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Article ' THE TWO JEWS OF MESHID. ← Page 5 of 12 →
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' The Two Jews Of Meshid.
added a degree of unflinching hardihood and daring , that ivould haA * e become Jonathan and his armour-bearer , or the heroes of David ' s chosen band . They had accompanied Captain Abbott , Arthur Connolly , ancl Sir Richmond Shakespear in their perilous journeys through Turkistan , Bokhara , Khiva , and other parts of Central Asia , and Ibrahim had but newly returned from , a
fruitless endeavour to put himself into communication with the hapless Stoddart , in the hope of effecting his liberation . A cousin of theirs named Ephraim , Avho was subsequently sent on the same errand , fell a A * ictim to the attempt , and . was beheaded by the ruthless tyrant of Bokhara . A short time previous to then introduction to the reader , a young artillery officer had arrived in Kabul , bringing ivith him a very unusual item in the list of an officer ' s baggage , viz ., a case of Persian Testaments for distribution .
He soon found that feAV of the Afghans could read , and fewer were willing to accept the Volume of the Sacred Law ; but there were some who did so , and he would doubtless have eventually distributed the whole , had it not been for the timorous policy of the British authorities , who often seem to see no medium , between enforcing a creed at the point of the bayonet , and scrupulously
concealing the fact that we have any creed at all . Then principles of toleration and sound policy alike forbid the first ; they therefore rush into the latter extreme , and so completely did they succeed , that the prevalent belief among the inhabitants of Central Asia was , and is , that Christianity is synonymous with idolatry ; for they argue from the AVorship of the Roman , Greek , ancl
Armenian churches , the three forms of error under which the mere faith of the Gospel has been hidden from their light . To this belief the Afghans , being qualified to speak , from having a large British force , as it were , domesticated among them , added a firm conviction that Englishmen hacl no religion at all , for they never prayedancl the majority lived in open defiance of all
, laws , human and Divine . The envoy , therefore , discountenanced all attempts to disseminate the Scriptures . One man high in authority was an open infidel ; all were possessed with the idea that missionary efforts of the most prudent kind were likely "to shake our Indian empire to its
foundations ; " thus implying that it was a mere kingdom of Satan , held hi fee from the Prince of Darkness , Avho is ahvays represented in old legends as deserting his victims in their utmost need , if they invoke the name of the High and Lofty One who inhabiteth eternity . The young lieutenant Avas not a man to strike Avork because 2 T 2
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
' The Two Jews Of Meshid.
added a degree of unflinching hardihood and daring , that ivould haA * e become Jonathan and his armour-bearer , or the heroes of David ' s chosen band . They had accompanied Captain Abbott , Arthur Connolly , ancl Sir Richmond Shakespear in their perilous journeys through Turkistan , Bokhara , Khiva , and other parts of Central Asia , and Ibrahim had but newly returned from , a
fruitless endeavour to put himself into communication with the hapless Stoddart , in the hope of effecting his liberation . A cousin of theirs named Ephraim , Avho was subsequently sent on the same errand , fell a A * ictim to the attempt , and . was beheaded by the ruthless tyrant of Bokhara . A short time previous to then introduction to the reader , a young artillery officer had arrived in Kabul , bringing ivith him a very unusual item in the list of an officer ' s baggage , viz ., a case of Persian Testaments for distribution .
He soon found that feAV of the Afghans could read , and fewer were willing to accept the Volume of the Sacred Law ; but there were some who did so , and he would doubtless have eventually distributed the whole , had it not been for the timorous policy of the British authorities , who often seem to see no medium , between enforcing a creed at the point of the bayonet , and scrupulously
concealing the fact that we have any creed at all . Then principles of toleration and sound policy alike forbid the first ; they therefore rush into the latter extreme , and so completely did they succeed , that the prevalent belief among the inhabitants of Central Asia was , and is , that Christianity is synonymous with idolatry ; for they argue from the AVorship of the Roman , Greek , ancl
Armenian churches , the three forms of error under which the mere faith of the Gospel has been hidden from their light . To this belief the Afghans , being qualified to speak , from having a large British force , as it were , domesticated among them , added a firm conviction that Englishmen hacl no religion at all , for they never prayedancl the majority lived in open defiance of all
, laws , human and Divine . The envoy , therefore , discountenanced all attempts to disseminate the Scriptures . One man high in authority was an open infidel ; all were possessed with the idea that missionary efforts of the most prudent kind were likely "to shake our Indian empire to its
foundations ; " thus implying that it was a mere kingdom of Satan , held hi fee from the Prince of Darkness , Avho is ahvays represented in old legends as deserting his victims in their utmost need , if they invoke the name of the High and Lofty One who inhabiteth eternity . The young lieutenant Avas not a man to strike Avork because 2 T 2