'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎508] (567/714)

508
PERSIA
Nestorians proper, and these, again, are not on the most harmonious
terms with the Chaldaeans, or Catholic Nestorians. The Armenians
gaze askance upon the United (or Catholic) Armenians, and both
unite in retarding the work of the Protestant missions. Finally
the hostility of the Jews may, as a rule, be reckoned upon. In the
various countries of the East in which I have travelled, from Syria
to Japan, I have been struck by the strange and, to my mind
sorrowful phenomenon, of missionary bands waging the noblest of
warfares under the banner of the King of Peace with fratricidal
weapons in their hands.
And now, with regard to the practical results of all this excel
lent, if not always harmonious, enterprise. In my remarks upon
Practical tl]e Nestorian Christians I shall show that the mission
aries have there performed, and continue to perform, a
highly meritorious work. The same may be said of Dr. Brace's
labour among the Armenians at Julfa. But, after all, the temper
of mission work is propagandist, and the zealous missionary is ill-
satisfied unless he is adding to the fold as well as confirming its
existing members. If, then, the criterion of missionary enterprise
in Persia be the number of converts it has made from Islam, I do
not hesitate to say that the prodigious expenditure of money, of
honest effort, and of sacrificing toil that has been showered upon
that country has met with a wholly inadequate return. Young
Mohammedans have sometimes been baptised by Christian mis
sionaries. But this must not too readily be confounded with
conversion, since the bulk of the newcomers relapse into the
faith of their fathers; and I question if, since the day when
Henry Martyn set foot in Shiraz up till the present moment,
half a dozen Persian Mohammedans have genuinely embraced
the Christian creed. 1 I have myself often inquired for, but have
never seen, a converted Mussulman (I exclude, of course, those
derelicts or orphans of Mussulman parents who are brought up
fiom childhood in Christian schools). Nor am I surprised at even
the most complete demonstration of failure. Putting' aside the
1 Canon Isaac Taylor, in his well-known article, entitled ' The Great Missionary
t allure, in the Fortnightly Review of 1888, said of Persia : ' In Persia, we are told
that '-a great and wondrous door has been opened for the Gospel but no con
verts are mentioned, and the door seems to consist of a Persian who reads the
Bible, which is one of his own sacred books. I have several correspondents among'
the Persian Moslems, and they continually quote the Bible, with which they seem
to be almost as familiar as with the Koran.'
SBill
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impletett