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Stern, Henry Aaron, D.D.

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Stern, Hermann

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a minister of the Church of England, was born April 11, 1820, at Unterreichenbach, Hesse-Cassel, of Jewish parentage. In 1840 he embraced Christianity in London. England, and in 1844 the London Jews' Society sent him as a missionary to Bagdad, to labor there among the Jews. At Jerusalem, where he stopped on the journey, he was admitted into deacon's orders by the late bishop Alexander, the first Protestant bishop in the Holy City. In 1849 Stern left his station for England, and was admitted into priest's orders by the bishop of London. In 1850 he returned to Bagdad, a few years afterwards was removed to Constantinople, and from this centre he undertook missionary journeys to Asia Minor, Arabia Felix, and the Crimea. At the request of the London committee, he then proceeded in 1859 to Abyssinia, for the purpose of making known the gospel among the Falasha Jews. For eighteen months he labored there, when he was invited to visit England with a view of setting before his society the importance of laboring in Abyssinia. In 1862 Stern started on his second journey to that country. The events of that journey were eventually to form no unimportant episode in the history of England. The semi-barbarous king of Abyssinia had endeavored in vain to open diplomatic relations with England. The infuriated king imprisoned the helpless missionary who came to pay his respects. The other Europeans, including the British consul, shared in Mr. Stern's sufferings and imprisonment. This happened in October 1863, and not till April 11,1868, were the prisoners delivered. Having recovered from his many sufferings, Stern accepted in 1870 the charge of the Home Mission in London. He died May 13, 1885. (B.P.)