The Russian Capital
At the period of Mr. KnilFs return to England the religious condition of Russia was awakening deep interest in this country. The Scottish Missionary Society, as early as the second year of the present century, established a mission in the provinces bordering on the Caspian and Black Seas, which was attended with small fruit; but about ten years later a series of events kindled hope for the whole empire. The Rev. Dr. Paterson, who had been successful in promoting the publication of the Bible in Sweden, conceived the idea of attempting a similar work for Finland, which had then been recently annexed to Russia, and in the prosecution of his purpose, arrived in Moscow, a few days before that city was consumed in presence of the army of Napoleon. The anxiety produced by the war, which lie feared would defeat his object, proved, on the
contrary, to be favourable to it. The strikingly providential destruction of the French legions, together with the exhaustion produced by their own protracted struggle, disposed several leading statesmen to solemn reflection. Above all, the religious impressions made, through a variety of agencies, on the Emperor Alexander, inclined him to look favourably on any measures which promised to promote the moral welfare of his people; so that when the proposal to print the Scriptures for the “foreign Confessions” of the empire was laid before him, he not only gave it an instant sanction, but expressed regret that his own Russians “were not to be sharers of the boon. That omission, which had been made to avoid the hostility of the Greek clergy, was speedily supplied, and the Divine “Word was eventually published in as many as twenty languages, inclusive of the vernacular tongue of the country.
The favour shown to this great undertaking, not only by the emperor, but by the heads of the Greek Church and the ministers of state, many of whom proved, on a subsequent day of trial, to be men of decided Christian principle, was so great, that for some time whatever the sagacious and laborious Paterson asked for was promptly granted. The law permitted the people of each nation to worship according to the rites of its own Church, but allowed of no dissent, and of no proselytism. The English residents in St. Petersburg, who then numbered about two thousand, had, on that principle, enjoyed the ministrations of the Episcopal chaplain; but as these were not, at that period, of an expressly evangelical character, a strong desire arose in the hearts of a few persons for other services, and the request of Dr. Paterson for such a privilege was so far complied with that he was allowed to hold public worship on the evening of the Lord’s day in the chapel of the Moravian Brethren. These ordinances, which were rendered peculiarly interesting by the sometimes lengthened visits of missionaries on their way to Astrachan and Siberia, received such evidences of Divine approval, that, after the lapse of four years, it was reckoned desirable to have a resident minister, who should make
them the chief object of his attention. This proposition had been just acceded to by the Directors of the London Missionary Society, when Mr. Knill returned from India, and no time was lost, after his own concurrence and that of his medical advisers had been obtained, in despatching him to St. Petersburg. After an extensive but exhilarating tour in England on behalf of foreign missions, he sailed from London in the autumn of 1820.
The season was rather too far advanced, and the voyage proved protracted and wearisome. The “multitude of his thoughts” during that interval found no record; but a letter to his parents shows how affectionately and devoutly he bore them on his heart: —
“At S3a, lat. 58 X„ long. 10 E.,
October 25, 1820.
My dear and hoxoured Parents, — .... Often have I been conversing with you, and lifting up my heart to God for you, when walking the deck or swinging in my cot. Oh, how earnestly I have longed for your spiritual and eternal felicity! This world has not been such a scene of trial to you as it has been to many; goodness and mercy have followed you all your journey through, and I trust that the arm of Jesus will support your tottering age, and His soft hand wipe away your tears. I wrote you from Gravesend, and requested my kind friend, Mr. Nisbet, who accompanied me to the ship, to say at the bottom of the page that he had seen me embark. Our passage to this point has been very expeditious, and we may expect soon to arrive at Elsinore, whence we shall be able to send letters. ...”
A baffling wind kept the ship beating within a hundred miles of that port for a week; but eventually he was able to address the Rev. George Burder from the “Bible Society’s House,” St. Petersburg, on the 7th December, 1820, and to say —” I hope you will never send another missionary so late in the year to this cold country. On our arrival at the island of Cronstadt, we found ourselves encircled with ice and snow not sufficiently frozen to suffer travellers to pass it. Hence I was detained there nine days, at great expense and in painful anxiety. However, on Saturday last the ice was so far broken as to
admit of our passing over to the opposite shore; and between nine and ten in the evening I arrived at this house. Every mark of Christian kindness and attention I received froDi our dear friends, Dr. Paterson, and Dr. and Mrs. Henderson. On Sabbath morning we met around the table of our Lord, and found it a time of refreshing from His presence. It was to me as life from the dead, after being shut out of Christian society for many weeks.”
Mr. Knill thus entered a sphere in which he was destined to receive and to impart great blessings. It was a position requiring unusual circumspection, for the government was proverbially jealous, the Greek clergy were suspicious of every encroachment on the religious province, and not a few among the English were disposed to treat contemptuously those who discountenanced their general worldliness. But Mr. Knill, though of a highly sanguine temperament, was distinguished by a simplicity of purpose, and a fine perception of propriety in speech and conduct, which served, through the Divine blessing, to keep him beyond the reach of his enemies. The congregation, too, which he found awaiting him, though small, included several persons of great intelligence and fervent piety, by whom his principles were strengthened, and every good enterprise which his fertile invention suggested was cordially sustained.
The entries in his private journal show a growing sense of responsibility. He writes on June 1, 1821:” 0 my God, give me grace to love and serve Thee more and better! Grant that every token of Thy favour to myself and to the people, may endear Thy name. Thy ways. Thy work, to my heart! And wilt Thou, most gracious Spirit, pour out Thy holy influence on the people in such a plentiful manner that they may all become fellow-workers with me in warning and encouraging, in drawing and inviting sinners to Thee, and in building them up in their most holy faith? Make us a holy and consecrated band! Though despised by many, may we be rich in faith, full of good works, honoured by Thy love and presence; and then all will be — all must be well.’’
Nor did these, and similar petitions, remain
unanswered. Persons who Lad forgotten the professions they had made in their native land, and yielded themselves up to the prevailing indifference of the city, were restored; and others, to whom the gospel in its simplicity and fulness was a new message, were graciously brought under its power, so that, in a few months, the band of communicants was doubled, and the general congregation augmented in an even greater ratio.
The gladness of this” time of refreshing’’ was chastened by the sudden death of Mr. W. Yenning, whose brief career contributed so much to form the character of the little church, that a passing notice is due to his memory.
Mr. Yenning, when resident in London, in 1815, was attracted by the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline, formed at that period under the presidency of the Duke of Gloucester; and having succeeded in reforming some juvenile offenders, at a time when that was judged hardly possible, he resolved to devote his remaining life to the enterprise. Proceeding to St. Petersburg with mercantile views, he found so much room for the exertions of a philanthropist, that he totally surrendered his original pursuits, and gave himself over to the work of ameliorating the national prisons. No personal dangers, and no considerations of ease or wealth, restrained him. He plunged into the receptacles of disease and crime: and by a skilful organization of noblemen of great influence, he was enabled, in a marvellously short time, to correct flagrant abuses. So deep and general was the impression produced by his disinterested consecration, that when he died of a fever, contracted in gaol, shortly after completing the thirty-ninth year of his age. Prince Galitzin, in proposing the monument to his memory, which now stands in the Smolenskoi Cemetery, said, “While Russia has to show near one frontier the ashes of his countryman who produced the first traces of amelioration in the condition of prisoners, and of the sick and suffering, let her show here the monument of a second Howard, — a worthy follower and emulator of the good deeds of the first.”*
* Memoir of the Life and Character of Walter Yenning, Esq., by Richard Knill. London, 1822. 8vo.
The dying words of this devoted man — “I wish to say to you, Knill, labour for Jesus Christ as long as you have breath in your body” — were long remembered, so perfectly had they been illustrated in the life which was then closing, and so fully did they accord with the purposes of the heart upon which they fell. Not less influential was the example of Mr. Venning on the subsequent life of his own brother, whose name will hereafter often occur in these pages; while an educational institution, which occupied much of Mr. Knill’s attention, and which flourishes to this day, sprang almost immediately from his ashes.
“Mr. Walter Yenning, the philanthropist,” says Mr. Knill,” met with a hopeful penitent in the prison, and requested Mr. Gray, one of our members, who spoke four languages, to read the Scriptures to him and converse with him on religion. This work quite suited Mr. Gray’s mind, and he expressed a strong desire to be constantly employed in it. He suggested to Mr. John Yenning the idea of a school for poor foreigners; and he mentioning it to me, I drew up a paper, which the Princess
Metscliersky showed to the Emperor. The Emperor, in his own prompt way, ordered the thing to be done, granting at the same time 5000 rubles for the establishment of the school, and appointing me as superintendent, with an annual salary of 2000 rubles, and Mr. Gray as master, with an annual salary of 1000 rubles. It came upon us as sudden and as genial as an April shower.”
This institution, which offered elementary instruction through the medium of Russ, German, and English, to the children of persons not of the Greek Church, had to encounter at the beginning all the old prejudices against the education of the humbler classes. But on the 26th July, 1823, Mr. Knill was able to write to a friend: —
“Our boys’ and girls’ schools go on well. Dear Princess Metschersky is a nursing mother to them, and the young Princesses Sophia and Marie are following their honoured mother’s steps. At present we have 270 boys and 70 girls — a most interesting sight. Upwards of 300 have been refused admission since the 1st of January, which has made our hearts ache;
but we had no room. We sometimes talk of taking a larger house, but we are afraid. It is a new thing; a charitj-school for poor foreigners was never heard of, and we have much to struggle with. We did not, indeed, expect that an object so decidedly religious would meet with general support; but we had no idea that the contrary disposition would have been so prevalent. But there are happy exceptions; a gentleman from your side of the Tweed lately called at the school, and afterwards meeting me, gave me 200 rubles to its funds, saying, ‘I will vindicate it wherever I go; it is the best thing ever set on foot in this country by the English.’ ‘’
The following entries carry on the view of his inner and domestic history: —
JouRXAL. — “Mmj 29, 1822. — Reading this morning an account of Dr. Bateman’s life and death, I was particularly edified and delighted. My soul melted at the goodness of God, and I longed to glorify Him in my death, if it should be His heavenly will. — 0 Lord, grant that when my heart and flesh fail, I may find Thee precious to my soul, and may be enabled to declare to all around my dying-bed how precious, how glorious Thou art.”
“October 30. — I would devoutly adore Thee,
0 my God, for Thy great goodness to us. Oh, favour us, favour us with more of ’ the mind which was also in Christ Jesus,’ that with meekness, love, zeal, and usefulness, we may pass through this world of sin to perfect joy in Thy presence. — My father’s letter informs me of the joyful tidings that my nephew, about seventeen, comes and prays with my dear mother. Hallelujah!”
“December 2. — This day two years ago I arrived at St. Petersburg, and in tracing the linger of Providence, how striking does it appear! — Gracious Lord, Thy love in time past forbids me to think Thou wilt ever leave me. May every successive year of my life, if years are given, be increasingly instrumental in drawing sinners to the Redeemer. 0 Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that
1 love Thee, and that to honour Thee is my supreme delight. This day do I give up rayself to Thee, and would seal my covenant with my God, my Father, and my all. Amen.’^
Decemher 17. — The bridge was carried away by the ice, which prevented me from visiting my friends on the island. I therefore visited the school, and then accompanied my dear friend, Mr. Venning, to the prison, at which place, I think, I caught a cold. It increased rapidly, and by midnight I was in a violent fever. The thought of dear Walter Yenning’s prison-fever and death ran much in my mind, and during one part of the night I was a little delirious. It was a serious and anxious time. The communication being cut off from my dearest Sarah by reason of the floating ice, I knew not but that her next intelligence of me might be that I was dead and buried. Blessed be the Lord, He has not cut me off as in a moment, but has raised me up again. The kindness of dear Dr. Paterson was very great, as, indeed, it has always been ever since I knew him. I received from him some medicine, which wonderfully abated the fever; but I was unable to rise during the Wednesday, and he preached for me in the evening, to the great edification and comfort of the people. The inquiries and attentions of those of the little church who knew of my affliction made me shed tears of joy. I adore Thee, 0 Lord, for placing me among so pious and affectionate a people. Multiply the number of such Christians by thousands and thousands. Then shall Thy name be glorified from the rising to the setting sun.”
“December 20. — I was so far recovered as to be able to go to the Rev. Edward Law, to request him to publish the banns of marriage between me and my Sarah. — Gracious Father, who hast united our hearts to each other, pour down upon us much of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may be preserved from dishonouring Thee in thought, word, or deed, and be assisted in glorifying Thee in all our ways. Amen.”
The event thus introduced to the reader’s notice occurred at the chapel of the British Factory, on the 9th of January, 1823; and it may be permitted here to record a few words penned by Mr. Knill towards the close of his life, relative to the lady who, from that day, contributed so much to his personal happiness, and to his usefulness as a minister: —” She was the daughter of James and Isabella Notman, a
quaker family, originally resident in Newcastleon-Tyne. Her father served under the two Emperors, Paul and Alexander, as the founder of tanneries in different parts of the empire. He won a fair fame for the Quakers long before the Emperor Alexander saw “William Allen or Daniel Wheeler. Sarah was born in St. Petersburg, and after being educated in England at ‘Friends’ school,’ accompanied her parents to Kazan, in Asiatic Russia, where her father, in the midst of his extensive labours, fell sick and died.”^ Looking back over our
Mrs. Notman’s life was once singularly preserved by an opportune visit of Howard the philanthropist. During the absence of her husband on a long journey, she was seized with a typhoid fever, and sunk under it to the point of losing all external signs of life. The servants were proceeding with preparations for the interment of the body, when Howard, who greatly respected the family, travelhng near their house, came in, and was informed of the circumstance. He requested to see the body, and suspecting that liie was not extinct, administered some powerful restoratives, which proved, by God’s favour, successful. In a little while, “she arose and ministered unto them,” having, during her utter helplessness, heard distinctly the conversation of the servants respecting her funeral, and the commands of Howard respecting the measures for her restoration. “When she afterwards accompanied her daughter to a” Friends’ school” in England, the first object of interest to which she conducted her was the statue of her deliverer in St. Paul’s Cathedral. happy union of more than thirty years, I deliberately consider it, next to my soul’s salvation, the greatest blessing of my life.”
About this time Mr. KnilFs labours were much increased by his having accepted the appointment of the London and the Scottish Missionary Societies as a medium of communication between them and their missionaries in the remote parts of Russia. This work gratified his early and unquenched interest in the heathen, and he threw himself into it with his whole heart, maintaining an extensive and enlivening correspondence with those brave men, who, under the impression which proved too correct, that even the hard lot which they had chosen among barbarous and warlike tribes would soon be denied to them by the Greek Church, devoted themselves with intense application, to translations which might survive their personal labours. Upon men pursuing such toil, in such regions, uncheered by Christian society, or even by successful evangelism through the living voice, the letters of one more pleasantly situated came down “like showers that water the earth.”
Not less welcome did his personal visits continue to be to numbers of his own countrymen in the capital, who had long been estranged from the privileges of their native land. He reckoned, and perhaps justly, that such direct communications, in his position, formed the most important department of his duties. It certainly was one to which he was singularly adapted, and in which he was permitted to observe very distinct proofs of the Divine blessing. The spirit in which the work was pursued is thus expressed: —
Journal. — “February 19, 1823. — In my pastoral visits during this week my soul lias been much comforted by the pious conversation of my dear people. They are very dear to rae indeed. Many of them are my children in the faith. — 0 my God, how greatly dost thou comfort me and bless me, in giving me such tokens of Thine approval! Dearest Lord and Saviour, thou knowest that I love Thee and Thy service; nor would thousands of gold and silver so rejoice my heart as to see Thy kingdom advancing among us.”
Particular cases are often recorded, and made the occasion of special prayer or praise — the golden thread which ran through the whole texture of his life — “Mr. M. was deeply affected when conversing with me on spiritual things. His little daughter observed her father affected, and with much concern looked at him and then at me, as if I knew the cause. May she soon hear a father’s prayers, and know that his tears are those both of sorrow and of joy.” Again: “Spent the day at the Y.’s in the country. Had much delightful conversation with Mrs. Y., and could not but admire the goodness of God in making her so devoted.” Then, at a dying-bed: Oh, how my soul was comforted to behold the apparent penitence, solicitude, love, hope, and obedience of this poor dying woman! — I thank Thee for bringing me acquainted with that poor, depraved family.” Of a public person of great influence: “The censor purchased good books for his domestics. Was much delighted with his moistened and intelligent eye, and his apparently warm and devoted heart. — Lord, let there be ten thousand such instances of piety in this city! Amen.”
Towards the close of this year the Russian Bible Society, which for the ten previous years had continued to pour forth its treasures in an uninterrupted stream upon the country, began to experience some premonitory difficulties. The metropolitan, Michael, who had been its true friend, died, and was succeeded in his ecclesiastical office by Seraphim, its decided enemy. The complaints of the inferior clergy could now find their way to influential persons in the Church, and from thence to the ears of Arakcheyeff, the chief minister of state, upon whom the burden of government began more and more to be developed. The emperor, however, continued to show his personal favour to the promoters of evangelical measures, and while he did so, no open hostility was to be dreaded. Mr. Knill thus cautiously and devoutly alludes to the imperial kindness in a letter to his young friend, Mr. Parkinson, then in England: —
‘’August 15, 1823. — The great friend of good men and good things in this empire lately took tea with Mr. and Mrs. Yenning. He was there for an hour and a half, and never was so warm in the things of God. Let us pray daily for him; for in his days the righteous flourish.’’
At a somewhat later period, he writes to Miss Ross of Edinburgh, to whom he was often indebted for a deep and practical interest in his endeavours: — “I enjoy the fullest liberty, and the Lord is pleased to bless us with many proofs of His loving-kindness, and though I know not what may be my lot to-morrow, yet He has taken from me all fear and disquietude. I was greatly agitated and distressed at one time, but I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. Hallelujah!.... Decided and almost universal hostility to vital religion is a marked feature of the present time, and it is to my mind an evidence that it is greatly on the increase, that it is striking its roots deeply in the hearts of the Lord’s people, and that the energies of the Church will be called forth mightily. It is a very eventful period, and I trust that we shall be assisted to advance the Redeemer’s kingdom.”
The same letter mentions the continued stability of the school: —” The announcement
of your great kindness to our school, through Dr. Brown’s letter, was quite cheering to the hearts of the committee. It came most opportunely; for, owing to the want of religion among all ranks, we meet with very little assistance. Indeed, many strenuously oppose it, especially as it is in the hands of those whom they are pleased to style ‘Methodists.’ Notwithstanding this, it flourishes, and more than two hundred boys and one hundred girls are daily receiving instruction in the most important things. These children are from among the lower orders, and, through the Divine blessing, may be expected to exert a great influence over the morals of the present generation, and the next generation also. If you have never been out of England, it is not possible that you can form an idea of the depraved state of a large city with little religion in it. Books cannot convey a thousandth part of the real state of things.”
Still, too, did he enjoy the cooperation of the valued friends who laid the foundations of his work, and in whose usefulness he was ever as ready to rejoice as in his own. On one occasion, being seized with sudden illness when about to preach, he called, he says, “on Dr. Paterson to pray, and with difficulty sat down. The Doctor immediately came into the pulpit, and went through the service in a most solemn, animated, and edifying manner, afterwards administering the Lord’s Supper to the largest number of communicants that we have ever had. The Lord was very gracious to us all in thus assisting His servant to declare His counsel.’’ At another time, when detained at home by sickness. Dr. Henderson and Dr. Paterson divided the services between them, and “I bless the Lord,” is his language, “that my dear people were so well supplied, and that my brethren were enabled to set forth the word of life in so precious a manner. Oh that I may hear, on some future day, of sinners being converted under these faithful discourses!’^ Nor were his sympathies limited to his own flock. He watched with deep interest signs of advancing life in the other English congregation.” It is very gratifying, “is the entry in the Journal of March 14, 1824,” to hear of the Rev. Edward Law’s faithful preaching
to SO large a congregation. — May Thy word be made like a fire and a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces! May there be a shaking among the dry bones, and a great ingathering of precious souls to Christ! Amen.”