From Jerusalem Jews to Turkish Muhammadans: Josiah Brewer

When modern foreign missionary work was first thought of in America, it was but natural to think of “beginning at Jerusalem” where early Christian missions first began. And as Jews were the first Christian missionaries to bear the gospel to people in foreign lands who needed it, so modern Christian missionaries were glad to bear the gospel to Jews who needed it. An early organization to attempt this work was the “Boston Female Society for the Promotion of Christianity Amongst the Jews.” The Jews always counted themselves “a peculiar people ’ ‘; and as it is popularly understood that Bostonians count themselves “a peculiar people” it was fitting that choice Christians in Boston should send out missionaries to chosen Jews in Jerusalem.

In 1827 the Boston Society sent out as a missionary among the Jews in Jerusalem, Rev. Josiah Brewer of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, who was graduated from Yale in 1821, and after pursuing post-graduate studies there and being for a time a tutor in the college had married a daughter of Rev. Dr. David Dudley Field, pastor of the Congregational Church in

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Stockbridge. That Field family was a remarkable one. Of the sons were Stephen Field, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Cyrus W. Field, who laid the Atlantic cable, David Dudley Field, an eminent lawyer, and Henry M. Field, the veteran editor and author. And a daughter was a missionary and the wife of a missionary.

Mr. Brewer went out as a “missionary to those Jews who reside in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean.” He was appointed as a missionary of the American Board, his support being pledged by the Board and his labors to be directed by the Boston Society, working among the Jews. The effort in behalf of the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea was undertaken at the urgent appeal of Pliny Fisk, one of the early missionaries of the Board in Palestine and Syria. After a preliminary exploration by Mr. Brewer of the field to which he had been sent, it was deemed inexpedient, in his case as in the case of Mr. Goodell and of some other missionaries, to locate in Jerusalem; and he began his mission in Smyrna. Jerusalem was just then in a state of practical anarchy, the governor having revolted against the Pasha of Acre. Robbery and violence prevailed. Roman Catholic influence was preventing any distribution of Bibles in all parts of Syria. On the contrary in Smyrna and Constantinople there were no interruptions to good missionary work, and in these two places there were perhaps five times as many Jews as in Jerusalem and in all Palestine; therefore Mr. Brewer and his wife stopped for a time in Smyrna.

The Greek Revolution had changed the whole face of affairs. The battle of Navarino had destroyed the Turkish navy, and had opened the doors of the Turkish Empire to influences from outside. Mr. Brewer established the first printing press and paper in Smyrna, where several papers in different languages were afterwards published. He founded schools there that have served as models for others, and have done much to introduce modern methods of education into the Turkish Empire. SmjTrna was, about this period and later, often spoken of as the “Paris of the East.” This was owing to its cosmopolitan character and to its activities in business and in pleasure. Merchants and traders and visitors were there from Europe and Asia and America. Dr. Henry J. Van Lennep was a native of Smyrna, his parents being of the class of influential Europeans who contributed to give Smyrna its reputation as a business and social centre.

Mr. Brewer was of opinion, in view of his observations and experiences, that no place in the Turkish Empire was of more importance, or was more inviting as a centre of missionary effort, than was Smyrna. Whether one was desirous of reaching the Jews, the Greeks, the Armenians, or the Franks, there were enough of them there to occupy his full time and to call for his best endeavors. The character and interests of the people gave a larger freedom to those engaged in Christian effort than was to be found in many another place in the empire. The good work of Mr. Brewer in Smyrna prepared the way for much that has since been accomplished there. The converted Jew, the missionary Joseph Wolff, who had been at Smyrna just before Mr. Brewer, had prepared the way for his beginning among that people, and had given him information about them there.

In 1 8 2 7 Mr. Brewer was transferred for his missionary labors from Smyrna to Constantinople. His passage from his early -station to his new field was rich in classic and historic associations, and to such a man as he these were stimulating and inspiriting. Although his movements were humbler than those of Xerxes and Hannibal and Constantine, the enterprise in which he was engaged was grander and greater. But Paul’s voyage from Cesarea to Rome, as its localities quickened his memories, tended to confirm his faith in the one Saviour whom the Apostle to the Gentiles served and trusted. So it was with the later Christian missionary, as in Constantinople Mr. Brewer settled down to work in the line and field of his choice. Speaking of the associations of the place, he said: “Here, I say to myself, the Mussulman first established himself in Europe. That mouldering turret owes its origin to the crusaders, or to the Italian conquerors of Constantinople. This pile of rubbish marks the site of a palace of the Greek emperors. There stood the temple of some heathen divinity. Yonder village was founded by the Argonauts, and the adjacent coast was ravaged by the harpies.” And so it was in every direction. But the missionary’s chief work and interest were in the present and for the future; hence he could not stay to brood over the past. And to his proper work he set himself with all his might.

A serious discussion between the Sultan and the Divan led the Sultan to desire that he could blot out the name of Christian from his empire; and a difference between the Porte and the Three Allied Powers as to a continuance of hostilities between Turkey and Greece interrupted active missionary work; and circumstances caused Mr. Brewer and his family to return to his home in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. It was there in later years that I came to know and value him. In his family was a son born in Smyrna. That son was David Josiah Brewer, now a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, where his uncle Stephen Field sat so long. Justice Brewer, the foreign missionary’s son, is also a faithful teacher of a large Bible class in Washington. Thus the influence of good Josiah Brewer, the missionary to the East, is still a positive force in Sm)T:na and Western Asia, and in the capital city of the United States.

Wherever I have found in America a returned missionary from the foreign field, I have always found a man ready to take hold with heartiness of any good work in his neighborhood in the home field. When I was in charge of the missionary work of the American Sunday School Union for the New England field one of my centres of work for Berkshire County was a choice Christian home in Stockbridge. Mr. Brewer lived not far from there, and I found him ever ready to give me help in looking up the needy places and in gathering new Sunday-schools or in visiting those already started. Again and again I have driven or walked with Mr. Brewer in this kind of mission work; and I ever found that in the true spirit of the Christian missionary he was ready to give help to Jew or to Gentile, in Smyrna or in Constantinople or in Western Massachusetts; and I now thank God that I was privileged to be a fellow-worker in Christ’s service with such a soldier and servant of our loved Master.