But one would not leave the Anglican mission without noticing its other side. It would be ungenerous to ignore that, in spite of the confusion of their position, they are doing enormous good. These missionaries devote their lives heroically to the difficult task of educating fellow-Christians in a distant, ungrateful land. From our point of view, we should say that, short of becoming Chaldees, the Nestorians can do no better than profit by the instruction, accept the guidance, follow the edifying example of their generous Anglican guests. We, too, may wish the Anglican mission God-speed in its noble work, with the additional wish that their instructions may open Nestorian eyes even more than they themselves intend; so that their pupils may at last seek reunion, not with the Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, but with a greater Patriarch, whose authority reaches further and is more firmly based. For it was not on the bishops of Cerularius's schism that Christ built his Church.
2. The Nestorian Hierarchy
The consideration of modern missions to this ancient Church has led us somewhat from our immediate subject. We have now to describe the Nestorians as they are at present. The first point seems to be obviously their numbers and organization under their hierarchy.
The Nestorians to-day fall into two main classes: those who live in Persia, and those in the Turkish Empire. In Persia there are groups and villages of Nestorians scattered about the Province of Aserbaijan,[1] mostly in the plains bordering Lake Urmi; there are others in the mountains towards the Turkish frontier. In Turkey they are found mostly in the Vilayet of Van. These,
- ↑ Aḏarbaiǵān. Most of these appear to have gone over lately to the Russian Church (p. 119). I do not know how many have yet come back.
that "intercommunion with a Church excommunicated by the Holy Orthodox Church is for us out of the question, until the faith as expounded at Chalcedon be formally acknowledged by her" (Six Months in a Syrian Monastery, London, 1895, p. 312). Yet he abhors the Uniates, says they "cannot be considered but in the light of a schismatic body" (ib. 130), and always calls the Jacobites the "old Church" (e.g. p. 208). One wonders whether, if a Methodist joined the Church of England, Mr. Parry would consider that he left the old Church to join a schismatic body.
