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10 - Raymond Lull- First Missionary to the Moslems by Samuel Zwemer · Raymond Lull- First Missionary to the Moslems

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nine of Raymond Lowell, First Missionary to the Moslems
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  Speaker 1: by Samuel Wemer. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter nine his last missionary journey and his martyrdom. As
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  Speaker 1: a hungry man makes dispatch and takes large morsels on
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  Speaker 1: account of his great hunger, So thy servant feels a
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  Speaker 1: great desire to die that he might glorify thee. He
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  Speaker 1: hurries day and night to complete his work in order
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  Speaker 1: that he may give up his blood and his tears
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  Speaker 1: to be shed for thee. Lols Lieber contemplantitiones, and deo
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  Speaker 1: is not devotion always blind that if furrow befacon, it
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  Speaker 1: must have blood and tears, such as Augustine called the
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  Speaker 1: blood of the soul Sabatier. The scholastics of the Middle
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  Speaker 1: Ages taught that there were five methods of acquiring knowledge observation, reading, listening, conversation,
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  Speaker 1: and meditation, but they left out the most important method,
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  Speaker 1: namely that by suffering. Loll's philosophy had taught him much,
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  Speaker 1: but it was in the school of suffering that he
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  Speaker 1: grew into a saint. Love, not learning, is the key
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  Speaker 1: to his character. The philosopher was absorbed in the missionary.
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  Speaker 1: The last scene of Lul's checkered life is not at Rome,
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  Speaker 1: nor Paris, nor Naples, in the midst of his pupils,
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  Speaker 1: but in Africa, on the very shores from which he
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  Speaker 1: was twice banished at the Council of Vienna. As we
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  Speaker 1: have seen in chapter five, Loull had rejoiced to see
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  Speaker 1: some portion of the labors of his life brought to fruition.
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  Speaker 1: When the deliberations of the Council were over, and the
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  Speaker 1: battle for instruction and Oriental languages in the universities of
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  Speaker 1: Europe had been won, it might have been thought that
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  Speaker 1: he would have been willing to enjoy the rest he
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  Speaker 1: had so well deserved. Raymond Loull was now seventy nine
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  Speaker 1: years old, and the last few years of his life
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  Speaker 1: must have told heavily. Even on so strong a frame
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  Speaker 1: and so brave a spirit as he possessed, his pupils
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  Speaker 1: and friends naturally desired that he should end his days
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  Speaker 1: in the peaceful pursuit of learning and the comfort of companionship. Dutch, however,
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  Speaker 1: was not Lull's wish. His ambition was to die as
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  Speaker 1: a missionary and not as a teacher of philosophy. Even
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  Speaker 1: his favorite Ars Major had to give way to that
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  Speaker 1: Ars Maximus, expressed in Lul's own motto, he that lives
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  Speaker 1: by the life cannot die. This language reminds one of
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  Speaker 1: Paul's second Epistle to Timothy, where the apostle tells us
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  Speaker 1: that he too was now already being offered and that
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  Speaker 1: the time of his departure was at hand. In Loul's contemplations,
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  Speaker 1: we read, as the needle naturally turns to the north
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  Speaker 1: when it is touched by the magnet. So it is fitting,
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  Speaker 1: o Lord, that thy servant should turn to love and
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  Speaker 1: praise and serve thee, seeing that out of love to
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  Speaker 1: him thou wast willing to endure such grievous pangs and sufferings.
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  Speaker 1: And again, men are wont to die, O Lord, from
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  Speaker 1: old age, the failure of natural warmth and excess of cold.
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  Speaker 1: But thus, if it be thy will is, thy servant
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  Speaker 1: would not wish to die. You prefer to die in
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  Speaker 1: the glow of love, even as thou wast willing to
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  Speaker 1: die for him. Other passages in Loul's writings of this period,
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  Speaker 1: such as the words at the head of this chapter,
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  Speaker 1: shows that he longed for the crown of martyrdom. If
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  Speaker 1: we consider the age in which loul lived and the
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  Speaker 1: race from which he sprang, this is not surprising. Even
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  Speaker 1: before the thirteenth century, thousands of Christians died as martyrs
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  Speaker 1: to the faith in Spain, many of them cruelly tortured
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  Speaker 1: by the Moors for blaspheming Mohammed. Among the Franciscan order,
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  Speaker 1: a mania for martyrdom prevailed. Every friar who was sent
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  Speaker 1: to a foreign shore craved to win the heavenly palm
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  Speaker 1: and wear the purple passion flower. The spirit of the
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  Speaker 1: Crusades was in possession of the Church and its leaders
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  Speaker 1: even after the sevenfold failure of its attempts to win
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  Speaker 1: by the sword. Bernard of Clervaux wrote to the templars,
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  Speaker 1: the soldier of Christ is safe when he slays, safer
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  Speaker 1: when he dies. When he slays, it profits Christ. When
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  Speaker 1: he dies, it prophets himself. Much earlier than the end
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  Speaker 1: of the Middle Ages, the doctrines of martyrdom had taken
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  Speaker 1: hold of the church. Stories of the early martyrs were
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  Speaker 1: the popular literature to fail the flame of enthusiasm. A
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  Speaker 1: martyr's death was supposed on the authority of many scripture
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  Speaker 1: passages to cancel all sins of the past life, to
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  Speaker 1: supply the place of baptism, and to secure admittance at
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  Speaker 1: once to paradise without a sojourn in purgatory. One had
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  Speaker 1: only to read Dante, the graphic painter of society in
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  Speaker 1: the Middle Ages, to see this illustrated. Above all, it
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  Speaker 1: was taught that martyrs had the betific vision of the Savior,
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  Speaker 1: even as did Saint Stephen, and that their dying prayers
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  Speaker 1: were sure of hastening the coming of Christ's kingdom. But
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  Speaker 1: the violent passions so prevalent, and the universal hatred of
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  Speaker 1: Jews and infidels, made men forget that not the blood,
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  Speaker 1: but the cause makes the martyr. Raymond Lowell was ahead
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  Speaker 1: of his age, and his aims, and in his methods,
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  Speaker 1: but he was not, and could not be, altogether uninfluenced
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  Speaker 1: by his environment. The spirit of chivalry was not yet
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  Speaker 1: dead in the knight, who forty eight years before had
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  Speaker 1: seen a vision of the crucified and had been knighted
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  Speaker 1: by the pierced hands for a spiritual crusade. Like Heber,
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  Speaker 1: he felt, the Son of God goes forth to war
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  Speaker 1: a kingly crown to gain his blood. Red banner streams
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  Speaker 1: Afar who follows in his train, who best can drink
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  Speaker 1: his cup of woe, triumphant over pain, who patient bears
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  Speaker 1: his cross? Below he follows in his train aglo rious band,
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  Speaker 1: the chosen Few, on whom the spirit came, twelve valiant
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  Speaker 1: saints their hope. They knew and mocked the cross and flame.
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  Speaker 1: They climbed the steepest scent of heaven through peril, toil
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  Speaker 1: and pain. O God to us, May grace be given
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  Speaker 1: to follow in their train. The dangerous and difficulties that
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  Speaker 1: made Lull shrink back from his journey at Genoah in
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  Speaker 1: twelve ninety one only urged him forward to North Africa
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  Speaker 1: once more in thirteen fourteen. His love had not grown cold,
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  Speaker 1: but burned the brighter. With the failure of natural warmth
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  Speaker 1: and the weakness of old age, he longed not only
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  Speaker 1: for the martyrs crown, but also once more to see
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  Speaker 1: his little band of believers. Animated by these sentiments, he
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  Speaker 1: crossed over to Bougia on August fourteenth, and for nearly
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  Speaker 1: a whole year labored secretly among a little circle of
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  Speaker 1: converts whom, on his previous visits he had won over
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  Speaker 1: to the Christian faith, both to these converts and to
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  Speaker 1: any others who had boldness to come and join them
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  Speaker 1: in religious conversation. Love continued to expatiate on the one
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  Speaker 1: theme of which he never seemed to tire, the inherent
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  Speaker 1: superiority of Christianity to Islam. He saw that the real
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  Speaker 1: strength of Islam is not in the second clause of
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  Speaker 1: its all too brief creed, but in its first clause.
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  Speaker 1: The Mohammedan conception of the unity and the attributes of
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  Speaker 1: God is a great half truth. Their whole philosophy of
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  Speaker 1: religion finds its pivot in their wrong idea of absolute
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  Speaker 1: monism in the deity. We do not find Luw wasting
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  Speaker 1: arguments to disprove Mohammed's mission, but presenting facts to show
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  Speaker 1: that Mohammed's conception of God was efficient and untrue. If
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  Speaker 1: for nothing else, he deserves the honor. Yet this great
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  Speaker 1: principle of apologetics in the controversy with Islam, as first
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  Speaker 1: stated by Lull, marks him the great missionary to Moslems.
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  Speaker 1: If Moslems, he argued, according to their law, affirm that
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  Speaker 1: God loved man because he created him, endowed him with
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  Speaker 1: noble faculties, and pours his benefits upon him, then the Christians,
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  Speaker 1: according to their law, affirm the same. But inasmuch as
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  Speaker 1: the Christians believe more than this, and affirm that God
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  Speaker 1: so loved man that he was willing to become man
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  Speaker 1: to under poverty, ignominy, torture, and death for his head,
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  Speaker 1: which the Jews and Saracens do not teach concerning him.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore is the religion of the Christians, which thus reveals
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  Speaker 1: a love beyond all other, love superior to that of
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  Speaker 1: those which reveals it only in an inferior degree. Islam
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  Speaker 1: is a loveless religion. Raymond Loull believed and proved that
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  Speaker 1: love could conquer it. The Koran denies the incarnation and
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  Speaker 1: so remains ignorant of the true character, not only of
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  Speaker 1: the Godhead, but of God Matthew eleven twenty seven. At
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  Speaker 1: the time when Louell visited Boujia and was imprisoned, the
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  Speaker 1: Mosms were already replying to his treatises and were winning
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  Speaker 1: a convert from among Christians. He says, the Sarasans write
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  Speaker 1: books for the destruction of Christianity. I have myself seen
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  Speaker 1: set when I was in prison for one Saracen who
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  Speaker 1: becomes a Christian, ten Christians and more become Mahomedans. It
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  Speaker 1: becomes those who are in power to consider what the
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  Speaker 1: end will be of such a state of things. God
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  Speaker 1: will not be mocked. Louell did not think, apparently, that
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  Speaker 1: lack of speedy results was an argument for abandoning the
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  Speaker 1: work of preaching to Moslems, the unsearchable riches of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: high failure towering far or low success from faith unwarped
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  Speaker 1: by others, faithlessness which, like a day brightest that even
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  Speaker 1: tide seemed never half so deathless till he died. For
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  Speaker 1: over ten months, the aged missionary dwelt in hiding, talking
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  Speaker 1: and praying with his converts, and trying to influence those
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  Speaker 1: who were not yet persuaded. His one weapon was the
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  Speaker 1: argument of God's love in Christ and his shield of faith.
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  Speaker 1: Was that a medieval art which so aptly symbolizes the
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  Speaker 1: doctrine of the Holy Trinity. So lovingly and so unceasingly
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  Speaker 1: did Loll urge the importance of this doctrine that we
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  Speaker 1: have put the scudum fidei on the cover of this
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  Speaker 1: biography of the link breadth, depth, and height of the
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  Speaker 1: love of Christ. All Lull's devotional writings are full. This,
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  Speaker 1: according to all his biographers, was his last theme. Also
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  Speaker 1: at Bougia, at length, weary of seclusion and longing from martyrdom,
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  Speaker 1: he came forth into the open market and presented himself
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  Speaker 1: to the people as the same man whom they had
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  Speaker 1: once expelled from their town. It was Elijah showing him
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  Speaker 1: self to a mob of Ahabs. Loll stood before them
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  Speaker 1: and threatened them with divine wrath, as they still persisted
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  Speaker 1: in their errors. He pleaded with love, but spoke plainly
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  Speaker 1: the whole truth. The consequences can be easily anticipated. Filled
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  Speaker 1: with fanatic fury at his boldness, and unable to reply
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  Speaker 1: to his arguments, the populace seized him and dragged him
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  Speaker 1: out of the town. There By the command or at
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  Speaker 1: least the connivance of the king, he was stone on
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  Speaker 1: the thirtieth of June thirteen fifteen. Whether Raymond Loul died
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  Speaker 1: on that day or whether bill alive, he was rescued
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  Speaker 1: by a few of his friends, as disputed by his biographers.
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  Speaker 1: According to the latter idea, his friends carried the wounded
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  Speaker 1: saint to the beach, and he was conveyed in a
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  Speaker 1: vessel to Majorca. His birthplace, only to die ere he
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  Speaker 1: reached Palma. According to other accounts, which seemed to me
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  Speaker 1: to carry more authority, lol did not survive the stoning
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  Speaker 1: by the mob, but died like Stephen, outside the city.
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  Speaker 1: Also in this case, devout men carried loul to his
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  Speaker 1: burial and brought the body to Palma Majorca, where it
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  Speaker 1: was laid to rest in the church of Santa Francisco.
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  Speaker 1: An elaborate tomb was afterward built in this church as
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  Speaker 1: a memorial to Loull. Its state is uncertain, but it
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  Speaker 1: is probably of the fourteenth century. Above the elaborately carved
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  Speaker 1: panels of marble are the shields or coat of arms
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  Speaker 1: of Raymond loll. On either side are brackets of metal
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  Speaker 1: work to hold candles. The upper horizontal panel shows Loll
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  Speaker 1: and repose in the garb of a Franciscan, with a
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  Speaker 1: rosary on his girdle and his hands in the attitude
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  Speaker 1: of prayer. May we not believe that this was his
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  Speaker 1: attitude when the angry mob caught up stones and crash
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  Speaker 1: followed crash against the body of the aged missionary. Perhaps
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  Speaker 1: not only the manner of his death, but his last
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  Speaker 1: prayer was like that of Stephen, the first martyr. It
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  Speaker 1: was the teaching of the medieval Church that there are
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  Speaker 1: three kinds of martyrdom, the first both in will and indeed,
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  Speaker 1: which is the highest, The second in will but not indeed.
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  Speaker 1: The third indeed, but not in will. Saint Stephen and
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  Speaker 1: the whole army of those who are martyred by fire
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  Speaker 1: or sword for their testimony are examples of the first
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  Speaker 1: kind of martyrdom. Saint John, the evangelists, and others like him,
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  Speaker 1: who died in exile or old age as witnesses to
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  Speaker 1: the truth but without violence, are examples of the second kind.
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  Speaker 1: The Holy Innocence slain by Herod are an example of
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  Speaker 1: the third kind. Louel Verily was a martyr in will,
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  Speaker 1: and indeed, not only at Bugia when he fell asleep,
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  Speaker 1: but for all the years of his long life after
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  Speaker 1: his conversion. He was a witness to the truth, ever
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  Speaker 1: ready to fill up that which is behind of the
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  Speaker 1: afflictions of Christ in his flesh for his body's sake,
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  Speaker 1: which is the Church, to be stoned to death while
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  Speaker 1: preaching the love of Christ to Moslems. That was a
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  Speaker 1: fitting end for such a life, Lowell says, Noble was
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  Speaker 1: the greatest of medieval missionaries, perhaps the grandest of all missionaries.
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  Speaker 1: From Paul to carryon Livingstone, his career suggests those of
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  Speaker 1: Joan of the Prophet, Paul's missionary, and Stephen the Martyr.
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  Speaker 1: Though his death was virtually self murder, its heinousness is
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  Speaker 1: lessened by his homesickness for heaven, his longing to be
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  Speaker 1: with Christ, and the sublimity of his character and career.
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  Speaker 1: End of chapter nine read by Alathia Kis