Miss Fidelia Fiske was born in 1816 in Shelburne, Massachusetts. A work of grace was wrought in her heart when she was just a child. For months she carried a burdened heart until one day she said, “Mother, I am a lost sinner.” Later she wrote, that the Lord “was pleased to humble my proud heart, and make me willing to accept the terms of mercy.”

She was much talented intellectually and was said to have read Mather’s massive Magnalia Christi Americana and Timothy Dwight’s Theology by the age of eight.

With her gifts and learning she was on the road to be much used in the education of young girls in her home state. However she felt a call to become a missionary in Persia and in 1843 she travelled to labour among the Nestorians in Urmia. Today Urmia is the tenth most populated city in Iran with a population of about 700,000.

The work was slow initially but she soon began to win great respect through her mastery of the local language and her services as a nurse in the region. In the city she established a boarding school for females. Soon the school had an enrolment of over 40 pupils and went on to become highly regarded in Persia.

She took seriously ill and returned to Massachusetts with the intention of getting back to Urmia if she recovered. That however did not happen. Miss Fiske died in her hometown of Shelburne July 26, 1864. Her biography “Faith Working by Love” was published 4 years after her death. It contains many of her edifying letters and anecdotes of her labours among ‘her girls.’ She witnessed a number of awakenings among the pupils.

One incident in the life of Miss Fiske struck me as illustrative of today’s text, “the Lord was my stay.” The extract below is from her biography. It is from one of her letters to a friend in America.

"May I give you one of the Master's sermons? A few Sabbaths since, I went to Geog Tapa with Mr. Stoddard. It was afternoon, and I was sitting on a mat near the middle of the church, which has no seats, and only a floor of earth. I had been to two exercises before going to the church, one the Sabbath school, and the other a prayer meeting, with my girls. I was weary, and longed for rest, and, with no support, it seemed to me that I could not sit there till the close of the service; nor could I hope for rest even when that was over, for I must meet the women readers of the village, and encourage them in reading their Testaments. I thought how I would love to be in your church; but God took the thought from me very soon, for, finding that there was some one directly behind me, I looked, and there was one of the sisters, who had seated herself so that I might lean upon her. I objected; but she drew me back to the firm support she could give, saying, 'If you love me, you will lean hard.' Did I not then lean hard? And then there came the Master's own voice, 'If you love me, you will lean hard;' and I leaned on Him too, and felt that He had sent the poor woman to give me a better sermon than I might have heard even with you. I was rested long before the church services were finished; and I afterwards had a long hour with the women readers, and closed with prayer. A little after sunset we left, to ride six miles to our home. I was surprised to find that I was not at all weary that night, nor in the morning, and I have rested ever since, remembering the sweet words, "If you love me, lean hard."

Other quotations.

“If I know my heart, it is my great desire henceforth to live entirely for God. I am surrounded by an interesting field of labour, such an one as for many years I have desired. And never, from the time I first began to love my blessed Saviour, did I relinquish the hope that such a privilege was in store for me, till my severe sickness. And since my Father has thus raised me from weakness and bodily infirmities to health; and has, in his own good time and way, opened the door for me to come to this land of darkness, ought not my heart to overflow with thankfulness, and my every power be devoted to the cause of Christ? (Fidelia Fiske 1816-1864, on her arrival in Iran).

“It is sweet to feel that Jesus wills that all his should be with him where he is, and that he comes for them himself. I love to dwell upon those hours when I supposed he had come for me in 1840. I could not tell others of it; but it was such sweet peace to know that he was there, and that he would do all. Since that hour I can never think of the dying Christian as being at all alone. Death is swallowed up in victory; and why should it not be? Jesus is there ; his presence is a blessed reality; the spirit can go with him."

“The Lord Jesus has been the Gardener of our school. He has come down and watered it with heavenly rain.”