Reformátusok Lapja, 1970 (70. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1970-02-01 / 2. szám

REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

13

HUNGARIANS IN ASIA

When Hungarians first started to leave their homeland, the trend was towards the East.

When the Tartars in 1241 invaded Hungary, many Hungarians were killed, many escaped and many were taken captive by the invaders.

During the Turkish occupation, after 1526 many Hungarians were deported into Asia-Minor.

After the Revolution of 1848, the invading Russians took many prisoners.

Following World War I, about 30 thousand Hungarians were found in the Russian prison camps. Some of these came back westward, and some through Siberia eastward. Some of these Hungarians returned home, but some are still scattered in Siberia and some in the Far East.

After World War II, between 100-200 thousand Hungarian prisoners were again found in Russia, including those young men and women who were deported. Some of these were able to return, but nothing is known about the remainder. The number of deported grew after the 1956 Revolution, when about 15 thousand Hungarians were sent to Russia.

Hungarian linguists and scientists have traveled many times to the East looking for the origin of the Hungarian nation. Sándor Körösi Csorna in the last century traveled to India in search of the origin of the Hungarians. He died there and is buried in Darjeeling. Hungarian missionaries, mostly Roman Catholic have traveled extensively in China. The Rev. Alexander Babos, pastor of the Bethlehem Church, and his wife, were missionaries in Manchuria.

In Turkey now there live about two thousand Hungarians, in Israel there are more than twenty thousand, and Hungarians may be found in any country in Asia. Many of them surely occupy comfortable and important positions, but their hearts still yearn for their dear fatherland.

TO MY FATHERLAND

No news from you I hear to-day

My beateous land of vale and grove;

Yet, now that I am far away,

You above all things else I love.

Your mountain-peaks, your valleys deep I never, never can forget;

That on your breast I still may weep Is the desire that burns me yet.

Naught in thy niche can e’er repose, Nothing thy image e’er efface;

I ask the stream that swiftly flows Why it has left his native place;

I ash the passing bird that flies

If drought-killed are thy forests great,

That from thy boundaries he hies Like faithless man that emigrate.

Methinks the heavy lowering cloud Is as a widow’s veil to thee;

Methinks the wind that weeps aloud Is as a well-known flute to me.

Methinks the scent of flowers that blow Are just thy mournful sighings now;

The stars above, bonfires that glow Upon thy mountain’s lofty brow.

In every vista now descried

Some image I behold of thee,

And, walking o’er the fields, each stride The shadows of thy hills I see.

The mother to her errant son A holy relic gives to prize;

And that, though years and years roll on, Forever on his bosom lies.

Charles Szász Trans. W. N. Loew

Freedom Now

“... for freedom Christ has set us free...” Galations 5:1.

“Freedom now!” This is the cry of our age-instant freedom, total freedom. It is especially the cry of the younger generation. In addition to the traditional freedoms, young people want completely unrestricted freedom. As they put it, they want to do their thing without guidelines or external control.

Their cry is directed against the past, against institutions that have their roots in the past, against family and church,

and against political and economic institutions. They think these are the culprits that limit our freedoms and prevent us from being ourselves. So they must be radically changed, or destroyed if necessary. Only then will we be free. But few listen to the gospel.

The gospel speaks of man’s desire for freedom, but today it falls on deaf ears. It is too familiar, too common; and its promises of “freedom now” seem unreal, unimportant and empty. The gospel is like a prophet who is not accepted in his own country.

Yet, Jesus Christ has come to set us free. He offers the God-given freedom

that is essential for genuine freedom. For even when our revolutions succeed, and past institutions are drastically altered or destroyed, we soon discover that we are not as free as we thought we would be. The old problems return in subtly different forms. Revolutions may change some things for better or for worse, but they make no basic change in us. And that is what must be changed. We must be freed from what is wrong with ourselves.