History of the Missions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to the Oriental | Page 7

these expose the soul
to eternal punishment. When these are committed after baptism, they
can be remitted only by auricular confession, or the sacrifice of
penance, of which confession forms an essential part. To the efficacy of
this ceremony, contrition of heart is supposed, in theory, to be essential;
but its necessity is rarely taught, and the great mass of the community
go away from the confessional fully satisfied that their sins are
canceled by the mere external form.
Pardon by the priest is not, however, absolute. Grace is restored, and
eternal punishment remitted, but there must be a temporary
punishment,--certain penances, such as fasting, alms-giving, saying
prayers, and the like. The fasts are merely the substituting of a less for a
more palatable and nutritious diet. Alms are more for the spiritual
benefit of the giver, than for the relief of the receiver. The supposed
efficacy of prayer has no connection with the sincerity of the offerer.
For in none of the Oriental Churches, excepting the Arabic branch of
the Greek Church, are the prayers in a language understood by the
people.
They believe that all who die before baptism, or after baptism with
deadly sins unconfessed, are lost forever; but if one die after confession,
and while his penance is incomplete, he cannot be sent to hell, neither
is he prepared for heaven. He must first complete his penance in a
temporary state of misery. This state the papists call purgatory; and
though the other churches reject the name, they cleave tenaciously to
the thing. As all believe that the sufferings of the departed may be

shortened by the merit of good works performed by surviving relatives
and imputed to them, prayers for the dead are frequent in churches and
over graves, and masses are celebrated in their name.
Though the Nestorians renounced auricular confession, they no more
looked to the redemption of Christ for pardon, than did their neighbors,
and they knew of no other regeneration than baptism.
There is no need of entering here on the practical influence of such a
religion on the lives of the people. That will appear in the progress of
our history. Enough has been said to justify the American churches in
laboring to restore to the degenerate churches of the East the Gospel
they had lost, especially as an indispensable means of Christianizing
the Moslems of Turkey and Persia.
The Oriental communities within the range of this history, are the
following:--
The GREEKS; The ARMENIANS; The NESTORIANS; The
JACOBITES; The BULGARIANS; The ROMAN CATHOLICS OF
TURKEY; The JEWS OF TURKEY; and The MOHAMMEDANS.
The Missions are as follows:--
The PALESTINE Mission; The SYRIA Mission; The GREEK Mission;
The ARMENIAN Mission; The NESTORIAN Mission; The
ASSYRIAN Mission; The MISSION TO THE JEWS; and that to The
MOHAMMEDANS.
MISSIONS TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
CHAPTER I.
PALESTINE.
1819--1824.
American missions in Bible lands, like their apostolic predecessors, had

a beginning at Jerusalem. The first missionaries from this country to the
Oriental Churches were Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons. On the 23d of
September, 1818, they were appointed to labor in Palestine. But as, at
that early period, there was special need of making the churches
acquainted with the work, and foreign missionaries were less common
than now, they were detained to labor at home until November of the
following year, when they embarked at Boston for Smyrna, in the ship
Sally Ann, Captain Edes. They were both interesting men, and the
impressive public services connected with their departure were long
remembered in Boston. A single extract from the official instructions of
Dr. Worcester, the Corresponding Secretary of the Board, will give at
once a glimpse of that remarkable man, and a view of the object of the
mission.
"From the heights of the Holy Land, and from Zion, you will take an
extended view of the wide-spread desolations and variegated scenes
presenting themselves on every side to Christian sensibility; and will
survey with earnest attention the various tribes and classes who dwell
in that land, and in the surrounding countries. The two grand inquiries
ever present to your minds will be, WHAT GOOD CAN BE DONE?
and BY WHAT MEANS? What can be done for Jews? What for
Pagans? What for Mohammedans? What for Christians? What for the
people in Palestine? What for those in Egypt, in Syria, in Persia, in
Armenia, in other countries to which your inquiries may be extended?"
The vessel touched at Malta, thus giving opportunity, so far as the
quarantines of those times would allow, for personal intercourse with
the Rev. William Jowett, of the Church Missionary Society, and
afterwards one of its secretaries. He received his American brethren in
that catholic spirit, which has ever characterized that society and its
agents, and gave them all the aid in his