A Helper of Other Missionaries: Isaac Bird
The gospel was first taught and preached in Palestine and Syria, and from that centre and beginning it was to be proclaimed to “the ends of the earth,” yet in the nineteenth century after that beginning, good Christian missionaries were sent as from “the ends of the earth” to Palestine, as a foreign field in peculiar need of the gospel in its simplicity. This, in a sense, seems strange; but the trouble was not in God’s love and ways, but in man’s evil and lack. It does not seem strange, however, that American Christians had peculiar interest in and sycn-paXhy with the first missionary efforts, in the nineteenth century, in the land where our Lord lived and loved and taught during his human years on earth. When the command was first made to proclaim the gospel to “the ends of the earth,” America was not known at the then centre, as within the limits of “the ends of the earth “; yet new America became foremost in modern Christian missions to Syria and Palestine.
Soon after this fresh beginning an associate of William Goodell of Massachusetts, and his wife, when they set out for Palestine in 1823 to join other missionaries there, was Isaac Bird of Connecticut with his wife. They sailed together from New York. On the Sunday before their departure they preached in the Murray Street Presbyterian Church, Mr. Goodell in the afternoon on “The Signs of the Times,” from Matthew 16:2, 3; Mr. Bird in the evening from the words of our Lord in John 10: 16, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold.” The two then went out together, believing that the “signs of the times” indicated God’s wish and will that they should seek out His other sheep beyond the present folds.
Their purposed destination was Jerusalem. They landed first at Malta, and from there sailed to Beyroot. Owing to the troubled condition of affairs in that country just then, they found it best to remain for a while in Beyroot; but there was missionary work to be done wherever they were. Their first work, which is every missionary’s first and best work wherever he is, was individual work with individuals.
The new missionaries did not have to press the truth they taught, and the message they bore, on dull and reluctant ears. The brethren who had gone just before them had awakened an interest in the subject. The labors of Pliny Fisk, and Levi Parsons, and Jonas King, had aroused inquiry and provoked opposition, and no theme was just then more prominent among Maronites and Druses and Syrians and Greeks than the Bible and its teachings.
Men and women on all sides wanted to know their duty and their privileges, and they came to the new teachers to learn as to this. They came by day and by night, and the time of the missionaries was delightfully overtaxed. As Mr. Goodell was already beginning his studies with reference to Bible translation, and as he was fully occupied with efforts to rightly organize the schools of the mission, more of this missionary, or gospel, work with individual inquirers devolved on Mr. Bird, and he was engaged in it untiringly. And it was a good work to do. He helped many a soul to the light; and there are those still living who remember gratefully Mr. Bird’s loving words to them in their need.
Mr. Bird wrote articles that were printed and published in Arabic, on truths in discussion in Syria. These had much influence at the time, and their influence deepened and widened as the days went on. His “Thirteen Letters” bearing on the question of the claims of the Church of Rome and of the Greek Church, tended to strengthen those who desired Christian liberty, and a knowledge of Bible truth. Mr. Bird wrote important facts about the site of ancient Carthage and of historic sites on the coast of Tunis; thus again increasing the knowledge of those at home while he was caring for those abroad. Dr. Robinson acknowledges the help he had in his “Bibhcal Researches” from the full and accurate manuscript maps of Isaac Bird.
Mr. Bird had his trials and perils, by fire, by pestilence, and by persecution, as all of Christ’s missionaries are liable to have at any day and in any place. And in all this he was faithful, and through all he was helped into a higher and more saintly Christian life. Persecution from opposing ecclesiastics grew more bitter and intense, as they saw what a foothold the new missionaries were getting. One of the native converts, a highly intelligent Maronite from Mount Lebanon, who had aided the missionaries in their study of Arabic and Syriac, was especially an object of persecution and threats. This man was Asaad Shidiak. He was compelled to give up a marriage to which he was pledged. Then he was seized and put in confinement. He suffered chains and stripes and revilings. He was for a time chained to the wall of the building in which he was confined. Communication with his friends was cut off, and they and the missionaries had reason to fear that he was a martyr to the truth.
Continued persecution caused the schools started at Beyroot to be given up, and in 1828 the missionaries moved for a time to other fields. Mr. Bird reached Jerusalem, and there he labored successfully. Mr. Goodell was turned to Constantinople. But after a while, in view of changes in the Turkish government, Mr. Bird was back in Beyroot. In 1833, a reply written by him in reply to an address of the Greek Bishop of Beyroot, directed against the Bible missionaries, attracted special attention, and provoked hopeful inquiry among the people. It was about this time that Eli Smith established his Arabic press in Beyroot, under the general direction of the American Board, and Beyroot became, in a new way, a centre of missionary operation, and of Christian education for Syria and Palestine.
After some fourteen years of missionary work Mr. Bird was compelled, by the failing health of Mrs. Bird, to leave Syria and return to America. Teaching for a time in a theological school in New Hampshire, he removed with his family to Hartford, Connecticut. Thereupon he established a boarding-school for boys, in the suburbs of the city; and he soon had sons from choice families in different parts of the country under his good influence. A son of his, who had married a daughter of William Goodell, remained with his father to aid him in the management of the “Pavilion School.” Another son, with his New Hampshire wife, returned to Syria, as a foreign missionary in the land of his birth. A daughter of Isaac Bird became the wife of Dr. Henry J. Van Lennep, who as a missionary of the American Board did excellent service in Turkey and Asia Minor, and who, as an Orientalist, taught lessons to us all, and helped us in Bible knowledge by the light he threw on the inner meaning of its teachings.
It was in Hartford that I came to know this veteran missionary and his family. For some twenty years they were members of the church with which I had united, and they helped to create a missionary atmosphere in that church, which sent many missionaries abroad. In our weekly prayer-meetings and in the Monthly Concert for missions, the warm words for Christ and for souls made an impression on us all, especially on the younger members of the church, who saw in him one who had witnessed for Christ and had won souls to Christ in the foreign missionary field. And I am glad to feel those impressions to this day.