"
The missionaries appealed to a former governor, who owned that part
of the city, for leave to bury in the cemetery used by the
Nestorians from time immemorial; but the patriarch paid no attention
to his messages, and the child remained unburied. Miss Fiske wrote,
"As we look out on this troubled sea, and sympathize with these
afflicted parents, we love to look up and think of the dear child as
sweetly resting on the bosom of the Saviour. May the Sabbath bring
us a foretaste of heavenly rest." But it found them still "where
storms arise and ocean rolls." The governor sent men to demand the
digging of a grave, which the mob would not allow. Meanwhile, the
profligate Mar Gabriel craftily suggested that a promise from the
priest not to preach any more, might end the trouble. "Never," was
the prompt reply. "Let my dead remain unburied, but I will not go
back from the service of the Lord." This so enraged the patriarch,
that, for the sake of peace, the governor advised to bury the body
in one of the villages. The sorrowing parents then locked their
house, and leaving their babe alone in its slumbers, went to the
chapel.
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