modern, will be more read, and will
furnish the Syriac student with his best introduction
to that present necessity — the ability to deal with Syriac
manuscripts. It will be long before the scholarly world
forgets its debt to Dr. Perkins, or ceases to regard him as a
noble figure, whether in position among the natives, or among
those of better civilization. In his own country he was less
known and appreciated for his attainments and excellencies
than he was abroad. He was well known in a realm which
would not easily understand a meeting of the American
Board, and which the latter would not easily understand.
"Which knew his more important and more lasting work, it
is not for us to inquire. If the work of Christianity, and
civilizing and educating at Oroomiah shows the sweeter har
vest, the results of his work that followed in Europe and
America are seed as well as harvest, and bear a more diver
sified fruit, which in turn will multiply harvests like that of
Oroomiah also. All Mesopotamia, and, indirectly, all coun
tries where the Semitic languages have sway, will profit, in
their literatures, their editions of the Bible, and in all their
missionary work, from the scholarly reaping and re-sowing
of the fruit of Dr. Perkins' labors. May his successors in
the field be as bounteously blessed as he ; and may those who
are revising his pioneer work as a translator of the Scripture
be equally happy in the excellence and f ruitf ulness of their
product.

56 LIFE OP REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

CHAPTEE IX.

SECOND RETURN TO AMERICA.

IN the summer of 1858, Dr. Perkins started from Persia
on his return to the United States. With him came
several members of missionary families. All reached Boston
safely the latter part of the following December, and soon
experienced the joy of meeting loved ones, in their own native
land. The voyage from Smyrna was exceptionally long.
After the brief rest of a few days, Dr. Perkins began to
fulfill appointments with pastors and churches where he
presented the cause of missions in the interests of the Amer
ican Board. Among other places he visited Montreal, where
a very cordial reception was given him. Though many miles
from his chosen field in Persia, he watched the progress of
affairs with unceasing interest, frequently corresponded, and
made many efforts to enlist new missionaries for that field.

In the spring of 1861, the important work was conferred
upon him of representing the churches of western Asia in
England. This included the interests both of the American
Board and the " Turkish Missions Aid Society," of which
the late lamented Earl of Shaftesbury was then President.

It may here be said that while Dr. Perkins was never
wanting in patriotic affection for his own land, he had at
the same time a strong regard for the English nation. The
following words from his pen will indicate this fact. " What
the British government, through its generous representa
tives, has done for our dependent missionaries in Persia, it
has shown itself ready to do for them in all parts of the world.

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 57

What would our missions have accomplished in Turkey, and
yet more in India, but for the shield of that government
stretched over them ? And what are its ubiquitous power
and influence doing at this hour to advance the cause of
Christ in all those Eastern lands ?

" Hare is the American missionary, I believe, in any land,
whose heart does not prompt from him the fervent prayer,
' May God bless and prosper England as a bulwark of civiliza
tion, light, truth, freedom and Protestant Christianity, from
the rising to the setting sun.'

" And how bright a counterpart to what British officials
abroad are doing for American missions, is the noble work of
the " Turkish Missions Aid Society " in England itself ! — an
organization which, composed of Christians of various denomi
nations, furnishes funds to be expended by our missionaries
in Turkey and Persia, irrespective of their ecclesiastical con
nections, an instance of unsectarian Christian philanthropy
as rare and sublime in itself as it is beneficent in its opera
tion." — " Missionary Life in Persia " pages ^3^ and 235.

Dr. Perkins met with a very cordial reception among
English Christians, both for his own sake and that of the
cause he presented.

A few extracts from different numbers of The Indepen
dent in 1861 will give glimpses of his visit in England and
France.

" REV. DR. PERKINS AT OXFORD."- - Last week we printed
Dr. Perkins' account of his visit to the famed university
town. Our esteemed correspondent, in a private note not
intended for publication, gives utterance to his own personal
impressions from the visit :

" ' This day week, and two other days, I had with me the
honored and venerated Justin Perkins. How I should like
to write of him ! I was greatly refreshed ; greatly honored ;

58 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

much moved by his great appreciation of our poor welcome ;
he had no letter to me ; the Congregational minister was
away ; he shrank from coming out ; but a cheerful book store
gent prompted him and so he accepts it as a providence in
small things.

" ' I took him to the Bodleian Library ; sat him in Drake's
chair, while I spoke of him to the chief librarian. He was
received very kindly by Mr. Coxe, who is of the highest
style of man, scholar, gentleman. Could you see them as
they stood : Rev. Payne Smith, second librarian and a
Syriac scholar has brought two books ; Dr. Perkins stands
between Mr. Coxe and Mr. Smith, and the looks are opened.
He looks upon them with strange emotion. They are, he
says, old friends ; the Syriac versions, the work of his own
hands, the produce of that Americo-Persian press.' '

" AMERICAN PATRIOTISM IN PARIS. — Paris, May 20th, 1861.
To the Editors of The Independent. — Crossing over from
Brighton, where I had held missionary meetings, I passed
the last Sabbath in Paris, and preached in the American
chapel. A day or two previous two or three scores of Amer
icans were invited to assemble at the rooms of Mr. Sanford,
the United States embassador to Belgium, now here on his
way to his new post. Stirring patriotic speeches were made
by Mr. Strong, of New York, who was chairman, and by
Dr. McClintock and others; $4,000 were subscribed on
the spot to purchase cannon for the American government,
and it was not doubted that $2,000 more would be added
by gentlemen in Paris, who were not present, and by the
ladies. It was not the fruit of any angry ebullition but of
a deep and tearful determination to do all in their power
for their loved native land, now so sorely wronged and dis
graced before the Christian world, not to say the heathen
world, by infatuated rebels, for the support of a system
which heathendom hardly parallels.

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 59

" The lowest subscription on this occasion was literally
and emphatically at the head of the list, as was that of the
widow's mites in the gospel. It was from Dr. McGowan,
an excellent missionary physician from China, who with a
fine patriotic speech, modestly apologized for the smallness
of his contribution, by stating that he is away from his post
on account of ill health, and not to be burdensome to his so
ciety while absent from his work, he is delivering lectures
on Japan and China, when able to do so, to obtain* bread
for himself and his family; and from his little pittance, his
country must share."

" From our English correspondent.

" DR. PERKINS TO THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. — Our
venerated friend Dr. Justin Perkins, on the eve of his
departure from England, addressed a letter to the Earl
of Shaftesbury, on England and America at the present
crisis. It is eight years since, that Dr. Joseph P. Thompson
under similar circumstances addressed the same respected
nobleman, showing the enormous difficulties in the way of
emancipation, and the grounds for hoping they would be
overcome. It is impressive to bring that Then, and this
Now, together, and also to remember, that in the distant
east, with a heart warm with Christian patriotism, seven
years since Dr. Perkins preached his sermon ' Our Nation's
Sin,' and made the impressive declaration : ' I hold that
our beloved native country is in the most imminent peril
from the fearful system of American slavery, of falling into
deep national disgrace, and calling down upon itself the sig
nal judgments of heaven, and thus blighting, for a long
period, the purest and the highest hopes of a suffering world.'

" After describing the deep interest and sympathy he had

60 LIFE OF EEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

seen manifested in Britain for his country, Dr. Perkins pro
ceeds thus :

" ' In now taking a grateful and very filial leave of our
fatherland, to set my face toward my native country, I would
beg to express to your lordship and other British Christians,
my earnest hope that they will not in this crisis of America
forget the fact that the present struggle there is far more a
moral than a political one. That God has taken the mon
strous evil of sin and slavery in hand and designs to shake
it down by civil war, as the proximate if not the immediate
agency, I have not the shadow of a doubt. It is an issue
inaugurated and precipitated by the slaveholders themselves
in their wild infatuation. And yet for the present state of
things in America, England is immensely though indirectly
responsible. I say this with no purpose of reflection, but in
grateful acknowledgment. The noble lessons on freedom
and rightj and on the abominations of American slavery,
which our fatherland has faithfully given us year after
year, from the pulpit, the platform, the press, and the forum ;
among them many thoughts that breathe, and words that
burn from your lordship's own glowing lips and pen, have
worked in our northern states corresponding sentiments and
principles, till after exercising unparalleled forbearance
under equally unparalleled injury and abuse they have
arisen in their might to stay the wrathful tide now surging
and vatinting itself in open rebellion and wholesale syste
matic piracy. On the moral countenance, by prayer and
sympathy, which England shall give to the American Union
in its present struggle, may greatly depend the length and
the severity of that struggle and the character of its issues.
Let me then implore that your countrymen may in no way
weaken the hands of their American brethren, who are so
ready to pour out their treasure and their blood for the

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PEfcKlNS, D.t). 61

Cause of God and of man, which you have so long and so
effectually called on them to assert and maintain.' "

In the summer of 1861 Dr. Perkins returned to the
United States. He continued for several mouths to labor
both in the eastern and western States, awakening renewed
interest in the cause of foreign missions.

In the summer of 1862, after completing work on a small
volume entitled " Missionary Life in Persia," he started
again for his chosen foreign field.

The call for his return was very urgent. After a pray
erful consideration he accepted that call as the path of duty,
though it necessitated separation from the loved ones of his
own household.

The journey was performed rapidly, and he was ere long
among a people who had earnestly hoped for his return. In
his loneliness he found relief by unremitted devotion to his
work, and found solace in the affection with which he was
regarded by all the missionaries and their families as well
as by the Nestorian people.

62 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS. D.D.

CHAPTEE X.

LAST YEARS IN PERSIA.

years were fruitful of much good. Physical
- strength, it is true, was somewhat abated ; yet Dr.
Perkins gave as in former time the best energies of his
nature to the Master's cause. His experience and influence
were prominent factors in gaining results. He continued to
furnish material for the press in Oroomiah. He prepared
and published commentaries on different books of the Bible.
More work of this kind had been planned, but was inter
rupted by the failure of his health and by his final return
to America.

The following brief extracts taken from a little note book
of Dr. Perkins are of interest, not only as being among the
last things from his pen, but as giving glimpses of life and
character in the East :

" Contrarieties. — It is true that Persians and other orien
tals do many things in a way just the opposite of Americans.
They mount their horses on the left side. They turn to the
left when they meet. The women in knitting begin the
stocking at the toe. Joiners instead of standing at a
bench, sit down and hold their work with their feet. They
churn their milk, and not cream, to make butter. The
driver of a team rides on the yoke and looks backward.
The plow is driven a few rods and then turned about and the
field is thus plowed in patches, instead of seeking a furrow
from end to end of the field, the object being to rest the
team by frequent turnings."

LIFE OF EEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 63

" Excuses of Orientals. — They are never at a loss for ex
cuses. As an illustration : A taktirawan was left at Trebi-
zond by a missionary on his way to America, in charge of
an Armenian preacher. In two years the missionary re
turned. ' "Where is my taktirawan ? ' ' The rains have
rotted it.' 'Where are the harnesses?' 'The mice have
eaten them.' 'Where are the irons?' 'The rust has con
sumed them.' The vehicle had probably been sold and the
avails appropriated."

"Lying like a Mollah. — Any false religious system cor
rupts most fully those who have most to do with it and are
the most devoted to its support. Probably no class of men
in the world now more fully personate the Pharisees of old
than Persian Mollahs. As lying is one of the most common
vices of the Persians, the proverb is perfectly natural and
true that such and such a one, noted for this vice, will lie
like a Mollah. If such be the priests, what must be the
people ? "

"Facts and Anecdotes. — Many years ago there was a rumor
started at Ispahan that the King was dead. The King heard
of it, and as the best punishment he could inflict, he sent
sheriffs to that city, with the message, 'You say "the
King is dead ; " very well, your part of the funeral expenses
is $1,000, which you must pay immediately.' There was
no alternative and the money was exacted."

" The governor of Tabriz attended Mr. Haas' school, and
promised to give him a horse as his tuition bill. Months
passed by and no horse was forthcoming. At length a
shrewd young khan, who was also a pupil of Mr Haas,
called on the governor. His Excellency inquired for Mr.
Haas' health. ' Oh, he is very ill,' said the khan. ' Why,
what is the matter of him ? ' ' That horse which your Ex
cellency gave him has kicked him very badly.' The horse
was soon sent,"

64 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.IX

"A young missionary but imperfectly acquainted with
the language, yet who preferred to manage his own affairs,
was making a contract for some mason work with the wily
Persian mason. The mason offered to do the job for three
dollars. ' No, ' said the missionary, ' I will not give you three
dollars. I'll give you five.' ' Yery well;' said the mason,
'let it be five; we will have no dispute about it.' ':

"A Nestorian JSoy Reading English. — On an occasion of a
visit from the Prince Governor, a Nestorian teacher of the
seminary called up a young boy — one of the brightest —
to show him how well he could read English. He read his
verse in a loud voice and a confident air, and the Prince
shouted ' Bravo.' The passage read was John i:3. The
boy read it thus : ' All things were mad by him ; and with
out him was not anything mad that was mad.' But for the
grave solemnity of the subject the scene would have been
well nigh intolerably ludicrous to the missionary listeners."

"Partiality to Things at Home. — Almost all new comers
to Persia complain of nearly everything they meet with,
because it is not American. They gradually learn better ;
but this is a lesson of time. The Persian house, for ex
ample, must be adapted to the intensely hot and dry Persian
climate. Thick walls and earth roofs are better than shin
gled roofs or clapboards on the outside, or board floors
within, which would quickly warp and crack. I have often
been reminded of a remark of Dr. Humphrey about grum
bling John Bulls in America. 'Why do they not say your
smoke is not so much nor so good as the smoke in London ! '
So with complaining new comers to Persia as missionaries."

" Esli, a Bible Woman. — Esli, a Bible woman, wife of
Deacon Badal, recalls that in 1854, when I went into the
female seminary where she was a pupil, for my weekly ex
ercises in singing, some of the pupils, she among them,

Y

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 65

broke down and could not sing from a burden of their con
victions of sin. Also, that finding the school in such a state,
I changed the service to a prayer meeting, first remarking
on the words, ' I will arise and go to my father.' On the
evening of that day, Esli continuing in great distress, Mr.
Coan \vas requested by Miss Fiske to converse with her.
As she sat upon the floor weeping, the picture of anguish,
Mr. Coan said to her : " Esli, what is the matter ; what
do you want ?" To which she answered : ' To be free from
the load of my sins — to find Christ.' Mr. Coan replied:
'Christ is here by your side.' She found Christ, and has
since for fifteen years witnessed a good confession, being a
burning and shining light among her people, and a most
faithful Bible woman."

" Ilatoon. — When Mrs. Rhea met the women of Degala
in the village church, in time of revival, Ilatoon made an
address, and among other vivid and impressive things she
said : ' I am Christ's crown.' ' What crown ?' was asked.
' That crown of thorns that pierced His head,' was the an
swer. She has had a hard experience in trial and sin, having
once married a Mohammedan and professed that religion,
and now seems like Mary who loved much, because much
was forgiven her."

" Last Call. — In my last call on our constant friend the
governor, he betrayed much feeling and sincere sorrow at
my prospective departure and declared he had not slept a
wink the previous night, after hearing that I was really
going. He told the messenger who carried him a small
souvenir, to bring him no more such unwelcome tidings as
my departure. Our mutual relations have always been the
most friendly for a third of a century."

It was a great pleasure to Dr. Perkins to be of any as
sistance or comfort to his missionary companions. During
5

66 LIFE OF REV. JCTSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

the summer months of his later years in Persia, Miss Mary
S. Rice and the widowed Mrs. Sarah J. Rhea with her
children resided at his house in Seir. The company thus
afforded gave Dr. Perkins much relief in his loneliness,
as his own family were thousands of miles away. As Mrs.
Rhea's acquaintance with Dr. Perkins began during his
last years in Persia, the following article from her pen will
here be fitting :

" This evidence of design is patent in the providence which
chose Dr. Perkins to be the pioneer of modern missions in
Persia.

" God made him for the place and he fitted in exactly. He
suited Persia and the Persians. They are a people fastidious,
formal and polite in the extreme. Dr. Perkins calls them
the Frenchmen of the East. A person with rough and
boorish manners could have no influence over them whatever,
or gain their respect, if lacking in good manners. I never
saw any one possessed of more personal dignity and uniform
courtesy than Dr. Perkins — a gentleman of the old school —
(I can imagine Abraham, so admired in the East, to have
been such an one) a prince among the people, always con
forming to the highest rules of etiquette, from which no
emergencies, however trying, unexpected or shocking, could
ever cause Dr. Perkins to descend. I cannot think of him
undignified, familiar or ungentlemanly, and I knew him well.
For four years especially, after Mr. Rhea's death, he was a
great deal with Miss Rice and me in the city, and our sum
mer home at Seir was at his house, and I had three little
children, unconventional enough, and often sick, and father
less — a trial to have in an orderly house like his; yet he
never showed that he was tried by them, or ever spoke an
unkind or impatient word. Their respect and affection for
him were simply boundless, After their father's death, they

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PEKKINS, D.D. 67

called him " Grandpa," and they looked up to him as the
highest example of greatness and goodness. I never shall
forget how all the missionary children were impressed, and
the natives as well, when he told them how he walked every
day for four years to school at Amherst College, and was never
once absent or tardy, and how he had yet to smoke his first
pipe or cigar, or drink his first glass of wine. A more im
pressive and eloquent temperance lecture was never deliv
ered, and never was there a more receptive audience.

"Dr. Perkins was very widely known, and all the natives
yielded him the respect due to a prince and a father, reverence
and affection combined. They called him ' Father.' They
submitted to his reproofs, and these were not always gentle.
He could be stern, denouncing iniquity without sparing.
One of the most lamentable evils to our work and to Nes-
torian homes and churches was a habit of vagrancy. Doubt
less there was some excuse for this in the deep and hopeless
poverty and oppression of the people, which caused them to
wander off into other countries. Some found their way as beg
gars to Germany and England, etc., and there pressed them
selves into the notice of sentimental and credulous people, who
gave them money to relieve their professed indebtedness and
to promote imaginary gospel institutions in the Nestorian
church. Returning to their poor homes, thus enriched, well
dressed and idle, these nabobs, while their funds lasted, were
the talk and envy of all their neighbors, whose greatest am
bition was to find a share in treasures and honors so easily
obtained. More and more the evil spread. The result was
disastrous. Dr. Perkins rose and stood in the breach. With
plain language, and unflinching, he spoke and wrote, and his
words were powerful, and such was the fatherly love under
neath them, which none could doubt, that they had great
influence in restraining and turning the tide. Anything

68 LIFE OF KEY. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.P.

that hurt the Nestorian people touched him to the quick. He
loved them as Paul loved his missionary churches. He was
their father and they kne\v it. The voice, even in driving
them back into the fold, was not the voice of a stranger.

7 O

" This loving fatherliness especially included all the mis
sionary families. Precious are the memories of his hospital
ity. Birthdays were always celebrated, especially Judith's,
though she had long been dead. This was the mode : All
the missionaries and the children were formally invited.
Then Aziz, the faithful Nestorian cook, feeling the honors
and responsibilities of his position, made careful and abun
dant (not extravagant) preparations in the way of delicious
biscuit and sponge-cake, with fresh fruit from the city bazar,
or golden honey from the summer hives at Hyder-loo. The
long table was spread Avith puritan simplicity, but every
thing nice and clean, and a seat for every child. Oh, how
precious to each little heart to find his own high chair ar
ranged (borrowed probably) for the important occasion, and
perhaps, hidden under his napkin, a practical joke in the way
of a grotesque dog or rooster or nondescript in dough — a
triumph of the cook's art ! How still the little heads, how
tight shut the little eyes during the blessing, how careful
the deportment in that presence!

" I well remember what a subduing effect it had on my
children when, going into chapel services, grandpa often
said to the irrepressible boy, ' Now, if you don't behave well,
they'll look at you.' Look at you! It was enough. After
the decorous meal, most heartily enjoyed, and a pleasant
hour of intercourse, with perhaps something special for the
children (Dr. Perkins never liked long, tedious sessions),
family worship would follow ; Bible reading with a few im
pressive remarks, singing, and a prayer that suited the oc
casion and the persons, pleading covenant promises, remem-

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 69

bering the child whose birthday was celebrated, with peti
tions for spiritual blessing.

" Dr. Perkins once had a school of little tots which he called
in for recitation at regular hours, and always on Sabbath
afternoons. The first act performed with intense assiduity
was to get position with tiny toes on a certain line of the
carpet, when the book was struck, and the boys bowed and
the girls courtesied, and then the catechism began from the
blue-covered New England Primer. It was a refreshing
sight in that dark land.

" My appreciation of Dr. Perkins as a prince, a father, and
a gentleman is more than I can put into words. No one
of any nationality who knew him in Persia could fail to rec
ognize in him these marked characteristics.

" His conservative influence as senior member of the mis
sion, in business meetings and discussions, was like that of
Nestor among the Greeks. He was never overbearing, but
the younger brethren always regarded his judgment and de
cisions with the highest consideration ; and the feeling of
bereavement in his removal was overwhelming. They felt
that the steadiest hand had been taken from the helm.

" I think the mission in Persia can never sufficiently appre
ciate the blessing that came and constantly distills — which
I trust will ever be a marked feature in personal character
and social intercourse — the refinement and courtesy im
pressed upon family and society life at Oroomiah by such
remarkable gentlemen as Dr. Perkins, Mr. Stoddard and Mr.
Rhea, and a lady like Miss Fiske, and others.

" I commend this thought and what it will suggest, to mis
sionaries who go out young and ardent, and who, in the inti
macies of a very small circle, should never forget that famil
iarity breeds contempt, and that some formality and courte
ous reserve may help to make the isolated missionary homes,

70 LIFE OF EEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

even to the foreign-born children who may come into them,
the highest and most faultless schools of delicate refinement
and good manners.

" Dr. Perkins as a worker had an iron will, perfect health,
facility in execution, and tireless perseverence, with clock-
like system and regularity. The amount of labor he per
formed was marvelous. He delighted in it, and kept on
and on all day, and into the night, like a machine that
never ran down. He did not shrink at anything. He
never stopped to calculate possibilities or probabilities if
anything had to be done. He was not rash, but brave and
bold, and full of courage, and his great faith held like the
principle of gravitation. Who can forget, when " the hea
then raged," and again and again our work was threatened
from every quarter with certain destruction, how he would
call us together for prayer, and calm and comfort us from the
thirty-seventh Psalm ! That Psalm is always associated with
Dr. Perkins and the missionary work in Persia. I can almost
hear his voice in tones of confidence reading the verses and
illustrating them from pages of his own experience, prov
ing by personal testimonv that "the salvation of the right
eous is of the Lord, He is their strength in the time of
trouble." Another favorite Psalm which he often read to
the children was the thirty-fourth, especially verse llth.

" One great work, and the last for the people to whom
he gave his life, was building the Ardishai church. The
funds were given to Dr. Perkins by the Shah and foreign
embassadors. He could not trust natives to use these funds
honestly. Every Monday through the summer's heat, he
mounted his big white horse, and rode after Sabbath ser
vices to Ardishai, a day's journey, over bad roads, and stood
by the slowly ascending walls, and watched the placing of
each brick and timber, till the great church was complete.

X

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 71

But it was too much. It broke him. down. Several severe
illnesses followed. For reasons of health and ardent desire
to see his family after years of separation, he left Persia
finally. The journey was very trying and difficult, with the
care of an invalid, dependent women and children, and fre
quent and severe attacks at Constantinople, London and at
sea. Dr. Perkins suffered very much during the voyage ;
especially in the close quarters of the state room he was
troubled to breathe, and we fanned him almost constantly
both day and night. Though uncomfortable, he had every
attention and kindness in the tender providence which gave
fellow passengers, loving, helpful, and appreciative, who de
lighted to take turns watching and nursing the dear invalid,
and whose memories are grateful in being permitted to com
fort one so honored and beloved of God."

72 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN 1'EKKINS, D.D.

CHAPTEK XL

FINAL RETURN TO AMERICA, AND DEATH.

A BOUT the first of June, 1869, Dr. Perkins accompanied
-•LA. by several members of missionary families returned
to the United States. Though reluctant to leave his chosen
field, he yet felt constrained to take this step, partly through
failing health and partly through a strong desire again to
meet the loved ones of his own household.

When crossing the lofty mountains near the Black Sea,
the party encountered storms. As the result of these expo
sures, Dr. Perkins took a severe cold. A difficulty connected
with his liver was thus aggravated. He was, however, en
abled to proceed on the way and to exercise a general care
not only for himself but the ladies and children of the party.
On reaching Constantinople, all rested for a few days.
There Dr. Perkins revived many pleasant memories with the
late Dr. W. G. Schauffler and others. The voyage to Mar
seilles was comfortably performed. In going, however, from
that city to Paris, a long ride in the cars, Dr. Perkins suf
fered much pain and weariness. A dropsical tendency was
developed in connection writh the disease from which he had
already suffered. On reaching Paris, he found his feet had
swollen so much as to necessitate cutting his boots in order
to remove them. From Paris to Liverpool, he was quite
dependent on the care of others. The journey was per.
formed by slow and easy stages. Some of the time he was
better, and was able to meet a number of friends in Eng
land. As soon as practicable, passage was taken by steam-

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PEKKINS, D.D. 73

ship from Liverpool to New York. On the voyage his symp
toms became more alarming, accompanied with increase of
pain. His death was hourly expected, yet through the
prevalence of earnest prayer offered by a large number of the
passengers, as well as the kind and constant ministrations of
many, he reached New York. There he was met by his son
and assisted to a carriage. He was then taken to the house
of a nephew in Brooklyn, where he was soon met by his
wife. For three weeks he tarried in Brooklyn. As soon as
the attending physician would permit, he was removed to
Chicopee, Mass. Permanent accommodations were there
provided for him in the house of another nephew, where he
continued a few weeks till the time of his death. His wife
and a sister, together with the nephew and niece at whose
house he abode, cared for him during his sickness. His son,
who met him in New York and daily watched with him at
Brooklyn, having entered Hartford Theological Seminary,
was absent a part of the time, but often came to Chicopee
to see his father, to perform correspondence for him, and aid
in ministering to his wants.

Among a number of visits which Dr. Perkins greatly
prized during these, his last days, was one from Miss Mary
S. Eice, who for years had been a teacher in the female
seminary at Oroomiah. She came and remained a number
of days at his urgent invitation.

The following extracts are taken from an article prepared
by Miss Rice soon after Dr. Perkins' death :

"The day that I heard the decision of the medical
council in regard to Dr. Perkins' recovery, my heart cried
for hours, ' My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and
the horsemen thereof.'

" Most gladly did I accept his invitation to spend a few
days with the missionary father and his afflicted family.

74: LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

"December 4, on Saturday, he sent this message to a
very dear mutual friend: 'I have ceased to be anxious
about the result of my sickness. I \vant her and other
friends to pray that God's will may be done, and His name
glorified in the result, whatever it may be. The prospect
of soon being with Christ has been very sweet to me during
much of the past week.'

" On one occasion his soul was filled to overflowing, and
he said to a relative whose tender care was very grateful
to him, 'I never have through life felt my entire de
pendence on Christ as I have for the last two years, nor the
importance of leading sinners to Jesus.' In ecstasy he
said : ' Precious Jesus, thy blood cleanseth from all sin,'
and again, ' What light and love ! It seems as if I was filled
with the love of Jesus ! What hath my blessed Savior done
for me ? '

" December 5th. Two physicians from Springfield called,
and one of them, who had been able to afford him unspeaka
ble temporary relief, spoke very encouragingly of the hope
ful symptoms. Dr. Perkins \vas cheered by his visit, and
desired to hear items of interest from his missionary field.
After tea, he requested the privilege of hearing, us sing
' There'll be no more sorrow there,' in the adjoining room,
while his son played on the piano. ' The Cross and Crown/
' Rest for the Weary ' were also sung, and he asked for
'Billings Jordan,' a piece he has always loved, since the
days in which Mrs. Sarah Lanman Smith sang it as her fa
vorite, in the vessel in which the pioneer to Persia and one
of the pioneers to Syria sailed with their wives, on their
first voyage to the East.

" He prayed, ' forsake me not dear Jesus ! ' Some one
repeated, ' The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I'll never — no never — no never forsake.' ' How firm a

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 75

foundation/ ' How firm'' he added earnestly. 'Glory, glory
to Jesus ! ' ' If I have a tongue I shall never cease to shout
glory to Jesus ! '

" Tuesday night, December 7, was one of great suffering.
His distress was so great that he begged every Christian
about him to pray. Six times, short, earnest supplications
went up from that bedside, and the dear pilgrim was soothed
and responded ' Amen and Amen,' once he said : ' Let
such be my experience and it is enough.'

" Before midnight, as he grew easier, he desired friends
who were not needed, to retire, saying, 'We can send for you
if there is a change/

" At one time when feeling able to converse, he was asked,
' What are your views of missionary work, as you look back
upon it in these last days ? ' He replied : ' The most glori
ous that can engage the heart or hand of a mortal ; but I
would have it kept on the high plane of laboring to lead
souls to Christ/

" His love for his friends was very strong, very enduring,
and his gratitude for favors received was unbounded.
Again and again he expressed his affection and gratitude to
friends, who had delighted for vears to contribute to the

•/

necessities of the aged missionary, and who have over
whelmed him with kindness during the weeks of languish
ing, since his last return to America."

" It was a sweet privilege to Dr. Perkins to be surrounded
by his dearly loved kindred, and receive the kind ministra
tions of hands that had never wearied in their labors of
love, as they tried to soothe and relieve his sufferings, some
times agonizing distress, as the earthly tabernacle was taken
down. He had spent long years in Persia, teaching those
about him how to live • one lesson was left for his American
friends, to see how a good man leaning on Jesus' arm, could
meet the last enemy."

76 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

After a week of comparative unconsciousness, Dr. Perkins
passed from earth. This was on the evening of December
31, 1869.

In looking from a window facing westward, the sun could
be seen resting on the horizon. The year was nearly at its
close. Soon was the spirit of the pioneer missionary ushered
into a new year, nay rather a new existence, where the years
do not come and go with their alternations of joy and sor
row, but where there is rest, reward and endless joy.

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS. D.D. 77

CHAPTER XII.

REMINISCENCES AND CHARACTERISTICS.

These valuable and interesting letters from different
sources will give every reader a good impression of Dr. Per
kins' character. Those who knew him best will also recall
many tender associations and memories of his life.

From Prof. William S. Tyler, D. D., Amherst College.

AMHERST COLLEGE, June 1, 1887.

MY DEAR MR. PERKINS, I am glad that you propose to
prepare a brief memoir of your honored father. He was a
model missionary, and his life and example cannot but be
instructive to others who engage in the same good work, and
instructive to all who are interested in Christian missions.

My acquaintance with Justin Perkins began when he
was a senior and I a junior in Amherst College. He was
graduated in 1829 and I in 1830. As I was only two years
in college, his was the only senior class that I knew except
my own, and of course he was one of those great men in
college whose like I have never since beheld. But apart from
college hero worship, there were strong men, excellent
scholars, model missionaries in that class, though the college
was not yet ten years old. One eighth of the class became
foreign missionaries, among whom were Henry Lyman " the
Martyr of Sumatra," Justin Perkins who gave the Nestor-
ians the whole Bible in their own language and a Christian
literature, and Elias Riggs, who knows more than a score of
languages, who translated the Bible into the Bulgarian and
the Armenian tongues, and has rendered scarcely less impor-

78 LIFE OF KEY. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.t>.

tant services to the Scriptures in the modern Greek and the
Turkish. There was also Joseph William Jenks, to whom
scarcely less than to his father the Christian public was
indebted for the " Comprehensive Commentary ; " and Simeon
Nash, judge of the court of common pleas in Ohio, and author
of several valuable books and articles on the application of
Christian ethics to law and the state ; not to mention sev
eral other members of the class who were strong men in
college and afterward were distinguished as pastors or as
educators. In the three classes which preceded and with
whom Mr. Perkins was more or less associated, were : Elijah
C. Bridgman, the patriarch of American missionaries to
China ; Artemas Bullard, the St. Louis pastor and preacher ;
Chauncy Colton, founder of the Mount Pleasant school in
Amherst and president of Bristol College ; Samuel F. Haven,
librarian of the Antiquarian Society in Worcester; Edward
Jones, the colored alumnus who died early in his mission to
Liberia; Robert E. Pattison, president of Waterville College
and professor in Newton Theological Seminary ; Joseph S.
Clark, the wise and efficient secretary of the Massachusetts
Missionary Society ; Alexander W. McClure, editor of the
Christian Observatory and stalwart defender of New Eng
land orthodoxy ; William P. Paine, tutor, trustee and model
pastor; Asa Bullard, the veteran Sunday-school secretary
and editor ; James H. Coffin, author of " Conic Sections " and
professor of mathematics ; Story Hebard, the gentle and
gentlemanly missionary to Turkey who died almost in the
beginning of his work ; and Edward P. Humphrey, the elo
quent preacher, professor of ecclesiastical history, and leader
in the Presbyterian Church. In the classes that came after
him and looked up to him and his classmates as I did, there
were in my own class : William Arms, Henry A. Homes,
James L. Merrick, Philander O. Powers, and Benjamin

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 79

Schneider, five missionaries out of only thirty graduates,
and Horatio B. Hackett, the distinguished professor, scholar
and commentator on the Scriptures ; in 1831 Hilliard Bry
ant, Ebenezer Burgess and Aldin Grout, missionaries, C.
M. Dorman and James Humphrey, civilians, the two Greeks,
Karavalles and Paspati, the former after his return to his
own country an officer under the Greek government, the
latter the well known philologist and archaeologist at Con
stantinople and Athens, besides several distinguished educa
tors and pastors ; while the class of 1832 was remarkable
chiefly for its five judges, all superior scholars in college,
and others who gained distinction in political and public
life. " There were giants in those days," and as a gentle
man, a scholar and a Christian, Justin Perkins was among
the foremost of them all. Though obliged to teach school
in the winter, as a means of self-support, he made up for the
time thus lost by hard study, giving only four hours out of
the twenty-four to sleep as was commonly reported, and
received one of the highest appointments both at the Junior
exhibition and in the commencement exercises, choosing for
his subject on the former occasion The Nineteenth Century,
and at the latter, The Dangers of Innovation under the name
of Improvement.

The year after his graduation he was a teacher in Am-
herst Academy, of which William Thompson, the now ven
erable professor in the theological seminary at Hartford,
was then principal, and which, in those days, was, perhaps,
the most flourishing academy in the State. As a teacher, he
Avas able and faithful, and highly acceptable to the school
and to the people of the town. The next two }Tears he was a
member of the theological seminary at Andover. In 1832-
1833 " Justin Perkins, Ebenezer Burgess and Timothy Dwight
were fellow tutors and fellow boarders with myself at Prof.

80 LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

Hitchcock's, whose family for several years furnished a
delightful home for almost all the tutors. There we dis
cussed literature, science and religion with each other and
the Professor. There, at one time, we canvassed princi
ples, plans and methods of education with Miss Lyon, when
she was laying the foundations of Mount Holyoke seminary;
at another, we sat at the feet of Eli Smith as he talked of
the Holy Land, and Turkish and Persian missions. Perkins
taught rhetoric, logic and languages with indefatigable in
dustry, inexhaustible patience, and unfailing accuracy and
propriety. Already we could see in him — such was the dig
nity of his character, such the maturity and balance of his
judgment — the founder and father of the mission among
the Nestorians, and — such was his linguistic learning and
taste — the future translator of the Scriptures into modern
Syriac." So have I described him in my history of Amherst
College. Returning to Andover the following year, he re
sumed his theological studies; but, before completing the
three years' course, he listened to the call of the American
Board, and went out to establish the mission among the Kes-
torians.

In the theological seminary, as in the college, he was a
hard student, improving every moment of his time, labori
ous, systematic, with a time and a place for everything and
everything in its time and place, regular in his attendance
on all the exercises, exemplary in the discharge of every
Christian duty, thus laying broad and deep foundations for
future usefulness, while, at the same time, he lost no present
opportunity of doing good which providence presented to
him.

Mr. Perkins was received into the college church, by let
ter from the Congregational Church in Westfield, Marcli
18, 1827, when he was a member of the sophomore class,

X

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 81

and, so far as appears from the church records, was never
dismissed, but continued a member until his death. As the
college church was formed in 1826, he was one of the early
members, the fifty-first in the order of entry in the records.
In ]s62S he was the first president and Elias Riggs the first
secretary of the first missionary organization in the college,
whose object it was to excite and perpetuate a missionary
spirit in the hearts of its members and other students by
weekly meetings, a weekly concert of prayer, and corre
spondence with similar societies in other institutions, and
with missionaries in the field. At the commencement,
in 1832, when his class received their degrees of M. A.,
he was appointed to deliver a master's oration, and he took
for his theme, The Obligation of Literature and Science to
the Enterprise of Missions. During his tutorship, he was
superintendent of the Sunday school in Amherst. He held
the same office in the South Church of Andover during the
last year of his connection with the theological seminary.
These schools were both increasingly large and prosperous
at this time, embracing almost the whole congregation, of
all ages and both sexes; and they owed their prosperity
largely to the wisdom of the superintendent, his personal
influence, and the interest which he inspired. Thus, his edu
cation was a happy union of study with practice, of discipline
and development with training for a great life work under
the inspiration of the highest and holiest motives.

It was not in the nature of such a man, with his large, warm
heart and his profound convictions of the duty of Christians
to Christ and a perishing world, to leave his native land
without an earnest appeal in behalf of Christian missions.
Shortly before his departure, he prepared a sermon which
he delivered, I know not how many times or in how many
places, using as the text of his discourse Ileb. ii: 3.
6

X

82 LIFE OF EEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, in which,
after magnifying the greatness of the salvation as shown in
the greatness of the deliverance and the greatness of the
deliverer and thus the impossibility of a greater or any
other salvation for those who neglect to embrace it for
themselves, he proceeded to set forth in the strong light of
this great theme the inexcusable negligence of Christians in
not publishing the glad tidings of this great salvation to all
who dwell on the face of the earth. I shall never forget
the sermon or lose the impression it left on my own mind,
although I did not hear him preach it, but he read it to me
before preaching it, as we sat together on the borders
of "Pomp's Pond" in Andover. And in this connection
I may perhaps be permitted to allude to the somewhat
unusual intimacy which existed between Mr. Perkins and
myself owing to the relations into wrhich from time to
time we were providentially brought. We were together
one year in college, as already stated ; the next year
when I was a senior in college, he was a teacher in
Amherst Academy; the next year I succeeded him as a
teacher in the academy, and he went to Andover ; I suc
ceeded him in like manner in the superintendence of the
Sunday school in Amherst when he relinquished it ; we were
fellow tutors and fellow boarders for one year in Amherst,
and for somewhat more than a year we were associates in
theological studies and more or less also in Sunday-school
work in Andover. After his departure for Persia the inti
macy wras kept up by epistolary correspondence. After his
first visit to his native land, with Mar Yohannan, and his
return to his mission, we wrere in the habit of writing
each other on the receipt of a letter from the other; and
after his second visit from which he returned alone, leaving
behind him his wife and only surviving child, at his request

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 83

and as a solace in his loneliness, we each wrote two letters
every year without waiting to hear from the other. The
package of his letters now lies before me, more than fifty
in number, and I have just had the melancholy but great
satisfaction of reading them all over again ; would that the
Christian public might have the pleasure and profit of read
ing them. They are models of good sense, good taste, personal
friendship and Christian spirit as manifested in epistolary
correspondence, and they recall many, many tender and
sacred recollections in his and my own experience. Indeed
the history of the Nestbrian mission, of Amherst College
and of the United States, especially in their life and death
struggle with slavery, as well as of his family and mine fora
period of more than thirty years, might almost be written from
these letters. The record of his long, laborious, self-sacrificing,
yet most useful and happy missionary life may here be read
and reviewed just as it passed from month to month and year
to year, translating the Bible and " Pilgrim's Progress " and
other Christian literature, and carrying them through the
press in successive editions and various forms suited to the
changing and growing wants of the people ; preaching twice
every Sabbath in the native tongue and attending daily ser
vices in Syriac during the week ; teaching more or less in the
seminary and laboring in season and out of season, especially
in the wonderful revivals of religion that occurred almost
every year in the seminary and often in the churches, besides
the superintendence of the mission, the correspondence with
the secretaries and others at home, and an indefinite, not to say
infinite amount of miscellaneous work that was continually
devolving on him. I always wondered how he could find the
time or have the strength to write his unfailing and always
full and carefully written letters to me. At the same time
he watched with deepest and liveliest interest the progress

84 LIFE OF EEV. JUSTIN PEKKINS, D.D.

of events in his native land. Next to the unspeakable joy
and gratitude with which he recorded the powerful revivals
with which the schools and churches of the missions were
blessed, was the warm and hearty response of sympathy with
which he received the news of similar scenes in the college
in which he was educated. And the mingled sorrow and
indignation with Avhich he read and wrote of the encroach
ments of slavery and the compliances of ministers and Chris
tians, churches and societies in his native land previous to the
war, far exceeded his denunciations of the intolerance and per
secutions of the Mohammedans of Turkey and Persia. In all
these letters, as in his whole life, wherever we see Dr.
Perkins, wre see in him the faithful friend, the ardent patriot,
the perfect gentleman, a fine scholar, a graceful writer, an
indefatigable worker, a wise leader, a devoted Christian, a
model missionary, with strong feelings and resolute will yet
always under the control of sound judgment and Christian
principle, of courteous manners, gentle speech and winning
ways, rejoicing in hope, in tribulation and affliction not only
patient but cheerful, full of faith and hope and love and joy,
wise in all things but especially wise to win souls, ambitious
but chiefly to turn many to righteousness and to shine with
them as the stars forever and ever.

From Eev. N. G. Clark, D.D., secretary of the A. B. C.

F. M.:

BOSTON, May 21, 1887.

DEAR ME. PERKINS, You kindly ask me for a brief state
ment of my impressions of your honored father, Kev.
Justin Perkins, D.D., missionary to the Nestorians. I
greatly regret that it was not my privilege to meet your
father so as to know him personally. As foreign secretary,
I had the pleasure of correspondence with him for the three
years previous to his leaving Persia. I recall very vividly

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 85

the profound respect and esteem I had for him, and the
hesitancy with which I ventured to address him, as one so
thoroughly versed in all questions relating to the work
among the Nestorians. His bearing toward the young sec
retary was very courteous and soon relieved me of any
special embarrassment. I was especially pleased by his ex
pressions of delight with any incidents touching the progress
of the work in other fields. Any illustration of earnest
Christian purpose in the character of native Christians
stirred his heart and called forth expressions of that lively
sympathy with Christ which characterized his whole history.

As I recall the history of the Nestorian mission, its
early triumphs, the painful sacrifices required of the few
devoted men and women who went to that distant field, and
as I now read of the success which has attended missionary
effort, transforming that wild, waste region, as it were, into
the garden of the Lord, I recognize more and more the ser
vices rendered by Justin Perkins. There was need of a man
of his fine intellectual character, of his lofty consecration, to
give dignity to the enterprise, and to commend it to the
faith and generous contributions of Christians here at home.
An enterprise that commanded abilities that would have
secured their possessor an honored place in his native land,
was one in which the Christian public might well feel an in
terest. Indeed, the devotion of such men as were early en
gaged in the work there was a most important contribution
to the cause of missions ; and many a man who would have
otherwise remained indifferent, could not help caring for a
work in which such noble men as Justin Perkins and David
T. Stoddard were engaged. Very sincerely yours,

K G. CLARK.

From Mrs. D. P. Cochran :

OROOMIAH, PERSIA, April 16, 1887.

PEAR MR. PERKINS, It will be thirty-nine years next

86 LIFE OF EEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

June since I arrived in Oroomiah with my husband, and first
saw your father, mother, their " Persian Flower," with her
little brother Henry, some four or five years old, as my
memory serves me. He who was the pioneer missionary of
the American Board in Persia has put aside his armor and
laid him down to rest. You expressed a wish in your letter
to Dr. Shedd, that we who knew him so well, send a few
lines of recollections of his life and labors. It would fill a
volume to tell the half of those days. I looked with wonder
upon his untiring zeal and the amount of work accomplished
each day. What endeared him personally lay more in the
courtesies of every-day life, for we lived beneath the same
roof, though there was no inner communication between our
rooms. In sickness he would find time to watch at night,
two and three times a week, and very welcome was his pres
ence there, and his cheerful, hopeful words helped bring the
convalescent back to health. And when no earthly healing
was granted, his was a sympathy which entered into our
very hearts and bore the burden with us.

As I thus recall those days, it all comes back to me, and I
see him beside the bedside of my Martha ; every other night
he wished to sit up, would we allow it. "Will Mr. Perkins
sit up with me to-night," the little girl would ask, and if I
replied "yes," she would say, "I love to have him." And
when we laid her away on the hillside, he brought us back
from the grave to our desolate home, with loving words
of the little girl who dearly loved him, and gently said,
" You must all come over and take tea with me," and so
we followed him without a word, though I could not have
gone anywhere else. It seemed like going to my own dear
father's, and he was full of beautiful remembrances of my
dear one. Martha had said to me on her sick bed, " We will
ask Mr. Perkins to tea, Mamma, on my birthday and will you

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 87

make a ' study cap ' for me to give him ? " It was all ready,
with the cake and the written invitation to tea, when the
day came, and with breaking heart I did everything as
Martha and I had planned. A sweet peace fell over us, and
Mr. Perkins sat with us around the tea table, and told and
gave many beautiful recollections of the little girl who said,
"It is better to go to Jesus than to stay here," and asked,
" Do you not think Mr. Stoddard will be glad when he sees
me coming into the gate of heaven?" Again, and yet
again, did he come to our help on similar occasions, and
without him, it seems as though we could not have borne
our grief, though our little circle of missionary brothers and
sisters were exceptionally sympathizing and kind. We
looked up to him as our leader and guide.
Truly your friend,

D. P. COCHEAN.

From Miss Mary S. Rice, now of Lincoln, Mass., for
merly a teacher in the female seminary, Oroomiah, Persia :

As a missionary preacher Dr. Perkins' motto was, "I
determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ and him crucified." He was averse to wasting his
strength on theories, fruitless discussions, and what appeared
to him to be the scaffolding of the missionary work.

In his last illness, he remarked one day, " I have tried to
make Christ and Him crucified the theme of my preaching.
If I should begin again, I should make it still more so. It
seems as if I would preach nothing else."

He accomplished a vast amount of work, but he was
never in a hurry ; he was so prompt in meeting his engage
ments, that he was always in his place a few minutes before
the time.

Dr. Perkins was a practical exponent of James 1 : 27,
" Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is

88 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction."

Many are the widows whose hearts he has made to sing
with grateful joy. Many are the orphans who will call him
a blessed friend in distress. His generous heart and willing
hand were ever ready to minister to their comfort and need.

Dr. Perkins did much to cultivate the social element in
the missionary circle. He had a wonderful memory, and
could entertain his guests for hours with instructive, appro
priate as well as amusing anecdotes.

His influence over the missionary children, as well as
native youth, was greatly prized.

Courteous, dignified, kind, pleasant, appreciative, gener
ous, he easily won the respect and affection of the young,
both in the mission and among the natives.

Dr. Perkins possessed a leading mind, indomitable will,
wonderful perseverance, great prudence, combined with a
love for the perishing souls for whom Christ died, that fitted
him to occupy the place of the senior member of our mis
sion.

From Eev. J. H. Shedd, D.D., Oroomiah, Persia :

OROOMIAH, April 23, 1887.

REV. II. M. PERKINS: — Dear Brother, I am verv Had

•/ O

you are preparing a biography of your father. No adequate
memorial of his long career as a missionary has yet been
written. He was a man of great faith and energy, and very
systematic and laborious as a worker. Impossible was a
word not found in his vocabulary. Only once do the mis
sionaries remember of his failing in what he undertook,
lie made an attempt to visit Gawar in the winter. He went
till his horse could go no further in the snow banks and re
luctantly turned back defeated. Those of us who remember
him can recall very much that was lovely in character. In
his later days he was a real patriarch with all the venerable

LIFE OF KEV. JUSTIN PEKKINS, D.D. 89

bearing and deep piety of the best fathers of old. But,
with great dignity of manner, he had a heart as gentle as a
woman's. We lived next door to him at Seir for several
years. When I was absent on long tours his fatherly care
of my wife and children was very remarkable and touching.
One of his excellent qualities of leadership Avas a generous
appreciation of the labors of others. He felt himself hon
ored and always expressed his delight in the success of his
associates and the labors of his pupils and native brethren.
The last Sabbath he spent in Persia was in June, 1869. I
had the privilege of sitting by his side on that lovely even
ing at Gavalan ; I asked him, " Looking back over the thirty-
six years of your missionary life, have you seen as great re
sults as you expected ? " He replied : " Far more. I ex
pected to see a congregation or two gathered ; but God has
given revivals and raised up preachers and gathered in
harvests of souls. He has been better than my faith." His
strong will and disregard of self was marked to the last.
He persisted in being carried on board ship at the appointed
time, in starting for Persia in 1833, though so sick that the
sailors said : " We shall soon throw this man overboard."
In the same spirit he met exposures on his last overland
journey from Oroomiah to Trebizond. This journey, no
doubt, aggravated the disease which ended his life.

His eminent services were seen in pioneer work on the
field, in beginning the system of education, in translating
and carrying through the press the Scriptures in modern
Syriac, in fostering and encouraging every good work of
missionaries and native Christians, in manifold labors for
the whole Nestorian people and providing for them a
Christian literature, in constantly awakening new interest
in America and England by the productions of his pen and
by his addresses, and in securing reinforcements to the mis-

90 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

sion, such as Mr. Stoddard and Miss Fiske in 1842 and the
larger company in 1859.

Very truly,

J. IJ. SHEDD.

From Eev. Benjamin Labaree, D.D., now of Marietta,
Ohio, yet still identified with the progress of mission work
in Persia :

My acquaintance with Dr. Perkins on the mission field
began in 1862, when returning from America he resumed
his residence at Seir.

It was a welcome day to missionaries and to native
Christians that brought him back to his old post of service
among them. His long years of experience, his unbounded
enthusiasm for the Nestorian work, his predominantly hope
ful temper, with the strong attachment existing between
him and the older Nestorians, made his return, in the view
of his associates, an event decidedly reassuring and encour
aging. By the native Christians he was revered and beloved
as one that "loveth our nation," and had laid for them
the foundations of a new spiritual temple. His presence
among them again was hailed as auspicious of continued
blessings, aside from the direct good expected from his
large heart and industrious hands. Mohammedans of all
classes, too, venerated his hoary head and commanding form,
as they held in high esteem his godly character. He was
accepted among them as an admirable specimen of Ameri
can nobility and Christian devotedness.

Those last few years at Oroomiah were a fitting close to
a lifetime of notable energy and zeal in the extension of
Christ's kingdom in Persia. Though the infirmities of age
were creeping upon him, and though his isolation from his
family often depressed his spirits, his busy hand never slack
ened in its work for the Master. To the last, indomitable in

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 91

purpose, untiring and self-sacrificing, he was ready to spend
and to be spent in the cause to which his life had been con
secrated.

While his labors were chiefly connected with the press, he
aided regularly in the instruction of the seminary at Seir,
did no little amount of preaching, and was ready to assist
his younger brethren in such ways as exigencies demanded.
The commentaries on parts of the Bible which he edited at
this time are among the most important and valued volumes
in the modern Syriac literature. They were accepted by
the people of our churches as a sort of legacy from a father.
He could scarcely have left them a memorial of himself more
suitable, more highly prized, or more enduring. Generations
of Nestorians will be edified by them. He added, too, by
translation, many precious hymns to the Syriac hymn book.

These years were a period when our missionary policy
was undergoing some change. The native churches were
being pressed into a more formal organization and to self-
support. While the burden of pushing this work forward
came chiefly on the younger missionaries, Dr. Perkins
watched it with tenderest solicitude, on the one hand re
joicing in any healthy development of these churches, in
whose founding he had had so large a share, and on the
other hand anxious, lest in their weakness their attention
should be diverted from aggressive spiritual work to matters
of ecclesiastical form. We refer to it as it indicates the
prominent characteristic of his missionary life. It was a
"mission hunger" for souls. His mission policy might
truthfully be expressed in the words of the great missionary
Apostle : " My little children, I travail in birth again until
Christ be formed in you." All matters of outward form and
church organization were, in his thoughts and aims, subordi
nate to this supreme end.

92 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

Another trait of character which was conspicuous in these
last years was his generous bearing toward his younger
brethren in the missionary ranks. His frequent expressions
of confidence in them and graceful deference to their opinions
did great honor to his broad and liberal spirit.

One of the sunny memories of this period is the sweetness
and tenderness of the dear old man in his social relations, his
personal interest in every member of the mission, his never-
failing courtesy and urbanity in his intercourse with all, and
especially with the children. Like a father he entered into
the joys of every one old or young, and shared their cares and
griefs. He often spoke of himself as being only a shadow
among the missionary workers ; but he was told, what was in
the heart of all, that he was like " the shadow of a great rock
in a weary land." In the hour of affliction, felt so keenly
by the isolated missionary, his was a strong arm to lean
upon, his sympathizing presence was a never to be forgotten
benediction. He was ripening for the blessed fellowship of
the saints above, and for the perfect service of Him who
came on earth " not to be ministered unto but to minister."

He once wrote after his final departure from Persia,
" Heaven will never know any greater joy than that over re
deemed Nestorians." It is his now to know the fullness of
that joy and the sweetness of the song of many such re
deemed ones.

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PEKKINS, D.D. 93

CHAPTEK XIII.

CONCLUSION.

IN giving the general outline of my father's life and
work, I have sought at the same time to present some of
the characteristics which entered into that work, as courage,
patience, perseverance, industry, good judgment, faith and
hope. These and other elements of character are well por
trayed in the excellent articles kindly contributed to this
volume.

I would now bring before the reader's mind a quality of
my father's character which has been implied in all that has
preceded, yet may be more distinctively brought to view.
I refer to his exalted ideal of missionary work. This was
not seen so much in what he said as in what he did. This
element of his character will bear very close inspection. It
was seen in the hearty and unreserved consecration he made
of himself and what he had to the Lord. He was very con
scientious in the use of money. Judging from my recollec
tion of him in this particular, his rule for the adjustment of
pecuniary affairs seemed to be as follows : To provide for
the present wants of his family on a basis of economy, to
be free from debt, and to give what remained to some ob
ject of benevolence. I am aware of treading on somewhat
delicate ground wyhen treating of a subject like this. It
would certainly seem in ordinary cases both natural and
scriptural that a minister of the gospel or a missionary of
the cross wherever laboring, should make some provision for
future years. Were I to take a different view, I should pass

94 LIFE OP REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

judgment on myself. There are, however, gifts differing.
Some may be called by an endowment of faith to make
sacrifices which others are not called to make. I can re
member the time when I wished my father was more mind
ful of his temporal affairs even to a very moderate degree,
but I can now see that his views were in perfect harmony
with the spirit of consecration which entered into his whole
life. The blending of characteristics would have been
marred without that faith which led to a belief that God
would provide for him and his in years to come, and this in
some way unknown to himself. Some paintings when
viewed near at hand seem unfinished ; from a more distant
point the apparent blemishes are seen to have contributed
to the merits of the picture and the production of symmetry.
My father was accustomed to think of missionary funds as
coming not only from the wealthy stewards of God's house
hold, but also from the self-denials of poor widows and
orphans who loved their Master and His cause. Thus, when
he practiced economy it was to save for some cherished
object in the Lord's great vineyard. He received, it is true,
a few gifts from Christian friends, which were devoted to
special expenditure for himself and his family ; yet I have
known him respectfully to decline other and larger gifts,
and to succeed in diverting them to some channel of benev
olent effort. During his last protracted and severe illness,
the officers of the American Board extended to him a
cordial invitation to draw upon their treasury for his ex
penses. This was a testimonial to the spirit of self-sacrifice
he had shown throughout his whole career. It was also an
expression of confidence that he would not abuse the priv
ilege thus given him.

This exalted ideal of the missionary work was seen in my
father's intercourse with his co-laborers. He loved them as

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 95

brethren. He appreciated their work, and exhibited the
teaching, " In honor preferring one another." The work of
furnishing material for the press in Oroomiah had chiefly
devolved on him. Some weeks ago I consulted the publica
tions in Syriac literature on the shelves of the Congrega
tional library in Boston, the most of which I knew to be the
results of his labor. On opening the books, I found after
each title and description, in his familiar hand, these words,
" Translated by the missionaries." Thoughts of personal
honor were lost from sight in the grand motive which con
trolled his life.

There are lessons in such a character for all followers of
Christ. Especially is this true regarding students in our
theological seminaries, and ministers of the gospel, whether
in the home or foreign field.

In an age of vast enterprises and of the rapid accumulation
of wealth, is there not danger that the ministry may become
to a certain degree affected by the materializing spirit ; that
considerations of personal ease and comfort shall assume
primary importance and it shall be regarded a positive virtue
to seek and win high position, with its accessories? Grant
ing that some are really called to what are termed desirable
places, yet does it not remain true that a call in such direc
tions is discovered much sooner and easier than in any other ?
Homeopathy may reasonably have its advocates in the treat
ment of the body, but surely in the spiritual realm the prin
ciple of "like cures like" ceases to have power. If we are
to remove the greed and selfishness of the world, it must be
by directly opposite principles. This has the authority of
God's own word: "Be not overcome of evil but overcome
evil with good." Two of the disciples were once permitted
by our Lord to make known their request. It was this :
" Grant unto us that we may sit one on thy right hand, and

96 LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D.

the other on thy left hand, in thy glory." The answer
given was a gentle rebuke, and they were led to consider
the nature of true greatness as consisting in service and
that for Christ's sake. Yet the desire of the disciples had
at least this merit, it related to the church triumphant.
Are there not many who would sooner ask, "Who of us
shall be greatest in the church militant?" The hour of
battle is not the time for a soldier to consider his personal
comfort. Patriotism is measured by a readiness for the post
of danger. One and all, when thus animated, are moved by
a common impulse to carry the day, though at the cost of
suffering or death. Christ, the captain of our salvation, is
a leader surpassing all others in glory. He may well call
forth and expect the devoted affection and hearty service
of every follower.

In bringing this book to a close, I cannot do better than
by giving some of my father's words. The following is a
part of his brief address to the Nestorians on the eve of his
final departure from Persia :

"My Nestorian Friends : I have sometimes been in cir
cumstances when my heart was so full that my tongue could
not speak. Such is the case to-day, and I shall try to say
little.

"I came to your people young; I go out from you old.
Twice before I have visited America since my first coming.
Then I had the hope of returning to you again, and that
hcjpe was a comfort to me. Now I go for the last time, not
expecting to return. We shall see each other's faces no
more in this world. The parting makes this hour very sad.
But it would be much more so, had I strength to labor more
for your people, and were still obliged to leave. My
strength is gone, and I could do little more for you were I
to stay.

LIFE OF REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D. 97

" There is another and yet greater mitigation. If we are
the servants of Christ, our parting is not long. "We may
hope soon to meet in heaven.

" I am very grateful to you and your fathers for the kind
ness I have met from them and from you, as a missionary,
from the beginning. I pray God to reward you all with a
part in his kingdom. I have two very special favors lor
which to thank God : the welcome I met, and my eyesight
in a land of dust and bright light.

" My friends, I have found my life among your people very
delightful. Pardon all short-comings in my work. Receive
from my lips two verses, one of Paul and one of Christ :
'Be diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.'
' Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown
of life.'"

THE END.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE.

Introductory. . . . . . ... 5

CHAPTER II.
Birthplace — boyhood and student life. . ... 9

CHAPTER III.
From Boston to Tabriz. . .... 11

CHAPTER IV
Entrance upon his missionary field. .... 1?

CHAPTER V.
Progress through light and shadow. .... 22

CHAPTER VL

First return to America. ...... 28

CHAPTER VH.
Labors in Persia resumed. ..... 4 32

CHAPTER VIII.
Publications at Oroomiah. . . . . . 40

CHAPTER IX.
Second return to America. ..... 56

CHAPTER X.
Last years in Persia. ...... 62

CHAPTER XI.

Final return to America, and death. . . . . . 72

CHAPTER XII.
Reminiscences and characteristics. . . . . .77

CHAPTER XIII.
Conclusion. , , , , . . . . 93

CAViH LliRARY

KNOX COLLEGE

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