898 



REVIEW Of REVIEWS. 



Sovertiher 1, 19Ji. 



THE ROMANCE OF THE TARTAR WYCLIF. 



An astonishing story of what one 

 man did on the steppes of Siberia, of 

 the stupendous religious labours of a 

 Russian missionary, is told vividly by a 

 Russian writer, Alexei Yakovlev, in The 

 East and the W est. 



According to this writer, Nicolai 

 Ivanovitch Ilminsky (1822-1891) was 

 one of the most remarkable sons of 

 Russia in the nineteenth century. 



The son of a priest, he was born in Penza, 

 and educated in the ecclesiastical academy 

 of Kazan; he studied Tartar, Arabic, and 

 other Eastern l.mguages, and travelled for 

 about twenty-two years in Arabia, Asia 

 Minor, and Egypt. He was Professor of 

 Eastern Languages at the Kazan Ecclesiasti- 

 cal Academy and at Kazan University. As 

 early as 1847 he started his life-work, the 

 Christian mission among the different tribes 

 who inhabit the east of European Russia 

 and Siberia ; this work, begun on the most 

 modest scale, proves to be from year to year 

 one of the most creative and inspiring 

 achievements of Russian life. 



The Russian Church was at that time 

 (1865) becoming alarmed at the proselyt- 

 ing inroads of the Mohammedans 

 among the peasants of East Russia. 

 Ilminsky's talents and devotion were 

 very welcome. Says Mr. Yakovlev: — 



Nicolai Ivanovitch was a rare specimen of 

 the human race. Gifted with wonderful 

 philological capacities, which allowed him 

 with amazing quickness and facility to mas- 

 ter foreign languages, he was a very fine 

 scholar, standing on the very pinnacle of the 

 European philological science. The Arabs 

 in Arabia, where he lived in a tent and led 

 with them a nomadic life, could not discern 

 from his elocution and his management of 

 the Arabian that he was a foreigner. The 

 Tartars of Kazan would not believe be was a 

 Russian, and not a born Tartar who had re- 

 nounced his origin. 



Ilminsky, however, was more than 

 learned. He was mild, affable, truly 

 good, untiring in his missionary zeal. 

 Moreover, he had exceptionally good 

 health and a cheerful disposition. 

 With the help of a native Tartar, a bap- 

 tised water-carrier named Vassili Timo- 

 fee, Ilminsky proceeded to translate the 

 Scriptures into the Tartar tongue. 



Iti 1863 he began the literary propaganda 

 of his new ideas in Russian ecclesiastical 

 reviews. The point was hit. Since this 

 year, now just half a century ago, the cause 

 started by Ilminsky was a victorious tri- 

 umph of human mind over the enormous dif- 

 ficulties of this delicate affair, in itself ren- 

 dered still more delicate by tlie conditions of 



Russian life. Guarded, protected, and led 

 bv Ilminsky till his death (December 

 2"7th, 1891), supported by scores, hun- 

 dreds, thousands, and now scores of thou- 

 sands, of his followers, his cause is growing 

 and spreading out with an untiring success 

 in conquering for Christendom and Russian 

 culture millions of men and women of dif- 

 ferent tribes, and in amalgamating them 

 with the Russian people. 



When the work was completed, in the 

 summer of 1864, Timofee went to the 

 villages of the baptised Tartars. 



He preached to them the Gospel and read 

 to them the newly-prepared translations of 

 the Old Testament, and behold ! people who 

 ten years before avoided all religious conver- 

 sations with the utmost distrust at every at- 

 tempt to approach them, now gathered in 

 crowds to listen to the reading in their ver- 

 nacular language, and were movcxl and went 

 while listening to and nnd<Mstanding the 

 sublime truths of Christian lore. 



Timofee banded them in choirs to 

 sing Christian hymns, and this impro- 

 vised singing made a wonderful impres- 

 sion on them. The movement took on 

 like fire in drought. 



"It is wonderful to observe these chil- 

 dren," says one of the observers of the 

 school, " fathered from different lonely and 

 remote villages, dressed like beggars, with 

 poor overcoats with holes in them and miser- 

 able shoes of soaked last : how they praise 

 the majesty of God in their dialect. In the 

 village, some boy pupil of the school is sit- 

 ting upon a log and reading to the crowd the 

 Holy Scripture. The dancing ceases, the 

 singers become silent — all are still. The slow 

 reading goes on. Pressing themselves to- 

 gether, afraid to lose one word, with tears 

 in their e.ves and heaving breasts, the Tartars 

 listen to the Word of God in their own lan- 

 guage. 



" The women do not wish to go home, 

 though torn away by their little children. 

 The reading or narration continues for two. 

 or even three, liours. After it is finished 

 the deep silence is broken. Observations -are 

 heard : ' How wonderful, how charming it is 

 to listen to one's own language : and in the 

 church we understand nothing.' ' How thank- 

 ful we are that you have it written for us 

 in our own dialect. . . .' ' These boys 

 will know everything concerning the faith : 

 through them it will be known to others, be- 

 cause they read and speak our own dialect. 

 Such learning is good.' " 



The most difficult of all victories was 

 his — the victory over the human heart 

 and mind. The method was established 

 theoretically and practically ; it proved 

 to be fully sufficient. The Kazan School 

 for the baptised Tartars served as a 

 laboratory of the ideas and ]")roceedings, 



