BX Prestriage, J. N. li^bj-iyu Modern Baptist heroes and martyrs / SHIS book is presented through the generosity of an "elect lady" who desires to increase the influence of the heroic lives herein described through a wider reading of the narratives. The donor is herself an invahd ; and I suggest that if you find the book helpful and faith inspiring, you write her a few lines of appreciation and Christian greeting. She does not wish her name to appear, and she does not suspect I am making this suggestion. Envelopes may be addressed as follows : Rev. C. A. McAlpine 1218 Granite Bldg. For "A Friend" Rochester, N. Y. and they will be forwarded ; or message included in letters addressed to me will be conveyed to her. The only request that accompanies the book is that after reading it you will encourage its reading among your people by loaning it freely. The gift from this friend also makes it possible to say that if extra copies are desired, I can send them for a limited time for 50 cents each plus carriage. Postage on each is ten cents, but several sent in one package by express would cost but a small amount. The regular price of the book is $ 1 .00. Please understand that no one is making money on this book, unless it be the publishers. J.W. L. PASTOR FIRST EN. 1ST CHURCH X zn 5 z pq DO ^ s 3 ^ N <1 <1 H Q rr < <^ ^ ^ O . tl f^ 3 S ^ :^ c^ s o <; I— I Eh K ^ ^ H fe fH p^ fH 5S ^ 4? I :^ w ^ o (^ ^ m ^ ^ MIN 11 191 MODE RN BAPTIST "^OOSOI^l ll'^S' Heroes and Martyrs tv BY J. N. PRESTRIDGE, D. D. Author of **The Church a Composite Life" 19 11 THE WORLD PRESS LOUISVILLE. KY. COPYRIGHT 1911 BY J. N. PRESTRIDGE. DEDICATED TO "Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephtha, . . David, Sam- uel" ; Oncken, Pavloff, Stephanoff, Koslromin, Natalia, Ivanoff, Kornya, Westrop; to all those ''who through xaith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, ob- tained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, waxing mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens." CONTENTS. A New Roll-Oall of Faith . . . . . . 17 Chas. T. Byford. Natalia . 49 Madame M. Yasnovsky. The Novotnys of Prague, the Successors of Huss 65 Henry Alford Porter, D.D. William Fetler . 81 Sadie Starke. Vasilia Pavloff (An Autobiography) . 95 Madame Vasilia Pavloff . 105 A Child in a Land Par Away . 107 Madame Lydia Kolatorova. Kapustinsky, Exiled Martyr . 115 Margaret A. Frost. Baa-on Woldemar Uixkull . 137 J. N. Prestridge, D.D. A Stundist's Conversion . 147 Baron Vv'oldemar Uixkull. Blossoming into Baptists . 151 E. A. Steiner, D.D. Baptist File-Leader of Bohemia . 155 Joseph Novotny. A Sad Case in France Righted . 165 Paul Vincent, M.A., B.D. A Hero Colporter . 171 J. N. Prestridge, D.D. Four Heroes of the Faith 179 Chas. T. Byford. Bohemia: Stories and the New Refonnation . . 195 Joseph Novotny. A Cossack Transfigured 203 William E. Hatcher, D.D. Johann Gerhard Oncken . . . . .219 W. 0. Carver, Th.D. A Roll-Call of Chinese Martyrs . . . .237 AVilliam H. Smith, D.D. John CHfford, Hero of Religious Liberty . . 257 A. T. Robertson, D.D., LL.D. Laving Foundations in Modern Mexico . . . 267 W. D. Powell, D.D. Pablo Besson: Apostle of Argentina .... 279 S. J. Porter, D.D. Jose Barretto, Brazil 291 T. B. Ray, D.D. Lott Carey, a Negro Hero to the Dark Continent . 299 E. C. Moriis, D.D. Toussaint L'Ouverture, A Haitian Martvr . . 309 R. H. Boyd, D.D. Kin Cheoss, An Indian Hero 315 A. J. Holt, D.D. Martyr Marks 321 William E. Hatcher, D.D. ILLUSTRATIONS Russian Heroes ..... Frontispiece Vasilia Ivanoff 21 Simon Stepbanoff 27 Andreas Erstratenko 33 Andreas Levuehkin 42 Joseph Novotny 67 William Fetler 83 Vasilia Pavloff 97 Baron Woldemar Uixkull 139 Henry Novotny 157 John Rottmayer, Jr 173 Andreas Udvarnoki 181 Peter Doycheff 187 Fedot Petrovitch Ko^romin 205 Johann Gei^hard Oncken 221 John Clifford 259 Pablo Besson 281 FOREWORDS. Humanity has always been powerfully moved by two forces, the gregarious or crowd-forming and the individ- ualistic. The first force for centuries proved the more powerful, and the young and weak elements of human- ity became crowded together. Such crowds afforded jop- portunities for the self-aggrandizement of the strong and base and cunning. In such relations the story of man^s inhumanity to man is full of tears and blood. Slavery of body and mind and soul prevailed. Those members of the crowd who possessed organizing skill, political and financial cunning, herded the people and imprisoned, fleeced and slaughtered them as their greed and vanity dictated. Truly those were long and dark ages. god's favorites. But the other force in humanity had to be reckoned with, the individualistic. People after all were found not to be sheep and God was over and in them. There are no more interesting or instructive parts of history than those where individuals, open-faced and with heads uplifted, began to question and to defy the arbitrary FOREWORDS sway of the crowd-forming force. That questioning and that defying were the first green leaves of the coming glorious harvests. History is the record of the struggle, bitter and un- ceasing, between these two forces, the crowd-forming and the individualistic. These make the anvil and the hammer with which Gk>d undei-took to forge out mem- bers for a new order of society, the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth. God seems to value above all tears and chains and groans and martyrs* graves, the outcomo of struggle. He avows in inspiration that His favorites, those who shall sit v/ith Him upon His throne judging the nations, are the overeomers. BAPTIST HEROES AND MARTYES. The Baptists have always headed the individualistic forces. That was the part assigned to them in the hu- man drama, and that is their glory and crown. Natur ally, then, their history is a history of conflicts, of chains and prisons. It is no string of accidents which has caused the Baptists to furnish so large a part of the world's heroes and martyrs. Every war has its budget of cost, and the Baptists have always been at war. They have been in the very nature of their calling the religious warriors of the cen- turies, and they possess the warrior's virtues and the warrior's faults, and they must naturally expect to leave their dead upon the world's battle fields. It is conceded FOREWORDS by the historian Bancroft that freedom of conscience is their trophy. If all the corner stones laid in freedom's honor could have a composite expression in human fonn there would be a greater ''Stone Face" than Nathaniel Hawthorne's and its very lineaments would be Baptistic. THE TWO BAPTIST LINKS. Freedom for the individual and unconditioned loyal- ty to the living, present and reigning Christ are the two links which bind Baptists together, and which, it is ap- parent, will in no distant day bind together all who are called by His name. These two principles are today ^commonplace princi- ples with the people who read and think. The passion- ate love of Baptists for liberty has permeated the atmos- phere of the world; for generations it has been built into the essential 'structure of humanity. The claim accented in this volume is that in this great cause the Baptists are leading and have always led. This is the way of approach to Baptists and by Baptists for the coming answer to the Master's prayer for the oneness of His followers. The story of one hero, the George Washington of Haitian Negroes, is told herein who was not a Baptist, but he was moved by the spirit which has always moved Baptists, and he became a flame-kindled spirit, a spirit storm -swept for freedom, viz., Toussaint L'Ouverture. FOREWORDS All such the Baptists are learning to claim as closest of kin. A NEW ROLL CALL OF FAITH. Just at this time there breaks forth with the sudden- ness of a summer shower a varied, rich and wide-spread array of heroes and martyrs. The explanation is found in the almost sudden, prairie-fire-like spread of the dem- ocratic spirit over the continents. Century-long tyran- nical forces face extinction and their officials are fight- ing for their lives. There are heroes and martyrs in other lands, some of whose stori^ appear in this vol- ume but in Russia and the other Slav states are found numbers of men and women and children whose lives are blackened by prisons, by scourgings, and by wounds of clanking and cruel chains, and the lives of others are be- ing murderously blotted out. This collection of hero and martyr stories is published as a protest against all these wrongs and as a contribution to the forces fighting for freedom and faith. Of course only a small part of the stories of those who have suffered and who are suffering for their faith appear in this volume, but here will be found represent- atives from many countries upon both continents — Rus- sians, Letts, Bohemians, Moravians, Bulgarians, Ser- vians, Hungarians, Brazilians, Chinese, Mexicans, Argen- tines, Negroes, Indians, Americans and others. It has been my endeavor to get the stories at first hand, either FOREWORDS written by the sufferers themselves or by those in close touch with them. In other cases the facts have been collected and verified, and writers secured with special equipment for each case, who have sought as far as pos- sible to use the very words of the subjects of the stories. The many excellent portraits given add much to the value of the volume. INDEBTEDNESS. First of all my debt is to the Baptist World Alliance and especially to the recent session in Philadelphia, June, 1911. Out of my relations to this body have come the information and inspiration which have made this volume possible. I am deeply indebted to Rev. Charles T. Byford, the Commissioner of the Baptist World Alli- ance to the Continent of Europe, a brother to whom history will give great honor for his faithful and wise sendee in his large and trying field. His picture appears in the frontispiece group, the first on the left of the center line. (A word of explanation regarding the ap- pearance in this group of my picture. I was accidentally passing the hotel of the Russian messengers w^hen they were being posed on the pavement by a photographer, and in a chorus they began to cry out merrily, ''Rus- sian, " ''Russian," and they made a place and would have it as it is — an incident of abiding pleasure to the adopted "Russian".) Indebtedness is acknowledged to the Baptist Times, London, which published a number of re- FOREWORDS ports of Commissioner Byford and others. And to Rev. A. J. Vining, the Baptist World Alliance representa- tive in America, who first put me in correspondence with a number of these heroes, who had in this way, previous to the meeting of the Alliance, become personal friends, brothers honored and well beloved. ' The logic of the volume is that the mission of the Baptists has not yet been completed. J. N. Prestridge. A NEW ROLL-CALL OF FAITH. A" MIDNIGHT BAPTISM AND COMMUNION. I arrived in Turocz, Russia, about six o^clock in the evening. The word was passed around amongst the members of the church that a ser\'ice was to be held that same evening. Just after dusk the brethren began to come into the main room of the farm steading until at least seven and twenty persons were gathered together. After the exposition of the first chapter of John, a church meeting was held and two candidates were accepted for baptism. Close upon midnight five of us started to walk acrosa the fields and after covering ahout three miles we struck into the forest. Presently we came to a sluggish stream not more than three feet in depth, and there whilst the moon was flooding the rivulet with a silver light and in the near distance we could hear the barking of the wolves, the two candidates quickly disrobed themselves, and the elder of the church, preceding them into the water, administered the solemn and sacred rite of bap- tism. We were a glad company wending our way back to the farmhouse and on arrival at the door found the 18 MODERN BAPTIST church still engaged in prayer for the success of our en- terprise and for the safety of all who were taking part in the ordinance. A rough wood table was placed ip, the center of the room, the elder read from the hook of the Corinthians Paul's version of the institution of the last supper, several of our brethren led in prayer and presently there was passed from hand to hand a piece of black bread and afterwards a china cup filled with the red wine of the countr}^ Before the service closed all knelt around the table and many and fervent were the prayers for the spread of the Kingdom of Christ in that land of trial and of triumph. Just before the dawn began to break in the east the members of the church one by one wended their way to their various homes to harness the horses to their farm wagons, prepared to go through another day's toil with lighter hearts and more buoyant spirits in that they had been refreshed in heart ajid soul through communion with the Most High God. IVAN KUCHNIREFF. He was born in 1861 in the Holy City of Kieff. His father was a Greek Orthodox priest but he gave no edu- cation to his children, and they were allowed to grow up without learning to read or to write. At eighteen years of age he was drawn in conscription for a soldier, and during his service in the army learned to read and to write, and at last w^as appointed as an army clerk. On completing his military service he obtained a govern- HEROES AND MARTYRS. 19 merit position as a road surveyor. In 1892 he came across a traveling Baptist preacher with the result that the following year he was baptized and became a mem- ber of the church in Kieff. He began then to earn his living as a writer of petitions to the courts of justice. Until 1905 he devoted all his spare time to advocating the cause of persecuted Baptists, visited the prisoners and presented their cases to the Mgher courts. In the early days of 1905 the persecution w^as so widespread that the Baptist Union of Russia appointed him as their official advocate and from their funds paid his expenses of travel. He receives no salary for this work, but depends upon the hospitality of the friends whose cases he brings before the courts. Several times his furniture has been seized and confiscated, and even at the present time he lives from hand to mouth. During the persecution of 1907-08 he was in such dire poverty that frequently he would go for whole days without food, his wife and children sharing his hard- ships. There have even been occasions when he has given his children rock salt to satisfy their cravings of hunger. Those associated with this calm and poised man at Philadelphia became conscious of his culture of mind and heart and of his resourceful and unflinching spirit. These words and his picture, which is the center on the center row in the frontispiece group, give a good con- ception of the man. He says : 30 MODERN BAPTIST "My work is different from that of my brethren, but I like to think that, in my way, I, too, am doing good. I was thirty-one years old when I was converted. "At that time I was an advocate and I believed that I could make myself useful in practicing my profession in behalf of my brethren who got into trouble with the authorities. I found plenty to do. In fact, my whole time was taken up. "Frequently I travel from place to place defending Baptists who have been imprisoned by the police, and do not see my home for wrecks. "Under the old law Baptists were imprisoned or sent to Siberia simply for believing in their religion and practicing- their faith. This condition still exists in the outlying country, and it is there that our work meets with the most obstacles." VASILIA IVANOFF. Vasilia Ivan off, a Molokan, was born in the govern- ment of Elizabethpol, Russia, in 1848. lie was converted in 1870 and baptized in the Tiilis river on October the twenty-first, a date which he recalls with much joy and tenderness. He had come through much travail and he knew his own mind and the mind of his Savior as well, and so he began preaching at once. Y/ith almost equal promptness he began to suffer from severe persecution. Such a flaming spirit as his could not but attract the at- tention of the enemies of his Master. His persecutions continued until 1884, including the deprivation of all YASILIA IVANOPF. (21) HEROES AND MARTYRS. 23 civil rights. He traveled fearlessly without the required but denied passport, and at last he was exiled, and heing permitted to return was again exiled for four years for faithful preaching of the Gospel, in 18'j<5. In the Cau- casus he was made to serve as a beast of burden, being chained vdih fifteen other men and compelled to grind corn on a treadmill. He still has to suffer persecution, and the police refused him a passport to go to Phila- delphia to attend the Baptist World Alliance, but he managed to evade them and succeeded in crossing the frontier. He has more than three hundred members in hia church at Baku, and the people throng to his preaching sen-ices, Tartars, Turks, Armenians, Kurds as well as Russians. Owing to tlhe flowing nature of the popula- tion at Baku his converts spread over a very wide terri- tory and his message is repeated in many villages and hamlets and cities. Only the recording angel can ever know how wide the reach of the influence of this faith- ful and fearless servant of Jesus Christ. He told his owti story to a reporter in these simple and direct words: ''My life has been one of hardship and suffering, which my appearance does not belie. Born in Baku, Caucasus, sixty-three years ago, I was converted and bap- tized when I was twenty-two years old. Since thai time most of my life has been spent in prison and exile. "My persecution began when I became a Baptist, but in spite of what I have suffered I am thankful that I 24 MODERN BAPTIST have lived to bring the light of religion to hundreds of my fellow creatures. ^'Twice because T pemsted in preaching when I had been ordered to stop I was sent to Siberia. There I was chained to criminals — robbers, and worse — in the chain gang. I have been sent to prison so many times that T have lost track of the exact number, but if my memory serves me I have seen the insides of thirty-one different prisons. In one pri.^n I had to work on the treadmill. "During the years of my ministry I have baptized over fifteen hundred men and women, most of them at night in some lonely place away from the eyes of the police. Often I have chopped through the ice in order to administer the baptismal rite. Once I baptized a group of eighty-six persons." NICHOLAS SKORADOKDOFP. He is a young man, twenty-seven years old. He was converted eight years ago and was baptized and com- menced to preach immediately. His father was a Baptist minister who died in exile in the Caucasus after many imprisonments. He is a Caucasian by birth. On his return from Philadelphia he went to undertake pioneer work under the Russian Baptist Union in the district where his father was martyred. This is the simple and modest waj^ he tells his own story: "My religion has been one of the saddest yet hap- piest parts of my life. It was my father's religion and it cost him his life, for he died in exile after he had HEROES AND MARTYRS. 25 been imprisoned many times for teaching and leading the people to conversion. "I was 'baptized eight years ago and spent two years in the preachers' school in Lodz and six months in Riga. Upon my return I undertook pioneer work in the Cau- casus, where my father met a martyr's death, and al- thoug*!! I met \^dth many obstacles the work of the Gospel was easy compared with what it was when my father went there many years before. ''My brother was converted several years ago and h minister at a small church in Baku.'* JACOB VINCE. Jacob Vince is a descendant of one of the old German families settled in Russia. He was born in 1876 and at eighteen years of age was baptized. For six years he has been the pastor of a church in Samara. For the past four years he has been under police sun^eillance, and spent last November in prison. During his ministry in Samara he has baptized more than five hundred believers, h^ built up a church of three hundred and seventy members, besides opening eleven mission stations. His church was founded immediately after the manifesto granting liberty to the subjects of the czar, but hardly a month passed in which he did not have to sufl'er mone- tary fines for baptisms. In May, 1911, he was fined three hundred roubles, about one hundred and fifty dollars, or three months in prison for baptizing his peo- 26 MODERN BAPTIST pie, and when he returns to Russia he must face this charge and meet the threatened penalty. He says: "For the past six years I have been minister of tho little church in Samara, trying my best to convert others to the religion I believe in. I was born thirty-five years ago. Since my baptism I have been under the eye of the police, my every move watched. So far I have escaped prison, except for one month, and I consider myself fortunate. "My most recent offense, for which I must answer when I return to my country, was being found baptizing eight Russians whom I had led to conversion. That wag early in May. I feared the charge would pre\Tnt my coming to America, but the Lord was good to me, and I am thankful." His picture appears at the left end of the top row of the frontispiece group. SIMON STEPHANOFF. Simon Stephanoff was baptized twenty-five years ago and began to preach immediately. During the first twelve months of his preaching two attempts were made on his life. On one occasion he was with Ivanoff and the police broke into the meeting house. The brethren had fled twelve versts away into the wood and continued to pray. Meanwhile the police came to the village and searched it thoroughly, even lifting the floors and thatches, but finding no one, went their way. Next SIMON STEPHANOFF. (27; HEROES AND MARTYRS. 29 morning the brothers arrived in the village, delayed by being lost throughout the night in the forest, and the police were gone, so they had a great meeting in which many were converted and baptized. There ia a strong church there now. This was the first miracle God wrought in answer to his prayer, he says. He was the first convert in the Varoitza government. Wlien I commented upon his aged appearance, I dis- covered the reason in the answer, that for ten yeara after his con\ersion he was hunted by the police from place to place and lived an exceedingly hard life. During twenty-five years he has baptized more than one thousand persons, working mostly in the Don Cos- sack country. He is now pastor of the Baptist church at Moscow. He has been twice in prison in Varoitza and twice in the prison of Tambaff, sent without judgment, on ad- ministrative order. He has been thrice called upon to discuss the Bap- tist position with the Greek ecclesiastical authorities. The police wanted him to sign a paper that he would preach no more, and not attempt to influence the ignorant peo- ple. His cousin is at present spending five years in exile in Siberia. He says: "For the ten years which followed my baptism and the be.ginning of my preac^hing, I was never given a minute's peace by the police. I was hounded like a criminal from place to place, and no 30 MODERN BAPTIST sooner would I start to preach than the police would be upon me. I was cast into prison so often that it be- came an old story to me. 'Tive years of my life I spent in Siberia, often in the midst of criminals of the lowest type. There 1 knew what real suffering was. Often I was without food for days, and m'any tim.es I was too weak to eat whiat they gave me. Those were awful years. ^'Despite the greater liberty whic^h has been given u-s in recent years, the police threaten to send me back to Siberia if I do not confine my preaching to the regular meeting houses and stop trying to make converts among those of tlie Greek Orthodox religion.'^ (Editorial Note. — He is of great size, as his picture intdi- cates, his voice is smooth and low-pitched, and his smiie la full of gentleness and good-wild. On his right hand there is a deep scar from above the wrist to the third finger which shows that the whole hand had been laid open. The finger is distorted and shriveled. This happened on an occasion when the Co&gaoks bound him and his wife and beat them boih into insensibility. When he became conscious he found tliat she was dead. He asked from v/hat section the Oossacks came, and wrapping up what cl'^thing h-e had left he made his way to that section and the larger ruum^ber of his -baptisms were of the families and neighbors of the men who had heaten him and murderedi his wife. It was Impossible not to love him.) VASILIA STEPHAXOFF. Vasilia Stephanoff is the brother of Simon Stephanoff, the pastor of the church in Moscow. He was a Molo- kan. Born in 1875 ^nd was converted in 1890, and al- HEROES AND MARTYRS. 31 thoug'h only fifteen years of age, began to preach im- mediately. He served as a conscript in St. Petersburg for four years and looked upon it a.^ a splendid oppor- tunity to influence his comrades in the army. In 1899 he was sent by the Russian Baptist Union to commence pioneer Baptist work in Pesky and since then has built up a church of two hundred members and has opened twenty mission stations. Every year since his advent in the district the church has sent out a missionary to do pioneering work. Last year in his mission stations he baptized two hundred and fifty believers, making a total of seven hundred, apart from the mother church. He has been before the police several times but has never been convicted. He is at present the secretary of the Russian Baptist Union and is a splendid type of the younger men in the Russian ministry. His picture appears fifth from the left on the bottom row of the frontispiece group. ZANOYIEFF PAVLIENKO. He was born in Traboff, Paltania, Russia, and was converted nine years ago. He says : '^I am only one of the younger men in the field and can show but few scars of ser\-ice. I was born in 1882, ' of parents who were firm believers in the Greek Ortho- dox religion. "I was converted when I was twenty years old and ha\'e been cut off from my family ever since. Four times 32 MODERN BAPTIST I have been before the authorities because I persisted in preaching after I had been warned not to." On his return to Russia he is to be stationed as pastor of the Baptist church at Nicolaieff. His picture appears the second from the left of the top row of the frontispiece group. ANDREAS ERSTRATENKO. Andreas Erstratenko was born at Balashov, Russia, in the province of Saratov, in 1863. He was Greek Orthodox in faith and until his conversion was himself a fierce and terrible persecutor of Baptists. When word was brought into the districts that the Baptists had com- menced their meetings, he placed himself at the head of rioters and incited them to stone-throwing and mndow- breaking and general persecution. In 1890, Vasilia Ivan- off came into the district to preach and Erstratenko was converted and baptized. He began to preach in his \dl- lage with the result that the work began to spread and a small church was founded. The year following his baptism six families from the village were sent into exile and five families remained under police super- vision. At the end of another year, Erstratenko and the head of each family were sent to prison for two years without trial and during that time they were beaten and otherwise suffered. After their return from prison they were arrested every time they met in one another's houses for prayer and were always fined forty roubles^ ^^^^B ~^% 1 ^^^^^1 ff 1\ ^^H BF N ^^^■k ''^^^4iiS\v.c.- > ANDREAS ERSTEATENKO. (33) HEROES AND MARTYRS. 35 about twenty dollars, each, until they were absolutely penniless. Being penniless they began to look at their work from a fresh point of view, now they had nothing to lose, the worst the Russian government could do to them was to send them to prison and to exile. So they met boldly in the day time, and scourgings and beatings followed. One day Erstratenko's mother was so brutally flogged that three of her ribs were broken and her death ensued the following day. With three brethren he waii seized while preaching in a village and all four of them were flogged until they v/ere unconscious, and a com- passionate man took pity upon them, laid them in the bottom of his farm wagon and drove them to their homes. Several times he went to prison, being unable to pay his fine, and at last was banished to Siberia. He has now been twelve years in Siberia and when liberty was granted to the exiles in 1905 he elected to remain in the land and became pastor of the church which has been gathered together under his preaching. He was privileged to baptize the first political exiles con- verted in Siberia, and during his freedom since 1905, has baptized more than two thousand persons in Siberia alone. As a result of his labors there are more than six thousand Baptists who look up to him as their pastor. On more than one occasion he has had to cut a hole in the ice in the dead of night when the thermometer was lower than forty degrees Centigrade. From the begin- ning of his Christian life until the present time he has never received money as a preacher of the Gospel. Like 36 MODERN BAPTIST the early apostles, he is the guest of the Christian fami- lies and churches which he ministers to. In some of the villages south of the Baikal more than half the people are Baptists. In the early days of his ministry in Siberia, ten to tvrelve years ago, he has known women to travel three or four hundred versts (one hundred and eighty English miles) to be baptized. He had some money of liis own but repeated fines have impoverished him. He says: "I regret to say that I persecuted those of the Baptist faitli as cruelly as any one. To me at that time they were heathen, infidels, and meriting only our scorn and con- tempt. "One day it dawned on me that, right or wrong, they had a right to their religious views, and I resolved to investigate their religion. I attended a meeting, ashamed of the weakness that took me there, and soon became deeply impressed with the views expressed by Vaiilia Ivanoif, who was secretly holding meetings. "I was twenty-seven years old when I was converted, and so strong a hold did the faith take that I began to preadh immediately. You can imagine the contempt my former fellows had for me when they learned of my con- version. I was hissed and hooted in the streets and fre- quently stoned when I tried to preach. ^T'hen began a long series of persecutions by the police. I was sent to prison, placed in a dungeon and half starved. I was beaten and scourged manv- times in HEROES AND MARTYRS. 17 an effort to drive the 'Baptist devil' from me, but I re- mained true to my adopted religion under their torture." PAUL DATZCHO. He is twenty-six years of age, a native of Kharkoff, and he was converted nine years ago. His mother was the first Baptist in Kharkoff, twenty-four years ago. He has been before the court and sentenced to prison for three months for preaching and was threatened with the loss of all civil rights. Last October he baptized eighteen peo- ple in the forest at midnight. He has spent two years in Lodz at the seminary founded by Baron Uixkull, and the last six months in Riga. On his return to Russia, he is to be inducted as the minister of the church in Khar- koff, where there are four hundred members. He says: ''I was born in Kharkoff in 1885 and was baptized in the Baptist faith when I was seventeen years old. My mother, who has long been a believer in the Baptist faith, was sent to prison and remained there some time because ^he would not renounce it and become a member of the state Church and because she held a prayer meet- ing in her house. "I was cast into prison, too, for spreading the Gosp<3l in Kharkoff, and was kept there three month-5. I have baptized many people, but I had to be very careful that the authorities did not catch me doing it. Many times I have baptized in the forests in the dead of night, often having to chop a hole in the ico to do to. 88 MODERN BAPTIST "When I get back to Russia I hope to be allowed to continue my work in tbe church at Kharkoff." His picture appears third from the left of the top row of the frontispiece group. M. BALICHIN. He was bom in 1856 and converted in 1881 and bap- tized in 1882. In 1883 he began to travel and preach the Gospel. In 1884 he was at the first conference at St. Petersburg called by Col. Paschoff, the English Lord Radstock and others. He was then arrested and later was released from prison and sent aAvay to a fur corner of the empire. He has not been banished. In 1886, he was ordained as pastor in Astrakankskia. He was chosen by the Baptist Union to visit the scattered group? of believers in Russia and has baptized more than anyone else in Russia in the dead of night in the depths of the forests. He has always escaped arrest since his first ex- perience. In all he has baptized about fifteen hundred believers. Oftentimes the police have come into the meet- ings and disputed with him, but he has always been favored. In 1900 when many were imprisoned he had a power of attorney to visit the prisons and employ ad- vocates and thus obtained the release of many impris- oned brethren. In one town, Ekaterinaslav, he visited believers among the prisoners, and in the prison discovered one brother who held the appointment of official swineherd. HEROES AND MARTYRS. 39 who tad to take charge of stolen pigs and return them to their owners. Balichin tried to see him, but the gov- ernor refused him permission. Some of the prisoners saw Balichin about and one called out to him, ''Come and see if you have lost any swine." On Balichin's accept- ing the invitation he was brought before the governor, and thus was able to bring the case to the police authori- ties, and ultimately secured the release of his friend. During his ministry he has set apart thirty-two young men as preachers of the Gospel. Since 1905 he has been engaged in pioneer work and has rented music halls and theaters in which he carries on his propaganda work. He is supported largely by a wealthy man, who \vishe9 secretly to csltvj on this work, without interruption. He thus tells his own story: "I 'am a Molokan, born in 1856. I was converted to the Baptist religion when I was twenty-six years old. For four years I carried on the work of making con- verts despite orders from the police to stop it. '^I was constantly under suspicion, but by exercising great care in my work and holding secret meetings away from the towns T was able to keep out of the hands of the authorities until 1886. Then I was sentenced to a term in prison, and at the end of my sentence released fvith a warning that I would be sent back if I was found preaching again. ''I still carried on the work, but had to be more careful than before, because I was constantly under sus- picion. We would meet in some lonely spot in the 40 MODERN BAPTIST depths of the forest late at night, stealing there one by one, and post sentinels to avoid being surprised by the police. Of the more than sixteen hundred persons I have baptized, by far the greater 'majority were converted at such meetings. The peasants reaUzed it meant im- prisonment for them if they were caught attending a Baptist meeting and so they had to exercise great se- crecy. ^^Of late years much of my work has been in visiting the prisons and comforting Baptists who were serving sentences because of their religion." His picture appears on the right end of the center row of the frontispiece group. ROMORN HOMIAC. He was born in the government of Astrakan, in 1881, and received a good education in the gAmmasium. His people are all Greek Orthodox. In 1905 he was brought under the influence of Simeon Stephanoff, and in the month of June of the same year was baptized in the river Molgor. In 1906 he T\'ent to St. Petersburg and helped in a village church. Two years later he was on'e of the t^n men selected 'to go to the seminary at Lodz i;vhere he spent three years, afterwards proceeding to Riga. He has already won his spurs as a preacher and hardly a month has passed without his baptizing ten or more people. It is not yet settled where the Kussian Baptist Union will station him as pastor. ANDREAS LEYUCHKIX. (42) HEROES AND MARTYRS. 43 His picture appears fourth from the left on the top row of the frontispiece group. ANDREAS LEVUCHKIN. Andreas Levuchkin was born in 1858 at Tambov, in the provinQe of Saratov, in Eastern Russia. At sixteen years of age he went to Tifiis and there first came into contact with the Baptists. He \ms converted in 1882, and Hke all our Russian converts commenced preachini; immediateh^ P'or three yesirs he preached with freedom and then his trials commenced, until at last, in 1891, ho was sent into exile in Transcaucasia by administrative order, that is, without the formality of a trial. He was eent amongst the Tartars that not understanding their language he would be unable to preach to them, but as there was a large company of exiles in that district he was enabled to have fellowship with th^m. He spent eight years in exile and returned home in 1900. He Fays: ''I was converted to the Baptist faith when I was twenty-two years old. My parents were both members of the Greek Orthodox Church. T wa« born in 1858 and baptized in 1882. In 1891 charges were brought against me and without the formality of a trial I was sent into exile, I was given the privilege of paying my own faro and that of the two guards who accompanied me. "I was in exile for eight long, weary years, being kept among the Tartars to prevent my preaching to the 44 MODERN BAPTIST Russian people. Since my return from exile in 1899 I have been constantly under police super\dsion. "\^^en the authorities learned that I was making plans to go to the convention at Philadelphia, an old charge of several years' standing was brought up against me, but I had my passport and cleared across the fron- tier before they could arrest me. "I expect to be arrested and to stand trial as soon as I return to Russia.'/ His trial is sure to cost him one hundred and fifty dollars or three months in a Russian prison, and words can hardly describe the suffering of the alternative. A BAPTIST HEROINE IN SERVIA. Twenty-three years ago two Germans went down to Servia, Mr. and Mrs. Schneider. They had been brought under the influence of Rev. J. G. Oncken, the German Baptist hero, who in much suffering and many labors laid the foundations for this modern Baptist revival on the Continent of Europe. Arri\'ing in Belgrade, the capital of SeiTia, they commenced to speak to their neighbors the Baptist faith and principles. Gradually men and women began to seek and to find salvation and to ask for baptism, and a small church was formed. Their work progressed quietly for several years, meetings being held in the homes of some of the wealthier mem- bers. At last a decision was taken to arise and build. Mr. McKenzie, a Scotch Baptist merchant in the city, helped them considerably, and at last an excellent church HEROES AND MARTYRS. 46 building, which seated albout four hundred people waa erected close to the market square. The building was only used for worship once, the dedication sendee, for the police, instigated by the priests of the Orthodox Church, stepped in and confiscated the building and put several of the leaders in prison for three months. The building still stands as a monument to the intolerance of the Servian government. It is used for a govern- ment bank. From this time onward the Baptists in Servia had to suffer scourgings and imprisonments. They were not allowed to meet for worship with the result that week by week they gathered in the forests or in quiet places by the riverside to comfort one another in the Kingdom of God and to sing his praises. Shortly after the confiscation of the church building, Mr. Schneider died and in the following year his wife was stricken vdih blindness. It was now an exceedingly difh- cult matter for her to attend the meetings of the breth- ren. She would need a guide to lead her to the secret meeting place, and to be conducted regularly from her home through the crowded streets of the city would probably mean the betrayal of those gathered together for worship. Occasionally the members of the church would come to her bare whitewashed room and read to her from the Word of God, and join with her in prayer. T\\'elve months ago an officer of the police came to li\e in the house next to hers and his advefit struck consterna- tion into the heart of the sTster for the visit of the brethren would be known to him and they would speed- 46 MODERN BAPTIST ily find themselves in trouble. A few weeks after the policeman had taken his residence, his little boy fell down and broke his leg, and the blind woman used to gc and sit by his bedside and began to tell him some of the New Testament stories. The mother of the lad was greatly interested in the stories and the truths they taught and she began to inquire more perfectly the way of salvation. One day the policeman asked Mrs. Schnei- der if there were any more people in the city of her way of thinking. She was in a quandary. She hardly knew what answer to make. To deny would be to lie and thai she could not do; to affirm might mean betrayal of the followers of Christ, and while she hesitated what to do, the policeman said, "Do not be afraid, I too would like to be one of you.*' The result has been that for the past few months as m'any as six and eight brethren have met in the room of the old wonTan, and one can never forget her expressions of devout thankfulness to God that once again under the protection of the resident policeman the brethren are enabled to meet in her home for worship. One can still hear her plaintive voice saying, "Oh, how good the great God is to us, how very good God is to us, for when the rain pelts down and the strong winds blow, we can sing, if we sing verv^ softly, a hymn of praise to Him."' Scattered all over the lana there are these little com- panies of Baptists, who, despite all the pains and penal- ties inflicted upon them by a retrograde government, yet meet to worship and praise their T^ord and Ma.^er. HEROES AND MARTYRS. 47 IVAN SAVELIEFF. This servant of Jesus Christ was born in 1858, in Saratoff, Russia. He had belonged to the Molokani, a sect after the order of the Quakers. He was converted w'hen twenty-five years of age in Vladikasv^as and waa baptized in 1883. Immediately he began to preach tihe Gospel as do so many fellow confessors of faith in Clirist. He \Y£iS exiled for five years for preaching in Transcaueasda, 1894-1900, by administratixe order, that is, without due process of law. For four years he was ofTicially recognized as a preacher by the Russian Baptist Union at Vladikasvas, 1900-1904. Seven times has he been imprisoned for short periods, but he does not count imprisonment as suffering since it is for the Gospel's sake. He is liable to arrest upon return from Philadelphia. If called upon all who know him know that he ^\dll remain true to his faith. At one time all of his meetings were forbidden, and e^'ery Saturday spies came from the police to discover where the meetings were to be held. Not^^dthstanding, meetings were always held, sometimes in the depths of the forests and .sometimes in secluded places on the river banks. One Sunday they met in a barn and the police dis- covered them. One brother was on wat-ch ^t the door for the police 'and when he saw them coming he called the owner of the house, who locked the barn door from the outside and went into the house. The pohce de- 48 MODERN BAPTIST manded to search t/he house and did so, 'but forgot the barn. Later, as they waited, the crowd came out and the pohce were greattly surprised. Whenever a strange Baptist preacher came to town he was locked up every Saturday until Monday. Every Sunday the police have attempted to disperse the meet- ings by protocol. Each time all the ^^orshipers were arrested and brought before the court, charged with be- ing law breakers, but these persecutions only brought more to the meetings. The judge became helpless and confus(^d and he finally dismissed thicm, testifying to their good spirit and behavior. Savelieff says: *'Since 1904, I have been pastor of a little church in Vladikasvas. I was converted when twenty-five. Fol- lowing that I was sent to prison many times for short sentences in adhering to my chosen religion. *''In 1894 I was sent to Siberia for five years, where I suffered as others of my brethren had before me. In 1900, just about a year after my return from exile, I was sent back again to Siberia for preaching, re- maining there until 1904. ''Since then I have been before the magistrates many times and have a charge pending now which I must face when I return to Russia.*' His picture appears at the left end of the bottom row of the frontispiece group. Chas. T. Byford, Ix)ndon, England. NATALIA. "Natalia, you must get ready. We are leaving in a week," said Michael Ivanoff, entering the room. Ivanoff was the son of a Russian priest. He was not a dutiful son of the Greek Orthodox Church in spite of the position occupied by his father. He seldom went to church; his fait^h in its teachings was shaken, and the life of the priests he knew hy experience wa^ far from what it should be, and they had lost their in- fluenee over him and made him indifferent as to the faith of his fathers. As with most of the Russians, with his indifference to the truth, he had entered a state of spiritual deadness which had brought on with it a sort of stupor of mind and carelessness to all that has to do with the worship of God in truth. At his words his wife started up from her work. "Ah, how soon," she said with a sigh. At the time our story begins there was a spiritual revival at the quiet little place K . The authori- ties had been alarmed at the awakening which was bringing crowds to the meetings in the recently built hall that the villagers had set up for that work. Num- bers were being converted in this little village. For this cause it was planned by the authorities to send out 50 MODERN BAPTIST a missionary supported by the Greek Orthodox Church, to prevent the people attending those Baptist services and try to paralyze the power of this teaching which was making such an impression on the minds of the people. Ivanoff, just then in need of work, had been recommended to the authorities for that work. They supposed that he as a son of a priest could be relied upon. As he possessed some culture and ability, it was thought he could attend to the needed work mth de- sired results. His appointment had been made some time ago and now he had to hurry to the spot, having lingered some time, brdng reluctant to leave the home he had so long enjoyed a.t T . His wife, though far from being eager to leave their little abode to w^hich she had so long been used, thought it grand that her husband should be named for such a high post, to fight the accursed sect she had heard so much about. She loved the faith of her fathers, never failed to keep the sacred lamp burning before her ikon, and liked on Sundays and other holidays to make herself smart and go to church. It seemed to her verj' dreadful to go against the faith of her fathers and violate the laws of the ''Mother Church", as she heard those audacious sec- tarians v\^ere doing. To study tl^e two characters one would have been led to tliink that Natalia shoiild ha^'e fulfilled the duties assigned her husband far better, for her heart burned with a true zeal for the Church she was born in, and it was this zeal which created in her energy enough to exchange her cherished home for the HEROES AND MARTYRS. 51 more distant, strange and out-of-the-way place without miiT'muring. It was to stand for the ''faith of our fathers", she said to herself when her husband wa-^ corr- mi^sioned and this comforted and inspired her. The in- difference of TvanofF had been well concealed by the elrorts of his wife, for she always made him accompany her to church whenever she could, and she led him to fast and reverently bow before the sacred pictures. In this way the true state of his mind was little known. He used to play cards and drink and smoke, but that, according to tlie people's views was quito natural, for no one in Russia expects more of us than that we shall worship God according to the customs and forms of our country. With some fuss and difRculties due to the change of place and transport of things^ the couple found themselves at last at their destinatirn a short time after this. They settled close by the village chosen l^y the Baptists of which there was so much talk. Na- talia's heart was burning with indignation against the faithful servants of God. Stories had been told to her of how they were teaching the people to curse the ikou, despise the Church and ignore the traditions of the an- cient fathers. She had been taught to regard them as heretics. AVith trembling hands and much eai-eriiess she prepared the things for her husband's first visit to the heretic village, which was full of the teaching of the Baptists. ''They have their own Testaments," said the neigh- 62 MODERN BAPTIST bors to Natalia. ''You must never believe a word of what they say. Their Gospel differs from the true one sanctioned by our Church/' Natalia felt proud that her husband was to stand for the faith of their fathers. Before he left she told him to be careful not to drink too much, that his mind might be clear and his speech powerful. She blessed him, making the sign of the cross over him as they parted, and long that night did Bhe kneel before her ikons making low bows and re- peating half aloud the many prayers she knew by heart addressed to the Virgin and saints she was taught to worship. Next morning she placed a table before the image of St. Nicholas in the church, who slie believed was able to help her husband. Slie eagerly awaited his return, impatient to hear of his success she was so 6ure of. She prepared a specially good dinner that day, and when at length the httle cart rolled up, she ran out to meet her husband. But Michael Ivanoff looked exhausted and not at all as triumphant as she had expected. He greeted her rather indifferently, and dropped heavily into a chair at the spread out table. Natalia was too eager to hear of the news he had to bring, to be able to wait until he had finished his meal. ''Well, how is it?" she asked. ''Were you able to stop their mouths? Were- you able to persuade the people not to attend their meetings?" "No," answered Michael thoughtfully as he raised his hand to his brow and passed his fingers through his hair, "I could not do so." HEROES AND MARTYRS. 53 "Why?" asked the amazed wife, as she stood gazing at him with wide open eyes full of surprise. 'They are not at all evil people," grunted the hus- band. ''There is much truth in what they say." That was all Natalia could get from him. He did not seem inclined to talk much about the matter, and she saw it was no use bothering him. But her curiosity was aroused and she decided to go herself to one of these meetings, and so she set out one afternoon. When she asked her husband to lend her the horse, which he willingly agreed to do, he laughed a little at the no- tion of her being present in a heretic meeting. At the hour appointed for the meeting, Natalia found herself at the little village K , before a long wooden build- ing which they told her was the hall. She was kindly greeted by some women sftanding outside and welcomed into a plain, light room full of wooden seats at the end of which was a small elevation with a pulpit stand, on which lay a large, well-worn Bible. Some villagers were already occupying seats and Natalia was welcomed into their midst. There was something bright and pleasing about the manners and faces of those who addressed themselves to her. " 'Tis the first time you have come to us," said one of the men. "Place yourself a little nearer so as to hear well." The woman obeyed, for something strange seemed to have stolen over her — a stillness had crept over her soul, and instead of enmity she felt attraction 54 MODERN BAPTIST in her heart. After a time, when the hall was full, the preacher, a middle aged man, arose to speak. ^'Jesus Christ came to seek and to save the lost," he said. ^^It was not the righteous, but sinners, He came to call to repentance. Those who are whole need no physician/' and he went on to speak of the tender love and mercy of the Savior, who had left His glorv on high to come and redeem a sinful and perishing \A^rld. He spoke of the Son of Man walking the streets of Jerusalem, healing the sick and the blind, giving the water of life to the thirsty souls around Him and raising the dead, and then he said that Jesus is the same, yes- terday, today and forever; that He is here today seeking souls, healing the sick, offering liberty to those who are in the fetters of sin. His words were earnest and full of power. In the silence of that room Natalia heard some repressed sobs, and her own heart seemed melted under the influence of the Gospel. She was not hke Jesus who loved His enemies and died for those who hated Him. The Holy Spirit was convicting her of sin: she had never come face to face with the Savior; she wag used to intermediators between God and her- self, and' it was the first time she had heard of a Savior's redeeming love and His finished work on the cross. In the light of His word, her own righteousness seemeil to her as filthy rags. And wonder of wonders, that she, who had thought to stand for the faith, of her fathers and fight the heretics, was convinced that they were speaking the truth. After the meeting was over she re- HJ^ROES AND MARTYRS. 55 turned home full of troubled thoughts. She felt that the teachings she had hitherto been ac(?ustomed to were lifeless and powerless, and the love for -Jesus, her Re- deemer, which was filling her heart after she had heard of all He had suffered for her, was surpassing the love that she thought she po.sses.sed for the Church. She got her Testament and carefully pondered over the places pointed out by the preacher and became comdnced th-?.t her book spoke exactly the same words he had been pointing out. She could not go to bed that night, but stayed long pondering over the pages of the sacred book until the light of the Holy Spirit filled her heart and she wept for joy and gratitude for the blood .«pilled for her on Calvary. Her conversion was genuine and thorough. It was a stepping out of darkness into pei'fect light, and as she was true to what she believed in her ignorance .she was as true to the revelation of God. With a trembling hand next morning .she took down the sacred pictures hung up in her room, extingui^^hed the lamp she had so carefully kept burnina; through the years and stowed it all aiway in a dark closet where she kept plunder. There was no room for these dead ordinances in her heart since she had met the li\'ing God. She did not stop to con,sider long about it, as she knew her husband was so indifferent to the things of God. Her heart was full of joy and .=:he was thinking of the timie when she could again go to the meetinc;, and .she wondered what her husband would say. Strunge to say she felt afraid to .gpeak to him at once and asked 56 MODERN BAPTIST God to show her how to do so. To her great surprise, he got terribly enraged when he discovered she had taken the sacred pictures off the walls and extinguished the lamp. The man w^ho had seemed so indifferent and careless to religion turned into a wild beast. ''How/' he exclaimed furiously, '^You are going to follow the teaching of these heretics, and going to be- come a Baptist like them !'' "But they speak the truth," she s^aid timidly. "You yourself told me they were good people." "Yes, yes," he answered, "but I did not care about it. I never meant to follow them, or see you do so.'' "But you must think of your soul,'*' persisted Na- talia earnestly. "If you do not receive the gift of God you will die in your sin. God's word says that drunkards cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, and you know you are often drunk." "I'll teach you how to preach!" exclaimed the fu- rious husband, and snatching the stunned woman by the arm, he inflicted a heavy blow on her back. It wa^s the first time Natalia had met with such treatment, and her heart throbbed, and the tears liowed from her eyes. Her husband seemed ashamed of himself and moved away. She did not say a word of rebuke, but falling on her knees and covering her face Avith her hands, she pleaded aloud to God that He would forgive him and make the light shine into his soul as He had done into hers. "You may ill treat me as you like," she said softly, HEROES AND MARTYRS. 57 arising from her knees, ''but one thing you may know is that I love you and will always pray for you." The husband left the room. ''Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteous- ness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven," stole over the heart of Natalia. She thought Jesus was whispering these words to her soul. It was the first time she was suffering for Him who had suffered so much for her, and she was glad. She could not understand how it was that her husband who had been so careless and indifferent until now should stand up so for the things w^hich used to be dear to her, but which had become worthless since she knew there is no mediator between man and God hut Jesus Christ. What should she do? "Well," she thought, "it will surely go off. He will not care about it, and if he comes to the meetingr; he will soon understand the darkness he is in." She spoke little that day, but w^ent quietly about her duties and was particularly kind to Michael. As they were fiitting that evening on the doorstep in front of their cottage she asked him if he would read the Scriptures with her. "Get away," said the man angrily, "I do not want to hear any more of that. Go and find the ikons and hang them up again. I shall have none of this non- sense in my house." Natalia rose and went indoors. What was she to do? She could not obey her husband's orders. She could not w^orship her idols any more. Then she stole away into the little garden behind the 58 JVIODERN BAPTIST house, and there in the bushes on her knees, wept be- fore God, praying that He would soften her husband's heart and win him to Himself. Meanwhile the hiLsband, seeing his orders had not been obeyed, angrily sum- moned her and demanded to be shown where the pic- tures were, and when Natalia refased to carry out his orders and hang up the pictures he hung them up him- self, aind said he did not want the neighlx)rs to despise them. When Natalia refused to light the lamp she had formerly so carefully trimmed he again got into a fury and beat her with 'his cane. And so her bitter troubles began. But she stood firm in her faith and though kind and good to him, she re/used to obey when he wanted her to be unfaithful to her God. When she was able to steal 'away to the meetin.gs she did so, but when that was impossible she patiently waited at home, reading the Scriptures and praying. One day her hus- band threatened to kill her if she would not give up her Baptist notions, and after a severe beating so that her body was all in bruises and bleeding, he put her into a cart and took her to his church along an exceedingly rough road so that her aching Umbs were painfully jerked, inflicting terrible suffering. •'I shall make you suffer worse," said the cr'iel man, "unless you promise to take the holy sacrament -when I bring you to the priest. Will you do it?" he continued harshly, stopping the horse by the road. "No," said the faithful servant of God gently, but firmly, "you may kill me if you like, but I shall not HEROES AND MARTYRS. 59 go back into the darkness. And with all that you may know one thing, and that is, that I love you and that I pray for you." So Michael struck his horse and continued his cniei drive. In spite of all his threats and those of the priest, Natalia stood firm and was taken home as she had been brought. Another day when she was driving out with her hus- band he threatened to throw her under the wheels of an oncoming train if g^he would not give up her faitt , but s/he meekly replied, "Feel perfectly free to do what- ever you like wit>h me, for I cannot leave my Savior, but must remain true to Him until the end." xlnd every time she would end with the words, ''You may know that I love you and will always pray for you.'' She was beginning to waste aw.ay under the piessurc ol her hardened husband, who seemed bent on bnnging her back to the Greek Orthodox faith at any cost. Whenever Natalia could speak a word for her Savior and His saving grace she w^ould be sure to do so. But where words could not influence she tried to shine by her faithful and pure life, which spoke louder than any sermon. One night after long meditation and prayei-, Na- talia crept away from home to see a young preacher who had come from some distance to preach in the little village. She h'ad learned from the Word of God and from what she had heard from hi.^ faitliful serv^ant that we must repent, believe and be baptized. The Scriptures 60 MODERN BAPTIST were so plain on this point that there was no question in her mind about the matter. She must obey God's com- mand to the full, and though she knew her husband would be very angry, she decided to be baptized. So it wa5 to this young preacher she went to tell of her con\dction, and the brave man, in spite of all the danger of the case, was faithful to his calling. In the stillness of that night in the waters of the little river which flowed through that region, Natalia v/as bapt'zed. After that sihe seemed to grow braver than ever, having realized that she was dead and buried with her Savior and must now live the resurrection life, looking for- ward to the prize beyond. I need not tell you how fu- rious her husband was when he learned what she had done. He vowed he would kill the young minister who dared to perform the ceremony, and for a long time it was dangerous for brother V to appear in these parts of the countrj^, and whenever he came he risked his life, but this did not prevent him from serving his Master faithfully and continue brave in fulfilling His commands. Jesus, in the meantime, Avas seeking Alichael tihe same as He had been seeking Natalia, and through the instrumentality of this holy w^oman He was breaking that hard, dead heart. As he would not give in to the w^ord of love the Lord had to use hard blows. After some time under the influence of this cruel treatment, Natalia got severely ill, and only then Michael seemed to understand what he had done. His conscience was HEROES AND MARTYRS. 61 rebuking him, and he felt miserable. The dying wo- man never murmured, nor complained, nor rebuked him. She had always a word of love and gentleness. And thus sihe passed away after much i?uffering, leaving a ray of light behind her and a message that would never die. The influence of her life could not be lost. Michael was left alone and often would it seem to him that he heard the gentle words of his wife, telling him the story of Je.?us' love and her figure would rise before him. To dispel tliis \dsion he took to drink and began living a loose life, until his parents became alarmed and thought that they must find him a wife who would keep him in hand and put him right. And he did marry and thought he would be happy now, forgetting all the past. He thought he would pray much and go to church and fast as he used to, but tliis gave him no peace. But what was most grievous, he could not get on vdih hi? new wife. She was never satisfied ; she m'ade the home quite unattractive to him and the unhappy man would often try to steal away. He found no satis- faction in the rites of his Church and no comfort in his home, so he decided he would try and seek for both in the meetings of the Baptists hitherto despised by him but so much loved by his Natalia. xVnd so he w^nt in there among the children of God, and his heart seemed to find satisfaction ; the living Word of God seemed to suit his spirit and he learned to love the people he had cursed before. Ah, how he regretted that he had not come before and spared himself the loss of his tender 62 MODERN BAPTIST wife. Often and often, in the moments of anguish. he seemed to heai* her gentle voice snying, "One thin^ you may know, I love you and am pra^nnc; for you.'* How different to the wife he now has, and he seemed to understand the power of the life that had pa^ped away. He seemed to realize that all these years he had been giving himself an instrument into the hands of Satan, and lie was bitterly ashamed to think he was the cause of so much sorrow and suffering to his Natalia. He learned to love the Gospel which Natalia had left behind her, and often in the quiet of the evenino he would muse over its pages, and the words of life began to burn their way through to his heart. But it take>3 time to melt a hardened heart, and the Bord had need of patience and longsuffering in the case of Michael. It was his turn now to suffer from a cross woman, who was without any inclination toward spiritual things. She was always grumbling, bustling about, beginning her morning by a horrid prayer before the ikon, or no pray- er at all, perfectly indifferent to the Word of God that she so often saw in the hands of Michael, angry when she heard of his going to the meetings, never having ft kind wx)rd for him and much less for the neighbors with whom she liked to gossip. And so ^lichael was being driven to seek salvation. If he had net put off go long he would have spared himself much sorrow. But his hardened and indifferent heart seemed to have needed the school through which he was passing. He had rejected the mercies of God, ho bad now to taste HEROES AND MARTYRS. 63 the bitter cup of suffering, and it was this suffering that was revealing the Sr.vior's atoning love. He was* broken down at last in one of the meetings and gave hi? heart to Jesus with bitter tears of repent- ance for all the past, and learned to follow his Savior as faithfully as Natalia did. He learned to prea'"^h the message to others and boldly carried salvation to all those around in spite of the many and bitter persecu- tions which arose around him. And so the little village K has been the means of bringing many souls to Jesus, and the little Baptist community is prospering and gro^ring in numbers until this day. MADAM M. YASNOVSKY^nee von Kruse), St. Petersburc:, Russia. THE NOVOTlSrYS OF PRAGUE, THE SUOCESSORS OF HUSS. Bohemia, in one respect at least, reminds us of that city described by John in the Revelation, the city sur- rounded by a wall great and high, and which lieth foursquare. To look at Bohemia on the m{ap is to see that the great and high mountains which shut it in almost make a perfect square, with one angle pointing almost directly to the north, another to the south, another to the east and another to the west. This square granite fence lets its bars down at only one point, to- ward the southeast, where there is a narrow opening into Moravia, and it encloses a country of twenty thousand square miles, about one-half the size of Kentucky. Near the center of this beautiful square is the city of Prague. Prague, a city of over a half million people, lies picturesquely on both banks of the ^loldau. My first view of the city by night was enchanting. Strolling through the park which overlooks the river spanned by massive ancient bridges I could see the huge outline of v/hat appeared to be castles or palaces on the other side. I could hear a band playing in the distance. The morn- ing' did not dissipate the spell of the evening. Prague unites a European solidity vdih an Asiatic splendor. 66 MODERN BAPTIST Its heights are imposing with domes and spires and turrets; its riversides lovely with trees and promenades. The streets present alternations of medieval arches and towers, with splendid modern shops. No city outside of Italy lays stronger hold on the imagination or more binds the memory than "hundred-towered, golden Prague." The heart is stirred with thoughts of the Thirty Years' War which started and stopped here, of Jerome, of Ziska, of the Bohemian Brethren and of Huss. Although ages of persecution, suffering, violence and exile stretch between, John Huss m'ust nevertheless be recognized as the forerunner of the present evangel- ical movement in Bohemia. A knowledge of him and of the history he made is necessary, therefore, to a true understanding of existing conditions. Huss and Prague are names indissolubly linked to- gether. In the early years of the fifteenth century there was no man so popular in Prague as John Huss, Rector of the University, Confessor to the Queen, and the eloquent Preacher of Bethlehem Chapel. Bethlehem Chapel w^as a preaching place built by private citizens of Prague who, weary of Latin masses and music and full of the growing national spirit, wanted a place where they could hear popular Biblical preaching in the Bo- hemian tongue which could not be heard in the churches and cathedrals where Latin and German were the only languages. The responsibilities of his position as preacher of Bethlehem Chapel were to get Huss into trouble some JOSEPH XOVOTNY. (67) HEROES AND MARTYRS. 69 day. BethleTiem mieans ''a house of bread." The men of Prague wanted bread. They were sick of husks, of masses mumbled by unintelligible priests. Where shall he find bread to break to the hungry people? He is led to an earnest study of the Scriptures and of Wiclif's writings. At first he had been prejudiced against Wiclif, but the more he read him the more he found himself in agreeanent vriih. him. He translated his writings and commended them to the people. Then the trouble began to brew. The Council of the University of Prague declared the writings of Wiclif heretical and issued orders that no one was to teach or maintain them either in private or in public. Huss, who was characterized more by fearlessness and passion for the truth than by even his learning and eloquence, refused to obey the order, and started on the rugged road that would lead him to the fire by and by. The first definite riipture between Huss and the Ro- man Catholic Church was brought on by his attitude towaTd the papacy. Wiclif's watchword had been, ''Back to the Bible." The watchword of Huss became, ''Back to Christ." He said that Jesus Christ was the head of the church, and he insisted that priests and prelates and popes and all earthly mediators must stand out of the way that the sinner might through Christ alone, the one Mediator, have access to God. From the pulpit of Bethlehem Chapel he began to raise his eloquent voice against the avarice and arrogance, the greed, licentious- ness and corruption of the Roman ecclesiastics and to 70 MODERN BAPTIST denounce their traffic in holy things, the sale of indul- gences and pardons. Then there was a howl. Monks, priests and bishops united in the hoarse chorus: '^Heresy, heresy! Down with him! He is a devil incarnate, a heretic.'^ A bull from the pope forbade Huss to preach in Bethlehem Chapel, and the archbishop of Prague proceeded to issue a solemn and formal excommunication against the heretic Huss and his adherents. Huss w^as not to be silenced so easily. He had a higher Master than the archbishop of Prague or the arch-fiend (no finer title is applicable to Pope John XXIII) at Home. He went right on preaching at Bethlehem Chapel, and the people flocked to hear their hero in even greater numbers than before. As many as ten thousand are stated to have been present sometimes, made up of royalty, nobility, students and citizens. Then things hurried to a crisis. The sentence of excommunication which had been passed upon Huss by the archbishop was renewed by the pope, and Prague was put under the interdict. PIuss bowed to the thunderstorm not for a moment. Like Wiclif he believed that no man could be excom- municated unless he had first excommunicated himself. But the city, his beloved Prague that had harbored him so long, was suffering on his account. So for the sake of the city he took himself away. His exile from Prague had another result than the pope and his minions intended. It contributed to the HEROES AND MARTYRS. 71 spread rather than the suppression of his views. Never should the voice of Huss be heard again from the Beth- lehem pulpit, but the '^heretic" had the woods, ^'God's first temples." He had the sky-domed fields. He became a fire-filled evangelist. His power was multiplied. The people streamed to hear him from every quarter. His influence went out to the ends of Bohemia. He lighted his bonfires all over the land, bonfires destined to make a mighty conflagration. And there, under God's clear sky, the truth came to him in fuller measure. Qirist became all in all to him. ^^Back to Christ," he cried with more emphasis than ever. And the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he spoke as one having authority, and not as the priests. And in the market- place, on the street, on the highway the people repeated his burning words. Then came the end. Huss was summoned to the Council of Constance. He wrote a farewell letter to the Bohemian people whonn he loved so well, and intrepidly set his face toward Constance. The tigers were waiting for him. They played with their prey for a few weeks, then showed their claws. After months of confinement in a loathesome cell having the dimensions of a grave, the dungeon doors were opened, and John Huss, emaci- ated, broken in health, was dragged before his judges. Broken in health, but unbroken in spirit. There was the travesty of a trial. Judges there were, but no justice. He would not recant. Let them glare as they "v\411 and spit their venom as they may, but how could John Huss 72 MODERN BAPTIST recant? He was pronounced "a manifest heretic." They went through the childish mummery of degrading him from the priesthood. This was followed by a proclama- tion commending his body to the flam.^s and his soul to the devil. And so this humble seeker of truth, grop- ing for a clearer vision of God, found his way into that High Presence through the martyr's fire on July 6, 1415, on the forty-sixth anniversary of his birth. 'They do not fall who die in a great cause. The block may soak their gore ; Their heads may sodden in the sun; Their limbs be strung to the city gates Or castle walls; but still Their spirits walk abroad." When Huss voice was hushed it did not sink into eternal silence. It has gone on thundering through all the years since. His cry for liberty and pure religion is still heard on earth, and shall go on being heard until every shackle is broken, and the Christ, whose echo he was, shall have made all men free and all worship pure. Huss appealed to the Bible as the only authority in religion ; believed in the sole headship of Christ over the church; taught the priesthood of all believers; and re- jected most of the sacramental system of the Roman Church. His message found a prepared soil. The Bo- hemians had the Scriptures in their own language. The Bible published in Prague in 1487 was ''the first instance HEROES AND MARTYRS. 73 bn record of the application of the newly invented art of printing to the multiplication of the Scriptures in a living tongue." Huss' followers became even more evan- gelical than he was and multiplied until all Bohemia was radiant with the promise of leading the world back to primitive Christianity. More than a century before the hisitorical Reforma- tion under Luther and Calvin, the new faith in Bohemia had become vital enough to send a missionary to Scot- land, Paul Craw, who there gained the crown of mar- tyrdom. On the parched desert of the middle ages sprang up the beautiful blossom of the ''Unity of Bo- hemian Brethren." The Bohemian Brethren were Bap- tists in nearly every essential, differing chiefly in church organization. After this hopeful beginning of the fifteenth cen- tury came the disastrous Thirty Years' War, followed by storms of hate and bloody persecution for ages. It is an old saying now that ''the blood of the^ martyrs is the seed of the church." The history of Bohemia affords a notable exception to this rule. The evangelical faith was well-nigh extinguished by fire, sword, scaffold and exile. The Jesuits of Austria made the nation Roman Catholic again. Bohemda was stripped of the glorious results of its past, and robbed of the best possi- bilities of its future. The systematic uprooting of Protest- antism, which has its parallel only in the story of the Huguenots, reduced the population of Bohemia from three million to eight hundred thousand. The Jesuits 74 MODERN BAPTIST did their work so well that this ^'cradle of the Reforma- tion" is today regarded, with Austria proper, as the last great European stronghold of the papacy. The Second Reformation. In spite of the storms of centuries a ''hidden seed" sur\dved consisting of such who cherished the writings of Huss and Comenius, and who secretly perpetuated their faith by implanting in their children loyalty to the Bohemian Bible. From this kernel we are now witnessing a new evangelical growth. On the ruins of the old Bohemian Brethren movement is founded our Baptist work in Bohemia. True, Rome still keeps up her ancient intolerance. Our people can meet legally only for ''family worship." No Sunday school is allowed. To distribute the Bible is forbidden. To give away a tract is to transgress the law. BaptisiiijS are illegal, and have been attended by the whistling of shots, fired by concealed gendarmes. Yet, in defiance of the law, in spite of every obstacle, our cause is growing. The first Baptist church in Prague was founded twenty-five years ago by Henry Novotny, and he is still pastor. There are now in Prague three Baptist preaching places and in all Bohemia twenty. Hundreds of Bibles are sold and thousands of tracts distributed every year. Henry Novotny, the modern apostle of Bohemia, ia a man of rare simplicity of spirit and of finest culture. HEROES AND MARTYRS. 75 He is a pure Cech and was born in a village near Prague, in 1846. A devout Catholic until his twentieth year, he was then brought under the influence of the Presbyterian mission in Prague. Within a few months after his conversion he heard the call to preach the Gospel to his fellow-countrymen. Under thg impulse of this impression he proceeded to Basle, in Switzerland, where he spent four years in the Presbyterian college, afterwards taking a further course in the Free Church College in Edinburgh. On his return home he became pastor of the Reformed church in Prague. But, as wiih Oncken of Germany and Nilson of Sweden, the Scrip- tures were too much for him. So in 1885 Henry No- votny resigned his church, journeyed to Lodz, in Russian Poland, and was there baptized by Rev. Charles Ondra. Returning to Prague he began to preach and influence people until sixteen were baptized and a Baptist church was constituted. Gradually the work has spread under the influence of our brother's self-denying ministry un- til in more than thirty towns there are now m'embers of Baptist churches in Bohemia. The church established in Prague has lost many by emigration to America, but still has about two hundred and fifty members. Ten preachers have gone forth from this church to shine as stars in dark places. Now that his natural force is abating through hard- ships connected with pioneering in a bitterly hostile land, it is gratifying to Mr. Novotny to know tnat his mantle is falling upon the shoulders of his son. 76 MODERN BAPTIST Joseph Novotny is the youngest child of Henry No- votny, and was baptized by his father in 1897 when the lad was but eleven years of age. Joseph is a remarkably gifted young man. Not yet over twenty-five years old, he has taken courses in our Baptist colleges in Hamburg and in Nottingham, and has studied in the universities of Vienna, Prague and Geneva. He has recently been going through his o-wn country and adjacent regions doing the work of an evangelist, and has been greatly used. The fiery speech, the zealous spirit and the attractive personality of Joseph Novotny won all hearts at the Baptist World Alliance in Philadelphia. He told several incidents which may serve to show that the old Hussite spirit is not yet dead, and that the choked wells are being dug out. In one village some friends began to read the Bible and to pray. They gathered themselves together every Sabbath. One man cam*e from a village a day's journey with a little piece of bread as his only sustenance, and asked to be allowed to read a little in the Bible, that he might learn the truth by heart to tell his neighbors in the village, because there was no Bible there. When the authorities heard of this they hailed the people be- fore the Justice of the peace. The Justice asked them "What do you want? Are you dissatisfied with your church? Are you not satisfied with the priests? What is the matter?" The answer came all unexpectedly, "We HEROES AND MxVRTYRS. 77 art dissatisfied with ourselves. Here in this Book is our only guide and our only hope for satisfaction." Joseph Novotny's sister was a missionary in the Prague church and she told her brother one day that she had been visiting an old sick woman in the darkest part of Prague. She told her about Jesus and w^hat she ought to do if she w^ould be happy. The old woman arose and said/'Oh, I know it already. Look here! Here is my Bible. I read it." Miss Novotny was astoni>.hed to see a Bible in the hand of a Catholic woman. '-'Tell me, how did you get this Book?" she asked. "Oh, it is a long story," said the sick woman. "Seven years ago I had two boys, but they were very bad boys, indeed, es- pecially the older one. He took away every penny and left it in the public house. All at once there was a change in his life. I did not know how it came. He said he used to go to certain meetings, and he learned there to pray and sing. He brought home this Book in which he regularly read. And then he entered the public house no more. My neighbors told me I could be a happy mother. I think God must have given him a new brain. I could not read the Bible then, and so he read it aloud. But soon he became ill, and so he could not go to the meetings. His illness was very serious. One day he told me he knew he must die, but he did not fear death. He sang and prayed and read the Bible; and in a few days he died. After his death the younger brother took this Book and read in it, and went regularly to the Sunday school. The priest soon knew that his 78 MODERN BAPTIST pupil went to the Sunday school, and he said that the boy spoke as 'a heretic' of the religious instruction re- ceived there. The priest punished the lad with a stick, imprisoned him in a dark chamber, and then asked him if he would go to the heretical Sunday school again. The little disciple of Christ said he could not help it ; he would go again. Then the priest became so wild that he threw his scholar against the fireplace. The boy broke several ribs. He came home and became very sick, and died in a short time.'' ^'But how did he die?" said the old woman, with tears in her eyes, '^AYith this Book on his breast, with peace, telling me about Jesus, died my dear son." ''May I die as he," closed the happy woman her story. Was this little boy not a hero, a martyr, even as John Huss, or Jerome, of Prague? The fact is that Romanism is not growing amiong tne Bohemians. Outwardly it is active, but in reality it is disintegTating and losing its power. The better part of the Bohemian nation is tired of Catholicism. They have had experience of its religious emptiness. The towns and the educated people are even more ac- cessible than the country. Henry Novotny has recently baptized a famous actress from the National Theatre, in Prague, and a brilliant young nobleman, a graduate in honors of the university. The faith of the Baptists is congenial to the people. The Baptist preacher is greatly advantaged in that he can appeal to the glorious past of the nation. Its splen- HEROES AND MARTYRS. 79 did deeds and heroic persons have been penetrated with the Baptist spirit. Here, then, is one of our great opportunities on the continent, none greater. 'Could sufficient preachers and workers be supplied no bounds might be set to the work that could be done. The resources of Bohemian Bap- tists are pitifully unequal to their task. If the needs are to be met they must be supplied by American and Brit- ish Baptists. Occasionally help has come from English and Polish friends, but in altogether inadquate meosure to establish the work over so large an area. Surely the nation which incomparably mx3re than any other has suffered for the Gospel and for freedom of conscience shall not look to us in vain. The present pressing necessity is for a meeting house in Prague. The Baptists of Prague pay an exorbitant rent for a small hall. By sacrificial efforts they have secured a lot historically related to the reformed faith, on which they hoped to build a ^^Huss House" to cost not less than ten thousand dollars. Is it not well for the Baptists of Bohemia thus to link their work on to that of this noble martyr with whom they hold so much in com- mon? And should not we, who share in their heritage, have a part in it? One of Longfellow's poems is founded on an old legend that the city of Prague was once besieged by an army of e\'il spirits, but when the ca- thedral bell sounded the hour of prayer, the prayers of the saints were mightier than the evil spirits, and the 80 MODERN BAPTIST besieging army stole away. May this legend prove pro- phetic of the triumphs of the "Huss House." On July 6, 1915, the Bohemians will celebrate the five hundredth anniversary of the martyrdom of John Huss, who is again becoming the national hero. We share with his spiritual descendants in Bohemia in cherishing the hope that the memorable occasion will touch the conscience of the nation and rekindle the torch that for centuries was nearly extinguished. BLenry Alford Porter, D.D., Louisville, Ky. WILLIAM FETLER. "Baptist!" "Son of a heretic I" "Deceiver I'' The hoy at whom the words were shouted heard them, and his slender form straightened and he held his head high and his gray eyes flashed. It was nothing unusual for this crowd of idle boys and others whom he passed on the streets to speak to him in scorn and to point their fingers at him and laugh at him, but it had never ceased to hurt the proud and sensitive spirit of the lad. When he reached his home and closed the door, the hot tears came. It made him angry that they should hate his father, who was the best man in the village, kind to his family and always ready to help any of his neighbors who were in trouble. He remembered as his anger began to cool, how his father al^vays told him to be kind, and to love those who tormented him, and never to speak to them in anger. The boy was William Fetler and his father, Andreas Fetler, was pastor of the Baptist church in the little village of Tuckum, Russia. William was born at Talsen, in Courland, not far from the Baltic Sea; but before he could remember, his father moved with his family 82 MODERN BAPTIST to Tuckum. Here William went to the public school •where he learned readily, but where he had many un- happy hours on account of the belief of his father, who read the Bible and believed it, and broke with the State church and preached the Bible doctrines to the people. While he was still a young boy the Lord spoke to William and he gave his heart to Him and wished to follow Him in baptism. He knew what it meant to be baptized. He remembered that when his father bap- tized the first converts in the town, the people followed them to the river, threw the clothes of the men and women into the water, calling them ^^dirt" and ''de- ceivers/' and laughed and jeered, asking them how much they were being paid for being baptized. They threw stones at them as they went down into the water, and became so violent that some of the believers took refuge in the home of a sympathetic baron nearby. The angry mob gathered about the baron's home threatening his life as well as that of the Baptists, saying they would burn his home if he did not deliver the believers to them. But God took care of his own and no harm came to them nor to the good baron. When these be- lievers had gone to the baron's home, Andreas Fetler with others of the brethren and sisters went back to the meeting house, thinking there they would be safe, but they were followed and large stones came crashing through the windows. Williami had seen those stones many times for they were piled up in a corner of tlie meeting house. avillia:m fetler. (83) HEROES AND MARTYRS. 85 After this first time the baptisms were conducted at night and under many difficulties. On the night that William was baptized it was planned that they should meet at a certain place on the river bank which was suitable. When it was quite dark the little party stole out through the woods to this place, and what was their surprise and chagrin to find that the enemies of the faith had heard of the coming ceremony, and had pre- ceded them to the place to prevent it. So they passed quickly and noiselessly on, going much further into the woo^s and passing through damp and muddy ways, found another place deep in the forest. They lost no time in the ceremony for they w^ere ever expecting to hear the jeers and laughter of their persecutors. After this, when William would appear on the streets, and the boys and others would cr}^, ''Baptist, Baptist," they failed to make the boy angry, or to hurt his feelings, for now that he had the love of the Savior, in his heart he counted it a joy to suffer for Him.. William was a great help and comfort to his father in his work. When a lad of fifteen he would gather the young people together for singing and prayer, and often he would teach them poetry and special songs and would give entertainments for the amusement and good of the town. Many of these young people were saved through these meetings. He was always busy. When not helping with the Sunday school work or with the young people, he was reading or studying. He loved 86 MODERN BAPTIST poetry and in his spare time wrote many excellent verses. At sixteen he left home to take a position as a book- keeper in a bicycle store in Riga. There he went to work again among the young people and took a great interest in the Sunday school. Soon after his coming he was made president of the Young People's Society and his earnestness and zeal were remarkable. Under his influence a paper was published regularly to which the young people contributed and which did much good. During four years spent in Riga a purpose grew steadily in the mind and heart of William Fetler to give his life to preaching the Gospel; his plan being to study for several years in London and then go to China as a missionary. He went to Spurgeon's college for four years. During his stay in England freedom of faith cam'e to his home land and he at once decided to go back and preach the Gospel among his own people for whom his heart was yearning. This was a direct answer to the prayer of Mr. Carter, president of the Pioneer Mission- ary Society, who had been praying for a preacher to take the Gospel to Russia, and who, when William Fetler entered the college, said to himself, 'This is the man for Russia." For about a year after Mr. Fetler's return to Russia he went from place to place, preaching the Gospel and baptizing many believers. But his heart turned toward the great city of St. Petersburg, where there was no Russian Baptist church and he went there and found a HEROES AND MARTYRS. 8? little Lettish church to which he began to preach. His sermons drew many Russians, and soon the hall where the Lettish church had been meeting was crowded out and they rented a larger hall. More and more the con- gregations became Russian, and many Russians were converted until they were so strong that they left the Lettish and formed a church of their own, with Mr. Fetler as pastor. Several years before Mr. Fetler came to St. Peters- burg, there was a little company of believers, who did not call themselves Baptists, but who would mteet secret- ly, gathering one at a time, at the home of one of the believers. They accepted the New Testament as they found it and were immersed. Some of these came to the meetings when they were held in the Russian Bap- tist church, and Mr. Fetler recognized them as fellow believers and learned that they had been immersed. His home was in the house of Princess Lieven. It was there he came to know the believers and they to know of his work and belief. Many of them joined the Baptist church and were oiven at once special work to do. Mr. Fetler always emphasized the fact that when one was converted it was not only for his own personal salvation but that it was his business to work for others, trying to lead them to the Sa^dor. Members of his church are all evangelists, preaching the Gospel to those they meet on the streets, in the cars, and they preach the Gospel most effectively by living it daily before their neighbors. Soon the hall grew too small and other preaching 88 MODERN BAPTIST stations were opened in every corner of the city, over which members of his church preside. Preaching ser- vices are held in one of them each night of the week and Pastor Fetler preaches in the main hall almost every night also. Mr. Fetler is very fond of children and has gathered many of them into his Sunday schools, which are called children's services, and large numbers of these have been saved. One of the most interesting phases of his work was his midnight meetings at which were gathered from the streets of the city those who were deep in sin. At times the hall would be crowded with these people who had been invited by the believers to come to the hall. There would be a service from eight until ten o'clock for be- lievers only and then these men and women would go out on the street and begin with one or two, telling them of the Savior and His love for them, and soon a crowd would gather and tactfully they would be led to the hall where Pastor Fetler would begin the meeting promptly at midnight. Many have been the remarka;ble conversions of these men and women of the streets and their changed lives have preached many powerful ser- mons. One young girl was brought into the meetings and after the service came forward and gave herself to God. She showed Pastor Fetler a letter which she had in her pocket. It was a farewell to her friends and acquaint- ances. She had meant to commit suicide that very HEROES AND MARTYRS. 89 night. When she entered the church her heart was hard and as the preacher said, ''You are all sinners," she pointed mockingly to herself and said laughingly, "I a sinner." But the spirit of God touched her hard heart and when the pastor gave the invitation for those who wished to be prayed for, hers was the first hand raised and the tears were in her eyes as she came and gave herself to God. She left her life of sin and went to the home of one of the believers. It was inconvenient to be always driven about from one hall to another, paying rent and never feeling set- tled. So it entered Pastor Fetler's heart to build a prayer house which would be adequate to the needs and would reflect credit upon the Baptists of St. Petersburg. The church was unanimous and enthusiastic in their support of this building and all the members gave all and much more than they were able. Many of the members and some of the sympathizers gave their gold rings, and bracelets, and watches, and some even had the gold rims taken off their spectacles and steel put on that the gold might go into the building of the house of prayer. So the dream of Pastor Fetler began to take shape and in September, 1910, the cornerstone of a magnificent building was laid on a beautiful site near the center of the city. Mr. Fetler was present in Philadelphia and by his dignity and earnestness won the hearts of American Baptists. But he had trouble getting away from Russia. The St, Petersburg authorities would readily have given 90 MODERN BAPTIST him permission to come, but shortly before leaving for Philadelphia, he went to Moscow, preached and made somie converts. WTien the authorities there found that he was planning to come to the Baptist World Alliance, he was put under arrest and a passport was refused him. Through the intervention of his friends high in au- thority at St. Petersburg, a concession was made. A passport would be granted if he deposited five thousand roubles (about two thousand, five hundred dollars) as bail for his appearance in the fall. This concession was not meant to concede anything, as it seemed improbable that a poor preacher should be able to give such a large bond. But on hearing the conditions the London head- quarters of the Alliance at once telegraphed half the amount and the Russian Evangelical Society furnished the other half. Then an old charge of several years' standing was hunted up, a charge of winning converts from the Greek church, and another arrest was or'dered. He was warned and cleared across the border just two hours ahead of the secret police. He said of his work in St. Petersburg: "By the grace of God I began Russian Baptist work at St. Petersburg now nearly four years ago. The spirit of God has been working mightily in our midst ever since. We have baptized during this time over four hundred at the Capital and some other places, where we have been preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ. Over a thousand have been registered at St. Petersburg for our Saturday night meeting for believers. HEROES AND MARTYRS. 91 Such a spirit of unabating eagerness to know more about God is among the people, that we hold meetings every night during the year, winter and summer. In summer months, though it is not so hot with us as in the States, yet the halls get so crowded with people, that sometimes it is almost impossible to speak. In a letter received the other d)ay from one of my workers, I am informed, that just now the atmosphere in our meetings is as it were electrified with heat, because of the crowds of people, and compressed air. But they rather undergo that than stay away from hearing the Word of God. I have a preachers' training class where some forty of my lay preachers and helpers, converts themselves, learn how to tell others the good news. Also a number of Sunday schools and young people's societies have been formed. ''In view of the great need to work among the edu- cated classes, I have started a Thursday night lecture for the students of St. Petersburg University and High Schools. Both men and lay students have been attending these lectures in large numbers and with growing in- terest. Several have been converted who are now help- ing to spread the Gospel among their fellow-students. The work has been developing in the city and neigh- borhood, until now we have about a dozen hired halls for the Gospel work. For many months already we have been facing with anxiety the problem, where to gather the crowds willing to hear of Jesus. ''We have bought, by permission of the czar, a lot of land, and have started to build a large prayer house, 92 MODERN BAPTIST to hold over two thousand people. We have the Taber- nacle half-way up and Ehenezer, thus far the Lord has helped us ! But now every kopek has been spent. Per- sonally, I have put everything I could in the work; health and time, strength and weakness, and all my money, and over that some fifteen thousand roubles, or about seven thousand, five hundred dollars, which sum I borrowed on my responsibility. The building has been stopped for lack of funds. ^Wait,' said we, 'we shall go over to our great American brothers, vast in numbers and limitless in resources, and they, no doubt, will gladly finish what we have begun, to put up the First Baptist Prayer House in the capital of Russia.' " In the following lines Mr. Fetler voices his country's cry: The Cry of Russia. Alll you listen to the cry of Russia? Will you hearken as her' children weep? They are hungry — 'but the fields are barren, They are thirsty, and the well is deep. Yea, and deep in sin their soul is sunken, Miry clay, foundation for their feet. Ages came and went, but no glad footsteps No one came whose heart would warmer beat. And they suffered till their chains grew rusty. And they waited till their eyes grew dim, HEROES AND MARTYRS. 93 When for life in very death despairing Of a sudden they were told of Him. Him who suffered long before, and for them, Him who w^aited long for their return ; And as Russia's children heard their Shepherd's Story, How they wept for joy, and hearts within did burn I And they clung to Him as loving child to mother. And again to suffer they began. Now, however, smiling in their exile, And in chains they praised the Son of Man. Chains at last are broken ; distant exile places By the Cross are changed to Christian homes. And the Word is preached throughout the mighty em- pire. Both in peasant huts and in the princely domes. They are waiting, Russia's millions, waiting, Only a few are freed by Christ as yet. Who will go, and who will help the going? Hasten then, before the sun is set — Sadie Starke, Louis\411e, Ky. VASILIA PAVLOFF. (An Autobiography.) My home is in the city of Tiflis, the metropolis of Transcaucasia, Russia. My parents belonsjed to Molo- kani, a sect akin to the Quakers. Into Tiliis the Baptist faith was brought by a German artisan, Martin Kahieit,, who baptized the first Russian convert, a merchant, Ni- kita Yoronin ; the last gathered a small conirregation of believers that consisted of seventy-eight souls in 1870. In the same year I was converted through the grace of God and joined with this church. I was sixteen years old. Im- mediately after my conversion I began to witness about Christ and had joy to see the first fruit of my labor in conversion of a couple. After a short time the elder brethren caused me to preach in meetings. In 1875 I went to Hamburg, Germany, in order to get more knowledge of the Word of God and Baptist church polity, where I remained about a year. At that time there was only a missionary school with a six months' course, but arriving in Hamburg I found there no more school in that year. It was my privilege to make the acquaintance of the founder of the German Baptist churches, late Rev. J. G. Oncken, who took 96 MODERN BAPTIST interest in me and instructed a preacher, P. Willrath, to give me lessons in German and theology. In 1.876 ] was ordained by J. G. Oncken as a missionary and re- turned home to Tiflis. On my arrival home I found the church increa^d in numbers, it having forty members, among whom were my parents, who joined ^ith the church in my absence. At this time we enjoyed yet of the religious liberty and I preached the Gospel to hundreds of souls that fre- quented our congregations. In the autumn of the same year I made a long jour- ney with Br. S. Rodionaff together, in mountains of .Transcaucasia as far as the Mount of Ararat and Caspian Sea, baptizing believer? and la^dng foundation of many churches among the Molokani. In 1880 I was even recog- nized by the government as a Baptist pastor. This freedom we enjoyed until 1887. In this period I un- dertook many prolonged missionary journeys to distant governments as Samara, Don, Tourida Mohiley and other places where I also preached the glad tidings and baptized many persons w'ho built a nucleus for the future churches. In 1884 the knoAvn Colonel Pu-i^hkoff con- vened us to a congress in St. Petersburg that aimed to unite iall believei^ in Russia at which among others were present Dr. Baedecker and Lord Ratcliff, but the par- takers of this congress among whom I was too, were arrested and sent out from the city home and a little later the initiators of this congress. Colonel Pushkoff and Count Karf, were also sent abroad. VASILIA PAVLOFF. (07) HEROES AND MARTYRS. 99 In 1887 Pabeolonoszeff, head of the Orthodox Greek Church, took a set of cruel steps to stop the Baptist move- ment and inaugurated an era of cruel persecutions. In Transcaucasia we were the first victims of his cruel regime, namely, Brother N. Voronin and an Armenian pastor, A. Amirchanianz, and myself, who were sen- tenced without trial to four years of banishment to Orenburg for the propagation of the Stundism. In March, Amirchanianz and I, one day, were suddenly seized and cast into prison (Brother Voronin was not at home), where we spent ten days with common ciiminals, and in consequence of intercession of our friend we were permitted to take with us our families and go into exile for a term of four years in attendance of a policeman at our expense. Returning home from tMs exile in 1891 I had been asked by the police to give pledge not to preach the Gospel any more, or as they said ''to make no sectarian propagandism,-' which I decidedly refused to do for conscience' ^ake. After a short time I was again ar- rested and cast into prison without permission even for my wife to see me. I was soon per etape without taking leave from my family and brethren. My way went fron) one prison to another about forty days long; when we were going we were chained in couples on the left hands, but in prison our chains were taken away. I was to pass into eight prisons till I arrived at the place of my exile, where I was put under the oversight of the police, not ha\dng right to leave the city without permission. 100 MODERN BAPTIST My correspondence w£us also "under the censure of the police. I was sent alone and my family cnme to me later, but I bad not long time to live together with them. In July, 1892, the Asiatic cholera raged dreadfully in the city and bereaved me in a week of my dear wife and four children ; and one child, a girl of twelve years old, a week before was drowned while bathing in Ural, so that I in a fortnight lost all my family, save one child, a son of nine years old, who lives till now. This blow was the hardest of all. As the soil was tilled in my first exile I could have more success in my second exile; when I arrived at Orenburg, I baptized at once fourteen soul?, and during another four years' of my remaining in this city there were converted and baptized through me and my co- workers, especially in villages, about one hundred and fifty souls from whom I organized three churches and ordained the three presbyters at taking leave of them and the city. I was challenged to public disputation with Orthodox Mi5?sionary M. Galovkin on religious subjects in the seminary and Orthodox churches, so that on these disputations with me were present priests, semi- nary pupils and other people, oftentimes three hundred persons, so that these disputations roused a spirit of searching in religious questions. At the end of my second exile I received a call from the Russo-German church in Tultsho (Tulcea) in Rou- mania to be their pastor and I accepted this call and HEROES AND MARTYRS. 101 went to Rooimania, because the persecution in Russia was yet in full vigor. I .^qient there about six years, visit- ing sometimes also Bulgaria. My work there was blessed through converting of sixty souls. T had opportunity to show hospitality and help to many persecuted breth- ren that passed over the frontier. When the persecution in Russia a little abated the church at Tiflis invited me again to return home and I followed this call and came back to Russia in 1901. About six years I worked in Tiiii^, where T found the church divided, but after much labor I 'had the joy to see them united in one body. In 1907 was founded a mission society over Which I presided three years, but as the hoped freedom was not realized and we could not get legal permission for its existence, we were compelled to disorganize. This so- ciety had engaged every year from twenty to twenty- six missionaries who preached the Gospel and spent for this purpose more than four thousand dollars. We availed ouTselves also of the limited liberty and arranged large public evangelization meetings in theaters, audi- toriums, tea-houses and other public houses m several large cities. Our last congress in St. Petersburg pro- moted our cause and made it known in large circles. At present time I am w^orking in Odessa, a large, beautiful city in south Russia with half a million of inhabitanfts where I came in 1907. I preach in a large hired prayer-hall that seats seven hundred and sixty persons. Our gatherings are always crowded, especially 102 MODERN BAPTIST Sunday evenings. During my activity here in space of three years were a,dded to the church one hundred and eighty-five souls through the baptism. The last yeaj' rose many stations in the vicinity of Odessa as in Tiras- pO'le, Bendery and Kisheney. Among the converted there are two nurses who formerly served in a hospital but were discharged for their witness about Christ. They are now working as deacone,sses on their own will and have access to noblo families. We have here three I^us- sian, one German and one Jewish-Christian congrega- tion of the baptized Christians. I am also editor of the weekly Christian Magazine, ''The Baptist/' that is the official organ of our denomi- nation. I could not discharge all my duties if T had not an excellent assistant in the person of a young man, Brother M. Timoshanks. I labor on the edition of this paper without capital and wages and it is very difficult to carry on this work that gives till now deficit. Concerning the religious liberty, I have to say that it is yet very limited, though we are in better condition than before the revolution. We can now print our own literature and permitted services are not dissolved. But the Minister of Interiors defends very carefully the es- tablisihed Church and enacts circulars that do very con- siderably limit our rights. Recently he published regu- lations that forbid the services in the open air and all processions, save funerals, that includes our baptisms; further the Sunday schools and young men's associations are forbidden without special permission; the last caii HEROES AND MARTYRS. 103 be permitted on one condition that no Orthodox youth shall take part in the gatherings of our youth, neither the children of our believing parents when they are registered as Orthodox and albove fourteen years old. In many places our members are beaten and their gatherings ai'e dissolved by mob, as for instance, in Siberia a mob entered the house of one brother whero was a prayer-meeting, dissolved it by giin-firing and tried to kill him. Another occasion occurred in Bretal- pashinsk, the Province of Kuban, where the mob pre- vented the burial of the Baptist preacher, Yoursshenks, who died soon after the aittack on him by a mob, while he was preaching in the meeting. The brethren were compelled to carrj^ off his corpse ten miles away in order to bury it. It was buried on the estate of our Brother V. Mamontaff. MADAME VASILIA PAVLOFF. Madame Pavloff's picture appears in the frontispiece group, the second from the left in the center row, at the right of her hasiband. The first thing that strikes one upon meeting Madame Pavloff, as, in fact, was the case with all of the messengers fromi the continent of Europe to the Baptist World Alliance, in Philadelphia, was her poise. She was calm in her self-possession, grasp- ed one's hand with firmness and smiled pleasantly. The impression came at once that she was fashioned to be the wife of the fearless, aggressive and masterful Pavloff. It is easy to see how she was always ready to go with him at an hour's notice upon any suggested missionary tour where journeys on foot, stones, and even prisons, were along the way. To questions asked her she quietly and concisely said: ''My work has consisted principally in helping my husiband in his teachings and sharing his hardships. I joined him during his second exile in Siberia and to- gether we starved and fought for existence. ; "What perils we faced, what sufferings we underwent make me shudder yet when I think of them. Often death would have been easier for us, hut we struggled on, strong in faith. Thank God those days come no A CHILD IN A LAND FAR AWAY. Once on a time there lived seven h-^.ppy, healthy, little children in a small house with a lovely garden be- hind. It was not in America — no, dear! Please take a map and you will easily find the heart -shaped land oi Bohemia. It looks on the map just like a heart in the midst of Europe, and because of sore persecutions, it has proven a broken heart. When you look in the center of this heart on the map you will find the city of Prague. So there! That's the place where these, happy children lived. Their parents were poor, but they were rich in God. The father has been a Raptis^t min- ister, but do not think of a large church. No. dear! He started to be a minister in Prague but had not a single member. Just imagine! But still he faithfully started and faithfully worked. Worked hard. Hard, because the whole land is Roman Catholic and it is vcr^' hard to work among these people. The mother of these children, helped the father. Now, I will tell you a secret : it was my father. So my mother helped my father. How? Well, first of all, she said, she will have a Sun- day school with her own seven children. Dear me' .Wasn't it a beautiful Sunday school ! When it was fine weather, we went to the garden behind our hou9e, got 108 MODERN BAPTIST some chairs in the little tent and mother was our teacher 1 She was a good, dear, noble teacher, too. Oh, those b'ess<='d hours at her feet ! I am now quite grown up and I have a little daughter myself — ^but I will never, never forget our Sunday school at home. But very soon we were n^t just sev^n, for our circle grew large. We told our fellow pupils in the day school about our lovely Sunday school at home. Didn't they look at us with em'y? I'm'^ure they did. So we said : "Well, if you like, do come next Sunday." So next Sunday, one little Catholic sheep after aii other crept silently into our fold, fearing a little whether my mother would not turn them out. But dear me, there was no reason to fear. Mother smiled at every one and said she was so glad they came. They came Sunday after Sunday. But you know what happened? The pnest in the day school 'heard about it, that his Catholic children "are unfaithful to the Church and visit the heretic Sun- day school at Jungmann's street at the Baptist minister's house." So there was a great commotion the next day in the school and the priest forbade every one to go to our house. We were so sad. But listen. A boy came again and again. It was a pale, thin-fac^d, tiny, little boy of about ten years of age. We liked him very much, though his dress was very poor and he seemed always so hungry. Mother liked him and petted him. She told him about Christ's love to every child, about Jesus' salvation and redemption: He was very attentive to what she said, and mother taught HEROES AND MARTYRS. 109 him how to pray and to ask forgiveness for his soul. A Iso he loved the hymns very much and was fond especially of the one: 'Me?us loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." This all happened about fourteen years ago. Years went quickly by, the seven children became grown up people. The oldest one — Harry — became a minister to help his father, but died at the age of twenty-eight. The younger son, Joseph, went into the footsteps of his father and brother and works today in Pragxie as a minister in the church his father founded many years ago. In the meantime much has changed, many things came up out of our memory ; the Sunday school at Prague became larger and larger, the faces in the rows of chil- dren changed, one new child cairn e, others weni and we never knew what became of the little thin-faced boy. Now some time ago a lady in Prague — her name was Jarolimak — told me, ''There is an old poor woman, down in a dark street of a suburb of Prague, she is very ill — won't you come with me to see her?'' Of course I went. We came into a small, dark room, where poverty evi- dently had been quite at home. The air was heavy and damp, the room dirty, untidy and cold. On a poor bed I saw the old, half-blind woman, who at the sight of u? cried, ''May God reward you, I am so forsaken, forgotten here." Then I spoke to her about the love of Jesus and we helped her as much as we could. Tn a little while she said, "Pleaise, there in the wardrobe is a Bible rolled ud in 110 MODERN BAPTIST a cloth. Would you read for me a little?'^ I thought it would be a Catholic prayer hook, or some other book, but I did not expect to find a real Bible in this Catholic house. But indeed, it was a dear, good, old Bible. ''Where did you get it from?" I asked. ''Ah, it's a lor^g story," she said. "Do tell me," I prayed. "Many years ago, I had a grown-up boy, who had been bad and wicked. He was the sorrow of my life. His father had been a drunkard and I feared my boy would take after him. He went to public houses, spent all his money there dancing, drinking and playing cards. Sometimes he took my own money secretly and spent it with his bad comrades. I did not know what to do ; ho wouldn't listen to me when I asked him to lead a better life. So I prayed to God that he might try either to change him to be good or to take him a^vay. At one time unexpectedly he changed. I do not know till this day what it could have been. He started to visit some secret meetings — it was in the Jungmann's street. There he leai-ned how to pray and at home he sang most beauti- ful hymns. Never more did he go to dance and even if I said to him he might go once more, he wouldn't go. My neighbors noticed at once this change and sev~ eral of them told me that I ought to be thankful to God for such a boy. I couldn't explain this change, so I thought God gave him another brain. There in the secret meetings some one gave him a little Bible (it was a New Testament). He loved the little book so much, that 'he carried it always with 'him and whenever he had HEROES AND MARTYRS. Ill a few minute? time, he read and read. I never could read and beside thi5 I am half blind, so my poor boy read for me aloud and sung hymns for me. He always said, 'Come, m'other dear, sit down next to me, I will read for you.' Sometimes I had too much to do but he said, 'Let your work go for a minute, never mind your work, come and listen.' Oh, it was a happy time. One day someone knocked at the door and a man stood there, asking whether we would buy a Bible. It was a col- porter from the British and Foreign Bible Society, which has a depot at Prague. My boy prayed at once, 'Oh mother, do buy one, do! I will pay you for it when I shall get well and can work again' — for he began to be ill at that time. So I bought this verv^ Bible from him. My boy got ill with consumption and was unable to go to the meetings. But he read at home, sang and was liappy. But he didn't pray as I do ! No, dear! He never prayed to all the saints, to the A^irgin Mar}', to the angels — no I He always spoke with Jesus like a friend speaks with a friend. He also told me, that in the church where he used to go, they baptize only grown- ups, which are believers." This was all told me by this mother, and she did not know that I knew well all about those meetings at the Jungmann's street. But she was not at the end. She said: "After the death of my poor boy, Joseph, his younger brother, Vaclav, took possession of the Bible and read in it. Then some children in the school told him to go to 112 MODERN BAPTIST ?ome Smiday school and he went. It was the same place where Joseph used to go. Some lady had Lecn there tell- ing the children about Jesus and taught them to pray, to sing, and my little Vaclav liked this Sunday school ever so much. At home he used to pray just like Joseph, -vvho died, and most of all hymns he liked the same one, 'Jesus Loves Me.' But a sad thing happened. The priest at the school learned that the hoy was attending a heretic place of worship and he chastised him for having an^^hing to do with it and forbade him to go anymore to the Sunday school. However, the lad did re- turn; his life became beautiful and week by week he developed as a Christian. His conduct had been gen- erally bad, but after he went sometime to the Sunday school, his conduct changed. But news was carried to the priest that his orders had been disregarded. The priest sought the lad -and re^buked him for taking up with what he called 'these new ideas.' The little fellow looked into the face of the priest and innocently remarked, 'Ex- cuse me, sir, these are not new ideas. I am told they are very old ideas.^ At this remark the priest lost control of his temper and hurled the boy against a stoye, breaking some of the bones in the little fellow's chest. The boy also received internal injuries from which he suffered great pain. Then followed t\N^o long years of sickness and pain. Slowly the boy faded away. He died at the age of fourteen years." It is now twelve years ago since this little hero died. When his last day came, he said, ''Mother, today at four HEROES AND MARTYRS. 113 o^clock I will go. I had a beautiful dream, oh, it will be every thing so nice and sweet, but before I go, I must thank you and all our neighbors for all you and they have done for me in my illness." The neighbors came and were moved to tears, when the boy spoke of his death at four o'clock and thanked them all. Then they waited very anxiously until it all ended. Before the clock had struck four, little Vaclav Smejkal died. I was told that once in a religious lesson in the day school, when the priest explained to the class something of the New Testament, this little fellow said, ''I beg your pardon, sir, so it is not written in my New Testament it is so and so." This brought the priest, of course, into a rage. The old mother was very glad when I told her that I went to Sunday school with her little boy, that it was my mother who taught us and that my father is the min- ister of whom both her boys spoke at honie. She was so glad and we became close friends together. Then several of our members came to visit her and help her. She was very anxious to hear and to learn to read the Gospel. Once Mrs. Jarolimak, member of our church, came to read for her and found her having her Bible open on her lap. Mrs. Jarolimak smiled and mother Smejkal said: ''You know, I cannot read, but it was too long for me to wait for you, so I just turned one leaf after another and thought in the meantime about Jesus. Then I prayed." Once again her little gi-anddaughter about four 114 MODERN BAPTIST yeara of age came to see her. The grandmother said: ''Let's have a prayer-meeting, dear." So the Httle girl took the New Testament, the gran'dmother the big Bible and they both turned one leaf after another speaking about Jesus' love. Then both of these "little ones" tried to pray. When mother Smejkal recovered a little from her Illness she came several times to our meetings and opened her heart to Jesus. But again she got ill and it is now two years ago since ^e died and pased on to be by her two boys who had found Jesus in our Sunday school. Madame Lydia Kox^atorova (nee Novotny), Brunn, Moravia. KAPUSTINSKY, EXILED MARTYR. Deeper grew the blackness of the forest, pro- founder fell the silence, enveloping all things. Even the late night birds had ceased any twitter; the River Desna that ran along the edge of the woods seemed sighing in sleep. Often had this midnight silence been slightly broken by the cautious tread of human feet, by two hushed words spoken to a young man who stood guard in the narrow path that ran into the forest.. But even this had grown less frequent. "Do you suppose father could have passed us, Anton, and we not known it?" asked a low voice of the young guard. ''Hardly, Ivan — then mother knows that I am on guard tonight." "List — sh — . I hear others," whispered a third voice, that of a yet younger brother who sat on the ground, his ear against it. He sprang to his feet and stood beside the two taller youths. "That must be they,'' he said intently. All was quiet again, except the tread of cautious approaching footsteps. Two figures could be vaguely discerned in the darkness, one tall, the other small. The youths listened for the pass words. 116 MODERN BAPTIST "Our King," sounded presently from the taller out- line. "That's them/' cried the youngest of the three youths and sprang eagerly from behind the tree. "Each of you here?" asked the smaller outline. "I'm here, too, brothers," came an unexpected sound. "Not so loudly, babe," quickly cautioned the mother. "Why it's the little Katrine!" welcomed the three brothers as with one voice. Her small figure of eight year's growth had been hidden by the other two. The faint sound of a far distant bell began to fall on the darkness; it was a village clock striking twelve. "You are late, father," said Anton. "Yes — we tarried tonight to pray for our boys," he answered. Instinctively the mother put out her hands and somehow in the dark found Ivan and 'Gregory and drew them to her side. "Come," said the father. "Be alert, Anton." "Would that I could witness the baptism of my brothers." Anton took the hands of his younger brothers and pressed them warmly. "My brother soldiers under Our King." The darkness hid the proud flash of the eye and the princely toss of the head, but the smothered words carried the fire. The little group of five moved off leaving the young guard alone. They had not gone a great distance before they came to a wooden cottage. It was the home of Brother Makroff, a farmer of the Province of Kursk, HEROES AND MARTYRS. 117 in the southern portion of great Russia. Many times had quietly gathered tliere those who desired to worship God according to their own hearts and consciences. Greater had been tlie danger for such groups anywhere since tlie fateful 13th of March in 1881, when occurred the horrible death of Alexander II. The death of this czar at the hands of the Nihilists wounded Russian liberty with a deep and deadly wound. Since then more cruel had growji the persecutions. Wherever gathered those whose hearts worshiped contrary to the Church of the State, there was peril. Only at night did such dare to gather for worship, and on special occasions at mid- night. This was one of the nights of special occasion. Just as the group reached the cottage the door opened and a figure was outlined in the light from within. '^Ah, Brother Kapustinsky !" ejaculated a voice as the light fell suddenly upon the group. "We were growing uneasy." Together they entered the cottage. The benches surrounding the room, the middle of the floor, and the top of the stove, were crowded with neighbors from near and far. A few Scripture texts adorned the walls; all ikons or holy pictures had been removed. In one corner of the room was a table and upon it lay an open Bible and several hymn books. Behind this table the tall figure among the little group, Kapustinsky quietly took his stand. His powerful, soldier-like body com- manded immediate attention. *Tardon me for being late — your time has been 118 MODERN BAPTIST profitably spent in Bible study with Brother Makrojff to lead you — but most of you know how great is this night for me." He stopped abruptly. The voice was that ol one who was accustomed to commund. The minds of many sprang back to the renown he had gained for his good service in the war of 1877 between Turkey and Russia. His duty had been to superintend the cartage of provisions to the scenes of the conflict in the south. But not only to his fellow soldiers of Russia h^d he brought the food necessary to their warfare. While for these his wagons had gone down laden, neither had they returned to Russia empty! Many a consignment of Bibles and Testaments had been brought into the do- main of the Holy Synod by his skill and daring. There were those in this room who owed to this man their true Bread of Life, brought to them in one of those Bibles. It was all of these things that the momentary tense silence spake on this auspicious night. ^'Tonight," went on the voice, deep with emotion, "My two boys join with us, brothers, fellow-soldiers, under our common King, even Christ." The father- heart of the soldier-man was uppermost. Instinctively he put out his hand towards the boys. With a common impulse they stepped close to his side and stood there; Ivan, the older, with head erect; Gregory, the younger, scarcely passed eleven years, with arms folded and eyes bent upon his father. ^^Gregory is the youngest in our midst," Kapustin- sky smiled for a moment upon the boy. "He is proud HEROES AND MARTYRS. 119 of the name he bears, called after Gregory Skovoroda, that great soul who traveled this country far and wide, scattering the good seed of the Kingdom, talking in homely fashion to the people about their souls and the Savior. But prouder is the boy this night that he may go down with others to the River Desna and there be buried with this Savior in baptism and rise again to serve the One who has saved him." "Even so — Amen!" came assent of many voices as with one -accord. "We lingered long in prayer. It is late — shall we go now to the river?" Quietly those gathered in the cottage filed out. Another path they took and marched silently down to the banks of the River Desna; continually was heard the whisper of murmured prayers. "Oh, I wish that I, too, might be baptized," said the little Katrine to her mother, as the long line formed along the river bank. "Why, little one?" "Oh, like my brothers now, and Big Brother Anton was last winter. May not I?" "Not yet," answered the mother, and added, "Not because of the brothers." It was the service of what is known as the Believers' baptism. They dared let no songs give signal. Only murmured prayers, the low voice of Kapustinsky as he spake the solemn words over each one who stood with him in the water, the gentle disturbance of the water 120 MODERN BAPTIST as each soul was buried in baptism with the found Savior and raised again to walk the new life — only these things broke the midnight stillness. Before the passing of an hour the serv^iee was over, the converts were cared for, the entire assembly was back in the cot- tage for some final words of love and prayer. Wonderful was the radiance that played over the faces as they spake one with another. "List!" The word shot dagger-like through the room. Breathless was the sudden silence. The signal! To others it might have meant the call of a night owl — to these it meant God could only tell what. "Let the mothers who have babes at home be gotten away at once," quickly spake Kapustinsky. Involuntar- ily he glanced at his own Katrine; they had left two in their home. Several women slipped through the crowd and out the back door ; among them was the mother with the little Katrine. Hardly had they passed out at the rear door when at the front door appeared the police. The entrance of the visitors created a wild panic. The monjiks and the womenfolk arose to their feet and remained standing in silence. "Ha, ha!" exclaimed an officer. "You are at it again. We have caught you at another of your meetings." "What are you here for?" a St. Petersburg official inquired, looking around. There was silence for a few seconds, then a quiet, respectful voice spake. "We are here to pray to God, batushka." HEROES AND MARTYRS. 121 '^Why do you not go to church and offer your pray- ers there?" ''The church is full of ikons which we must not worship, and God will hear us if we pray to him here." ''Where is your picture?" interrupted a policeman. For every Russian must have in one corner of his room a holy picture, or ikon, before which, as often as can be afforded, he must burn the intercessory candle. To fail to do so means arrest and imprisonment. • ''I have no such thing," replied Makroff bravely. ''You defy the law of the Holy Synod—" "Stay, friend," interrupted Kapustinsky, Pepping between Makroff and the officer. "We defy no one — we have the highest veneration for the czar and his high advisers. But our Bible teaches us to acknowledge no king over our conscience but the Christ. He who truly repents need not burn candles before pictures, for Jesus is the Savior, and not St. Nicholas, a St. Jonah, or even the Virgin Ma " "Put the irons on them, men," shouted the head officer. ''Flog those you wish." Dire became the confu- sion. Makroff and Kapustinsky suddenly felt them- selves handcuffed and fastened together by a short chain. Pleas for mercy, cries of pain, as the lashes of the police began to fall right and left, rose in one unintelligible tumult. "To Kieff with your prisoners!" finally called the head officer. "Now, no more of your secret prayer-meet- ings," he drawled to the exhausted human beings he 122 MODERN BAPTIST left behind, some sunk upon chairs, some falling to the floor. With the clank of chains and threats from the police the prisoners were headed toward the historic citj of Kieff. Into the prison at Kieff, the cradle of Russian Christ- ianity, the prisoners were thrown — a prison as foul, ver- min infested, sickening, as all others. Only a few days did Makroff remain. Plis house and his ways were known to* the authorities. He had been in the habit of allowing Gospel meetings there. Souls had been saved and many persons had been baptized in the river that ran through the farm. The arrest had becD postponed only awaiting the opportunity to catch him in the act. For such a notorious heretic as he there was no need for a trial, so, without trial, he was banished by administrative decree far five yesiYs to Transcaucasia and there placed under police surveillance. For when it was found by the Most Holy Governing Synod that the public trial of "Sectarius" drew increased public attention to their doctrines, and excited hostility against the Greek Orthodox Church as the originator of the persecutions, the method was invented of "exile by administrative or- der." Authority was freely given to representatives of the government in the various localities to pass sentence of exile without even a pretense of a trial upon all persons suspected of attempting to propagate heresy, or otherwise offending against the Russian Church. Under this sys- tem of "exile by administrative order" many thousands of believers suffered cruelly, without a hearing, and witH- HEROES AND MARTYRS. 123 out the slightest possibility of redress. No man could be sure it would not be his turn next to be seized and trans- ported to Siberia, White Sea, or Trancaucasia. It is no wonder then that great wiis the anxiety of the heart of Katrine, the mother, and difficult was it for her to quiet the questions of the little Katrine and the boys when they learned the fate of their good friend, Makroff. ^'Where is Transcaucasia, mother?" asked Gregor^\ ''Many hundred miles, on the border of the country of Persia." "But they will not send our father there, will they, mother?" half whispered the little Katrine. The moth- er smiled sadly at the child, but gave no answer. "Will they, mother?" The tramp of feet at the doorway saved her from an- swering. Anton and Ivan were returning from their weekly visit to the prison at Kieff. She had gone once, taking all the children. "The news today, boys?" She was on her feet in an instant. "Nothing new," answered Anton. "His fellow-prison- ers have grown kind — they have ceased stealing from him. He persisted in returning the evil they did him wdth ser\'ices of love and one by one they have begged our father's pardon." "And, mother," interrupted Ivan, as if fearing he might forget, "Do you remember the Prussian we saw chained hand and foot in the cell? He heard father tell- ing of the love of Jesus and the poor man wishes to 124 MODERN BAPTIST know more. Father says we must bring him a German Testament the next time we come." But it was not until the group had grown quiet again and they had gathered around the table for the prayer- time that Anton gave his special message to the mother. "Father told me to say to you," spake the youth, stooping over her as she sat in her chair wdth the open Bible in her lap, 'That often is he reminded of the ravens w^ho brought food to Elijah; and of Daniel who in the lions' den was strengthened by God. God is still the same now as ever, and in His great mercy careth for His people." There was a moment of silence, then with lowered voice. "It would be better to worship God in a far away country, than to be an exile from God's Kingdom here in our native land." "Anton, what is it? What have you heard?" ''No definite fact, mother — ^but something of the great work father did during the war with Turkey in using the return provision wagons for bringing Bibles to the starved souls of our country has been learned — " "Anton," interrupted the mother, "w^e must see about selling our home and settling our affairs." Her eyes were tense w^ith mental activity. "Perchance we can go as he goes, and not wait to follow." Several weeks passed ere Katrine was able to carry all of the children on another trip to Kieff. This time they journey by way of the River Desna, thence into the River Dnieper, landing at Kieff. Had one noticed care- HEROES AND MARTYRS. 125 fully, one would have said that the family group was coming for a long stay. Up the steep hill they climbed and sought the street that led to the prison. As they turned into the street there was evidence that something was on hand ; the crowd was great ; further along was the sound of jeers and taunts. "What is it?" asked Gregory of a boy. "The criminal gang going to exile," he shouted reply. ^To exile — " the words blanched the faces of the moth- er and children. The procession was at hand. The heavy clanking of chains could be heard. The police marched in the front, at the sides, and in the rear ; in the center moved the ones who bore the chains forged around their ankles. The hair of half the head of every- one was shaved ; the garb of every one was the dtess of the convict. Katrine, half forgetful of the babe in her arms, peered madly into each face, instinctively, not that she would allow herself to really think that she might recog- nize a face. Suddenly she found that face ! '^Anton— Anton— it's your father— there— he is there !" The shriek rose above everything; involuntarily the procession came to a half stop. There were a few oaths from the police and again the procession moved. For a moment Katrine seemed to swoon but when the proces- sion began moving, she started up like a half wild creature and fell in behind it; the children pressed close to her, the little ones sobbing. The distance to the rail- way station was not great. Having reached there the 126 MODERN BAPTIST woman broke loose from the children and pushed her way to her husband. Kapustinsky had heard the shriek, had recognized it, had lacerated himself with his chains as instinctively he struggled to be free, had quickly taken in the situation that she was following. He was deadly quiet as she came up to him, fearing lest any move- ment on his part might send her away. ''Which place?" breathlessly, as she reached him. "To Gernssi." His chains rattled. "We are going, too — no, I didn't know — ^I ^'usit thought we would com.e here and wait, we sold the farm. We are ready to go — we have our money — but I didn't think it would be so soon," ran her words incoherently. The boys, Katrine and the other little sister, were seek- ing their way through the crowd to the parents. Sud- denly there was a cry of fright from the little Katrine ; one of the head policemen had seized her by the arm and was turning her back ; with his other hand he struck the boys with his club. "The Governor-general has sent word that all child- ren must be left behind !" he shouted ruthlessly. Wild- eyed and stunned Katrine stood as one bound to her place, her free hand still held that of her husband. She was aroused by a policeman dragging her babe from her right arm. "Here's another," he was calling to a fellow police- man. "Take them to the pope. He will see that they go where they'll obey law^s. He will immerse them into the Greek Orthodox Church, first," he added with a HEROES AND MARTYRS. 127 contemptuous smile, as he was putting the crying infant into the hands of the policeman who was obeying orders. So many personal tragedies were being enacted in so many different spots that the scene attracted little atten- tion. '^Give me my child I" The mother sprang suddenly upon the man and snatched the babe from his arms. It flashed through her tortured brain that still other policemen were laying hands on the other children. ^^Kapustinsky !" It was a cry of despair. He saw what she had seen. ''Stay with them, Katrine." The chains of the pris- oners were beginning to rattle ; the whistle of the steam engine sounded; the harsh orders to march were heard above everything. ''Katrine — Katrine," seizing her left hand and clutching it with the clutch of death. "Katrine — ^we will pray — do you hear? Pray — every — day — that God will bring you and the little ones to me — " there was a lash across his shoulders ; he was detaining the whole body of prisoners. Katrine fell back. It was the arms of Anton that caught her. "Mother — they are taking the children !" Like magic were the words. She sprang up and out from the crowd. The little sister and Gregory she fi- nally secured ; Ivan had snatched himself away. But the little Katrine could not be found. Back to the mother's mmd came the memory of having heard of how one 1 28 MODERN BAPTIST mother had been robbed of four children; another, of seven ; a third, of three little daughters. "We will stay right here in Kieff and keep fore^^er looking/' said Anton. ''And forever praying — do you remember, aid you hear them, Anton — the last vfords of your father?'^ ''Yes, mother, and while we pray we boys will work hard and we will save every kopek." Thus in the city of Kieff stayed Katrine and her children, looking day by day for the stolen little Katrine, working, planning, praying — all for one purpose — while through the many days traveled Kapustinsky across the many hundred miles of southern Russia to the city of Valdikwakas. This small city of between twenty and fifty thousand inhabitants lies on the northern slope of the Caucasian range of mountains. From here begins the long tramp of the exiles into fastnesses of desolate Caucasia. It was in the year 1890 that Kapu^insky began his march over the rough mountainous roads, his chains clanking at every step he took. With a crimiiial gang he walked, and under military escort. Two hundred miles it is to Tiflis. From thence he traveled by a little- used track over the mountains to Schuscha, about a hun- dred and seventy miles; from there another hundred miles brought him to Gernssi. Exciting, indeed. Was the journey, abounding in perilous passes and gloomy ravines and gorges; not infrequently was seen lurking some out- law. Sometimes he came upon a mud hut, or a cave in HEROES AND MARTYRS. 129 which dwelt men and women exiled as he was, for Clirist's sake. Here they 'Svandered in the mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth/' those ^'of whom the world was not worthy,'' Heb. 11 :38. Scattered over the district of Gernssi on the Persian frontier, are thirty or more exiled families, nearly all of them Baptists, a few being Stundists. The few inhabitants of the region are Tar- tars ; with these there is no possibility of speech as none of the exiles can speak their language. The little track of the mountains ends at the Gernssi settlement. Here Kapustinsky was told he might cease his journey and lay aside his chains. As he took them off he saw how the links shone like polished silver. His first feeling was that of vague, dumb wonder as to where he should find food, where shelter. He knew that no dwellings were provided by the government. A cave, a hole dug in the ground, was his only hope. For a long time he was too exhausted to look for either. The next day found him little better. '^Lord, give me strength lest I die here without my loved ones," he gasped, and forced himself to move fur- ther on. Not far had he gone when he came upon a mud hut. He called faintly and a figure came to the entrance. Kapustinsky fell back on the ground, aghast. ''By the grace of God, do I live, or do I dream !" he gasped. The man in the door was straining his eyes. "Is it — no — can it be — it is Brother Kapustinsky!" he was questioning. ''Brother Makroff!" Life came to the stricken fonr; 130 MODERN BAPTIST and he sprang to his feet and into the arms of his now weeping friend. For many days dwelt Kapustinsky in that mud hut, nursed and fed by his neighbor of old. When his strength was restored he went out and sought for a place to dig his own mud hut; and there, often times, Makroff helped him again. With joy he told his brother one night that it was finished. ''Join us in prayer, Brother Makroff. My Katrine and I pray that some day, somehow, she and the little ones may come to me here. I have made my altar in the home — even this day. It were sweeter far to die here together, if necessary, in the joy of the Lord." As the days, the weeks, the months went by others of the exiles scattered throughout that desolate district came to know Kapustinsky and for what he prayed and watched and worked. They had been forbidden to gather together for prayer, but, thank God, there is no power that can prevent the human heart from the prayer within its own closet. And so many and tender were the prayers of these brothers in exile, separated though they were in outer form. It was in the early spring of the following year when Kapustinsky received word that his loved ones were on their way; they had chosen to take the sea voyage, crossing the Black Sea, and thence landward to Tiflis. Thrice active became Kapustinsky's energies. Much effort was needed for himself alone to wTest a liv- ing from the stony soil with practically no proper imple- HEROES AND MARTYRS. 131 ments and in so severe a climate. He succeeded in se- curing some water-melon seed and smiled as he planted them, thinking of how the children would love the fruit. When the seeds had sprouted and the \'ines began to grow, then finally the fruit began to appear, he tended them with almost a parent's affection. One morning as Kapustinsky stooped over his melon vines he became conscious of an approaching cart, then sounded suddenly shrieks of joy. He stood up quickly and looked around. They were the voices of his Katrine and his children ! The first to reach him was the little Katrine, throwing her arms around his neck and break- ing into sobs and laughter. As to whether they laughed or cried the most no one could tell. It was a long time before it began to dawn upon Kapustinsky that the littla ones looked sickl}', that all were hoarse, that Katrine coughed harshly and her hands were feverish. Terri- ble anxiety suddenly chased all the joy from his face. ^'Oh, we fared so well until we reached Tifiis," said Katrine in haste. ^'But we have had to come from there over these hundred miles of mountains in that open cart. Oh, think not of it," she pled piteously. "Let us have our joy; we are united again. Let us thank God. Have we not said in our home there in Kursh, that we had rather die in exile together than to be separated, or to be false to our Bible and to our conscience?" It was true. The children had heard them say it. ''Come let us thank God in our new home," said the two with a common impulse. They sought the scooped- 132 MODERN BAPTIST out mud ihut — ^it was home, sacred and glorious; not an eye, young nor old, but beamed with joy and love. Together they kneeled down on the damp earth floor to thank God for their reunion. Not at all did the joy decrease as the weeks followed; though the mother could not shake off the cough; though it was difficult to get enough to eat. ^^Never mind, our melons will soon be ripe," encour- aged Kapustinsky, as the heat of the summer sun red- dened them. "We can eat one tomorrow," he finally said one night. The children went to sleep thinking of the melon as in some countries children go to sleep on Christmas E^e thinking of a good man named Santa Claus who brings presents on that night. It was the little Katrine that was the first out the next morn. Her happy skip stopped abruptly before the melon patdh. She stood rubbing her eyes, with mouth agape; suddenly she turned and ran back into the hut for her father. ''They are all gone!" she cried dragging him out with her. The others followed them, all except the mother, who had lain sick upon her bed for many a day. It was true. Before them was only a tangled ruin of trampled and broken vines. "The po»licemen have done it," said KapustinsKy. His great body trembled for a moment. Was it wrath, or was it despair that shook him so? ''They destroyed a neighbor's cabbage patch one night, and cut off his mule's hind feet," he added lifelessly. The little Kat- HEROES AND MARTYRS. 133 rine had thrown herself upon the ground and was sob- bing wildly. ''Come, Pet/' said the man piteously. "Try not to cry, poor mother is so sick.'' It was not for many more days that the mother suffered. God took her home. ''It is so sweet to be here," she murmured, as sha felt her husband's arms around her. "Sweet to die here — we worked — ^we prayed — ^God opened the way for us to come — v^'-Q are — here — ^together — " and then she slipped away. The news spread around through the district. The other brethren ^crept long distances to be with their friend. It was sweet, indeed, to hear their simple pray- ers as they crowded inside the hut, and bowed together before the Throne. One day one of the number was stopped by the prista.v, a policeman, in charge. "I hear you are having prayer-meetings." "Oh, not ordinary prayer-meetings," was the alarmed reply. "We have not held an ordinary^ prayer- m'eeting since they were forbidden." "But you have been ha\dng prayer together!" ex- claimed the officer impatiently. "Don't try to get out of it I" "Brother Kapustinsky has lost his wife, and we have prayed with him to show him our brotherly sympathy," pled t/he man. "Ha! Kapustinsky, indeed! Holding prayer-meet- ings in his izba. Well, Kapustinsky shall hear of this." 134 MODERN BAPTIST Hear of it, indeed, did Brother Kapustinsky. One day, soon afterwards, policemen appeared at his door and serv^ed a sentence on him for his removal to an awful solitude called Terter; in that spot there was no access to human sympathy. To Terter he went with his children, and dug out another hole in the earth for a habitation, and built around it a rough fence to keep away the wild beasts. In this place Kapustinsky lived a few months. Much he talked with Anton, helping to find some light for the children's future. 'There is the country of Amer- ica — keep your face that way, Anton. I am glad you came with your mother, boy. It was the true soldier — you did not have to come." On that last night his spirit drifted between th^ vis- ible and the invisible. The children hung around him for a word. ''Have I been a good soldier?" whispered Gregory. "Brave — oh, so brave — " then his words began to murmoir excitedly. "A great host — yes — ^they are com- ing — ^they are witii us, boys, (then we are not alone?)" with perplexity, "you, Gregory — you'll be a man then — ^you'll go over to see them. They vdW come over and help us — Anton, it is — America — " The rapture of the vision tore his spirit and the body fell back upon the pallet, lifeless. The little children gazed in famishea, speechless wonder. That was the group the pristav found the next morn- ing as he went his rounds. HEROES AND MARTYRS. 135 "You're no exile," he said gruffly to Anton. ''You can get on back — I'll help you with these," he added with a toss of the head to the children. Margaret A. Frost, Nashville, Texn. BARON WOLDEMAR UIXKULL. He dawned first upon the Baptists of the world at the first session of the Baptist World Alliance, London, 1905. In reporting that meeting I wrote : "Baron Woldeniar Uixkull, a Russian, is here, and he is a favorite at all times. He is a large, blond body of charming manners. It is easy to count him a baron. He is extremely modest and yet his bearing is that of one who is ready for all emergencies. He is a man of few words, but he has a winning smile, suggestive of sympathy and good fellowship. He is always pres- ent and evidently is deeply interested in the proceed- ings and the men who are pressing measures for larger things. He is easy of approach, but no man has put his hand upon him.'' He was a glorious discovery everyone felt and as time has so well proven. He read by appointment a comprehensive paper in English, giving the political and religious condition of Russia, and especially of the Baptists and Stundists, the latter he pronounced as being on the way to the Baptists, but sadly limited by lack of education and culture. He reported that there were already in Russia about twenty-five thousand Bap- tists and perhaps more Stundists. He pled for help 1 38 MODERN BAPTIST for the sadly, the brutally, persecuted brotherhood in his country and suggested that what was needed most was a training school for their rising ministr^^ He was invited to America and the next year he came, and he attended both the Northern and. Southern general Bap- tist bodies and found a warm brotherly welcome and a hearty response to his message. It was a joy to have him as a guest and to hear him tell in quiet, yet in graphic words of the sad needs and the heroic suffer- ings of our brethren in his home land. Baron Uixkull opened Russia to the Baptist world and laid the first foundations there for ministerial educajtion. His the- ological seminary was closed by the government, but the aid given by the American Baptist Missionary Union and the work achieved by his training school, which he moved from Lodz to Riga, aided in bringing a new Bap- tist era in Russia. Ten of the younger ministers who came from Russia to the Philadelphia session of the Bap- tist World Alliance had spent more or less time in this school. It is good to know that though the school is closed by law, certain informal meetings are yet permit- ted daily, where instruction is given. The bulk of the money raised in America by Baron Uixkull is safely deposited in a German bank and only the interest is 'being used for defraying the current expenses of the instructions being given. Before freedom of belief was granted in Russia, and even in these later days, this heroic nobleman has suf- fered greatly, both in body and in possessions. He BARON WOLDEMAE UIXKULL. (139) HEROES AND MARTYRS 141 was not wealthy, but he possessed means which enabled him to relieve much suffering on the part of his more humble brethren; but his means have been diminished by such aid and by repeated fines imposed by the Russian government. His health has become impaired, but he fights on, true to every obligation. He says: ^'Reval, Russia: My Dear Brother in Christ: I thank you very much indeed for your letter full of Christian love. It was so kind of you to remember me. I was indeed sorry not to attend the great congress in Philadelphia. My health is not good ; my foot makes me trouble. I cannot go without pain. I spent this summer in the Caucasus among the peoples of Ossetes, Ingusehees, and Tschetshenzen, who have no idea of Christ and His message. The Ossetes are Christian Greek Orthodox by name and listen eagerly to the Word. Nine of them are converted. They have no Bible and no liberty together. We do here underground work. You can't imagine what difficulties we have, both with authorities and darkness of the peoples — ^but Christ's presence is with us." When in America, Baron Uixkull related this in- cident, which gives a good picture of the situation then and as yet in Russia: '^A Greek Orthodox sister came to me and asked to be baptized, and I tried her and she was really a child of God and she understood the Scriptures. But the others said, 'Brother, it is too dangerous; the Greek Orthodox will send you to prison and banish you to 142 MODERN BAPTIST. Siberia/ They said to the sister: 'Go tomorrow on the sea shore at sunset and the brethren will come with a certain man, and you ask him, ''Is this Philipus?" If lie says yes, you ask him to baptize you and he will baptize you, and then when the police find out you are a Christian and ask who baptized you, you can say "Philipus".' How many times, how many times we have taken into our meetings the Greek Orthodox sisters and brothers! How often the police have come in a mob and broke up the meetings! With sticks they would send us away, and the preacher they would take and put in prison. How many times brethren have been sent to Siberia and died there!" In the following statement Baron Uixkull gives in bis own words the story of his conversion, a story full of pathos and power: ^'I have been asked to tell you how I was converted, and how I came from death to life and from darkness to light. I was born a Lutheran in the Lutheran Church. My parents were Lutherans and the education I received was worldly rather than religious. We had no Sunday school in Russia, and dancing and driving were my pleasures. Through bad books and bad friends, by and by I became an atheist. I did not believe any- thing; I did not believe in God; I did not believe in eternity; and I was not happy. I feared to die. I tried to do what seemed to me just and good, but sin was always mightier than I. Then God sent a revival to the province where I lived, and when I heard that HEROES AND MARTYRS 143 persons were gathering in their little houses, praying the whole night, I thought that was madness. I thought they were fanatics to pray and preach the whole night; but when I saw the life of those people I was obliged to say it was a good life. I knew a man who was a drunkard and a thief, but when he was converted he did not drink any more; several others paid back what they had stolen and confessed their sins; so I thought religion must be a good thing for uneducated people. ''When the brethren came to me and asked if they could have meetings on my estate, I said, ^Yes; and I will build them a hall where they can gather,' as I thought it would be profitable for me if the people would be honest and my servants would not drink. After the hall was finished they asked me to be present when it was opened. I did not like to attend a religious meeting, but thought it was right I should be there the first time, so I went. They sang and preached and prayed ; after the meeting I shook hands with the breth- ren and said, ^I wish you all success; may you convert ,many people. I think this movement is very well for the peasants.' They said, '0 no; it is well for every- body.' I replied, Teople with higher education do not need it; the Bible is a book written no differently from any other book.' They said, 'It is the Word of God,' and I v/ent home. They had two sorts of meetings; one where they called sinners to Jesus, confessing their sins to Jesus, and then there were others where only children of God met; and they said, 'We will pray for 144 MODERN BAPTIST. the Baron until he is converted ;' but I did not know that they were always praying. I was troubled in my heart. I was alone in my home, and the Lord sent me difficulties, and I thought it would be a good thing to have a friend to speak to about all those things and difficulties, and I had nobody. ''I thought perhaps the Lutheran pastor in my neighborhood could give me good advice, and I went to him. He was not a spiritual man, but God gave me good advice through him as I spoke to him and told him of my troubles. He said, 'There is only one who can help you; that is God;' and I said, Tastor, how can I pray? I do not believe in God. You know I do not believe in God.' He said, 'I cannot give you any more advice.' So I went home but was not satisfied. I found a book at home, a new one of Tolstoi's, very interesting, and I read it. It was the book 'Why Do We Live.' Tolstoi says, 'We live to love, and only his life is blessed and happy who loves.' He says all great philosophers, all wise men in the world, have also said, only this life is happy where there is love. He said that Buddha, Plato, Socrates, Confucius, and Jesus of Nazareth all teach it, and I liked this teaching. It was something I could accept. Tolstoi spoke more of Jesus than of Socrates or of Plato or of Buddha. I liked Jesus as a great man, as the French people like Napoleon or the German people like Goethe, and I wished to know more of Him. And I thought, where can I read about Jesus? Then I remembered my old Bible that I had when I HEROES AND MARTYRS 145 was a boy in school; so I found it and began to read the Gospels. Jesus was very interesting to me ; His per- sonality, His teaching, His life. His kindness, all were so attractive; and He seemed to grow and grow before me. Then at last I thought perhaps He really is more than a man. I was troubled. I did not know what to believe or what to think. Some people say He is the Son of God. Some people say He is only a great teacher. Which is true? What shall I beheve? Then I re- membered that the pastor told me to pray. How could I pray? I did not believe it. I can try. "My first prayer was in October, 1890, in the night. I prayed, '0 God, if You are there above, then show me the truth. I do not know if You are there above, but if You hear prayers, then show me the truth.' Then I went on reading the Gospel of St. John. The book was changed; there was a new light in the book. My eyes were also changed; there was a new light in them to see things in the book. Jesus was so beautiful and so great in my eyes that I saw He was really more than a man. He was truly the Son of God. Then the Spirit of the Lord began to teach me and to show me that if He was the Son of God, how precious was His life and His blood that He gave for us — oh how precious — much more than the life and blood of one man, more than the life of all humanity together, because humanity is only His creation, while He is the Creator. So His life and blood are worth much more, and His blood is so pre- cious ; then the sins of all men are paid. Then I thought, 146 MODERN BAPTIST- 'Well, if the sins of all men are paid, then mine also are paid.' Then came the joy, the heavenly joy in my heart, and then began my life — before it was only death. But now came the real life and the happiness, and I was inexplicably happy with Jesus; and I know that my name has been written in the Book of Life and my sins have been forgiven. ^'Then I thought, now you must be honest and go to those converted men and say that they were right and you were wrong. One night I went to a meeting of the children of God. I said, 'I have something to tell you — you were right and I was wrong. And now God has shown me the truth, and your God is my God, your Savior my Savior, your Bible my Bible.' They said, 'We have prayed many times for you, and now God has given us what we asked;' and then we went on our knees and prayed and thanked God that He saved sinners. When we stood up after the prayer, an old brother put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Now you must also confess Jesus because it is written, "He that confesses me before men him will I confess before My Father and His Angels." ' And I said, 'That religion is for better educated people; and I have not studied theology, I cannot preach.' They said, 'That does not matter; the Holy Spirit will be with you because you believe in Jesus, and He will teach you how to speak.' And so by and by I became a preacher." J. N. Prestridge, Louisville, Ky- A STUNDIST'S CONVERSION. The sun was going down behind the forest and his last rays fell across the snow and the field. The land stretched out in one unbroken level before the eye. Near the forest was a village, through which ran one long street, lined on either side with one-story frame houses, roofed with thatching. Between and behind the houses were small gardens. The day's task was done. Some of the peasants were coming into the town with potatoes and rye to sell; others have brought hay from the meadows; still others were bringing wood and dry branches from the forest. Animated groups were gath- ered here and there on the street. The news had spread that a stranger had arrived. And it was said that there would be a gathering in the evening in the house of Evan Kelmenko and that everyone was welcome. Peter Vasiliaf thought he would go and hear what this stranger had to say. He had heard that Evan and his friends did not attend the Greek Orthodox Church any longer and that they had removed the holy pictures of the saints from^ the corner of the room — the pictures that every peasant has in his home. He knew that 148 MODERN BAPTISTr Batiuschka, the priest", was very angry because Evan was spreading the new teaching in the village and that several times, when there had been illness among the cattle, or a drought, Batiuschka had said that it was a punishment of God for the heresy, which Evan was spreading. And sometimes at the village saloon, Peter himself had spoken disrespectfully of those anti-'Christs and heretics, ridiculing and mocking them. But this time he resolved he would go and hear this stranger. He was soon on his way to Evan's home. As he strode along he received many admiring glances, for he had a fine, well-proportioned figure. He had on the customary high-topped leather boots reaching to the knees. He wore a coat of fur, with the fur turned inward. He also wore a fur cap. As he approached the house he heard a Russian hymn, harmonious and melancholy, sung with a live and stirring tempo as it came fromi consecrated hearts. He took off his cap and went in. The room, large but low, was already crowded. It had been transformed into a meeting hall. As there were not seats enough, they had placed plank from chair to chair, thus forming rude benches. At one end of the room was a table covered with a white linen cloth, upon which were two lighted candle-sticks, giving an uncertain light in the room. The women were seated on one side and the men on the other. As the benches were filled, Peter remained near the door, standing with other young men. HEROES AND MARTYRS 149 After the hymn was sung, the owner of the house Btood and invited the people to worship God. He said: "God is everywhere. As near in the house as in the church, as near in the field as in the wood. It is pos- sible in a simple prayer to draw near to God. God is love. And God is willing to bless those who gather in the name of Jesus, His beloved Son. Kneeling, he gave utterance to the feelings of his heart. He thanked the Lord that his eyes had been opened and that his sins were forgiven. He prayed that all in the room might have peace with God. He prayed for guidance and direction for the preacher, who had traveled so ^auy miles to speak to them." Then the stranger stood up and began to preach. He first read 1 Cor. 14:20-25. Then he said there are different tongues in the world. There are tongues which curse and lie and revile the people of God. Peter thought: ''Well, that means me. How often have I cursed when my horse could not draw the sled out of the wood. How often I have laughed at those who are singing the praise of God." Then the preacher said that God would give a new heart and a new tongue — a heart full of love for God and man and a new tongue to praise the Lord. He related how many times those who once ridiculed and mocked had received new hearts. He told how necessary it is to be guided in all con- versation by God, but especially when preaching the Gospel, in order that the hearts of the unconverted may be touched and they may be converted. He said that 150 MODERN BAPTIST. the secrets of men's hearts are revealed and they fall down and worship God. As the preacher thus spoke, Peter fell on his knees, exclaiming: '^I am the man. 1 know you tell the truth, for you have described just the kind of man I have been." From this time Peter at- tended the meetings, and though he had much to suffer for the Gospel, he was ever true to his new-found faith. This is a true recital of a Stundist conversion in a Russian village. If men and means were provided this scene might be reproduced in thousands of Russian villages. Baron Woldemar Uixkull. Reval, Russia. BLOSSOMING INTO BAPTISTS. The Spirit of God has been mightily at work in Russia and men have proved their faith by every test. They have endured poverty, imprisonment and martyr- doms enough to give us sufficient material to write a Book of Acts ten times as large as that in our New Tes- tament. The touch I have had with these people gives me faith to believe that there will grow in Russia a Protest- ant force which will send to us across the sea the in- spiration which we need in our own lethargy. A REMARKABLE MAN. I know Wassily Ossipowitch Rachoff, born in Arch- angel, who spent eight years in solitary confinement in the cloister prison at Susdal; and this is his story: He was twenty-two years of age when he was converted through reading the New Testament. He was then en- gaged in business in Archangel and the Spirit of God sent him into the surrounding villages to teach and to preach the Gospel to the poor. Such poor as there are in the district of Archangel are not to be found any- where else in Russia. They are so degraded by their 152 MODERN BAPTISTS poverty that they live like animals and act like them. The coming among them of Rachoff was like the coming of the Messiah. He taught the children to read and write; he read to the older ones out of the New Testa- ment; he fought their thirst for vodka and conquered their appetites; he preached and lived to the conversion of their souls. Men and women were changed, whole villages revived from their stupor into which ages of neglect had cast them. The priest, who himself was a drunkard and a gam- bler, did not relish the message of this newcomer, and Rachoff was driven from the district. He left the ex- treme north and went to the south, where no one knew him; he began his activity by teaching and preaching, living in a suburb of Odessa, where poverty and vice were completely at home. He felt the horror of it all and it overwhelmed him. He knew that Odessa was a wealthy city, and he wanted the help of the rich in his redemption work ; so in order to impress upon them their responsibility, he rose in his seat in the theater, before the performance began, and pleaded for his people. He was arrested, sent back across the country to Archangel, lay in prison, but was finally permitted to go. In Kiev he was again arrested, again sent across the country to Archangel, and again cast into prison. All the time he was like a brother to the prisoners. He exhorted, preached, ministered and saved. He converted his jailers so that they left the doors of his prison open, that he might come and go at will. HEROES AND MARTYRS. 153 A STORY OF PERSECUTION. At Archangel he performed the modern miracle of changing cold water into warm soup, of transforming slums into homes, and literally feeding the ''five thou- sand" twice a week. Educated and wealthy people came to hear his preaching and he read the gospels and ex- plained them, while the poor ate and drank. But the government closed his house of refuge, forbidding him to feed the people or to read to them. Undaunted, he went from hut to hut, and his influence is felt today among that wretched population. He founded an or- phanage, a trade school and a hospital; but while he was at the height of his ministry he was again arrested. Nothing was found to incriminate him; for he had never taught anything contrary to the established faith. The governor of the city defended him against charges of political activity; nevertheless, he was torn from the arms of his father and mother, from^ the hundreds of thousands of poor whose brother he had been, and was sent to the Convent prison of Susdal. The mother died there a few months after his imprisonment, and the father, going from authority to authority, pleading for his son, was also crushed by the task and by his sorrow and died within a year. Not until two years ago (1904) did Rachoff leave the prison, broken in body and in spirit, a perfect wreck. Rachoff illustrates a type of Christianity not uncommon in Russia ; for their are thousands and tens of thousands 154 MODERN BAPTISTV, of them,"who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, . . . who had trials of mockings and scourgings ; yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments. They were stoned, they were torn asun- der, they were tempted ; . . . being destitute, afflicted and evil entreated'^ (of whom Russia was not worthy). BLOSSOMING INTO BAPTISTS. In the government of Saratoff there are communities nominally belonging to the Greek Church, which, as soon as religious liberty becomes a fact, will blossom into Baptist churches. The whole South is honeycomb- ed by sects, more or less like us, in faith and in practice. Should American churches come to their aid, they will find many strange things. They will find a prim- itive faith among these people, undisturbed as yet by the questionings of the higher criticism. They will find crude and ancient practices, down to the washing of really travel-stained feet; fhey will find that most of these Christians believe that the Gospel is not poetry but real prose, and that its law is as binding today as it was upon the early church. They will find new, rich wine, which will not fit into our old wine skins. "God's" still "in His Heaven, and all's right with the world" even in Russia. E. A. Steiner. From the Congregation alist. BAPTIST FILE-LEADER OF BOHEMIA. Tindrich (Henry) Novotny was born 1846 on the 12th of July, in Lhota Resetova, in the east of Bohemia. This part of Bohemia is the purest with regard to the national language. In the Germanizing time (after the Thirty Years' War) this part remained pure Cechish. In the anti-reformation time this part of Bohemia had man}^ secret '^Bohemian Brethren". The father of Tin- drich Novotny was a very interesting man. He was an enemy of the priests and sympathized with the Protes- tants, who were beginning to live again in that part of the neighborhood. Though a Roman Catholic, he was a business man and the mayor of several villages in Bohemia, and closed his eyes when they wor- shiped their God in ''an unlawful way". He was one of the leaders of the new epoch which came in 1848. When Tindrich was only four years old, once when sitting near the window, he looked through and saw in the street a crucifix and asked the astonishoJ mother: •'Mother, is this Jesus a living Jesus?" "Of course," said the mother. "But he never moves !" When Tindrich, his only son and his pride, started 156 MODERN BAPTIST. to go to school and began to think about religious mat- ters, the father sent him to a secret religious meeting in the village (a Protestant one), and the young Tin- drich soon was the ^'reader'' of the Bible to the congre- gation. He was soon so acquainted with the Bible, that when one day one of the Protestants in the \dllage died, and because the pastor could not come, the young lad Tindrich was called to be the ^'pastor at the funeral." He preached about the text Philippians, 1 :21, and after the funeral, the people in the villagB said to each other: 'This boy ought to be a pastor, he ought to study!" When the father of Tindricli was dying and the Roman Catholic priest came to bring the Holy Com- munion, he turned his face and sent him away and allowed only Tindrich to read to him the Bible and to pray wdth him. When he died, the priest refused to attend the funer- al of the mayor — so he was buried in a grave, which was not sprinkled with the ''Holy Water" (a great of- fence for the Catholics). Tindrich remembers that when he was a boy and was sent by the father to the near big town, on the way he used to weep, because he had many inward storms; he saw the great contrast between the Roman Catholic Church and the religion of the New Testament. He longed for light. Once when he was again in the meet- ing and was reading the Bible, he decided to be a Prot- estant, and he said it loudly : 'T want to be a Protestant, who will be my witness?" (That was necessar}^ at that HENRY NOVOTNY. 157) HEROES AND MARTYRS. 159 time.) And he did it, still a young lad (about eighteen years of age). But this was only a step to his future complete conversion. In this time was Tindrich a very promising young business man. He had valuable experi- ences and a good capital as well; he wanted to have a business for himself. In the same time some of the Protestant pastors saw his evangelical gifts and tried to persuade him to leav^ his businass and go for theological study. He refused for some time, but at last decided to obey the voice of God as well as the wish of the pastors. In 1870 he went to Basel in Switzerland and remained there in the theological seminary four years. Then he was called to Prague as an evangelist by an American mission society. In 1875 he married Anna Kastomlatska. In 1881 he went with his wife and two children to Edinburgh, Scotland, to study in the Free College there. After coming home, he continued in his work. As he was an industrious reader of the Bible, soon arose the question about the baptism. He helped himself with compromises. First of all that both the ways of '^baptism" (immersion of grown-up people as well as the sprinkling of infants) are biblical; but it was difficult to find) the biblical arguments for it. The second difficulty was (when he was half per- suaded) that he had a good promising work in the church (Free Reformed) and that this question would mean a great battle and perhaps the loss of situation. The last difficulty was, however, only a little one, as he thought to get easily rich as a good merchant, because 160 MODERN BAPTIST he used to be a very experienced business man. lie started to preach about baptism and spoke with several pastors about the question. Soon they were afraid of his question and Tindrich Novotny lost his situation as an evangelist because he was a ^'dangerous'^ heretic on the baptismal question. For a short time he was alone, left alone by a]l. In the m'eantime the Baptists in Russian Poland (the church at Lodz) heard about him and called him to T/odz. There he was baptized, 12th of February, 1885, by Brother Ondra. At the baptismal service he preached on why he wanted to be baptized. Then he traveled in the different churc^hes, and then they wanted him to be the pastor with Brother Ondra at Lodz (the largest Baptist church on the continent, now about two thousand members). On the 15th of March, 1885, he was ordained as a Baptist minister at Zyrardow. He got calls from Vienna, Austria, and from Saxony, but he tried to persuade the brethern to send him as a Baptist minister to Prague, Bohemia, to work there amongst the Roman Catholics. At last his ideal was realized, and on the 25th of March, 1885, a Baptist church was constituted near Prague with sixteen mem- bers. It was a day of small beginnings. The little Baptist church had a very little property, almost no religious liberty, no hjnnn books, no cups for the com- munion, no gowns for the baptism, but they had one great and valuable property, an enthusiasm for the King- dom of God, and this property at last brought golden HEROES AND MARTYRS. 161 fruit. The greatest difficulty met at that time was the authorities. They wanted to destroy the Baptist church. The pastor was called before the court numberless times. He was three times before the highest Imperial Royal Court at Prague. The Catholic newspapers brought reports full of lies about us. Really there was a time when the pastor was obliged to go to the authorities every Monday to report what he was doing. One of the judges said: ''If I could, I would put you into the idiot's institute!" When the number of the members increased, my father built at his own expense a little house in the suburbs of Prague. This was the FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN BOHEMIA. They bought chairs and all the necessary things. But the joy was only for a short time. The authorities ordered to put out all the chairs and pews and to close the house. The poor pews were outside, it was raining on them, people laughed about it. What to do? My father decided to take them into his private house. Since that time the services were held in his house. The Baptist church was then let for private use. But the house was soon not large enough, and so my father by help of a friend abroad hired a larger hall. But because it was allowed only ''in a dwelling place" a young brother was obliged to sleep there, as ''in his house." Three times the church changed thedr hall, because it was always not large enough. At present 162 MODERN BAPTIST we have a good hall for about two hundred people, where we pay three hundred and fifty dollars a year for the rent, and this hall is now always full. The beginnings were very hard. Once, when my father preached in a village, an armed policeman arrested him and he was obliged to go with him about two hours to the nearest, police station. ^My father used these two hours, and because he could not preach in the \dllage, he preached to the policeman. In the police station they did not treat him very nicely and wanted to imprison him. He was far from home and they did not know anything about him, where or what he was. He wanted to go home, but how to do it? He got a happy thought: he had some visiting cards from distinguished English Baptist brethren. So he at once took those visiting cards and showed them to the chief policeman and then he said; ^^You don't treat me as a gentleman; do you know who I am? These gentlemen are my friends!" The policeman was afraid of the English visiting cards, and therefore ,said: '^Excuse me, sir, would you like to go home?" Of course, he did not wait for another inritation to go home. The judges got so acquainted with him that at last they recognized his sound ideals. Once when he was before the authorities, one of the judges after hav- ing been very cross with him, because of his endless preaching, called him' into his private study. There he said to him: '^Now, Mr. Novotny, I speak to you as a friend, not as a judge, don't bother about us, if you HEROES AND MARTYRS 163 can transgre^ the law very skillfully, do it, but we must not know anything about if A very interesting event in the persecution time. My father came to a village and held a meeting in a house of one of our members. Afterwards aM of them were obliged to go an hour and a half to the next town before the authorities (forty-six persons were called). The judge asked our host, w^ho invited the people? He said: ''They came alone." Then they asked my father, why he preached. He said: ''I came to the house and there was a company of decent people and they asked me to tell them something, so I did." Then the judge asked the people. One woman said: "J really did not know that our law punishes people who pray and read the Bible; I am astonished." Another woman said: ^Tlease, sir, I have at home my only prop- erty, a goat; she is quite alone, she would die; will you allow me to give her enough to eat before I go to prison?" They asked my father why he did not send the people home. He said, he was himself a guest; he had no right to do it. In the different villages the policemen asked the people when the Baptist pastor will come again, but they never said when. My father was a hard worker. He soon started sev- eral branches in his church; Sunday school, young peo- ple's guild, choir, mission meetings. And he was the head of everything (even the organist), so that he usu- ally had on Sunday, seven different services. He was also very busy in the literary life. He 164 MODERN BAPTIST: puiblished for information, booklets about the Baptists, numberless tracts, brochures, and was for eighteen years an editor of a monthly religious paper. With great difficulty was given the religious instruc- tion of our children. Our children could not go to father's class because they had no note from the author- ized religious instructors. His daughter, although she had always in all the subjects a hundred per cent., could not join the further class, because she did not go to the instruction of the priests. Father sent one '^recurs" after another to the ''ministerium^' of education, until he won. Today the Baptist minister is the teacher of the religion of Baptist children and gives his own note on the certificate just as the priest for his children. A great victory and a great help for our church is our Temperance Association, which was permitted by the highest authority in Bohemia. This is a work apart from the church, but in our hands. This work has the great sympathy of the people of Prague, even of people who do not sympathize with our religious convictions. Our attitude towards other Protestants in Bohemia is a friendly one. Although we are good Baptists, we join other Protestants in the '^Constanz Union,'' where the subject of this story is an important m.ember. Joseph Novotny, Prague, Bohemia. A SAD CASE IN FRANCE RIGHTED. It was in the year 1853; Napoleon III was emperor and the Roman Catholic clergy had full control over government and people. Yet God had never left Himself without a true witness, even in the midst of the deepest darkness, and side 'by side with the spirit of superstition and cowardice at large, there has always been found, in a few at least, the spirit of true worship and of Christian heroism. Such was the case in France less than sixty years ago. A few miles east of the city of Campiegne, the castle of which at that time was the customary holiday-resi- dence of the emperor, lies, on the border of the forest, the little village of Chelles. In that village lived the Andru family, well-to-do Catholic farmers, who, through the efforts of Pastor J. B. Cretin, were soon convinced of the errors of Rome and received the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. Every Sunday a religious service was held at the farm ; it was well attended, and people would come from the neighboring villages to hear the Gospel, and quite a number of them were converted right there. Of course the priest's anger and jealousy were kindled against the 166 MODERN BAPTIST Christian farmers, and he did all he could, to force them, by petty trials, to cease their successful propa- ganda. The only child of the family was tabooed by the other little folks and finally driven out of school. At harvest time, Andru found himself without reapers, the priest having threatened with excommunication any- one who would work for him. But the opportunity soon came for the enemies of the Gospel to strike a serious blow against the faithful family. The grandfather, Francois Andru, died a Christian man. Pastors Cretin and Lemaire presided over the burial ceremony. Much curiosity was aroused in the community, as it was the first Protestant burial ever witnessed. A crowd of more than four hundred people listened to the preaching of the Gosnel that day; the hearts of many were stirred and genuine interest in the "new teaching" was manifested. It was just what the priest had been afraid of. He had done all he had been able to imagine to, prevent such a result. He had gone to the mayor and, although the burial lot had been already bought and duly paid for, he had insisted that no burial license should be given a Protestant until the government representative in that case the "sous-prefet" at Campiegne, had granted it. Andru goes to Campiegne, sees the secretary of the "sous-prefet" who assures him that, in spite of the fact that he was a Protestant and a Baptist ; nobody had any HEROES AND MARTYRS 167 right to interfere with the burial, and who gives him accordingly the authorization asked for. One can easily imagine the mad disappointment of the priest when he saw the ceremony taking place. What! an old heretic was being buried in the Catholic cemetery, a few yards from the church door, and that with the help of almost all his parishioners! That wa3 unbearable. Something was to be done, and to be done at once. First, he calls upon the mayor, who says he cannot go against the authorization. Then he hastens to pay a visit to the ^'sous-prefet" at Campiegne, and does so cunningly plead his case before him, with threats to let the bishop know about the whole affair, that he finally succeeded in extorting from the government official a paper allowing him to have the body of the Protestant disinterred provided the mayor would consent to give his signature. Triumphing already the priest goes back to the village hall, unfolds the precious paper, silences easily the last scruples of the weak-minded mayor, who, after having signed the burial license, now signs the permit of exhumation. Then the awful deed was consummated. The sexton having refused to disinter the body, the priest had to go and hire drunken men to do the job. Dark was the night, heavy the rain. To the cemetery they went, guided by a lantern, carrying picks and shovels. They sought for the body which, after six days was already decomposed. With pallid faces, chattering teeth and 168 MODERN BAPTIST- staggering feet, they dragged the corpse away to that part of the cemetery which was reserved for those having committed suicide. The villagers were so indignant at this act of savagery that, finding the cane of the priest, and the tools which had been used, they threw them all into the empty grave and covered them with earth. When the news of the desecration reached the mem- bers of the dear Andru family, they were horror-strick- en, as can well be imagined. They tried to obtain jus- tice, but in vain. The "sous-prefet" claimed they had not declared they were Protestants when asking for authorization. The mayor said he had simply followed the way laid out by his superior. As to the priest, he had, to him, the great satisfaction of getting the bishop to come, with splendid apparel, and consecrate over again the ground of the cemetery which, he said, had been outrageously defiled by the presence of the body of a heretic. A full account of this exhumation has been publish- ed by the Progres de UOie, of Oampiegne, in the No- vember 23, 1853, number. The rest of the story reads like a novel. Truly the Lord reigneth, vengeance is His, and the evil of man is ultimately to be changed into the glory of God. A few months after the above related events had taken place, the mayor of Chelles was found hanged in his garret and was accordingly buried with those having committed suicide. Private scandals led the ''sous-pre- HEROES AND MARTYRS 169 fet" to shoot himself. The priest was convicted of imr morality, and was obliged to leave the parish. The lot of the persecuted brethren was, on the other hand, a most blessed one. Not only in due time was the body of the beloved departed one given a worthy resting place, but through these sad experiences the family gained the sympathy and esteem of the whole popula- tion. The Sunday meetings at the farm were more successful than ever; some little time since eleven per- sons were baptized upon confession of faith. In fact, this was the beginning of a revival, the fruits of which are known even unto this day. And not the least of them was the conversion of the only child of the farm- er. Rev. Henri Andru, the beloved, honored and emi- nent secretary and treasurer of the Federation of Baptist Churches of Northern France and Belgium. Paul Vincent, M.A., B.D-, Paris, France. A HERO COLPORTER. In correspondence he signs himself, '^Rottmayer John,'^ though in the records his name appears 85 ^'Johann Rottmayer, Jr." He is a giant of a man, full-whiskered, deliberate of movement, solid of tread. One can well imagine him perfectly at home in all kinds of places and under all sorts of hardships and persecu- tions. His voice is low and is soft in tone. With some degree of intimate association with him for nearly a week, the chief characteristic which impresed me was his gratitude. In his home in Hungary, he had received on occasions some books and other printed matter, the grateful remembrance of which shone in his face, and here and there broke into words. It wdll be long years before the tenderness and might of his hand grasp will be forgotten. He is a man to be trusted on the spot and to be loved ever afterwards. Some of these things are to be seen in his face even when in black ink upon cold, dead paper. His father before him was a colporter primarily and public speaker as occasions presented themselves, and father and son traveled far and wide over a number of countries scattering Bibles and other religious books where no other messenger of the cross ever penetrated. 172 MODERN BAPTIST Our hero traveled in times of eminent danger over rough roads where there were no accommodations, and he passed and repassed through and about Hungary, Austria, Bo- hemia, Poland, Bosnia, and the Balkan States. Far away from the beaten track he left a torcli of light for whole neighborhoods, and passed on to find other dark places. He was the agent for the British Bible Society, and so his supplies were unlimited save only by his ability to transport his wares. He was born in Budapest two years after J. G. Oncken, the foundation layer of the Baptist faith upon the continent of Europe, had sent some brethren down to Budapest to preach the Gospel. It was greatly in his favor that he had a godly father and mother, a Christian home full of prayer and praise and of the fervor of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the year of 1867, young Rottmayer attended the "Bundeseonferenz^' in Hamburg, Germany, and there heard Charles Haddon Spurgeon preach upon sev- eral occasions. He says: ''The sermons made a profound impression upon me, and a new world was opened before my eyes." In speaking of him. Rev. C. T. By ford, who knows him well and whose voice takes on a softer tone when he speaks of him, said: "The fellowship of brethren in two great churches in Germany had very much to do witti kindling his spirit and in enlarging his vision. There he realized that the Baptists were not a mere handful of believers in Hungary, but a great company of believers scattered JOHN ROTTMAYER. JR. (173) HEROES AND MARTYRS 175 throughout the whole world. That gave him new courage and added to his strength. ''He remained over a year in Hamburg, and then for nearly a year in Berlin. In the latter city he met and came under the inihaence of G. W. Lehmann, the chief support of J. G. Oncken and other leading and progres- sive brethren. He was intimately associated with the younger Lehmann, J. G., who is now at Cassell, the head of the publication board of German Baptists, an honored brother of strong character, highly educated and greatly beloved. In Berlin he joined in with those with whom he was associated and engaged in church work, and particularly with the young people in Sunday schools and other meetings." From the^e pleasant and profitable surroundings he undertook work for the Master in Holstein, and the Hart Mountains. His aggressive spirit could not long remain satisfied while communities and whole states lay in dark- The laws of Hungary impressed him and he entered the army, and for two years he served in garrisons in Dalmatia and Trieste, and then in the towns of the Adriatic. Released from this service where we are sure he did not forget ^o»serve his Master faithfully, he began his work as a distributor of the Bible, with headquarters at Vienna, Austria. He became the founder of th« Baptist church in Vienna, the first meeting being held in a secluded room. The police forbade them to sing or to pray, but as cautiously as they might they circumven'ted 176 MODERN BAPTIST the police and continued to sing and pray. This church remains today and it is full of th^ sacrificial and fearless spirit of its founder. I quote again from the records of Rev. C. T. Byford, the commissioner of the Baptist World Alliance to the Continent of Europe: "Attempts were made in Vienna to organize a Sunday school, but the friends were hindered in any forward movement by the hostility of the police and the priests of the Roman Catholic Church. Owing to the persistency in preaching the Gospel and holding meetings for worship, Rottmayer was taken before the magistrates and fined twenty kronen (twenty-four dollars) for each offence. In 1906, after thirty-eight years of strenuous service for the Bible Society, Rottmayer resigned his position and retired to his farm at Kolozsvar, there to spend the even- ing of his days. In his retirement he has proved to be a tower of strength to the churches in Transylvania, fre- quently visiting the brethren and preaching for them, and on several occasions he has undertaken long jour- neys to Roumania and Bulgaria, there to help the brave men who are pioneering in these countries. His heart still burns with a holy passion for souls, and his chief delight is to be found in helping the men who are pro- claiming the eternal Gospel amongst the many and diverse races to be found in the kingdom of Hungary. It has been my privilege to be a guest in his charming home, to undertake long journeys in his company, to hear him sound forth the message of the cross, to meet HEROES AND MARTYRS. 177 with the members of his family in other parts of Hun- gary (the wife of the Rev. L. Preuss, of the Budapest First Church is his eldest daughter) , to listen to his fas- cinating stories of early struggles and trials, and even t^iumplis, and my intimate knowledge of the man and hb dear wife has deepened my love and respect for him." There is no way to estimate the suffering, the faith- fulne>^, the harvests which are to follow the sowings of this mighty man of valor, this true soldier of Jesu'j Christ. To know him quickens faith and kindles the spirit to press on at all cost to the end. J. N. Pkestridge, D.D., Louisville, Ky. FOUR HEROES OF THE FAITH. ANDREAS UDVARNOKI. "And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers." — P^ph. 4:11. The rapid advance of the Baptist churches in Hun- gary is in no little measure due to the men whom Hein- rich Meyer gathered around him during the first twenty yeai-s of his ministry. Men like Michael Kornya, Mi- haly Toth, Lajos Balogh, Gyorgy Gerwich, and the subject of this sketch, Andreas Udvarnoki, the minister of the Second Budapest church. Andreas Udvarnoki was born at Szada, in the Prov- ince of Pest, Hungary, on November 16, 1865. The son of God-fearing parents, his early training was in connection with the Reformed Calvinistic Church. At sixteen years of age he heard for the first time an itiner- ant Baptist preacher, with the result that he was not only led to surrender his life to Jesus Chris-t, but wa.^ subsequently immersed. He immediately began to study the Holy Scriptures, 180 MODERN BAPTIST and as opportunity offered he visited the surrounding villages to preach the Gospel. In the year 1S82 he was brought into contact with Heinrich ^Teyer, under whose guidance he labored in the Gospel. Six years later he applied for admission to the Bap- tist college in Hamburg, and for four years he pursued his studies in the Premier Baptist Preachers' School on the continent. His course in the Seminary ended, he returned to Hungary, and became the pastor of the church at TotfaJu. After a year of much blessing in his pastorate there he removed to the church at Orszentnuklos, where he met and married his wife, a splendid helper in the Lord, a saintly woman and a true helpmate. In the same year seven Hungarian brethren who were members of the Ger- man Baptist church in Budapest received permission to found the present church in the capital city of Hungary. Since that time, 1895, the church has grown, until at the present time there are no fewer than eight hundred and thirty-nin'e members, a fine suite of buildings (too small for the weekly congregations), twenty-eight mis- sion stations, and work in no less than six counties. The growth of the work brought its own pecuHar difficulties, not the least being that some of the stronger stations were clamoring for a settled pastor and regular instvue- tion in the Word of God, whilst on the other hand there were numbers of young men anxious and ready to devote themselves to the ministry. At last the pressure was so great that in 1905 An- ANDREAS UDVARNOKL (181) HEROES AND MARTYRS 183 dreas Udvarnoki stiarted a preachers' school in two rooms adjoining his own house. Eight brethren were selected out of the numerous applicants, and the work of the school commenced. Udvarnioki taught theology and homiletics, and helped in the other classes, teaching in the school three hours daily, and this in addition to his pastoral wofk, visiting his many stations and preaching four times weekly. His is a busy life ; the days are full of toil, the task is a prodigiouij one, and oft-times he would be released from his laibors, but the spirit of the man can be dis- cerned in a senttence recently uttered when talking over these matters and the proposal of the Baptist World Alliance to found a Bible school for eastern and south- eastern Europe: ^'Until that day arrives I must hold fast to my post. 1 am a soldier under the command of the 'Great Commander-in-Chief,' and His orders must be obeyed until He gives the signal to stand at ease." MICHAEL KORNYA, HUNGARY. No account of the Baptist movement in Europe can be counted as complete without reference to the subject of this story. He has been as blessed of God in his la- bors as any Baptist worker in any country in Europe, if not in the whole world. Michael Kornya was born on February' 28, 1844, in Nagy-Szalonta, Hungary, and at five years of age he lost 184 MODERN BAPTIST his father, and, owing to the extreme poverty of the fam- ily, he was shortly afterwards sent to be the servant of a fanner, spending long hours every day tending the cattle and pigs. Of schooling he had pra<^tically none, be^^ond being able to recognize and name the letters of the alpha- bet ; he only learned to read after arriving at manhood. In 1872, a copy of the Scriptures came into his h'ands, and Tvdth many of his fellow farm-workers he began to read the sacred volume, but like the eunuch of Ethiopia, he did not understand what he was reading. The fol- lowing year Novak came into the district, and heard of the men reading the Bible, and sent for Heinrich Meyer to come from Budapest to instruct the company. The result was that in the August of that year, Meyer baptized eight of the brethren and in January, 1876, eleven others were immersed, and in May of the same year eighteen followed their Lord in baptism. The thirty-six, for one had left the district, were then formed into the first Baptist church in Hungary, with Meyer as their pastor. In the spring of 1875, Kornya was deeply impressed by reading Matthew 28:19, and, as a result, he went into the villages to preach. Here he won his first convert, An- dreas Liszt es, who is still in active service in Berettye- Ujfalu. From the latter place the work extended to Dcrecke where a church was founded. Meyer, in 1877, became seriously ill, and 'he sent for John Oncken to come from Hamburg to ordain the two brethren, Kornya and Toth. The ser\dce was held in Kagy-Szalonta, and from that time Kornya and Toth baptized their own con- HEROES AND MAETYRS. 185 verts. The work began to spread, iniany were brought to the Lord, and churches were established in eight counties. Meanwhile the enemy was not asleep, the clergy and priests stirred up bitter opposition against the two breth- ren, and they were frequently imprisoned, beaten with rods, and flung into chains. Of this period of his life, Kornya says, 'The persecution did not cause me to draw back, since the work of the Lord filled me with great joy." In the year 1890 he baptized more than one thousand persons upon profession of faith. Living in the center of Hungary are many thousands of Roumanian settlers, poor, neglected, forsaken men and women, counted as little better than the cattle by their educated and wealthier neighbors. In 1893 the brethren turned to these people, and began to declare the Gospel to them. The work was exceedingly difficult, months of weary waiting passed by, until at last a few were baptized and a church formed in Kishaza. From that time the work increased and multiplied at a phe- nomenal rate, and scores of churches have been founded. Kornya alone has baptized six thousand, three hun- dred and thirty-one since turning to them, and in the year 1910 he baptized seven hundred and nine who had given their hearts to Jesus Christ. How many churches there are amongst these people no man can rightly say. At present they have no effective organization, no census has been taken, and the fig-ures change with the passing^ week. Kornya at present is stationed in the Bihar-Diovzeg 186 MODERN BAPTIST district, whilst Toth is laboring in and around Nag}'- Szalonta. Both, are prematurely old men, they ^'bear in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus," and for their work's sake should have a place in the prayers of God's people in this land. PETER DOYCHEFF, BULGARIA. To mention the Balkans to the average man is to he immediately plied with que^ions concerning fierce brig- ands, hardy mountiaineers, wily diplomats, and the struggles of a people for political freedom from the yoke of the "unspeakable Turk," but to Baptists Bulgaria should be a land of intense and increasing interest. The story of Biaptist beginnings in that land is a fascinating one, it can be summed up in a sentence. And they that were scattered abroad under the persecutions which arose under Czar Alexander the Third, went as far as Bul- garia preaching the Word 'of the Lord, and many gave themselves unto the Lord, and were added unto the church. It is not my purpose in this sketch to tell the ^ory of the churches at Rustchuk and Lompalonka, both founded by Russian exiles, or of Kazanlek, where the friends advertised for some one to come and baptize them, or of the many interesting communities in that great land, but to introduce the Bulgarian pioneer of Baptisii principles and practices in southeastern Europe. Peter Doycheff, of Tchirpan, is a giant in stature, gentle and winning in manner, well beloved by; the PETER DOYCHEFP. (187) HEROES AND MARTYRS 189 friends who have been led to Jems Christ under hit teacliing, a univemty graduate living the life of th« p)ea£!ant3 around him for the Gospel's sake. Born at Panagurishte, a large town some sixty niilea northwest of Philippopolis, in the year 1 856, he eariy in life followed the trade and calling of our own Carey, and whilst busy earning his daily bread at the making of shoes he was brought to the Lord, at twenty years of age, under the ministry of the Rev. Dr. House, a missionary of the American Foreign Mission Board. Shortly after his conversion our brother entered the missionary ochool at Samakov, a few hours' journey from the capital Sofia. Graduating from Samakov, Peter DoychetT crossed tho Atlantic, and commenced to study m the Baptist college at Hightstown, N. J., where he specialized in the sciences. He remained here three years, and then entered Prince- ton Theological Seminary, and passed from thence to the McCormick University of Chicago, where he took all the classes common to theological students save that in Hebrew. Opportunities for sendee in the States were pressed upon him, but he heard the call of hi? own land, and returned to the Balkans to work amongst his own people. In 1901 he was convinced of the truth of be- lievers' baptism, and was baptized by the Rev. R. E. Ferrier, of Poughkeepsie, New York. July 1902, saw the commencement of his work as a pioneer Bulgarian Baptist to the Bulgarians. He chose Tchirpan, a central town, in which to commence operations, and in thi5 venture he had no missionary societ3^ behind him, no 190 MODERN BAPTIST fixed salary, not even a congregation to stand by 'his side, but alone he launched out into the deep, in the sure faith that the Lord would provide for his needs. Even today he has no fixed stipend. Friends in America, who know him and value his work, and our own good friend, Mr. Oncken, of England, have been able to help occasionally but ofttimes the bottom of the barrel has had to be scraped, yet through all our brother bears this testimony, •'Hitherto the Lord hath helped me." During the eight years in which Peter Doycheff has been working in Tchirpan, he has baptized fifty-seven upon profession of faith, whilst others are awaiting baptism in the town. A chapel has been built, and several mission stations established. This autumn work has been undertaken in Kostenetz. and a recent visit to Soha has resulted in groat blessing to the friends there, in that a serious division has been healed, and unity of forces has been accomplished. As funds permit, Brother Doycheff intends to open new stations at Stara Zagora, Novo Zagora, and Borisovgrad. At the present time three young men who have been brought up under his influence are being trained for, the ministry of the Word in Bulgaria. His only 5»on. Jupiter, is a brilliant scholar, the first student of his year in Samakov college, and both father and son are looking forward to the time when the proposed Oonti- nential Baptist World Alliance Theological Seminar^' dhall become an established fact. Doycheff frequently undertakes long journe}^ to dis- HEROES AND MARTYRS 191 tant tcm^ns to preach the Gospel, and it is nothing un- usual for him to suffer persecution, bitter and violent opposition upon the part of the priests and police, and even to learn to take the despoiUng of his goods cheer- fully. His wife, a worthy and faithful fellow worker, often accompanies him on his preaching tours and ?^he has proven her endurance as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Despite this attempt of the enemy to deter him he has kept steadily on his way, cheered in heart by many conversions, by the steady growth of the work under his wise leadership, and confident in the assurance that ultimately Bulgaria will be led to the feet of Jesua Christ. NORBERT FABIAN CAPEC, MORAVIA. The Baptist w^ork in Mora^da is led by a man who is in the truest sense of the w^ord a whole-hearted patriot, ardently longing for the political freedom of his country, but at the same time burning with an unquenchable zeal and pas^on. for the salvation of his fellow citizens. Nor- bert Fabian Cap<3c is in the very prime of life. He was born in the memorable year 1870, at Radcmysl, in Bohemia. In his veins flow^s the blood of the martyrs, for his forbears w^ere adherents of John Huss, and were called upon to seal their testimony to Christ by im- pri.sonment 'and finally martyrdom. Under the long con- tinued persecutions, and the tremendous pressure of the papacy, the family became Roman Catholic, but the 192 MODERN BAPTIST tradition of a better and purer faith still lived on, and through the years of darkness there was a love and long- ing for the Word of God. At sixteen years of age Capec's soul revolted against the many evils incidental to the Romanis-t system, and he definitely severed his connection with the Church. He was not aware of any other churches when he set out in quest of truth. At last he found himself in Vienna, where a companion invited him to a prayer meeting in the hall of the Baptists. The strange name "Baptist" was a hindrance to him, but on learning that they were nearly akin in their principles and practices to the old Bohemian Brethren, and that they based their doctrines upon the Word of God, he ventured to the meeting. His heart was touched by that which he heard and experienced there, and the result was a surrender of life to Jesus Christ and the acceptance of the Holy Spirit as his guide. The struggle was a severe one, but at last grace triumphed, and on March 3, 1888, he was baptized in Vienna upon pro- fession of faith in Jesus Christ, and was immediately admitted to the church fellowship. Later in the year he went to Pozsony, a frontier town in Hungary, and commenced to preach the Gospel to the Slovacs, with the result that in less than three years he baptized more than seventy believers. During these three years he started a mission station in Chojnice. The work was blessed, a church was formed, and a building erected, in which the congi'egation met for worship. These days were try- HEROES AND MARTYRS 193 ing ones to the young man's faith. Oftentimes he was in dire straits, and on more than one occasion had not even a Kreutzer (one-fifth of a penny), with which to puTdhase a glass of water by the wayside. The year 1891 saiw his entrance into the Baptist col- lege in Hamburg, and during the succeeding k)uv year:.^ he was preparing himself for what is undoubtedly hi^am'e town an advocate at the bar was seek- ing a clerk. He announced his need in the newspaper and he got about two hundred applications. There was only one difficulty: he often left the office, where he kept some money, and he wanted that the clerk should also attend to the business when he was away. He did not trust the Catholics. In the whole town the people know that the Baptists do not lie, do not steal, and are true. So he .wanted a Baptist. There was one young man (our member) with very little education, professionally, but he was a clever boy — and he got the situation and without asking for it, only because he was a Bap- tist. A married woman told her husband that she wante same time arrived at the same conviction. There was, how- ever, no Philip at hand. In 1829 I wrote for the first time to a baptized Christian, Mr. Robert Haldane, of 228 MODERN BAPTIST Edinburgh * * *. This dear man gave me the extra- ordinary advice to baptize myself. * * * from "Matthe^v to Revelation I could find no case of self-baptism, and * * * would not act on my own responsibiUty. Brothei Lange, who shared my views, found mth me that oui only recourse was prayer, * * *. Some few desired that we should at least together partake of the I;ard'< Supper, but to this I could not consent, feeling sure that, if the work was begun in a wrong manner, it would also be continued in a wrong way, and I cannot now sufficiently praise the Lord that He overruled us in the matter and that we did not venture to constitute a church for which we have no example in the New Testament. I then wrote to Mr. Ivemey, a Baptist minister in I-;on'don, wlio, in reply, asked me to come to London to be baptized there, but at the time I was so fully engaged with pressing work concerning the Kingdom of God, that I did net feel justified to undertake a journey which would, in those days, have necessitated an albsence of two mouth?.'' The next winter God sent to Hamburg an American, Captain Calvin Tubbs, whose ship was icebound and he was compelled to spend six months in Hamburg. He met and had fellowship ■^'ith Oncken and his friends and upon his release reported the case to the Baptist Mission- ary Society in Boston. They, in turn, found in Prof. Barnas Sears, going to Germany for study in 1833, an opportunity to minister to the waiting brethren. Dr. Sears found "a, man interesting from every point of view. He is about thirty years of age, married in Eng- HEROES AND MARTYRS 229 land, and is well acquainted with the EngHsh language. He has not, indeed, had the advantage of a very learned education, but possesses a clear and penetrating under- standing, is well read, a man of unusual practical ex- perience and of a very agreeable appearance and gentlemanly manner. He has the confidence of Tholuck, Hahn, Hengstenberg, and many other distinguished men of the Evangelical party, who are associated with him in the distribution of Bibles and tracts." This was in the summer of 1833. Dr. Sears regarded that "Oncken and his friends were ready and fully pre- pared to receive baptism, but as Oncken was just on the point of starting on a journey to Poland, for the Scotch Bible Society, and did not consider it wise to leave the little flock immediately after they had been baptized, the baptism was postponed until in April, 1834. Pro- fessor Sears came from Halle, * * and the important baptism took place." On a beautiful evening ''the little party left the city, soon after sunset * * ; these faithful disciples knew well that they were in danger of being punished and having their goods seized by the authori- ties of the city for daring thus to obey their Lord's precept and command. There was also a certain gloomy prison, the spirit-cru;:hing interior of which their leader was to know only too well. The brave little party con- sisted of J. G. Oncken and his wife, Sarah Oncken; a shoemaker and his T\dfe, Diedrich and Henrietta Lange ; another shoemaker, Heinrich Kruger; a looking-glass miaker, Ernest Buckendahl; and Johannes Gusdorf, a 280 MODERN BAPTIST Jewish proselyte and linen draper," with Professor Sears. There, in the twilight that lingers so beautifully under Northern skies, these seven put on Christ in baptism and inaugurated a new era in Germany and all Europe. They returned joyfully to the city in the darkness of the night and in darkness so far as their earthly future was lighted by anything but hope in God for whom they were ready to suffer all things. At once these Baptists fell under the contempt and suspicion of all the truth and slander that tradition had brought down through two centuries concerning Anar baptists. Inevitably they would be misunderstood and even friends who did not censure would necessarily be eeparated from them. This Oncken had fully reckoned in the price of obedience and in all his persecutiona bore himself absolutely without bitterness and in the manner of the true Christian, seeking the good of even his enemies. He was secretary of a German tract society which now severed relations with him ; he had to give up his work in the Sunday school which he had founded, and of course he surrendered his membership in the In« dependent church. One serious consideration leading him to separate himself from pedobaptism was his concern for the con- verts and friends made in evangelistic labors and to whose spiritual needs he would , minister the better if formed into New Testament groups of believers. But now many of these would go no more with him, while HEROES AND MARTYRS 231 influential frienda of this work who stood high in the Lutheran church could no longer be friendly. Because the course of the Baptists was in \dolaition of law their baptisms were administered at night and the enemies seized upon this fact to circulate scandalous stories about the Baptists. They determined to brave the consequences of open obedience before all men. The authorities sought to stamp out the innovation by offer- ing to Oncken a free passage for himself and family to America; but God had placed him in Germany and there he must proclaim the word. He would not leave. He was thrown into the Winsei^aum prison, which rose up out of the waters of the Elbe, the stench of whose filth added to his suffering and planted seeds of disease from which in after years he suffered much. His friends would gather on Sundays on a near- by bridge and wave to him' greetings which he un- derstood. It was not long until he one night heard in a cell above him, singing in a voice that he recognized as that of his friend, Lange, and he joined with him as Paul with Silas in Philippi, so long before. The saints found means of communicating with him by use of a false bottom in a coffee pot, by inclosing notes in bread and in other ways. The prison guard detected a note inside a loaf and demanding it, read, "Dear brother, the Lord's work goes on* well, may that comfort and re- fresh your spirit. Yesterday we met in twelve places; tjie police were hunting for us but failed to find usJ' 232 MODERN BAPTISl IN PRISONS OFTEN. It would be useless to tell of all the persecutions Oncken suffered. It is doubtful whether he himself had any record of the times he was in prison or the many fines he refused to pay only to have his goods taken away. These things continued in his own city until in 1857 full tolerance, and in 1858 religious equal- ity was declared in Hamburg. Outside Hamburg and in his two journe}^ into Russia his sufferings continued through his entire ministry. After 1848 Oncken was largely at liberty in Hamburg. In that year political upheavals stirred Europe and revolution spread in Ger- miany. It was found that although they greatly de- sired increased freedom, "not one of the five thousand members" of the Baptist churches took any part in tha revolutionary movements; a leading official, Senator Binder, said to Mr. Oncken: "Your conduct and that of your members has been so noble, that we must give you all you ask, and henceforth .anjd^hing I can do to serve you, I shall be happy to do." This was the same man who early in the movement had declared that "everything possible would be done to root out the Bap- tist heresy ;" and, when Oncken had reminded him that no purely religious movement had ever been suppressed by force and that he would find his labor in vain, re- plied: "Then it shall not be my fault, but so long aa I can move my little finger, it shall be raised against you." HEROES AND MARTYRS 233 LAYING FAR-REACHING FOUNDATIONS. TJiese missionary journeys were a feature of all hia ministry, and for fifty years Oncken was the recognized father of the Bapti.^t brotherhood scattered throughout Germany and with groups in Vienna and other Austria- Hungarian centers as well as in Denmark and Russia. Many of these he had fonned in spite of the watchful and pursuing vengeance of the authorities. Driven away from one community he w^ould flee to anol:her and leave behind a line of baptized converts. Then he must visit again the brethren to see how they fared and confirm them in the faith. He was also much given to, and gifted in, the wi'iting of letters by which he en- couraged those w^hom he could not visit. In 1849 he began the more formal training of ministers, beginning what came to be the Hamburg Theological Seminary. He found from time to time that God was giving him able men for helpers. In 1837 he baptized six converts at BerUn and founded the church there, including G. W. Lehmann, a man of learning and power, two of whose sons have succeeded the distinguished father in great service to the Baptist cause in Germany. In 1835 the American Baptist Missionarv^ Union appointed Oncken their missionary and as such gave him splendid encouragement and such financial support as was possible through all the years. In 1853 he made an extended trip to America which was a joy to him and a blessing to dthers. But he was caught in a dis- 234 MODERN BAPTIST astrous railway wreck, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. When he gave up his labors he had experienced much suffering for his Lord, but he had also seen the sal- vation of the Lord. '^His safety and even his life were often endangered by the fury of mobs, and until 1848 he was suhjected to expulsions, fines and imprisonment;'' in one state a reward was offered for his arrest; ''in Denmark he was declared an outlaw and a judicial de- cree was issued threatening with the severest penalties any person concealing his whereabouts," while a "reward was offered to any who would reveal him. Of this period Oncken has written : ''Our baptisms all took place under cover of the night and on my missionary^ journeys * * I was banished successively from almost every state in Germany. I could never travel as an honest m^n by daylight, but was compelled to journey on foot in the darkness, to hold services, examine candidates, admin- ister the ordinances, and form churches in the dead of night, and take care to be across the frontiers before the break of day for fear of my pursuers." He had also the distress of seeing his converts suffer the most bitter per- secutions. HE SAW THE HARVEST RIPENING. But in the end he saw all the varied institutions of free Christianity growing up, a large measure of religious freedom gained in Germany and elsewhere; he could HEROES AND MARTYRS 285 meet with the German Baptist Union of more than one hundred and fifty churches, thirty-one thousand, three hundred and forty-eight members, seventeen thousand Sunday school children; he knew of thousands of Ger- m'an Baptists who had gone to Amjerica; he had com- munication with growing Baptist communities in Aus* tria, Bulgaria, Roumania, Hungary, Poland, Holland, Switzerland, Transcaucasia, and throughout Russia. It was wonderful the progress of one lifetime, xind more than any one man God had used him to accomplish it. When the infirmities of age called him away to Zurich to await the summons of the Master, he went with the loA^e of many thousands to whom he had brought the light of God; and could in peace commit his soul and his service to God. They carried the body to Hamburg and erected a memorial stone, an obelisk of granite, on which is inscribed: JOHANN GERHARD ONCKEN, BORN 26 JANUARY, 1800, DIED 2 JANUARY, 1884. ''One Lord, one faith, one baptism. '' — Eph. 4:5. ''And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles* doc- trine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." — Acts 2 :42. January 26, 1900, his centenary was observed in the Hamburg church and a tablet erected to commemorate his life and work. His biographer says of him: "He 236 MODERN BAPTIST was the pioneer and leader of the great free church movement on the continent of Europe vnih its attend- ant development of liberty both of thought and action." Dr. Joseph Angus wrote: "No man more deserves to be remembered and honored for the grace in him. He has done more for evangelical truth on the continent than any other man — than any number of men in this century." Spurgeon came increasingly to admire and love him and when the new chapel was opened for the Hamburg church in 1867, went to make an address and had great satisfaction in renewing fellow- ship with a man of whom he wrote at his death: "That countr}^ has lost in Oncken a much greater m-an than she will today believe." He was the leader of that body of which Principal Cairns once wrote: "I have just re- turned from Germany, where I find that by their char- acter, losses and advocacy, the Baptisit-s have secured for themselves and others, rehgious liberty — Kttle short of a second reformation." Such achievement is won only by suffering; but is worth suffering to win. W. 0. Caever, Th.D., Louisville, Ky. A ROLL CALL OF CHINESE MARTYRS. ^'Doth Job fear God for naught? Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath, on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is in- creased in the land. But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will renounce thee to thy face." This sneer of the wicked one has been often repeated through the ages and often Jehovah has permitted Satan to do his worst in testing God's people, with the result that they have gone through the fire ^dthout faltering. One of the latest and most marked examples is that of the native Christians in China during the Boxer upris- ing in 1900. This Boxer movement was not primarily antagonistic to the Christian religion. It was an upris- ing against all foreigners, resulting largely from politi- cal conditions. The missionaries were included simply because they were foreigners and the native Christians suffered, not so much because they were Christians, but they were regarded as followers of the foreigners. The whole aim of the persecution was intended to force the native Christi'ans to give up a religion which had been introduced by foreigners. 238 MODERN BAPTIST- Almost the whole world doubted the genuineness of the Christianity of the Chinese. The epithet ^^Rice Chris- tians" was universally on the lips of ungodly men and not infrequently uttered by professing Christians in this country. In its full meaning, it was an emphatic repe- tition of the sneering w^ords of Satan concerning Job. But the fateful summer of 1900 proved the profound falsity of the