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Woman And Her Saviour In Persia

A >> A Returned Missionary >> Woman And Her Saviour In Persia



Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.




[Illustration: PLAIN OF OROOMIAH, FROM THE SEMINARY AT SEIR.]




WOMAN AND HER SAVIOUR IN PERSIA.

BY

A RETURNED MISSIONARY.


With

Fine Illustrations, and a Map of Nestorian Country.




PREFACE.

Our Saviour bade his disciples gather up the fragments, that nothing
be lost; and many who have known of Miss Fiske's fifteen years of
labor for woman in Persia, have desired her to prepare for
publication the facts now presented to the reader. The writer was
one of these; and it was only when he found that she could not do
it, that he attempted it, in accordance with her wishes, simply that
these interesting records of divine grace might not be lost.

The materials have been drawn from the letters and conversations of
those familiar with the scenes described, and especially from Miss
Fiske. In all cases, the language of others has been condensed, as
much as is consistent, with the truthful expression of their ideas;
and, in the translation of the letters of Nestorians, it has not
been deemed essential to follow slavishly every Syriac idiom, for,
instead of these letters owing their interest, as some have
supposed, to their translators, they may have sometimes rather
suffered from renderings needlessly idiomatic.

It was at one time proposed to embrace the history of both the Male
and Female Seminaries, but the proposition came too late, and the
memoir of the lamented Stoddard gives so full an account of the
former, that now we need to hear only the story of its less known
companion; but let the reader bear in mind that as much might have
been said of the one as of the other, had the design been to give an
account of both.

A strict adherence to the order of events in the following pages
would have produced a series of disjointed annals. To avoid such a
breaking up of the narrative, each subject has been treated in full
whenever introduced, though that has involved a freedom somewhat
independent of chronological order.

The notices of the revivals are mere incidental sketches. Their
complete history remains to be written.

The beautiful Illustrations introduced are all new, copied from
sketches taken on the spot by the skillful pencil of a dear
missionary brother, whose modesty, though it will not consent to the
mention of his name, yet cannot prevent a grateful sense of his
kindness. The Map is an improvement on others previously published,
and, besides adding to our geographical knowledge, will be found
valuable to the friends of missions.

If the readers of these pages enjoy but a small part of the delight
found in their preparation, the writer will not regret his
undertaking. May the day be hastened when heaven shall repeat the
hosannas of a regenerated world, even as now the abundant grace
bestowed upon the Nestorians redounds, through the thanksgiving of
many, to the glory of God.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.

WOMAN WITHOUT THE GOSPEL.

POLITICAL CONDITION.--NESTORIAN HOUSES.--VERMIN.--SICKNESS.--POSITION
AND ESTIMATION OF WOMAN.--NO READERS AMONG THEM.--UNLOVELY SPIRIT.--SINS
OF THE TONGUE.--PROFANITY.--LYING.--STEALING.--STORY ABOUT
PINS.--IMPURITY.--MOSLEM INTERFERENCE WITH SEMINARY.


CHAPTER II.

MARBEESHOO.

VISIT THERE.--NATIVE ACCOMMODATIONS.--HOSPITALITY OF SENUM.--MOHAMMEDAN
WOMEN.


CHAPTER III.

THE SCENE OF THE NARRATIVE.

NESTORIANS.--THEIR COUNTRY.--FRONTISPIECE.--LAKE.--PLAIN.--FORDING
THE SHAHER.--MISSION PREMISES IN OROGMIAH.


CHAPTER IV.

MISSIONARY EDUCATION.

OBJECT.--MEANS.--STUDY OF BIBLE.--PUPILS KEPT IN SYMPATHY WITH THE
PEOPLE.--PEOPLE STIMULATED TO EXERTION AND SELF-DEPENDENCE.--
TAHITI.--MADAGASCAR.


CHAPTER V.

BEGINNINGS.

MRS. GRANT.--EARLY LIFE AND LABORS.--GREAT INFLUENCE.--HER SCHOOL.--HER
PUPILS.--BOARDING SCHOOL.--GETTING PUPILS.--CARE OP THEM.--POVERTY OF
PEOPLE.--PAYING FOR FOOD OF SCHOLARS.--POSITION OF UNMARRIED MISSIONARY
LADIES.--BOOKS.


CHAPTER VI.

THE SEMINARY.

MAR YOHANAN.--STANDARD OF SCHOLARSHIP.--ENGLISH BOOKS READ IN
SYRIAC.--EXPENSE.--FEELINGS OF PARENTS.--DOMESTIC DEPARTMENT.--DAILY
REPORTS.--PICTURE OF A WEEK DAY AND SABBATH.--"IF YOU LOVE ME, LEAN
HARD."--ESLI'S JOURNAL.--LETTER FROM PUPILS TO MOUNT HOLYOKE
SEMINARY--FROM THE SAME TO MRS. C.T. MILLS.


CHAPTER VII.

VACATION SCENES.

IN GAWAR AND ISHTAZIN.--VILLAGES OF MEMIKAN.--OOREYA, DARAWE, AND
SANAWAR.--IN GAVALAN.--ACCOMMODATIONS.--SABBATH SCHOOL.


CHAPTER VIII.

EARLY LABORS FOR WOMEN.

FIRST MEETINGS WITH THEM.--FIRST CONVERT.--FIRST LESSONS.--WILD
WOMEN OF ARDISHAI.


CHAPTER IX.

FRUITS OF LABOR IN NESTORIAN HOMES.

USEFULNESS AMONG RELATIVES OF PUPILS.--DEACON GUWERGIS.--REFORMED
DRUNKARD AND HIS DAUGHTER.--MATERNAL MEETINGS.--EARLY INQUITIES FROM
GEOG TAPA.--PARTING ADDRESS OF MR. HOLLADAY.--.VISIT TO GEOG TAPA.--SELBY
AND HER CLOSET.


CHAPTER X.

GEOG TAPA.

DEACON MURAD KHAN IN 1846.--PENTECOSTAL SABBATH IN 1849.--MEETINGS
IN 1850 AND 1854.--EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL OF YONAN IN 1858.


CHAPTER XI.

REVIVAL IN 1846.

PREPARATORY WORK.--SANCTIFIED AFFLICTIONS.--NAME FOR REVIVAL.--SCENES
IN THE SEMINARIES IN JANUARY.--DEACON JOHN, SANUM, AND SARAH.--MR.
STODDARD.--YACOB.--YONAN.--MEETING IN THE BETHEL.--PRIEST ESHOO.--DEACON
TAMO.--PHYSICAL EXCITEMENT AND ITS CURE.--ARTLESS SIMPLICITY OF
CONVERTS.--MISSIONARY BOX.--MEETINGS BEFORE VACATION.--MR. STODDARD'S
LABORS.--FEMALE PRAYER MEETING.--REVIVAL IN THE AUTUMN.


CHAPTER XII.

FIRST FRUITS.

SARAH, DAUGHTER OF PRIEST ESHOO.--MARTHA.--HANNAH.


CHAPTER XIII.

SUBSEQUENT REVIVALS.

DEACON JOHN STUDYING BACKSLIDING IN 1849.--WORK IN VILLAGE OF
SEIR.--WIVES OF SIYAD AND YONAN.--KHANUMJAN.--WOMEN AT THE
SEMINARY.--GEOG TAPA.--DEGALA.--A PENITENT.--SIN OF ANGER,--REVIVAL
IN 1856.--MISS FISKE ENCOURAGED,--STILLNESS AND DEEP FEELING.--UNABLE
TO SING.--CONVERSION OF MISSIONARY CHILDREN.--VISIT OF ENGLISH
AMBASSADOR.--REVIVAL OF 1857.--LETTER OF SANUM.


CHAPTER XIV.

DARK DAYS.

SEMINARY BROKEN UP IN 1844.--DEACON ISAAC.--PERSECUTION BY MAR
SHIMON.--FUNERAL OF DAUGHTER OF PRIEST ESHOO.--DEACON GUWERGIS.--ATTEMPT
AT ABDUCTION OF PUPIL.--PERIL OF SCHOOL.--MRS. HARRIET STODDARD.--YAHYA
KHAN.--ANARCHY.--LETTER FROM BARILO.


CHAPTER XV.

TRIALS.

EVIL INFLUENCE OF HOMES.--OPPOSITION IN DEGALA.--ASKER KHAN.--POISONING
OF SANUM'S CHILDREN.--REDRESS REFUSED.--INQUISITOR IN SCHOOL.--TROUBLES
AT KHOSRAWA.--LETTERS FROM HOIMAR.


CHAPTER XVI.

PRAYERFULNESS.

LANGUAGE OP PRAYER.--PRAYER ON HORSEBACK.--OLD MAN IN SUPERGAN.--MAR
OGEN.--EARNESTNESS.--FAREWELL PRAYER MEETING IN 1858.--LETTER FROM
PUPIL.--SPIRIT OF PRAYER IN 1846.--WOMAN WHO COULD NOT PRAY,--"CHRIST
BECOME BEAUTIFUL."--CLOSET IN THE MANGER.--MONTHLY CONCERTS.--
PRAYERFULNESS IN 1849 AND 1850.--SABBATH, JANUARY 20TH.--INTEREST
CONTINUED TILL CLOSE OF TERM.--FAMILY MEETINGS.--AUDIBLE PRAYER.-ANSWER
TO MOTHERS' PRAYERS.--CONNECTION OF REVIVALS WITH PRAYER AT
HOME.


CHAPTER XVII.

FORERUNNERS.

MOUNTAIN GIRLS IN SEMINARY.--PRAYING SARAH.--RETURN TO THE
MOUNTAINS.--VISIT OF YONAN AND KHAMIS, IN 1850.--OF MR. COAN, 1851.--OF
YONAN, AGAIN, 1861.--SARAH'S LETTERS.


CHAPTER XVIII.

LABORERS IN THE MOUNTAINS.

LETTER OF BADAL.--ACCOUNT OP HANNAH.--THE PIT.--LETTER OF GULY AND
YOHANAN.--ACCOUNT OF SARAH.--LETTERS OF OSHANA.--LETTERS AND JOURNAL
OF SARAH,--LETTERS FROM AMADIA,--CONFERENCE OF NATIVE HELPERS.


CHAPTER XIX.

EBENEZERS.

EXAMINATION IN 1850.--COLLATION AND ADDRESS.--VALEDICTORY BY SANUM.--
SABBATH SCHOOL IN GEOG TAPA.--EXAMINATION THERE IN 1854.--PRAYER
MEETING AND COMMUNION AT OROGMIAH, MAY, 1858.--SELBY, OF GAVALAN,
AND LETTER.--LETTER FROM HATOON, OF GEOG TAPA.


CHAPTER XX.

COMPOSITIONS.

THE FIELD OF CLOVER.--THE LOST SOUL.--THE SAVED SOUL.--HANNAH.


CHAPTER XXI.

KIND OFFICES.

HOSPITALITY OF NESTORIANS.--KINDNESS OF PUPILS.--BATHING FEET.--LETTERS
OF GOZEL, HANEE, SANUM OF GAWAR, MUNNY, RAHEEL, AND MARTA.--HOSHEBO.--
RAHEEL TO MRS. FISKE.--MOURNING FOR THE DEAD.--NAZLOO.--HOSHEBO'S
BEREAVEMENT.--DEATH OF MISSIONARY CHILDREN.--LETTER FROM SARAH,
DAUGHTER OF JOSEPH.


CHAPTER XXII.

PROGRESS AND PROMISE.

BENEVOLENCE, EARLY MANIFESTATION OF.--PROGRESS.--REVIVAL OF
BENEVOLENCE IN APRIL, 1861.--INTEREST OF PARENTS FOR THE CONVERSION
OF THEIR CHILDEREN.--PEACE IN FAMILIES.--REFORMED MARRIAGES.--
ORDINATIONS.--COMMUNION SEASONS.--MISS RICE AND MISS BEACH.--CONCLUSION.



* * * * *

_List of Illustrations._

I. PLAIN AND LAKE OF OROOMIAH, AS SEEN FROM ROOF OF SEMINARY AT SEIR

II. MAP OF THE NESTORIAN COUNTRY.

III. FEMALE SEMINARY.

IV. TENTS.

V. MISSIONARY SCENE IN TURGAWER.

VI. COURT YARD OF SEMINARY.

VII. SEIR GATE, OROOMIAH.

VIII. TIARY GIRL.




WOMAN AND HER SAVIOUR.




CHAPTER I.


WOMAN WITHOUT THE GOSPEL.

POLITICAL CONDITION.--NESTORIAN HOUSES.--VERMIN.--SICKNESS.--POSITION
AND ESTIMATION OF WOMAN.--NO READERS AMONG THEM.--UNLOVELY
SPIRIT.--SINS OF THE TONGUE.--PROFANITY.--LYING.--STEALING.--STORY
ABOUT PINS.--IMPURITY.--MOSLEM INTERFERENCE WITH SEMINARY.

We love to wander over a well-kept estate. Its green meadows and
fruitful fields delight the eye. Its ripening harvests make us feel
as if we too were wealthy. But while the view of what lies before us
is so pleasant, our joy is greater if we can remember when it was
all a wilderness, and contrast its present beauty with the roughness
of its former state.

So, in viewing the wonders of divine grace, we need to see its
results in connection with what has been. We can appreciate the
loveliness of the child of God only as we compare him with the child
of wrath he was before. Paul not only recounts the great things
which God had done for the early disciples, but bids them remember
that they were once without Christ; and before he tells them that
God had made them "sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,"
he reminds them that they had "walked according to the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience."

In seeking, then, to set forth the great things which God has done
for woman in Persia, let us first look on her as his gospel found
her, that we may better appreciate the grace which wrought the
change.

We can understand the condition of woman in that empire only as we
bear in mind that its government is despotic, and that no
constitutional safeguards shield the subjects of a thoroughly
selfish and profligate nobility. The Nestorians, too, are marked out
alike by religion and nationality as victims of oppression. However
great their wrongs, they can hope for little redress, for a distant
court shares in the plunder taken from them, and believes its own
officials rather than the despised rayahs, whom they oppress. Even
when foreign intervention procures some edict in their favor, these
same officials, in distant Oroomiah, are at no loss to evade its
demands.

The Nestorian is not allowed a place in the bazaar;[1] he cannot
engage in commerce. And in the mechanic arts, he cannot aspire
higher than the position of a mason or carpenter; which, of course,
is not to be compared to the standing of the same trades among us.
When our missionaries went to Oroomiah, a decent garment on a
Nestorian was safe only as it had an outer covering of rags to hide
it.
[Footnote 1: The bazaar is, literally, the market, but denotes the
business part of a city.]

In their language, as in Arabic, the missionaries found no word for
_home;_ and there was no need of it, for the thing itself was
wanting. The house consisted of one large room and was generally
occupied by several generations. In that one room all the work of
the family was performed. There they ate, and there they slept. The
beds consisted of three articles--a thick comfortable filled with
wool or cotton beneath, a pillow, and one heavy quilt for covering.
On rising, they "took up their beds," and piled them on a wooden
frame, and spread them down again at night. The room was lighted by
an opening in the roof, which also served for a chimney; though, of
course, in a very imperfect manner, as the inside of every dwelling
that has stood for any length of time bears witness. The upper part
of the walls and the under surface of the roof--we can hardly call
it ceiling--fairly glitter, as though they had been painted black
and varnished, and every article of clothing, book, or household
utensil, is saturated with the smell of creosote. The floor, like
the walls, is of earth, covered in part with coarse straw mats and
pieces of carpeting; and the flat roof, of the same material, rests
on a layer of sticks, supported by large beams; the mass above,
however, often sifts through, and sometimes during a heavy rain
assumes the form of a shower of mud. Bad as all this may seem, the
houses are still worse in the mountain districts, such as Gawar.
There they are half under ground, made of cobble stones laid up
against the slanting sides of the excavation, and covered by a
conical roof with a hole in the centre. They contain, besides the
family, all the implements of husbandry, the cattle, and the flocks.
These last occupy "the sides of the house" (1 Sam. xxiv. 3), and
stand facing the "decana," or raised place in the centre, which is
devoted to the family. As wood is scarce in the mountains, and the
climate severe, the animal heat of the cattle is a substitute for
fuel, except as sun-baked cakes of manure are used once a day for
cooking, as is the practice also on the plain. In such houses the
buffaloes sometimes break loose and fight furiously, and instances
are not rare when they knock down the posts on which the roof rests,
and thus bury all in one common ruin.

The influence of such family arrangements, even in the more favored
villages of the plain, on manners and morality, need not be told. It
is equally evident that in such circumstances personal tidiness is
impossible, though few in our favored land have any idea of the
extent of such untidiness. If the truth must be told, vermin abound
in most of these houses; the inmates are covered not only with
fleas, but from head to foot they are infested with the third plague
of Egypt. (Ex. viii. 16-19). This last is a constant annoyance in
many parts of Turkey as well as Persia. If one lodges in the native
houses, there is no refuge from them, and only an entire change of
clothing affords relief when he returns to his own home; even there
the divans have to be sedulously examined after the departure of
visitors, that the plague do not spread. The writer has known
daughters of New England, ready for almost any self-denial, burst
into tears when first brought into contact with this.

At first, the teachers of the Female Seminary in Oroomiah had to
cleanse their pupils very thoroughly, and were glad thus to purify
the outside, while beseeching Christ to cleanse the heart. Each one,
on her first arrival, had to be separately cared for, lest the enemy
should recover ground from which he had already been driven with
much labor. Missionary publications do not usually tell of such
trials, but those who drew the lambs from the deep pit, loved them
all the more tenderly for having gone down into it themselves, that
thence they might bring them to Jesus. Such trials are less common
now, for it is generally understood that a degree of personal
cleanliness is an indispensable requisite for admission to the
Seminary; but such a demand, at that time, would have rendered the
commencement of the school impossible.

The pupils became much improved in personal appearance, and some of
their simple-hearted mothers really thought their children had grown
very pretty under their teachers' care. So, as many of them were
strangers to the cleansing properties of water, they would ask again
and again, "How do you make them so white?"

But if such houses were comfortless abodes for those in health, what
were they for the sick? Think of one in a burning fever, perhaps
delirious, lying in such a crowd. In winter, there they must remain,
for there is no other place, and in summer, they are often laid
under a tree in the day time, and carried up to the flat roof, with
the rest of the family, at night.

Dr. Perkins, in the early part of his missionary life, tells us that
in a village the family room was given up to him for the night, and
in the morning he found a little son had been born in the stable. He
supposed that he had been the unwitting cause of such an event
occurring there; but longer acquaintance with the people shows that
woman almost invariably resorts to that place in her hour of sorrow,
and there she often dies. The number who meet death in this form is
very large.

In Persia, as in other unevangelized countries, women spend their
days in out-door labor. They weed the cotton, and assist in pruning
the vines and gathering the grapes. They go forth in the morning,
bearing not only their implements of husbandry, but also their babes
in the cradle; and returning in the evening, they prepare their
husband's supper, and set it before him, but never think of eating
themselves till after he is done. One of the early objections the
Nestorians made to the Female Seminary was, that it would disqualify
their daughters for their accustomed toil. In after years, woman
might be seen carrying her spelling-book to the field, along with
her Persian hoe, little dreaming that she was thus taking the first
step towards the substitution of the new implement for the old.

Nestorian parents used to consider the birth of a daughter a great
calamity. When asked the number of their children, they would count
up their sons, and make no mention of their daughters. The birth of
a son was an occasion for great joy and giving of gifts. Neighbors
hastened to congratulate the happy father, but days might elapse
before the neighborhood knew of the birth of a daughter. It was
deemed highly improper to inquire after the health of a wife, and
the nearest approach to it was to ask after the welfare of the house
or household. Formerly, a man never called his wife by name, but in
speaking of her would say, "the mother of so and so," giving the
name of her child; or, "the daughter of so and so," giving the name
of her father; or, simply "that woman" did this or that. Nor did the
wife presume to call her husband's name, or to address him in the
presence of his parents, who, it will be borne in mind, lived in the
same apartment. They were married very young, often at the age of
fourteen, and without any consultation of their own preference,
either as to time or person.

There was hardly a man among the Nestorians who did not beat his
wife. The women expected to be beaten, and took it as a matter of
course. As the wife lived with the husband's father, it was not
uncommon for him to beat both son and daughter-in-law. When the men
wished to talk together of any thing important, they usually sent
the women out of doors or to the stable, as unable to understand, or
unfit to be trusted. In some cases, this might be a necessary
precaution; for the absence of true affection; and the frequency of
domestic broils, rendered the wife an unsafe depositary of any
important family affair. The same causes often led the wife to
appropriate to her own foolish gratification any money of her
husband she could lay hands on, regardless of family necessities.
Women whose tastes led them to load themselves with beads, silver,
baser metal, and rude trinkets, would not be likely to expend money
very judiciously.

In 1835, the only Nestorian woman that knew how to read was Heleneh,
the sister of Mar Shimon; and when others were asked if they would
not like to learn, with a significant shrug they would reply, "I am
a woman." They had themselves no more desire to learn than the men
had to have them taught. Indeed, the very idea of a woman reading
was regarded as an infringement of female modesty and propriety.

It is a little curious, and shows how we adapt ourselves to our
situation, that the women were as unwilling to receive attention
from their husbands as they were to render it. Several years after
the arrival of Miss Fiske in Oroomiah, the wife of one of her
assistants visited the Seminary, and on leaving to return to her
village, the teacher, in the kindness of her heart, proposed to the
husband to go and assist her to carry the child. She seemed as if
she had been insulted in being thought unable to carry it, and sent
her husband back from the door in any thing but a gracious mood,
leaving the good teacher half bewildered and half amused at this
reception of her intended kindness.

Indeed, until some of them were converted, all that was lovely and
of good report in woman was entirely wanting. They were trodden
down, but at the same time exceedingly defiant and imperious. If
they were not the "head," it was not because they did not "strive
for the mastery." They seemed to have no idea of self-control; their
bursts of passion were awful. The number of women who reverenced
their husbands was as small as the list of husbands who did not beat
their wives. Says Miss Fiske, in writing to a friend, "I felt pity
for my poor sisters before going among them, but anguish when, from
actual contact with them, I realized how very low they were. I did
not want to leave them, but I did ask, Can the image of Christ ever
be reflected from such hearts? They would come and tell me their
troubles, and fall down at my feet, begging me to deliver them from
their husbands. They would say, 'You are sent by our holy mother,
Mary, to help us;' and do not think me hard-hearted when I tell you
that I often said to them, 'Loose your hold of my feet; I did not
come to deliver you from your husbands, but to show you how to be so
good that you can be happy with them.' Weeping, they would say,
'Have mercy on us; if not, we must kill ourselves.' I had no fear of
their doing that, so I would seat them at my side, and tell them of
my own dear father,--how good he was; but he was always _obeyed_.
They would say, 'We could obey a good man.' 'But I am very sure you
would not have been willing to obey my father.'

"It is one thing to pray for our degraded sisters while in America,
but quite another to raise them from their low estate. When I saw
their true character, I found that I needed a purer, holier love for
them than I had ever possessed. It was good for me to see that
_I_ could do nothing, and it was comforting to think that Jesus
had talked with just such females as composed the mass around me,
and that afterwards many believed because of one such woman."

Sometimes the revilings of the women were almost equalled by similar
talk among the men, as in a village of Gawar, where they said, "We
would not receive a priest or deacon here who could not swear well,
and lie too." In the same village, a young man spoke favorably of
Mr. Coan's preaching in Jeloo. Instantly a woman called out, "And
have you heard those deceivers preach?" "Yes," was the reply, "both
last year and this, and hope I shall again." Hearing this, her eyes
flashed, and drawing her brawny arms into the form of a dagger, with
a vengeful thrust of her imaginary weapon, she cried, "The blood of
thy father smite thee, thou Satan!" and dreadful was the volley of
oaths and curses that followed. Yet she was only a fair specimen of
the village.

We of the calmer West do not know what it is to have a mob of such
women come forth in their wrath. In one town was a virago, who
often, single-handed, faced down and drove off Moslem tax-gatherers
when the men fled in terror. No one who has ever heard the stinging
shrillness of their tongues, or looked on their frenzied gestures,
can ever forget them, or wonder why the ancients painted the Furies
in the form of women. Words cannot portray the excitement of such a
scene. The hair of the frantic actors is streaming in the wind;
stones and clods seem only embodiments of the unearthly yells and
shrieks that fill the air; and yet it was such beings that grace
made to be "last at the cross and first at the sepulchre."

The East is notorious for profanity, and among the Nestorians women
were as profane as men. The pupils in the Seminary at first used to
swear, and use the vilest language on the slightest provocation.
Poor, blind Martha, on her death bed, in her own father's house, was
constantly cursed and reviled. She was obliged sometimes to cover
her head with the quilt, and stop her ears, to secure an opportunity
to pray for her profane and abusive brother; and though, in such
circumstances, she died before her prayers were answered, yet they
were heard, for he afterwards learned to serve his sister's God. "Do
you think people will believe me," said a pupil to her teacher, who
was reproving her for profanity, "if I do not repeat the name of God
very often?"

Lying was almost as common as profanity, and stealing quite as
prevalent as either. It was a frequent remark, "We all lie here; do
you think we could succeed in business without it?"

In the early days of the Seminary, nothing was safe except under
lock and key. Sometimes there seemed to be a dawn of improvement,
and next, all the buttons would be missing from the week's washing,
and the teacher was pretty sure to find that her own pupils were the
thieves. Miss Rice tells of one, amply supplied with every thing by
her parents, yet noted for her thefts. Indeed, sons and daughters
were alike trained to such practices. In 1843, Miss Fiske could not
keep a pin in her pin-cushion; little fingers took them as often as
she turned away, and lest she should tempt them to lie, she avoided
questioning them, unless her own eye had seen the theft. No wonder
she wrote, "I feel very weak, and were it not that Christ has loved
these souls, I should be discouraged; but he has loved them, and he
loves them still." If the pins were found with the pupils, the
answer was ready--"We found them," or, "You gave them to us;" and
nothing could be proved. But one summer evening, just before the
pupils were to pass through her room to their beds on the flat roof,
knowing that none of that color could be obtained elsewhere, the
teacher put six black pins in her cushion, and stepped out till they
had passed. As soon as they were gone, she found the pins gone too,
and at once called them back. She told them of her loss, but none
knew any thing about it. She showed them that no one else had been
there, and therefore they must know. Six pairs of little hands were
lifted up, as they said, "God knows we have not got them;" but this
only called forth the reply, "I think that God knows you have got
them," and she searched each one carefully, without finding them.
She then proposed to kneel down where they stood, and ask God to
show where they were, adding, "He may not see it best to show me
now, but he will do it some time." She laid the matter before the
Lord, and, just as they rose from their knees, remembered that she
had not examined their cloth caps. She now proposed to examine them,
and one pair of hands went right up to her cap. Of course she was
searched first, and there were the six pins, so nicely concealed in
its folds that nothing was visible but their heads. This incident
did much good. The pupils looked on the discovery as an answer to
prayer, and so did their teacher. They began to be afraid to steal
when God so exposed their thefts, and she was thankful for an answer
so immediate. The offender is now a pious, useful woman.

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