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Transferred to the
LIBRARY OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
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Fifty-Three Years in Syria
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Fifty-Three Years
In Syria
By
HENRY HARRIS JESSUP, D.D. .
Introduction by James S. Dennis, D. D.
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME I
New York Chicago Toronto
Fleming H. Re veil Company
London and Edinburgh
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Copyright, 1910, by
FLEMING H. RBVELL COMPANY
^^••ii*^
• • •••
• • •
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New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W.
London: ai Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street
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18 1911
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Dedicated
to the
Memory of
my revered father^ Hon. William Jessup^
JUL D.^ and my beloved mother^ Amanda
Harris Jessup : by whose godly example^
wise counsel^ and fervent prayers^ I was
led to Christ in my early boyhood; who
helped me on my Christian course and to
learn the luxury of doing good^ and cheer-
fully gave me and my brother Samuel to
the missionary work^ at a time when a
journey to Syria seemed like an act of self
immolation.
I have tried to follow their example^ and
pray that my children and grandchildren
may aU prove worthy of such an ancestry.
" The memory of the just is blessed!^
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Introduction
THE author of this volume is one of the pioneers of the
new historic era and the changing social order in the
Nearer East He is entitled to this distinction not be-
cause of direct political activity, or of any strenuous role as a
social reformer, but because of those fifty-three years of mission-
ary service in the interests of religious uplift, educational progress,
social morality, and all those civilizing influences which now by
general consent are recognized results of the missionary enter-
prise.
It is a chronicle of eventful years in the history of Western
Asia. It is necessarily largely personal, as the book is a com-
bination of autobiographical reminiscence with a somewhat de«
tailed record of mission progress in Syria. No one can fail to be
impressed with the variety and continuity, as well as the large
beneficence of a life service such as is herein reviewed. In ver-
satile and responsible toil, in fidelity to his high commission, in
diligence in the use of opportunity, in unwavering loyalty to the
call of missionary duty, his career has been worthy of the ad-
miration and affectionate regard of the Church. The writer of
this introduction regards it as one of the privileges of his mis-
sionary service in Syria that for twenty-two of the fifty-three
years which the record covers he was a colleague of the author,
and that such a delightful intimacy has marked a lifelong friend-
ship.
Dr. Jessup has been a living witness of one of the most vivid and
dramatic national transformations which the world's annals re-
cord, as well as himself a contributor, indirectly and unconsciously
perhaps, yet no less truly and forcefully, to dianges as romantic,
weird, and startling as the stage of history presents. We seem
3
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4 Introduction
to be in the enchanted atmosphere of politics after the order of
the Arabian Nights. In fact, no tale of the Thousand and One
Nights can surpass in imaginative power, mystical import, and
amazing significance, this story of the transportation of an en-
tire empire, as if upon some magic carpet of breathless flight,
from the domain of irresponsible tyranny to the realm of con-
stitutional government. The cruel and shocking episode of mas-
sacre in transit seems to be in keeping with the ruthless barbarity
of the despotic environment.
The author has presented his readers with a chapter of church
history, which resembles a modern version of the annals of the
great Reformation, and at the same time has a significant bearing
upon the contemporary status of Christianity where it impinges
upon Islam. The early fathers wrote of the opening struggles of
Christianity with an overshadowing and hostile heathen environ-
ment. Modem historians have told us of the great conflicts
with the corrupt and unsavoury medievalism of the Reformation
era. Now in our day has come the turn of the later fathers of
this missionary era, who are giving us a voluminous record of
the world-embracing conflicts of present-day Christianity with
the great dominant religions of the non-Christian world. Such
volumes as Cary's *' History of Christianity in Japan," Richter's
«' History of Missions in India," Warneck's '< Outline of a
History of Protestant Missions," Stock's " History of the Church
Missionary Society," and the " Records of the China Centenary
Conference at Shanghai," with many others that might be men*
tioned, already form the later chronicles of a triumphant advance,
which is no doubt finally to claim a world-wide victory.
The author's record is limited of course to one storm-centre of
the foreign mission field. The story as he recounts it in page after
page of his book is full to overflowing with rapid movement and
crowded detail, but his fund of anecdote and incident constantly
enlivens what readers unfamiliar with missionary history in Syria
might find lacking in personal interest to them. His reminiscences
of distinguished visitors and travellers, his genial records of social
hours, or of touring companionships, his wealth of judicious and
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Introduction 5
vigorbus comment upon questions of missionary policy and
practice, his unflinching characterization of fraud, corruption, and
hierarchical assumption, his frequent allusion to the light which
the land and its customs throw upon the Bible, his sketches of
social etiquette and every-day life a generation or more ago, be-
fore the modernization of Syria began, are all valuable features
of the narrative.
There are other aspects which no reader will fail to note, and
which give a lively interest to the contents of the volume. His
chronicles of persecution, spoliation, civil war, and massacre,
which have so often marked the religious and political turmoils
of the Asiatic Levant, his flashlights upon the confused religious
entanglements of the Nearer Orient, his descriptive glimpse9 of
the natural features and the physical phenomena, as well as the
flora and fauna, of lands famous in Uterature and history, his
references to men and women prominent in the tragic drama of
civil and religious strife, as, for example, his story of Abd el
Kadir, are illustrative of the variety which marks the subject
matter.
His annals of church growth and organization in Syria, and the
touching and often deeply stirring accounts of the experiences of
individual converts, some of whom were martyrs, and all of whom
passed through spiritual struggles, or endured cruel mockings and
harassing persecutions, lend a living interest to the record. His
report of educational progress — marvellous and beyond all ex-
pectation in the case of such an institution as the Syrian Prot-
estant College at Beirut, his chronicles of literary toil and
scholarly achievements in Bible translation, as well as in a broad
range of literature issued by the American Mission Press, his
tribute to the untiring and unstinted services of medical mission-
aries in Syria, of whom the lamented Dr. George £. Post was
such a brilliant example, all add a historical and personal value to
this story of unwavering consecration in one of the difficult and
faith-testing mission fields of the world.
The record he gives of the sacrificial lives of eminent and de-
vout men and women who have rendered noble service to
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6 Introduction
Christ's kingdom in Western Asia should be sacred to the modern
Church. In these da)^ of phenomenal missionary advance, when
converts in many fields are counted by the thousands, and when
such elaborate and vigorous organized support is given to the
cause of missions, there is much that is wholesome and instructive
in the study of such a chapter as that upon ** The Seven Pioneers
of the Syria Mission," which recounts the struggles and toils of
those remarkable men who faced the difficulties and perils of
those early days. Let us not forget or ignore amid the missionary
successes of the present those *' nights of toil " which tried the
faith and taxed the fortitude of the toilers. We are sure that
Dr. Jessup's volume will meet with a sympathetic welcome among
hosts of friends. That it will command also the attention of
students of the East, as well as of that portion of the Christian
public, now rapidly increasing, who are interested in missions, we
have every reason to believe.
James S. Dennis.
In Aemotfam
Since the above Introduction was written the chronicle of Dr.
Jessup's busy and useful life has come to its final chapter. He
died in Beirut, April 28, 1910. Many appreciative notices have
appeared in the public press, and his death has been widely
recognized as the passing of a loyal and consecrated soul to the
realm of its higher service. It is a gratification to his friends
that he lived to complete this, his final task, and also that be
survived long enough to know something of the welcome ac-
corded to his captivating volumes, and the sympathetic and ad-
miring response they have awakened in many hearts.
J.S. D.
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Prefatory Note
douXot d^ptlot ktriuv
•• Unprofitable servants." — Luke 17 : 10
ANOTHER book? and that an autobiography? An
Arabic scholar recently died in Cairo who was a poet,
granunarian and editor, and who painted his own por-
trait by looking in a mirror.
Through the importunity of many friends, some of them my
children, and some in official position, I was persuaded to under-
take a sketch of my life and times, especially my now fifty-three
years of missionary service, and thus paint my own portrait.
In an unthinking moment I consented, and during the past four
years I have had to live over my whole life of seventy-seven
years and my Syrian life of fifty-three years, until I am tired of
my story and myself. A man true to himself can get little com-
fort from unrolling the musty scroll of seventy-seven years in
order to find out what he has been seeing, thinking, and doing
all this time.
My autobiography is one thing ; the history of the Syria Mis-
sion is quite another. To weave the two into one tends to mag-
nify the one and to minify the other. I have become weary of
seeing and writing *' I"
Having kept a pocket diary since 1855, and having copied all
important letters in my letter copy-books of which I have thirty
volumes of 500 pages each, the tax on my memory has not been
so severe as on that man about whom our good Mr* Calhoun
used to telL A bachelor storekeeper, who wrote out all his ac-
counts on the painted doors and window casements of his house,
married a tidy woman who soon put his house in order. One
day he came home, looked around him, and in dismay exclaimed,
" Wife, you have ruined me I " " Why? " she inquired. " Be-
7
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8 Prcfetory Note
cause all my accounts were written on these doors and you have
washed them off." After a moment she asked, "Don't you
think you can recall them ? " He replied, " Til try." After a
few days she asked him, " How have you succeeded ?" He re-
plied, " Fairly well ; I have not got so much written but it is
charged to better mea! " That is the danger where one has to
depend on mere memory. One may not recall as much, but he
may put things in a better light than if he could refer to a
record of the facts.
Once in Montrose when I was a boy, a pile of lumber fell on
Judge Isaac Post and knocked him unconscious. On recovering
consciousness he said that when the beams struck him he recalled
in an instant every event of his whole long life, and every word
he had ever spoken. Thus the contact of this pile of literary
lumber has caused me to relive my life in a very short time.
And what a startling revelation it has been I and how many
shortcomings it has revealed! How easy to see now how I
might have done better, preached better, taught better, and lived
nearer to my Lord and Saviour I " Not one good thing hath
iiEuled of all the good things which Jehovah our God spake con-
cerning us" (Josh. 23: 14). ''Remember all the way which
Jehovah thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilder-
ness, that He might humble thee to prove thee " (Deut 8 : 2).
He has been faithful to His promise, '' with you always " and
He has been with me in sunshine and shadow, in joy or sorrow,
on land and sea, amid perils from robbers, perils temporal, and
perils spiritual.
I take no credit to myself for anything God has helped me to
do or rather has done through me.
How often I have felt humiliated by the fulsome laudation ex-
pressed of foreign missionaries by friends in the home land, and
I have longed for the time when all Christian workers at home
and abroad shall stand on a level as disciples of a common Master
and equally engaged in His service. A soldier sent to the Phil-
ippines deserves no more credit than one on guard in the fort on
Governor's Island.
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Prcfetory Note 9
I have tried to stick to my life-work. Tempted at various
times to leave it and go home, or enter other fields of labour, I
have tried to resist the tempter and to hold otL And God has
helped me to hold on by giving me robust health, a happy home,
and work enough to keep me firom idleness.
It has well-nigh broken my heart at times to see young men
entering on what seemed a life-work, obliged by failing health to
drop their work, recross the sea to linger and die ** without the
sight" And I have always urged new recruits in the Lord's
foreign army to pray that they may have long life in His service.
In writing the early history of the work in Syria I have had
the goodly companionship of noble men, who stand out before
my mind as men of consecration, earnestness, and unusual ability.
I have tried to do them justice. Yet '' time would fail me " to
give details of all their lives. In some cases such details cannot
now be obtained.
I cannot dose this preface without acknowledging my indebt-
edness to my eldest daughter Anna. Her sympathy and en-
couragement lightened the labour. Her discriminating intelligent
judgment in selection of salient points of interest to be empha-
sized — her industry in sifting the enormous mass of ** raw ma-
terial,'* diaries, letters, manuscripts, addresses and prior published
articles — ^her persuasions and her dissuasions — ^were alike an in-
valuable aid.^
Henry Harris Jessup,
Beirut, January /, igio.
^Acknowledgment is made for photographs and plates to:
Rev. Dr. James S. Dennis; The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis-
sions ; The Thistees of the Syrian Protestant College ; The British Syrian
Mission Committee in London ; William T. Van Dyck, M. D. ; Bonfils
& Co., Beirut ; Messrs. Reiser & Binder, Cairo, Egypt ; Dr. Ira Harris
and Rev. Dr. Nelson, of Tripoli; Rev. G. C. Doolittle, Sidon; Mr. E.
BarOdi; Miss Anna H. Jessup; Dr. F. T. Moore ; Mr. Lucius Miller;
The Lebanon Hospital for the Insane ; and largely to Messrs. Sarrafian,
of Beirut.
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Contents
FIRST VOLUME
I. The Prbparation — Thb Call to Service^
Sailing for Syria — 1832-1856 ... 15
II. The Field in 1856 — Its Condition and Prob-
lems 20
III. The Seven Pioneers of Syria Mission Work . 31
IV. The Arabic Bible — Its Translation and the
Translators (1848-1865) .... 66
V. Organization of a Native Evangbucal Church
(1848) 79
VI. Educational Foundation Stones ... 95
VIL Life IN Tripou 112
VIII. The Massacre Summer of i860 . . 157
IX. Light After Darkness 215
X. After THE Massacres 233
XI. Further Growth (1862-1865) .... 241
XII. Obstacles to Success 275
XIII. The Syrian Protestant College . . 298
XIV. Progress and Revival 307
XV. Furloughs 363
XVI. A Critical Year 373
XVII. Antonius Yanni— a Sketch .... 386
XVIII. Sundry Notes and Incidents .... 396
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Contents
SECOND VOLUME
XIX.
XX.
XXI.
XXII. t
XXIII.
XXIV.
XXV.
XXVI.
XXVII.
XXVIII.
XXIX.
XXX.
NoTABLB Visitors and Converts . . . 405
A Cholera Year 430
Helps and Hindrances 467
Mission Schools "****<» 508
Sketches (1887) 526
Three Years of Progress (1888) • . . 533
Marking Time 572
A New Century Dawns (1899-1900) . . 664
The Whitening Fields (1901-1902) . . 695
My Latest Furlough — ^Years 1903-1904 . 719
Jubilee Times (1905-1907) .... 753
What Shall the Harvest Be? — ^January
1908-MAY 1909 781
Appendices :
I. Missionaries io Syria Mission from 18 19 to
1908 797
II. The History — Bibliography . . . 801
III. American Medical Missionaries and Agencies
in Syria Mission 802
IV. List of Mission Schools of the Presbyterian
Board of Foreign Missions in Beirut and
Damascus, and in the Mutserfiyet of
Lebanon 805
V. Outline of the IHstory of the Syria Mission
of the American Presbyterian Church and
Contemporary Events, 18 20- 1900 • . 809
VI. "Rgures," 1908- 1909 — Statistics of the
Syria Mission 814
VII. Statistics of the Syrian Protestant College
fit>m 1866 to 1906 .... 819
Index ...««•• 821
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Illustrations
FIRST VOLUME
„ „ _ Facing page
Henry H. Jessup ^itle
Hon. and Mrs. William Jessup i
Beirut 20
The American Press 25
Henry H. Jessup, 1855 ^o
Dr. Jonas King ^g
Buij Bird . • 42
Early Missionaries • •• • •• • • •S'
Drs. Anderson, Eddy and Thomson 57
Dr. and Mrs. Bird — Dr. and Mrs. Goodell 65
The Arabic Bible 'jS
Churches and Scenes 95
J. £. Ford, S. H. Calhoun, J. H. Lyons 10 1
Statue of Dr. Bliss — ^Tomb of Dr. Van Dyck . . . .111
Rural Scenes in Lebanon 116
Bridge and Water Wheels over the Orontes 1 20
The Kadisha River .124
The Cedars of Lebanon 139
The Town of Zahleh 1 59
American Mission, — Beirut, Syria 165
Hasbeiya 178
Abd el Kadir, Sir W. Muir, B. Bistany, Dr. Meshaka . . . 202
Governors of Lebanon 211
Beirut 223
Pine Grove South of Beirut 240
Beirut Native Evangelical Benevolent Society with Signatures . • 243
S3rrian Protestant Group, 1863 266
Beirut, City, Bay and Mount Lebanon 274
Jisr el Khardeli over the Litany 293
Pliny Rsk Hall, Syrian Protestant College 304
Panorama of the College 306
House and Yard of Lebanon Peasant 320
Geo. E. Post, J. S. Dennis, S. Jessup, Wm. Thomson, Rev. and
Mrs. Hurter, Mrs. S. Jessup 338
Churches and Schools 359
Drt. Dickson, Jessup and Hatfield, Dr. Bliss and Mr. Bird • • 363
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Appeal published whin tbi Foreign Board
suffered from a heavy debt
Tell it not among the Heathen, that the ship is on a reef;
It was freighted with Salvation, our " Captain," Lord and Chief—
But the tide at length receded, and left it high and dry.
The tide of gold and silver, the gifts of low and high ;
The eagles and the dollars, the nickels and the dimes.
Flowed of in other channels, from the hardness of the times.
Tell it not among the Heathen, that the train is of the track ;
The oil all gone — a heated box — the signal come to slack ;
The Foreign Board is side-tracked with its passengers and freight ;
Its messengers of mercy, though so eager, all must wait.
The oil was once abundant, and the wheels went smoothly on—
But drop by drop it lessened, and now 'tis wholly gone.
Tell it not among the Heathen, that the stream has ceased to flow,
Down from the lofty mountains in rain and dew and snow.
It flowed in floods and rivers, in rivulets and rills.
It gladdened plains and mountains, the distant lakes and hilb.
But now 'tis dry ! The thirsty ones, they cannot drink as yet.
For the Foreign Board is threatened with a paralyzing debt f
Tell it not among the Heathen, tell it not among the Jews !
Tell it not among the Moslems, this melancholy news ;
Lest sons of Gath deride us, and tell it to our shame
That Churches sworn to true and full allegiance to His Name
No longer do His bidding, no longer heed the cry
Of millions, who in sadness, must now be left to die !
Tell it not among the Heathen, but tell it to your Lord.
Drop on your knees, ye Christians,. and speak the truthful word ;
** We thought we gave our all to Thee, but now, with breaking heart,
We see that in our giving, we had kept back a part.
So with complete surrender, we give our all to Thee."
Then toll it to the heathen, that the Church of Christ is free.
That the tide of love is rising to float the ship again.
That the oil of Grace is flowing to start the stranded train.
That the rivulets of mercy are nsing to a flood.
For a blessing to the nadons, and the Glory of our God !
H.H.J.
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Fifty-Three Years in Syria
The Preparation — ^The Call to Service—Sailing
for Syria — 1 832-1 856
IN preparing my reminiscences of my missionary life of fifty-
three years in Syria, I wrote out at some length the account
of my boyhood days, the happy recollections of my father's
and mother's lives and characters, and the influences that in
school, college and seminary shaped my life purpose.
These, however, are of an intimate character, personal in their
interest to my children and grandchildren, not wholly appropriate
to a history of missionary endeavour.
Suffice it here to preface my history of my life in Syria by a
brief sketch.
My father, Hon. William Jessup, LL. D., was born at South-
ampton, L. I., June 21, 1797, and my mother, Amanda Harris,
at North Sea, near Southampton, August 8, 1798.
My father graduated from Yale in 181 5, and shortly afterwards
emigrated to Montrose in northeastern Pennsylvania, where I
was bom April 19, 1832, being the sixth of eleven children, ten
of whom grew to adult years. Montrose was then a mere
" clearing " in the unbroken forest extending from Newburgh on
the Hudson to Lake Erie; and my parents went by sloop to
Newburgh, thence by wagon. He borrowed ^50 to start on, and
taught school until he had qualified for admission to the bar.
The Jessup family (also spelled Jessop, Jessoppe and Jesup),
emigrated from the vicinity of Sheffield, England. John was the
first to come over, and Professor Jesup, of Dartmouth, has writ-
ten the genealogy of the different branches.
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i6 The Preparation
My dear friend Morris K. Jesup was the shining culmination
of the Connecticut branch. When, many years ago, he joined
the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, he still spelled his name
with two s's.
My father was chairman of the platform committee of the
Chicago Republican Convention which nominated Abraham
Lincoln, and that platform, which he read to that body, was
largely the result of his wise and patriotic labours. A fellow
delegate wrote to the New York Mail^ years afterwards, his record
of the venerable Judge, in the hotel bedroom they shared, kneel-
ing in prayer the night before the platform was read, and com-
mending it " to the God who would judge of its uprightness and
was alone able to give it success."
My father's interest and activity in the work of the Presbyte-
rian Church, his service in the General Assembly, hi^ successful
defense of Albert Barnes in 1837, his unswerving adherence to
the cause of temperance, his unselfish acquiescence in my deter-
mination to become a foreign missionary, are all matters of record
elsewhere.
I date my decision to be a foreign missionary in the summer
of 1852.
I had conducted the Missionary Concert at the dear church in
Montrose. I gave the missionary news and appealed to the peo-
ple to support the work or to go in person to do it.
I then realized the incongruity of asking others to do what I
was not yet willing to do myself.
But on the day of prayer for colleges, February 24, 1853, at
Union Seminary, my impulse was crystallized into purpose, and
in March my chum, Lorenzo Lyons, and I decided to oflfer our-
selves to foreign mission work. I cannot here dwell on the de-
tails of that decision, the conference with my dear parents, their
sympathy and Christian self-denial. But from that day my choice
was made, and my preparations all directed to making m}^elf
available and useful. I attended medical lectures in the Crosby
Street Medical School ; " walked" the New York Hospital with
my cousin, Dr. Mulford, for two months, to learn << first aid " to
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The Call to Service 17
the sick and wounded ; I studied practical dentistry under Drs.
Dunning and Dalrymple— engaged in tract distribution for the
City Tract Society, experiencing rude rebuils and learning wis-
dom thereby, and also finding how welcome the gospel message
ever is, even in the most unUkely quarters.
June 16, 1854, at a conference with Dr. Rufus Anderson, at
the Missionary House of the American Board, at 33 Pemberton
Square, I read a letter signed by Dr. Eli Smith, Dr. William M.
Thomson, and Rev. D. M. Wilson, pleading for a reinforcement
of five men, to occupy Antioch, Hums and Northern Syria.
The appeal seemed to be the definite voice I had been waiting
for. I made my decision and agreed to go to Syria.
[August 12, 1854, my brother Samuel, twenty months my
junior, decided to give up his mercantile business and to begin
study for the gospel ministry and missionary work. He entered
Yale, thence going to Union Seminary, served as chaplain in
McClellan's army until the battle of Malvern Hills, and came to
Syria with his wife in February, 1863.]
During my course at the seminary I gave myself to home mis-
sionary work around my home in Pennsylvania and, in New York
City, at Blackwell's Island, the Five Points, the Half-Orphan
Asylum, and in Sunday-school work.
On the 23d of December of that year, I became engaged to be
married to Miss Caroline Bush, daughter of Wynans Bush, M. D.,
of Branchport, Yates County, New York. She was an expe-
rienced teacher, in perfect sympathy with my life purpose.
On the 27th of October, 1855, 1 attended the morning mis-
sionary prayer-meeting at Union Theological Seminary, and met
some of the beloved brethren who were expecting to go abroad :
Harding (India), White (Asia Minor), Byington (Bulgaria), and
Kalopothakes (Athens).
The next day I spent in Newark, N. J., in the church of that
scholarly and saintly man, Rev. J. F. Steams, D. D. I preached
in the church, addressed the Sunday-school, and promised to
write to the scholars, if they would first write me. I also pro-
posed to them, that, if they felt inclined on reaching home, tiiey
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i8 The Preparation
should write a resolution as follows : '' Resolved, that if the
Lord will give me grace, I will be a missionary." One little boy,
James S. Dennis, did write such a resolution, as I learned thirteen
years afterwards, September 23, 1868, when I went to Newark to
give the charge at his ordination, and was a guest in his house.
Mrs. Dennis told me that in October, 1855, her son Jimmy came
home from hearing me speak, went to his room, and soon after
brought her a written resolution : << Resolved, that if God will
give me grace, I will be a missionary." She said to him, ** James^
you are too young to know what you will be." " Yes," he said,
*• I did not say, I wi/l be, but, • if God gives me grace, I will be.' "
<' And now, to-day, you are to give him his ordination charge as
a missionary to Syria ! "
Surely, the Lord must have inspired me to make that suggestion
when I did, for Dr. Dennis has done more for the cause of foreign
missions than almost any other living man. We have always
been dear and intimate friends, and in Syria, where he laboured
for twenty-three years, he is beloved by all who knew him. His
Arabic works, " Christian Theology " (two vols., oct.), " Evidences
of Christianity " (one vol., oct), " Scripture Interpretation " (one
vol., oct), are classics in Arabic theological literature ; and his
three Volumes of '* Christian Missions and Social Progress," with
his " Centennial Survey," form an epochal work and an acknowl-
edged authority in all Christian lands.
I was ordained November i, 1855. My chief memory of that
occasion is my father's address expressing his joy that a beloved
son was called to participate in the trials and self-denials of the
«* grand enterprise " of the missionary work. One thing he said,
that, when he stood before the altar of his God years before, he
had consecrated all his children to God ; nor would be wish to
keep back part of the price, nor take back now aught of what he
then had given.
December 12, 1855^-*' His Word was in my heart as a burning
fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I
could not stay " (Jer. 20 : 9).
I was in Boston, about to sail. I had parted with the dear
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Sailing for Syria 19
woman who was to be my wife. Her health necessitated the
postponement of our marriage, and her immediate companionship
in my, missionary life. My father and mother were with me to
see my departure on the following day, and the precious season
of prayer, in the Tremont House, comforted our hearts, and has
been in memory a source of solace and strength ever since, par-
ticularly when I myself have had to part from my own dear chil-
dren for years of separation, as from time to time they have had
to leave us for their education in the home country*
The sailing bark Sultana, three hundred tons, with a cargo of
New England rum, sailed for Smyrna the next day in a storm of
snow and sleet. There were eight missionaries on board : Rev.
Daniel Bliss and his wife, Rev. G. A. Pollard and his wife. Miss
Mary E. Tenny and Miss Sarah E. West, Rev. Tillman C. Trow-
bridge, and myself.
It was a stormy, wretched voyage. My brother Samuel was
the first missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. to cross the Atlantic
comfortably in a steamer.
We reached Smyrna, January 22, 1856, and sailed on the 29th
on the French steamer for Beirut, passing Patmos, Rhodes,
Adalia, stopping at Mersine, near Tarsus, and at Alexandretta,
Latakia and Tripoli, and landed in Beirut Thursday morning,
February 7, 1856.
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II
The Field in 1856 — Its Condition and Problems
« The almond tree shall blossom."— ^^^/. 12 .-5
ON the 7th of February, 1856, when we landed in Beirut,
the almond trees were in bloom ; their snow-white
domes in full blossom were fragrant and full of promise
of abundant fruit :
" The silvery almond (lower
That blooms on a leafless bough/'
was a token for good. Flowers promise fruit And now,
February, 1909, fifty- three years have passed. The almond snow-
white blossoms have now drifted from the trees to the heads of
the two youthful missionaries who landed in 1856. We area
pair of hoary heads. We see those flowers all around us and
over us. They give promise of fruit — of something better be-
yond. The inspiration is renewed. God grant that we may
" bring forth fruit in old age " (Ps. 92 : 14).
February 7, 1856 — Malta, Smyrna, Cilicia, Seleucia, Beirut I
Names associated with the voyages and labours of Paul the
Apostle, and not less connected with the modern missionary work
in the Levant. The first missionaries made Malta their first base
of operations, then advanced to Smyrna, and then down the
coast to Beirut. We have followed their track and have now
begun to " enter into " their labours.
Here I am in Western Asia, land of the patriarchs, prophets
and apostles. Yonder to the south are
" Those fields
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet
Which eighteen centuries ago were nailed
For our advantage, on the bitter cross.''
20
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OLD BEIRUT
As it looked In 1856, before the historic castle was removed to make way
for the railway and the port.
QUAY AND NEW HARBOR AT BEIRUT
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On the Threshold 21
That bright sunny spring morning of our landing in Beirut I can
never forget The lofty summits of the Lebanon range, Suiinin and
Kaniseh, 8,000 and 6,000 feet high, were covered with snow, shi-
ning like burnished silver, while the lower ranges were dotted with
villages and the plain green and beautiful with trees and gardens*
An Arab poet has said of Jebel Suiinin, that
'< He bean winter upon his head,
Spring upon his shoulders,
Autumn in his bosom.
While summer lies sleeping at his feet."
What a change from the bleak blasts of wintry Boston in De-
cember to the balmy breezes of beautiful Beirut in February,
with its almond blossoms and wild flowers I
And what a welcome we had 1 No sooner had our steamer
anchored than we heard familiar voices in the saloon, and soon
grasped the hands of my old townsman and chum, Rev. J.
Lorenzo Lyons, who came out a year ago, and then of Rev. E.
Aiken, a new missionary, and Mr. Hurter, the mission printer.
As I stepped on the solid earth, and knew that here at length
is my missionary field, my future home, the people whom I am to
love, the noble missionary band, all of whom are faithful soldiers
in their Master's service, and that on these mountain ranges of
sunny and sn<Swy Lebanon the Gospel is yet to beam forth with
more than its original power and glory ; that here are to be
witnessed yet greater and greater triumphs of the Cross ; my soul
thrilled with exultant joy, and I could say in truth, that this was
one of the happiest days of my life.
Yet, though nearer my work than ever before, I was stopped on
the very threshold by the barrier of the Arabic language, and felt
as one dumb ; with a message, yet unable to deliver it. But
having come to preach in Arabic, I resolved, *« Preach in Arabic I
will, by the help and grace of God 1 While I study the language,
its hard gutturals and strange idioms, I can study the people and
learn their ways, so diflerent from our Western ideas, and they
0iay teach me some things a Westerner needs to know."
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22 The Field in 1856
We were soon introduced to the whole missionary circle, and at
the annual meeting held not long after, on March 27th, the whole
company met in Beirut, in the study of Dr. Eli Smith, below the
present buildings of the British Syrian Mission. We five young
recruits, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Bliss, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Aiken
and myself, were welcomed to their ranks.
When I was first appointed to the Syrian Mission, the Board
intended that I be stationed in Antioch. Fifty-three years have
passed and I have never been in Antioch. There were present
Dr. E. Smith, Messrs. J. A. Ford and Hurter of Beirut, Calhoun of
Abeih, Dr. Thomson and Van Dyck of Sidon, Messrs. Bird of Deir
el Komr, Benton of Bhamdoun, Eddy of Kefr Shima, Wilson of
Hums, Lyons of Tripoli, Aiken, a new recruit, and D. Bliss and
H. H. Jessup, the latest arrivals. We young men looked with deep
interest on the faces of the veterans before us. Dr. William M.
Thomson (1833) had been here twenty-three years. He was the
picture of ruddy, robust health. When, in 1857, father went
with me to the Manhattan Life Insurance Company, New York,
to take out a policy on my life, the company demanded an extra
climatic risk* I protested and referred them to Dr. Thomson
then in New York, as a sample of the effects of the Syrian climate.
The company soon removed the climatic risk. He was a man of
such geniality and ready wit, so kindly and full of experience
that my heart went out to him. For sixteen yea!:s, from i860 to
1876, he was my associate in Beirut and he was both father and
brother to me. At that first mission meeting we recognized the
helpfulness of his clear head and wise counsels, when difficult
questions arose. Next to him sat Dr. Eli Smith, pale, thin and
scholarly, precise in language and of broad views of mission
policy. He spoke of the Bible translation then in progress and
reported that he had, up to that date, printed it as far as the end
of Exodus in the Old Testament and Matthew sixteenth in the
New Testament He was evidently struggling with deep-seated
disease and was granted a special furlough for a summer trip to
Constantinople and Trebizond, whither he went with Dr. H. G. O.
Dwight, his old friend and fellow traveller. There was Simeon H.
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Early Associates 23
Calhoun, the <' Saint of Lebanon/' the principal of the Abeih
Academy, and treasurer of the mission, in whose accounts not
an error of a para could be found. He reported a memorial
letter of the Board with regard to the death in November, 1855, of
his colleague and brother beloved. Rev. Geo. B. Whiting, after
twenty-five years of labour in Syria. Mr. Calhoun's voice in
speaking or reading, and especially in prayer, was peculiarly deep,
rich and tender. I knew him for twenty-five years in joy and
sorrow, in peace and the horrors of the massacre summer, in
his ideal home, in his lovely family, and in business relations, and
I never met a wiser, saintlier or more lovable man. Whitfield
could draw tears from his hearers by merely pronouncing the
word '' Mesopotamia." Mr. Calhoun could win hearts by a look.
And there were the slender form and classical face of Dr.
Cornelius V. A. Van Dyck from Sidon, of few words, but of
great wisdom, and evidently highly respected and esteemed by
all his brethren. I have spoken fully of him in another chapter
of this book. We little thought at that meeting that it was Dr.
Smith's last meeting, and that in January, 1857, he would be
called to a higher sphere, and Dr. Van Dyck be summoned within
a year to take on his mantle, and complete his momentous work.
And there was J. A. Ford of Beirut, a man of sterling worth,
true as steel, a delightful preacher in Arabic, simple in his habits,
a hearty, trusty friend, ready for any sacrifice in tiie service of his
Master. He was then acting pastor of the Beirut Church. He
had been in Aleppo for seven years. Of strong physical con-
stitution, he seemed destined for a long missionary life, but, alas,
fell victim, not to the Syrian climate, but to an Illinois blizzard in
April, i860.
And there was David M. Wilson, a plain, blunt man, and
mighty in the Scriptures. He had come from his distant home
in Hums, to plead for a colleague, and the mission, after full dis-
cussion, appointed Mr. and Mrs. Aiken, new recruits, to go as
companions to Mr. and Mrs. Wilson and work in that promising
field. How the events of those subsequent months rise in sad
memory as I write I On April 23d, a little company left Beirut
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24 The Field in 1856
on the French steamer for Tripoli ; Mr. and Mrs. Lyons and child
and I going to our new home in Tripoli ; Mr. and Mrs. Wilson,
Mr. and Mrs. Aiken, accompanied by Mr. Calhoun, going on to
Hums. Mrs. S. D. Aiken was daughter of Judge John O. Cole of
Albany, the perfect picture of health and womanly beauty. Mr.
Bliss was stationed in Abeih, as Mrs. Bliss appeared to be ex-
tremely delicate in health, and the mission thought it wiser to
send the young and robust Mrs. Aiken to be a companion of
Mrs. Wilson in Hums, which was four days distant from any
physician. But how little we know of our Father's plans for His
children ! In less than two months, the lovely Mrs. Aiken was
in her grave, in the court of a Moslem eiiendi's house in Hums.
There was no Protestant cemetery and the effendi kindly con-
sented to the temporary interment in his house then leased by Mr.
Aiken. A year later, I visited that stricken home in Albany,
and learned lessons of Christian resignation which I never forgot,
and which helped me in my own hour of need, when, forty-four
years afterwards, I followed to the grave in Sidon my own lovely
daughter, Amy Erdman. The seemingly delicate Mrs. Bliss
lives, surrounded by children, grandchildren and great-grand-
children. Another of that mission band was W. A. Benton,
who came from the heights of Lebanon at Bhamdoun, and who
was like a patriarch among the villagers. And then Dr. W. W.
Eddy, equally at home with his pen in editing and translating,
in church building and teaching theology. His handwriting
was like steel engraving and his English style in sermon writing
chaste and elegant. At that time, after three years in Aleppo,
he was living with his family in the village of Kefr Shima, in
accordance with Dr. R. Anderson's theory that each missionary
should occupy a separate station. This theory the mission soon
repudiated, believing that the highest health, efficiency and
success of the missionary will be attained, by placing them two
and two, to support each other. And it has not been found best
to multiply foreign*manned stations. In September, 1857, he
removed to Sidon, where he laboured for twenty-one years and
then was transferred to Beirut to teach in the theological
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Beirut 25
seminary in which he continued until his death, January 26,
1900. The lay missionary, Mr. Geo. C. Hurter, mission printer,
was a Swiss by birth, a faithful, self-denying man, hospitable,
hearty, devout He managed the press employees well, and
could conduct a prayer-meeting with profit to the ripest Christian
and most learned scholar. His memory is blessed.
On the day of our arrival, February 7th, I went down with Mr.
Lyons to the mission press (Burj Bird), in the lower room of
which was the chapel. We there saw an interesting sight, a
convention of Protestant Syrians met to discuss their civil or-
ganization. There were Butrus Bistany, Naameh Tabet, Elias
Fuaz, Tannus El Haddad, T. Sabunjy, Hanna Shekkoor of
Lebanon, Shaheen Barakat, Nasif er Raiees, Khalil Khuri, and
Kozta Mejdelany of Hasbeiya, Abu Faour of Khiyam, Elias
Yacob of Rasheiya el Fukkhar, Nasif Michail of Aitath, Saleh
Bu Nusr of Abeih, Michaiel Araman, Rev. J. Wortabet, Jebbour
Shemaun, Shaheen Sarkis, Asaad Shidoody, Khalid Tabet,
Yusef Najm, Beshara Hashim, Girgius Jimmal and others. I
shall speak more particularly of some of these remarkable men
— ** immortal names, that were not born to die."
Not long after our arrival, I was taken to the American print-
ing-press and the old mission cemetery. There, at the foot of a
tall cypress, tree, was a little plain, horizontal gravestone of moss-
grown sandstone, and set into it a small slab of marble on which
is the inscription,
Pliny Fish,
Died Oct. 23, 1823,
Aged 31 years.
More than thirty years ago was this precious seed sown in the
soil of Syria, and a little cypress sapling was planted by his grave.
His missionary life was short and he " died without the sight"
i Beirut, in Fisk's day, was a little walled town 3,000 feet from
north to south, and 1,500 feet from east to west, on the north
shore of a cape, extending about five miles from the base of
Lebanon into the Mediterranean. It had a population of 8,000,
Mohammedans, Greeks, Maronites and a few Druses and Jews.
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26 The Field in 1856
Within the walls, the streets were narrow, crooked and dirty.
There was no harbour, only an open roadstead, and boats landing
from ships anchored outside would strike bottom before reaching
the beach, and the passenger^, men and women, were then borne
by brawny boatmen and dumped on the land. There was but
one house which had glass windows and that belonged to the
British consul, Mr. Abbott. A wheeled vehicle had not been
seen since the days when chariots rolled over the Roman roads,
eighteen centuries before, nor was there a road on which a wagon
could run. The houses had flat roofs of cement, which cracked
every summer, and the walls of porous sandstone absorbed the
winter rains, which covered the inside with fungus and mould.
Outside the town, the narrow lanes, about eight feet wide through
the mulberry orchards, were overarched with the prickly pear or
« subbire," whose leaves, fringed with long, needle-like spines,
threatened the faces and eyes of the passers-by. The entire
water-supply was from wells^ some sweet and some brackish,
fdom which it is supposed the city Beer-ut took its name. Beirut
so unimportant politically, that Saida (Sidon), twenty- five
[iles to the south, gave name to the province. On the sea-wall
ere lofty castles to protect the town against Greek pirates, and
a fine tower, or Buij, eighty feet high, stood outside the south-
east gate to protect it against land attacks. The only roads in
the land were the rough, narrow, rocky mule paths, never re-
paired and often impassable. The interior was little known, for
the modern explorations of Edward Robinson, Eli Smith and
William M. Thomson had not begun, and Palestine, the land of
the Bible, was rarely visited. Steam communication was un-
known, and barks and brigs, ships and schooners were the only
sea-craft known along these old Phoenician shores.
The only lights known were the ancient earthern lamps like
bowls, with olive oil, and the wick hanging over the side. At
night, all pedestrians in the cities were obUged to carry lanterns
or be arrested.
The terrible massacre of 20,000 of the Greek population of the
Island of Scio (Chios) by the Turks had recently taken place in
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Intellectual Stagnation 27
1822, and the War of Grecian Independence had begun. Syria
was in a state of semi-disorder.
Intellectually, the land was in utter stagnation. With the ex-
ception of the Koran and its literature among the Moslems, and
the ecclesiastical books among the Oriental Christians^ there were
no books. Many of the Moslems could read, but very few of the
other sects could either read or write. The Moslems who have
alwa3rs been devoted to their one book, had little " madrasehs "
or schook, attached to the mosques, and the Oriental Christians
taught a few boys who were in training for the priesthood. But
it was in general true that there were in the land neither books,
readers nor schools, as such. There was a little hand-press at a
monastery near Shweir in Lebanon, for printing Romish prayer-
books, but there were no printing-presses, no newspapers and no
desire for them. The Oriental mind seemed asleep. If the
" rest cure," which obliges the patient to lie prostrate for weeks
in a state of mental vacuity and ph}rsical relaxation, often renews
the mind and body, then the Syrian race, by their rest cure of
ages, should have reached the acme of mental and physical prepa-
ration for a new era of vigour and growth.
One of the old missionaries wrote that ** the Syrian people are
singularly unimpressionable on religious subjects, because they
are so eminently religious already. Religious forms and language
abound." The salutations, ejaculations and imprecations of the
people are full of the name of God, Allah. The most sacred
words and expressions are on the lips of all, the learned and the
ignorant, men, women and children : nay, of the most vicious
and abandoned. Whatever may be the subject, religion in some
form or other has its share in it That which is most sacred
becomes as familiar as household words and is as little regarded*
As far as words are concerned they have religion enough. But
they need to be taught the need of spiritual regeneration, and
the reality of personal religious experience.
The state of woman was pitiable in the extreme. The first
missionaries could not hear of a woman or girl in the land who
could read. Mohammedanism had blighted womanhood, and
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28 The Field in 1856
driven her behind the veil and into the hareem. Oriental Chris-
tian women dared not appear unveiled in the streets for fear of
vile abuse and even violence from the lords of the land.
Moslems would not mention the name of woman in conversa-
tion without begging pardon from all present, by using the
abominable term ** ajellak Allah/' or may God exalt you above
the contamination of so vile a subject. They would use the
same term in speaking of a hog or a dog or a filthy shoe I By
degrading woman the Moslems had degraded themselves and
lowered the whole tone of society. No man calling at a Mo-
hammedan house would ever see the face of a woman, nor would
he dare ask after the health of the wife or mother, sister or daugh-
ter. A young man never saw the face of his bride until after the
marriage ceremony was over. Mutual acquaintance before mar-
riage was not necessary and was impossible.
Polygamy, the upas tree of Islamic society, had corrupted all
moral ideas and despoiled the home of ever3rthing lovely and of
good report. The Koran enjoined wife beating. In Sura IV,
verse 38 of the Koran it is said,
" Virtuous women are obedient . . .
But chide those for whose refractoriness
Ye have fcause to fear, — and scourge them,**
And this injunction of their Koran they are not slow to obey.
They have degraded woman and then scourge her for being de-
graded. They have kept her in ignorance and then beat her for
being ignorant. They have taught her all vileness and then beat
her for being vile. The Oriental Christians, having been crushed
under the Mohammedan domination for twelve centuries, had
lost all hope of rising, and all ambition to better their condition.
Numerically inferior, they could not rebel, and no hand from
Christian lands was extended to protect or encourage them. The
Christian sects were not allowed to ring bells, and in Damascus
no Christian could ride on horseback or wear any colour but
black. The other sects of the land were no better off " A
deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them/*
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What Can be Done? 29
Fisk had lived two years in Syriai. He pitched his tent in
front of this Gibraltar of false religion, ignorance and superstition,
full of faitli that one day it would yield : but he died having seen
but one convert, Asaad es Shidiak, the martyr of Lebanon, who
followed him, in 1829, through the gates of torture and starva-
tion, into the New Jerusalem. Fisk was buried some two hun-
dred yards outside the city wall, beyond the Bab Yakob, in a
plot of ground bought by his colleague, Rev. Isaac Bird. It was
hardly thought safe at that time to live so far outside the walls.
Isaac Bird, William Goodell and Dr. Jonas King took up the
work. It seemed a forlorn hope, an impossible task. For that
reason God sent men of faith to begin it. What were they to
do ? Where to begin ? What plan of campaign m ust they adopt ?
Dr. Worcester, Secretary of the American Board, in his fare-
well instructions to Parsons and Fisk in November, 18 19, said:
" From the heights of the Holy Land and from Zion, you will
take an extended view of the wide-spread desolations and varie-
gated scenes presenting themselves on every side to Christian
sensibility: and will survey with earnest attention the various
tribes and classes who dwell in that land, and in the surrounding
countries. The two grand inquiries ever present to your minds
will be, WAat good can be done f and by what means ? What
can be done for Jews ? What for Mohammedans ? What for
Christians ? What for the people of Palestine ? What for those
in Egypt, in Syria, in Persia, in Armenia, in other countries to
which your inquiries may be extended?" These instructions
implied a work of exploration, investigation, analysis and prepa-
ration. These being done, what then ? How could they give the
Bible to a people unable to read? How open schools with
neither school-books nor teachers? How preach without a
mastery of the Arabic language? How could they expect to
commend Christianity to Moslems who regarded Christianity as
a picture-worshipping, saint-worshipping and idolatrous system
full of Mariolatry and immorality, little better than themselves ?
The government was hostile. Moslem sheikhs were hostile.
Christian ecclesiastics, especially the Maronites and Latins, were
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30 The FieW in 1856
even more hostile against the " Bible men/' and cursed and ex«
communicated them root and b]:anch.
But young American disciples of Christ, who knew, by experi-
ence, the length and breadth and height and depth of His love,
were not to be deterred by any obstacles. " None of these things
moved " them. Those were the days of darkness, but there was
" light in the dwellings " and in the hearts of those young men
and women, and those who came after them. The mustard seed
which they brought with them, had in itself the germ of life and
growth and expansive power. They came to lay again the old
foundations, or to clear away the debris and rubbish of ages
which had covered out of sight and out of mind the Rock, Christ
Jesus. How well they and their successors did their work will
appear in the pages of this volume.
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HENRY H. JESSUP, 1855
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Ill
The Seven Pioneers of Syria Mission Work
THE question has often been asked me during my visits
to America, " Were you and Dr. Bliss the first mission-
aries to Syria ? " At times it has been hard to answer
such a question with patience. In 1878 a good elder at the synod
in Rock Island asked me if I was the son of Dr. Jessup of
Syria? " No," said I, " there was none of my name there before
me." " Well," said he, " I thought you must be eighty years old,
for I have read of you ever since I was a child." I asked him,
" How old zxtyau ? " He said, " About fifty years." I replied,
•* And I am forty-six I " I can only account for this idea by the
fact that in the providence of God I have had to visit the United
States seven times during these forty-nine years, and as my health
has been uniformly good, I have travelled thousands of miles and
by rail visited hundreds of churches and Sunday-schools, and
many colleges and theological seminaries, <' stirring up the peo-
pie," and thus, in spite of m)rself, becoming known to multitudes.
If one asks. Why did not you in your addresses give the peo*
pie the early history of the Syria Mission ? I can only say that
the pastors and people HLvrzys ask for facts as to Represent state
of the work, and when one is allowed half an hour in a pulpit,
twenty minutes in a synod and ten minutes at a general as-
sembly, the only course is to give a brief, succinct account of
the present state of your work and that of your colleagues. Un-
embarrassed by moderator's gavel I would fain revive the memory
of some of the saints, men and women, who wereHtit real pioneers
in Syria and whose shoe latchets I am not worthy to unloose.
While I have been introduced in America as ** the father and
founder of the Syria Mission/' " the bishop of the Bible lands,''
** the president of the Syrian Protestant College," '< the manager
3>
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32 The Seven Pioneers
of the American printing-press/' and as several other persons^
yet when introduced thus under false pretenses, I have generally
let the minister have his own way, lest he lose caste with his peo-
ple, for ignorance of missionary history, and hastened to use the
brief time allotted in endeavouring to arouse interest in God's
work for the Arab people of Syria.
I. Levi Parsons, the Explorer
Parsons was born July i8, 1 792, 'graduated at Middlebury, 1814,
sailed November 3, 1 8 19, with Pliny Fisk as " missionaries to
Western Asia, with reference to a permanent station at Jerusalem."
They sailed in the bark Sally Ann, reached Malta December 23d,
and remained until January 9, 1820. Rev. Mr. Jowett of the
British and Foreign Bible Society gave them some excellent ad-
vice : " Learn the modem Greek at Scio, — go in the character
of literary gentlemen, make the circulation of the Bible the
ostensible object of travelling, exercise in the morning, eat
sparingly of fruit at first, dress warm, wear a turban when on the
passage to Palestine, appear as much like common travellers as
possible.*'
I have before me Mr. Parsons' journal in his own handwriting
and it is full of religious meditation, new resolutions and morbid
self-introspection. He was constantly struggling with indiges-
tion, which naturally caused great depression. But his strong
faith shines through it all with great beauty and power. They
reached Smyrna January 14th, spent five months in Scio until
October, studying modern Greek and Italian, and on December
6th, Parsons sailed alone for Jerusalem, Fisk remaining in Smyrna,
studying and acting as chaplain to the British Colony. He ar-
rived in Jerusalem, February 17, 1 821, the first Protestant mis-
sionary who entered that city to found a permanent mission. He
remained until May 8th, being cordially received by the Greek
clergy and especially by Procopius, secretary to the Greek
patriarch, who was also the agent of the British and Foreign
Bible Society. While there he sold and gave away •' ninety-nine
Arabic Peters, forty-one Greek Testaments, two Persian Testa-
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Levi Parsons 33
mentSf seven Armenian Testaments, one Italian Testament, and
twenty-three other books." The demand for Armenian Testa,
ments was very great among the pilgrims. He also distributed
3,000 tracts, chiefly Greek. He gave them to priests, bishops,
andj>ilgrims. He was shocked that his friends among the Greek
clergy should take part in the disgraceful farce of the Holy Fire.
Yet he cherished the vain hope that the Greek Church ** would
soon be consecrated entirely to the promotion of true piety among
all classes of Christians, have the spirit of Peter on the day of
Pentecost, and boldly open and allege the Scriptures and lead
thousands by a blessing from above to cry, * Men and brethren,
what shall we do ? ' If I am not greatly deceived, I behold even
now the dawn of that glorious day i "
He found a wide open door in Jerusalem for reading the
Scriptures to pilgrims and regarded it as the most effective means
of doing good at Jerusalem. He also adyised the sending of a
missionary to the Armenians in Asia Minor.
Leaving Jerusalem May 8, 182 1, he sailed to the Greek Islands,
spent several months in Samos and Syra, and after many perils
from pirate ships, both Greek and Turkish, reached Smyrna
December 4th. Here he joined his beloved colleague Fisk, and
January 9, 1822, they both sailed for Alexandria by medical ad-
vice, arriving there January 14th. Here he found the malady
with which he had long contended greatly aggravated. Diarrhcea
rapidly reduced his strength. He was carried from the boat in a
chair to his room. His journal shows a heavenly spirit, holy
aspirations, devout meditations, clear views of Christ.
February 10, 1822, at half-past three A. M.,he breathed his last,
aged thirty years and five months. The day before, his conversa-
tion was redolent of heaven. At evening, Fisk watched by his
bed as he slept, and heard him saying in his sleep, " The good-
ness of God — growth in grace — fulfillment of the promises — so God
is all in heaven, and all on earth." At eleven o'clock Fisk bade
him a loving good-night, wishing that God might put under-
neath him the arms of everlasting mercy. He replied, "The
angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him/'
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34 The Seven Pioneers
These were the last words he spoke on earth. Towards evening,
he was buried in the yard of the Greek monastery where the few
English residents bury their dead. I wrote recently to Alexan-
dria to ascertain whether there is any trace of his grave in the
Greek monastery, but learned that since that time the edifice has
been rebuilt and the old cemetery obliterated.
Pliny Fisk conducted the funeral service, which was attended
by the entire English Colony, and Maltese merchants, some sixty
or seventy in all.
Fisk wrote : *' To me the stroke seems almost insupportable.
Sometimes my heart rebels : and sometimes I hope it acquiesces
in the will of God. I desire your prayers, that I may not faint
when the Lord rebukes me."
Dr. R. Anderson says of Parsons : *' His character was trans-
parent and lovely. Few of those distinguished for piety leave a
name so spotless. His disposition inspired confidence and gave
him access to the most cultivated society. He united uncommon
zeal with the meekness of wisdom. His consecration to the serv-
ice of his Divine Master was entire."
His two years of service were years of struggle with disease,
incessant study, indefatigable labours in travelling, preaching and
reading the New Testament to the people in Greek and Italian.
His grave no man knoweth.
II. Pliny Fisk, the Linguist and Preacher
No name is more familiar to missionaries in Syria than that of
Pliny Fisk. He was born June 24, 1792, was ordained in Salem,
November 4, 181 8, and sailed with Parsons from Boston in the
bark Sa/fy Ann, November 3, 1819. Touching at Malta, De-
cember 23d, he reached Smyrna January 15, 1820. His mission-
ary life covered six years. During this time he lived in Smyrna,
Alexandria, Jerusalem, Aleppo, Tripoli and Beirut. He dis-
tributed 4,000 copies of the sacred Scriptures, and parts of Scrip-
tures, and 20,000 tracts. He travelled with Dr. Jonas King, the
eccentric Dr. J. Wolflf, the many-sided Goodell, and the studious,
hard-working Bird. His teacher was the scholarly poet-martyr.
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Pliny Fisk 35
Asaad es Shidiak, the first convert, and the proto-martyr of
modem Syria. He could preach in Italian, Greek, and French,
and had just begun a regular Arabic Sabbath service, and had
nearly completed an English-Arabic dictionary, when he was
called to his rest October 23, 1825, aged thirty-three years.
Fisk was the pioneer missionary of Beirut, and it was a fitting
tribute to his memory that one of the largest buildings of the
Syrian Protestant College in Beirut should be named after him
as the " Pliny Fisk Hall."
He was appointed originally to Jerusalem, but never spent
more than nine months there. He arrived in Beirut July 10, 1823^
where he spent two years and three months before his death,
having spent the first three years in Smyrna and Alexandria.
He was " in journeyings oft, in perils of robbers, in perils in the
sea," and from war and pestilence.
When he reached JaffsL, March 29, 1825, the town was full of
rumours as to the object of his labours. He and Dr. Jonas King
were reported to pay ten piastres (forty cents) a head for converts,
and that these ten piastres were self-perpetuating, and always
remained the same however much the convert expended. Others
said the missionaries drew pictures of their converts, and if one
went back to his old religion, they would shoot the picture, and
the renegade would drop dead. A Moslem heard that they
hired men to worship the devil, and said he would come and
bring a hundred others with him. "What," said his friend,
" would you worship the devil ? " " Yes," said he, " if I were
paid for it."
That idea of foreigners drawing pictures probably came from
the habit of travellers to sketch the scenery and costumes of the
East My colleague, Mr. Lyons, of Tripoli, made a tour in
August, 1858, and camped in Zgharta, a Maronite village near
Tripoli. The men were grossly insolent, entered the tent, sat on
his table, sprawled on his bedstead and knocked things around in
an ugly style. He said nothing, but, taking out a note-book,
began to sketch them. One of them looked over his shoulder
and, seeing a face and eyes, shrank back and bolted from the tent,
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36 The Seven Pioneers
yelling to the rest to follow him. Soon after, one of them came
to the servant and said, ** Do entreat the Khowaja not to take our
pictures or harm us. We will protect you. . Whatever you want
we will bring, water, milk, chickens, eggs or barley for the ani-
mals." The Khowaja did promise and soon all his wants were
supplied.
Mr. Fisk had a strong constitution but was often exposed to
drenching rain and chilling winds when travelling. In October,
1825, he was attacked by malignant fever and died October 23d,
lamented by all who knew him. He " died without the sight'*
Asaad-es-Shidiak was the only dbnvert to evangelical Christi-
anity in Syria up to that time.
In 1824, the year previous to his death, both he and Mr. Bird
were arrested in Jerusalem by Musa Beg, sherif of the governor,
and taken before the Kadi and to the governor, on the charge of
wearing the white turban, and trading in unlawful books. The
judge said, <' These books are neither Christian books, nor Mo-
hammedan, nor Jewish, and contain fabulous stories that are
profitable for nobody and which nobody of sense will read."
The governor remarked, that ** The Latins had declared that our
books were not Christian books." The two brethren were thrown
into prison, and kept until the next day. Their rooms were
searched and then locked, but finally, the governor finding that
they were under English protection, released them, gave back
their keys, charging them to sell no books to Moslems.
One of the Greek priests in Jerusalem made to Mr. Fisk the
astounding confession that they had in Jerusalem a hundred
priests and monks, but among them all, not a single preacher.
In February, 1824, a firman of the Sultan was issued through-
out the empire, at papal instigation, strictly forbidding the distri-
bution of the Scriptures, and commanding all who had received
copies, to deliver them up to the public authorities to be burned.
The copies remaining in the hands of the distributors were to be
sequestered until they could be sent back to Europe.
This firman was something new for the Turks. They cared
nothing for the Bible, pro or con, but the minions of Rome had
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Parsons and Fisk 37
induced them to issue it, and it was never executed with any
vigour. Rome is Rome in all ages, in her bitter hostility to the
Word o( God. Mr. Fisk was an uncommon man. ** With a
vigorous constitution and great capacity for labour, he possessed a
discriminating judgment, an ardent spirit of enterprise, intrepidity,
decision, perseverance, entire devotion to the service of his Master,
facility in the acquisition of languages, and an equipoise of his
faculties, which inade it easy to accommodate himself to times,
places and companies." He was highly esteemed as a preacher
before leaving home for Syria. And " who," said a weeping
Arab, on hearing of his death, smiting on his breast, ** who will
now present the Gospel to us ? I have heard no one explain
God's Word like him."
As to the results of the labours of Parsons and Fisk, we may
say that,
1. They did a remarkable ^ork of exploration.
2. They brought to light the religious condition of these
Bible lands.
3. They met the leading men of all sects. Christian, Moslem
and Jewish, and preached Christ to them frankly and openly.
4. They distributed great numbers of Scriptures and religious
tracts.
5. They studied the climate and prevailing diseases, and urged
the sending of medical missionaries..
6. They had no definite plan with regard to organizing a
Native Evangelical Church, as there was but one convert, and he
soon after suffered martyrdom.
7. They were sent to found a permanent mission in Jerusa-
lem, but the early death of both of them prevented the fulfillment
of this plan. Parsons spent only three months there and Fisk
nine months in all.
8. The Arabic Bible which they distributed was that printed
in London from a translation made by Sarkis er Rizzi, Maronite
Bishop of Damascus in 1620, and printed in Rome in 1671.
This version was printed by the British and Foreign Bible So-
ciety, and circulated for many years by missionaries and Bible
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38 The Seven Pioneers
agents. But it was so full of errors, that a new translation
became necessary.
9. Fisk decided that Beirut was preferable to Jerusalem as
the headquarters of a mission, in view of its climate, the character
of the people, the proximity of Mount Lebanon as a summer re-
treat, its accessibility, its communication with Europe, and the
ease with which books could be sent from it to Damascus, and
the cities of the coast. This decision to occupy Beirut, then a
town of less than 5,000 population, was divinely directed. It
has more than fulfilled the highest hopes of him who selected it
and whose body rests in the cemetery in Beirut He rested from
his labours and his works do follow him.
10. These pioneer missionaries unmasked the batteries of the
Oriental hierarchy. They were at first welcomed by priests and
people of all sects, but when it became known that their object was
the distribution of the Scriptures, and making God's Word the
only guide and rule in religious belief, the Oriental hierarchies
stirred up opposition and resorted to excommunication and Bible
burning. It was evident that the chief priests and rulers of
church, mosque, and synagogue in Bible lands, did not want the
Bible.
III. Jonas King, the Apostle of Modern Greece
Jonas King was the third of the remarkable trio who began
the work of giving the Bible to Bible lands. He served out his
enlistment of three years in the Jerusalem Mission with his dear
colleague Fisk, and then, soon after, began his work of forty-one
years in Greece.
He was born July 29, 1792, in Hawley, Massachusetts. His
father was a Christian farmer. Under his instruction, Jonas read
the Bible through once between the ages of four and six, and
then once yearly to the age of sixteen. His conversion was at
the age of fifteen. Without funds or aid, he determined on an
education, learned the English grammar while hoeing corn, read
the twelve books of Virgil's " iEneid " in fifty-eight days, and the
New Testament, in Greek, in six weeks. He graduated at Will-
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DR. JONAS KING
Beirut, 1822-1825.
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Jonas King 39
iams College in 1816, and Andover Seminary in 1819. Wishing
to study Arabic with reference to future work in Persia or Arabia,
he went to Paris to study with the famous De Sacy. Meantime,
he was appointed Professor of Oriental Languages in Amherst
College, the trustees approving his studying in Paris. While in
Paris, he received a pressing invitation from Pliny Fisk to come
to Syria in the place of the lamented Parsons. Mr. S. V. S.
Wilder, then in Paris, agreed to pay |lioo a year for three years,
and the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society made up the bal-
ance ; and he went to Syria as really the missionary of the Paris
Society. He travelled largely with Fisk in Egypt, Palestine and
Syria, as far as Aleppo, becoming a good preacher and writer in
Arabic His teacher in Deir el Komr was Asaad es Shidiak, the
fine Arabic scholar and martyr. Dr. King was invited by some
of the Oriental papal clergy to join the Church of Rome. He
replied, in his famous " Farewell Letters," giving his strong rea-
sons for being a Protestant, and rejecting the errors of Rome.
This letter contained thirteen objections to accepting the invitation
of a Jesuit priest, that he join the Church of Rome. It contained
thirteen chapters, of which we give the headings :
I. Because Christ, and not the Pope, is the head of the Church
on earth.
a. Because Rome requires celibacy of the clergy, contrary to Scrip-
ture.
3. Because Christ is the only Mediator, and Rome has many ; the
Vligin Mary, saints and angels.
4. The Bible prohibits, and Rome allows, the worship of pictures
and images.
5. Purgatory is contrary to the Bible.
6. Prayer to the saints is unscriptural.
7. Rome forbids the communion cup to the laity.
8. Rome uses unknown tongues in worship.
9. Faith in the Pope is unscripturaL
10. We are saved by the merits of Clirist alone and not by the
merits of saints.
II. Rome authorizes and approves persecution and extermination of
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40 The Seven Pioneers
FtotestantSy as in the Inquisition and St BardKdomew's day, 3O9O00 in
one day.
12. Rome forbids the Bible to the people.
13. With the Bible open in my hands I cannot become a Romanist
I wish you all to become true Christians. The name Protestant I care
nothing for.
Young Asaad es Shidiak corrected and polished the Arabic of
Dr. King's farewell, entitled " Wedaat Yonas Keen/' and became
so much interested in it that he determined to write a reply to it
The result of this was his conversion to the evangelical faith.
Then began a series of persecutions against him, incited by the
Maronite patriarch, which ended in his being walled up in the
convent of Kannobin, near the Cedars of Lebanon. He died from
disease induced by the dreadful filth of his narrow cell, and the
torments of those who visited the convent. A favourite custom
of the passers-by was to jerk on a rope tied to his neck and
passed through a hole in the door. Asaad's life, written by Rev.
Isaac Bird, was published in 1864 by the American Tract
Society.
In 1828 Dr. King went to Greece in charge of a ship-load of
clothing and food for the sufferers from Turkish despotism. His
distribution of food and clothing opened the way to preach Christ
The people crowded to him, begging for Testaments. The Pres-
ident of Greece favoured his work. In 1829 he married a Greek
lady of influence, who became his efficient helper. He preachedi
opened schools and distributed the Scriptures, under the auspices
of the A. B. C. F. M. He had a life of trial and strenuous toil,
persecuted, misrepresented, imprisoned, through the jealousy of
the Greek hierarchy. When arrested and brought before the
Areopagus, the highest court in Athens, on a charge of reviling
the " mother of God," and the " holy images," the judge asked him
if he had an3^hing to say. He replied, " Those things in my book
with regard to Mary, transubstantiation, etc., I did not say, but
the most brilliant luminaries of the Eastern Church, St Epipha-
nius, St. Chrysostom, the great Basil, St Irenaeus, Clement and
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Dr. King in Paris 41
Eusebius Pamphylii, say ihem.'' He was condemned to be tried
before a felon's court in Syra, but the trial never occurred. Fifty
men conspired against his life. In 1847 the king advised him
to leave as his life was in danger. In March, 185 1, he was ap-
pointed United States consular agent. He was, even after that,
imprisoned, threatened and persecuted.
In 1863 he was anathematized by the Holy Synod of Athens.
In his latter days he drew up a plan for the organization of a
distinctively Protestant Greek Church, aided by his pupil, and my
classmate. Dr. Kalopothakes.
On November 6, 1867, when in Paris, en route for the United
States, I called with my dear friend Rev. Edward Porter on Dr.
King. The next day he called and brought me an invitation
from Count Laborde to speak at a missionary meeting the next
day in the Salle Evangelique, Rue Oratoire. We went at the ap-
pointed hour, with that saintly lady, Mrs. Walter Baker. The
meeting was held by the Paris Evangelical Society to greet Dr.
King, their missionary to Palestine forty-two years ago. There
were present Pasteurs Grandpierre, Fische, Pressense, M. de Cas-
alis, Monod and others. After an address of welcome to Dr.
King, he spoke in French, giving an account of Syria and Pales-
tine in 1825. I then spoke in English, Pasteur Fische interpret-
ing, of Syria in 1867, and all departments of the work, evangelistic,
educational and publication. Dr. King was like a prince and
patriarch among those noble French Protestant ministers and
laymen. On my return to Syria, after reporting my visit to
Paris and meeting Dr. King, and his early connection with the
French Protestant Society, the Beirut Church and Sunday-school
sent several contributions, as an act of gratitude to the Paris
Evangelical Society for use in its work in South Africa through
M. Coillard. We sent it as the " Jonas King memorial contribu-
tion " for South Africa.
In 1874 a neat evangelical church was erected in Athens.
Dr. King passed away May 22, 1869, in his seventy-seventh year.
He was a thorough linguist, having studied eleven languages and
speaking five fluently. His original works, in Arabic, Greek and
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42 The Seven Pioneers
French were ten in number, some of them being widely read and
translated into other tongues.
He revised and carried through the press eleven others. He
distributed 400,000 copies of Scriptures, Scripture portions, re-
ligious books, tracts and school-books in Greece and Turkey.
When in Paris in 1826 he bought a font of Armenian type !or
the Malta Press, and in England a font of Arabic type for the
same press.
Dr. Anderson says, *' Dr. King has left his impress on the
Greek nation. To him preeminently is it owing that the Scrip-
tures, since 1831, have been so extensively used in the schook,
and that in Greece the Word of God is not bound : also under
God, the visible decline there of prejudice against evangelical
truth and religious liberty."
IV. Isaac Bird, thb Historian
The early history of the Syria Mission 'needed a historiaiL
Syria and Palestine were then a ''terra incognita/' and the
American Church needed men of careful observation and facile
pens, to report on what they saw and heard in the East The
journals of Parsons, Fisk, King and Bird drew attention to the
spiritual and intellectual needs of this people. Mr. Bird was a
man of great powers of observation, a ready and accurate writer,
and of methodical turn of mind. He left on record a history of
'' Bible Work in Bible Lands," which is the best account of Uiose
early days.
Associated with Fisk, King and Goodell, he made numerous
journeys, exploring Syria and Palestine. And when the whole
missionary company retired to Malta on account of the Greek
war in 1829, he visited the Barbary States of North Africa. In
his journal published in the Missionary Herald, 1830, he gives an
account of a tour in the Island of Jerba off the southern coast of
Tunis, where, after a battle on the 12th of May, 1560, in which
eighteen thousand Spanish soldiers were slain, their bones were
gathered by the Moslems and built up with mortar into this
grim trophy of their victory. He also gives descriptions of the
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BURJ BIRD, THE OLD MISSION HOUSE
Built in 1833 by Rev. Isaac Bird. Photo taken in 1863.
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Isaac Bird
43
grand reservoir of ancient Carthage, consisting of seventeen
cisterns side by side with vaulted roofe, and covering a space of
four hundred and twenty feet by fifty-four, with a depth of
twenty feet, which were filled by an aqueduct fifty miles in
length from Mount Zguan. He had previously described the
ruins of the ancient subterranean corn magazines of Tripoli
mentioned by classic writers.
Returning to Syria May i, 1850, he resumed his visits among
the people. He had interviews with all classes, Moslems,
Greeks, Maronites, Druses and Jews. He called on the higher
ecclesiastics and tried to persuade them to reform their Churches
and thus remove the stumbling-block of Mariolatry and creature
worship which repelled the Moslems from Christianity. But, as
he says, he found ** Ephraim joined to hid idols." They rejected
all ideas of reform and began to denounce him as a '« Biblianus "
and a " Rabshoon " (lord of the infernal world), terms which
they had applied to Asaad es Shidiak, the martyr of Lebanon.
Curse followed curse and excommunication followed threaten-
ing, until it became difficult for any American to hire a house
or buy the necessaries of life outside of Beirut The Maronite
patriarch and the Maronite Emir Bushir ruled Lebanon with a
rod of iron, and orders came from Rome to persecute, drive out
and exterminate the accursed Angliz or English as all Protestants
were called.
Mr. Bird and his colleagues saw from the very outset that
these idolatrous Oriental Churches were the great obstacle to
giving the Gospel to the Mohammedans. The Moslems whom
they met taunted them with worshipping pictures and images;
and were greatly delighted to find out that they did not. Then
they charged Christians with having three Gods, and the subject
of the Trinity proved a real difficulty in the minds of men who
insisted that they would not believe what they could not under-
stand. Early in Mr. Bird's career he met the papal legate,
Monsignor Gandolfi of Antoora. He was seventy-four years
old and had lived in the country thirty- nine years. He had
suf!ered greatly, had been assaulted and stabbed by Druses,
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44 The Seven Pioneers
deceived by Maronites and Catholics, and had lost all confidence
in the people. His salary had not been enough to save him
fron> poverty. He told Mr. Bird that he had always enjoyed the
calls of English and American travellers, but, said he, ** This
terra sancta, this land of holiness, has become a land of devils.
It is no longer the blessed but the accursed land. I have had
transactions with princes and people of various grades, with
patriarchs, bishops, priests, monks and laymen, but not one man
of integrity have I found among them all ! " This was a dama-
ging indictment from the Pope's nuncio in Syria, and he evidently
had come in contact with the class of men known throughout
the East as masters of political intrigue and hypocrisy, viz., the
Oriental ecclesiastics. Yet there can be no doubt that the
Oriental Christians in general have been sadly demoralized by
the confessional and priestly absolution. Ignatius Peter, Syrian
Patriarch of Antioch, living in the Convent of Mar Efram in
Lebanon, declared the Pope to be not merely Bishop of Rome,
but " General Director and Head of the whole habitable world " I
In 1825 Mr. Bird had a school with eighty-five pupils, all Arabs,
and all boys but two. Three of the boys were Mohammedans.
Three ecclesiastics of high standing in the Armenian Church
at this time abandoned their errors and took a noble stand as
reformers.
In 1827 Mr. Bird took his family to Ehden near the Cedars
of Lebanon, by advice of a foreign physician, on account of the
illness of a child. They leased the house of Lattoof el Ashshi, a
Maronite friend. This was too much for the patriarch, and he
issued a " curse " against him and all his family. The language
of the curse reminds one of the Spanish Inquisition. " They are
accursed, let the curse envelop them as a robe and spread
through all their members like oil, and break them in pieces like
a potter's vessel : let the evil angel rule over them by day and
by night ... let no one visit them or employ them or give
them a salutation ... but let them be avoided as a putrid
member and as hellish dragons." The result of this was a riot
in the village, an attack by the mob on Sheikh Lattoof and his
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Mr. Bird's Thirteen Letters 45
family, and Mr. Bird's removal to another village, B' Whyta, under
Mohammedan rule, where he had peace.
On the return of the missionaries from Malta, in May, 1830,
the entire Protestant community in the Turkish Empire came
out in a shore boat to meet them. It consisted of three persons.
That was indeed ** a day of small things."
On his return from Malta in 1830, Mr. Bird with Mr. Goodell,
purchased the plot of ground in Beirut now occupied by
the church, press, Sunday-school, girls' boarding-school and
cemetery. He also built a mission house, which was called
Burj Bird. It was, at the time, the largest building outside the
city walls, and the pasha, fearing he was building a fort, de-
manded explanations. Bein|; satisfied, he let the work go on.
In 1833, Mr. Bird wrote his famous "Thirteen Letters "in
reply to the Maronite Bishop Butrus. They were printed in
Arabic at the American Press in Malta, which was removed to
Beirut in April of that year.
The bishop had replied in print to Dr. King's "Farewell
Letters," and as no rejoinder appeared, the Romish party gave
out that the Protestants could not reply to it
This occasioned Mr. Bird's " Thirteen Letters " on the follow-
ing subjects :
I.
Baptism.
9.
Papal Supremacy.
3-
Qcrical Celibacy.
4-
Intercessors.
5.
Image Worship.
6.
Purgatory.
7-
Worship of Saints and Angels.
8.
Transubstantiation and the Mass.
9-
Use of Unknown Tongues.
10.
Faith m the Pope.
II.
Indulgences.
I a.
Persecution.
'3-
Tradition and the Scriptures.
14.
Letter to Peter Paluchet, the Jesuit
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46 The Seven Pioneers
These letters were reprinted in Beirut in a neat volume and have
been kept on hand up to this day. The book is based on the
Bible and the testimony of the early fathers against the inno-
vations of the papacy. It shows great research and is written in
a candid and courteous spirit, and has been the means of en-
lightening multitudes. The original in English is in the mission
library in Beirut written in a beautiful hand, and ranks with
Kirwan's Letters and Gavazzi's Lectures. It should be published
in the English language.
In 1835 Mr. Bird left for Smyrna on account of the health
of Mrs. Bird and reached Boston October 15, 1836.
He was afterwards professor in the theological seminary at
Gilmanton, New Hampshire. Removing to Hartford, Connecticut,
he taught a high school for many years. His son William,
afterwards a missionary in Syria from 1853 to 1902, taught in
this school, and had among his pupils Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan.
Mr. Bird died in Hartford in 1876, aged eighty-three years.
His name will never be forgotten in Syria. He fought a good
fight with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in
high places. Two of his children and a granddaughter entered
the missionary work: Mrs. Emily Van Lennep, Rev. William
Bird, the beloved evangelist of Lebanon, and Miss Emily G. Bird.
V. William Goodell, the Scholarly Saint
Syria can claim William Goodell as one of her pioneers and
benefactors. He spent five years and sixteen days in Syria.
He was appointed to Jerusalem but never saw Jerusalem. He
came to an Arabic-speaking land, but studied chiefly the Arme-
nian and Turkish languages with Armenian ecclesiastics who
had become Protestants, and thus prepared for his great work of
translating the Bible into the Armeno-Turkish, i. e., the Turkish
language with Armenian characters. He arrived in Beirut
November 16, 1823, left for Malta May 2, 1828, and reached
Constantinople, the scene of his life-work, June 9, 1 831, having
been transferred to that post on account of his proficiency in the
Turkish and Armenian languages.
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William Goodell
47
In many respects his character was unique. He seemed
saturated with the Bible and Bible phraseology, so that it flowed
naturally from his tongue and pen. His letter, entitled "The
Missionary's Father/' is a gem of pure English and devout ex-
pression, and has been perpetuated in tract form. His sense of
humour was refreshing, bubbling over on all occasions, and
sparkling even in the darkest hour of persecution and tribulation.
His chum and loved colleague, Daniel Temple of Smyrna, was
of a grave and serious temperament, looking on the dark side,
while Goodell's buoyant spirits were always rejoicing in the sun-
light. One day at Andover, while they were sitting in their
room together Temple said to Goodellwith a heavy sigh {ab imo
pectcri)^ '* Ah me ! I don't see how I shall ever get through the
world I " " Why," replied Goodell, " did you ever hear of any-
body who stuck £aist by the way ? "
Just before they went abroad as missionaries, they were visiting
together at the home of a hospitable lady in Salem, Mass., who
said, after welcoming them, " Mr. Temple, take the rocking-
chair." <* No, madam, if you please," said Mr. Temple, " I will
take another. Missionaries must learn to do without the luxuries
of life." " Well," said the lady, turning to Mr. Goodell, " you will
take it." '* Oh, certainly," he replied ; " missionaries must learn to
sit anywhere ! "
Dr. Hamlin says of Mr. Goodell that he had substantially
Puritan theology, Puritan saintliness and Puritan patriotism, and
this saintliness was adorned with the most sparkling cheerfulness.
His wit and mirthfulness made perpetual sunshine. When his
colleague. Father Temple, reproved him, saying, " Brother
Goodell, do you expect to enter heaven laughing ? " "I don't
expect to go there crying," was his quick reply. His sagacity
and judgment were remarkable, and it was owing largely to his
good judgment, with that of his associates, Riggs, Schauffler,
Dwight and Hamlin, that the Earl of Shaftesbury said in 1869,
"I do not believe that in the whole history of missions, I
do not believe that in the history of diplomacy, or in the his-
tory of any negotiations carried on between man and man, we
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48 The Seven Pioneers
can find anything equal to the wisdom, the goodness and the
pure evangelical truth, of the body of men who constitute the
mission."
When in Beirut in 1826, during the Greco-Turkish war, Greek
vessels of war cruised along the coast and attacked Beirut, the
Pasha of Acre sent td Beirut a large detachment of Albanians
and Bedawin to protect the city. As the Greeks who landed had
evacuated the city, these troops began to plunder. A party of
seven Bedawin attacked Mr. Goodell's house which was a quarter
of a mile east of the city wall. They knocked at the street door
at the foot of the stairs. Mr. Goodell opened the second story
window at the head of the stairs, told them he was a European
and warned them to desist But they cut down the door with
their hatchets and rushed up-stairs. Some city Moslems rushed
up after them and took their station at Mrs. Goodell's door, not
aUowing a Bedawy to enter. As they passed with the plunder,
Mr. Goodell and these friendly Moslems snatched from them all
they could and threw it into the '<hareem" of Mrs. Goodell,
which they dared not enter. At length Mr. Goodell reproached
them severely and told them he had already sent word to the
pasha, and that Mrs. Goodell's condition prevented their going to
the mountains. The villains prayed that God would bless Mrs.
Goodell and make her exceeding fruitful I Some of the rogues
came a few days afterwards to inquire after her health and one
came to ask for some tobacco in a pouch, which he said Mr.
Goodell had stolen from him when he called the other day 1 A
Greek artist made a painting of the house and pictured the
Bedawin (according to Mr. Goodell's sketches at the time) in their
striped ahbas. This picture was shown to the pasha by the
British consul, Abbott, and he at once recognized the men and
ordered them to be bastinadoed and full indemnification (^230) to
be paid at once.
In January, 1827, Dr. Goodell wrote of a delightful communion
season. It was the day of the monthly concert of prayer, and
the ingathering of the first-fruits : Dionysius Carabet, formerly
Archbishop of Jerusalem, Gregory Wortabet, an Armenian priest
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Dr. Goodell in 1862 49
(whose distinguished and learned son, Rev. John Wortabet, M.D.,
died in a ripe old age in Beirut, I908)» and Mrs. Maria Abbott,
wife of the English consul, born in Italy and formerly a Roman
Catholic*
At the communion above mentioned, prayer was oflfered for
" our beloved Asaad es Shidiak, who would have been with us
were he not in bonds for the testimony of Jesus." Dr. Goodell
wrote, " Oh, that this mission might henceforth be like ' the tree
of life ' bearing twelve manner of fruits, and yielding her fruit
every month ! "
In 1862 Dr. and Mrs. Goodell visited Beirut, and remained two
weeks. He preached twice in English and visited old friends. I
went with him to the house in which the Bedawin attacked him,
and we found the aged couple, who owned the house in 1826, still
living in it, and they were rejoiced to see Dr. Goodell. He says
in alluding to the visit, " One of our first visits was to the Protestant
cemetery, a retired and pleasant spot, which I myself purchased
of the sons of Heth for a possession of a burying-place
thirty-seven years ago, in 1825. Here we stood by the
graves of the well-known and beloved brethren, Fisk (who
died at my house in Beirut), Smith and Whiting, whose memories
are as fragrant as ever and whose works still follow thenu
The changes that have taken place in Beirut are great, and
those that have taken place on Mount Lebanon are still greater.
The pride of Lebanon is broken, those high looks are brought
low, and that terrible power which trampled upon all who thirsted
for God or desired a knowledge of His ways, is cast down." Dr.
* Being afterwards left a widow, she married, August 3, 1835, Rev.
Dr. William M. Thomson, author of " The Land and the Book." One
of her daughters, Eliza, married Mr. James Black, an English merchant,
whose sterling integrity, high business principles and unflinching veracity
gave him an influence for righteousness in Syria never surpassed The
Mohammedans, when wishing to use an oath stronger than the oath
" by the beard of Mohammed," would swear " by the word of Khowaja
Black, the Englishman." Another daughter, Julia, married Rev. Dt.
Van Dyck, translator of the Bible into Arabic. Another daughter,
Miss Emilia Thomson, is the senior teacher in the Beirut Girls' School.
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50 The Seven Pioneers
Goodell refers to the prostration of the Maronite hierarchical
power in the civil war and massacres of i860.
He then says, " I was amazed at the amount of influence and
confidence possessed by the missionaries. Their character is now
known and respected, and their names, which were once odious to
a proverb, are now held in honour."
In 1863 his labours in the work of translating and revising the
Holy Scriptures came to a close, in the completion of the final
revision of the entire Bible in the Armeno-Turkish language.
This work will now remain a monument to his accurate scholar-
ship, his sound critical judgment, his lifelong perseverance and
his Scriptural piety. Before leaving Constantinople he published
forty-eight of his sermons in Turkish which he had preached to
the pebple. They were afterwards translated into Bulgarian and
Armenian.
Dr. Edward Prime, in his life of Goodell,* says, '< The trials of
childhood and youth, his struggles into the work to which he was
called ; perils by land and sea ; plundered by Arabs ; his life at-
tempted by poison among the Turks ; living in the midst of the
plague that killed a thousand and more daily, and flres that swept
ofT every house but eight, where he dwelt : such is an outline of
the life he has led, yet he is the same genial, pleasant, cheerful
man that he was when he took the rocking-chair in Salem nearly
a half century since." When he came to Beirut in 1862 he had
strong hopes of being able to visit Jerusalem, but the movements
of steamers prevented, and he said to me, ** I came from America
in 1823, appointed to Jerusalem, but I never got there, and now
I am disappointed again. It must be that the Board meant that
I was bound for the heavenly Jerusalem, which I am sure of
reaching in the Lord's good time."
When he finished the final revision of the Armeno-Turkish
Bible, he wrote to Dr. John Adams, his teacher at Andovcr,
^ Thus have I been permitted to dig a well in this distant land at
which millions may drink, or, as good Brother Temple would say,
• to throw wide open the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem to
» " Forty Years in the Turkish Empire," Carters, New York, 1876.
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EARLY MISSIONARIES
1. Rev. and Mrs. J. Edwards Ford. 2. Mrs. George E. Post 3. Rev.
and Mrs. William Bird. 4. Rev. and Mrs. Eli Smith. 6. Rev. and Mrs.
J. L. Lyons. 6. Rev. and Mrs. D. Bliss. 7. Dr. and Mrs. H. A. De Forest
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Eli Smith ^i
this immense population.' " In 185 1 he visited his native land,
where, in two years, he travelled 25,000 miles, addressing more
than 400 congregations in aid of foreign missions, besides meet-
ing students of colleges, theological seminaries, and Sabbath and
select schools. In 1853 he returned to Constantinople, having
published his volume, " The Old and the New." Here he laboured
until 1865, when at the age of seventy-three he requested a re-
lease from the Board and returned to the United States. He con-
tinued to preach until his death in 1867, at the age of seventy-
five, at the residence of his son in Philadelphia. ** He was rarely
gifted, full of genial humour, sanguine, simple, courageous, modest,
above all, holy. He won hearts and moulded lives."
My &ther heard him address the New School General Assembly
in Washington, D. C, in May, 1852. I was teaching in the
academy in Montrose at the time, and father came home full of
missionary enthusiasm and admiration of the eloquence, the saint-
liness and fascinating humour of this veteran missionary. The
following winter, I heard him several times in the churches in
New York and felt the same fascination. And now, at the age of
seventy-seven, I am glad to pen this brief record of the works and
the worth of this American pioneer in Syria.
VI. Eu Smith, D. D., the Linguist and Translator of the
Sacred Scriptures
When God has a great work to be done. He raises up great
men to do it. Western Asia needed the Bible in the languages
of the people ; Arabic, Turkish, Armenian, Modern Greek, Bul-
garian, Persian and Kurdish, and the Lord raised up and thrust
forth into the field those brilliant scholars and remarkable lin-
guists : Eli Smith, Elias Riggs, William Goodell, Justin Perkins,
W. T. SchaufHer and Cornelius Van Dyck, who have prepared
the Scriptures for more than 100,000,000 of men. One of these
belonged to Persia, two to Syria, two to Constantinople, and one,
Dr. Goodell, to both.
I remember well my first interview with Dr. Eli Smith in the
Susa house in Beirut. It was in February, 1856, the day after my
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^2 The Seven Pioneers
arrival. As I passed up the narrow stone staircase I saw in a
niche in the wall a box of waste paper, which I learned consisted
of proof-sheets of the Arabic Genesis. These were a curiosity to
me, and he told me to take all I wanted. I did so, and sent them
to my friends in America. He had just begun to print Genesis,
after labouring eight years on Bible translation. He spoke very
modestly about his work, and gave me some excellent advice
about studying Arabic. He inquired warmly about his old class-
mate and fellow explorer of Palestine, and my seminary professor.
Dr. Edward Robinson, and was much amused when I told him
that on account of Dr. Robinson's frequent allusions to the valleys
of Sinai and Palestine as wadys, the seminary students called
him Dr. Waddy I He asked me if I had seen in the papers Dr.
Prime's account of his (Dr. P.'s) ride to the Dog River on a white,
blooded Arab steed with curved neck, flowing mane, flashing
eye and distended nostrils I *' And would you believe it, that was
my old Whitey?"
A few days after my arrival Mrs. Smith invited me to lunch,
and at 2 p. m. Dr. Smith asked me if I would not like to take a
walk. I gladly accepted, and we went out, I on foot and he on
horseback. We soon entered on the great sand-dunes west of
Beirut and I went wading and struggling through the light, deep,
drifting sands about a mile to the Raushi or Pigeon Islands over-
looking the sea, and then south another mile through still
deeper sands to the sea beach, then up again over sand-hills and
sandstone quarries, in the hot sun, and I reached home, after
nearly two hours, drenched with perspiration and ready to give
up exhausted. As we neared home. Dr. Smith told me that I
could see that walking in Syria is not so easy as it seems, ke
then explained that some years ago Dr. Anderson, of the
A. B. C. F. M., visited Syria. He told the brethren one day
that good Christians in New England disapproved of missionaries
keeping horses, and, said he, '' I think you had better make your
tours on foot." They acquiesced, and the next day proposed a
visit to a mountain village some nine miles away. They all set
ofi* boldly on foot, but after climbing stone ledges, and along
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Eli Smith 53
dizzy precipices, the Syrian sun pouring down upon their heads,
they sat down to rest. They then set out again, over even a
harder part of the road. Dr. Anderson was about exhausted, and
at length said, ** Brethren, I should say on the whole, for such a
journey as Ms, you would be justified in riding horses." They
said, *' Exactly so, and we thought of it before we started, and
we shall find horses awaiting our whole party just around the
next turn in the road." The result was that the American Board
after that time enjoined the Syrian missionaries to own horses
and use them. The missionary had to buy his own horse, but
the Board supplied the barley to feed him.
Dr. Smith put me through that pedestrian ordeal in order to pre-
vent my attempting to repeat it on a large scale in the future. And
I have many times thanked him for it. I have known several stal-
wart evangelists come to Syria, full of enthusiasm and desire to " en-
dure hardness," and by exposure to the blazing sun in walking over
mountains induce brain fever, and die after a few days in delirium.
Dr. Smith had a delicate physical frame, was pale and highly
intellectual in appearance, courteous and hospitable. It was evi-
dent that he was struggling with some occult form of disease.
The following summer he visited Trebizond, on the Black Sea,
mth his old companion of 1829, Dr. D wight, but fatal disease had
fastened upon him and he died of cancer of the pylorus, after
much sufTering, on January 11, 1857.
Eli Smith was born in Northford, Connecticut, September 13,
1 801, graduated at Yale College in 1821 and after teaching two
years in Greorgia, graduated at Andover in 1826. He was or-
dained and sailed for Malta to take charge of the mission press
May 23, 1826. In 1827 he came to Beirut to study Arabic, and
in 1828, during the terrors of the Greco-Turkish War, left with
Messrs. Bird, Goodell and their families for Malta. March, 1 829, he
travelled through Greece with Rev. Dr. Anderson, and then with
Rev. H. G. O. Dwight explored Armenia, Persia and Georgia, thus
opening the way for the establishment of the Nestorian Mission at
Oroomiah. Returning to America in 1 832,he published " Mission-
ary Researches in Armenia " (2 vols., Boston, 1833) and a small
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54 The Seven Pioneers
volume of " Missionary Sermons and Addresses." In December,
1833, he embarked for Beirut with Mrs. Smith (nee Sarah Lanman
Huntington), whose bright missionary career was terminated by
her death at Smyrna, September 30, 1836. Mrs. Smith com-
menced, in 1834, soon after her arrival, a school for girls in
Beirut, which was the first regular girls' school in Syria, and
under her auspices was erected the first edifice ever built in the
Turkish Empire for the education of girls. A memorial column
in the churchyard in Beirut marks the site of that edifice, which
was removed when the church was built in 1869. Dr. Smith
visited Constantinople, in quest of the best models of Arabic
calligraphy in preparation for his new font of Arabic type. He
then proceeded to Egypt by authority of the Board of Missions,
and accompanied Dr. Edward Robinson in his celebrated tour of
research to Sinai, Palestine and Syria. " By his experience as an
Oriental traveller, and his intimate knowledge of Arabic, he con-
tributed largely to the accuracy, variety and value of the dis-
coveries of Biblical geography, recorded in " Robinson's Biblical
Researches." Dr. Robinson fully recognizes this in his volumes.
Dr. Smith was worth more to him than a score of Oriental
dragomen, many of whom are only too ready to show travellers
what the travellers want to see. A famous savant of Europe,
when at the Dead Sea, asked his dragoman, ** Is this place
Sodom ? " '< Certainly," said the dragoman, anxious to please,
and the discovery was recorded in the savant's note-book. But
Dr. Smith, who was eyes, ears and tongue to Dr. Robinson, on
reaching a supposed Scripture site, called the village sheikhs and
shepherds, and said, " Will you please give me the names of all
the hills, valleys, ruins, streams and rocks in this region ? " They
then began, and Dr. Smith wrote them down in Arabic, and in
this way many lost sites were discovered. One day north of
Nazareth, a shepherd, in reply to a question as to the name of a
low hill covered with pottery, came out with the word " Kana el
Jalil" or Cana of Galilee, which satisfied both Dr. Robinson,
Dr. Smith and afterwards Dn Thomson, that Kefr Kenna is not
the site of Cana of Galilee.
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Eli Smith i;^
After this tour he went to Europe, and in Leipsic superin-
tended the casting by Tauchnitz of the most beautiful font of
Arabic type the world had ever seen. In the mechanical prepa-
rations for this noble achievement, he was greatly indebted to
Mr. Homan Hallock, the missionary printer in Smyrna, whose
ingenuity and inventive genius enabled him to cut the punches
and matrices for the new, so-called, " American Arabic Type."
The original written models of Arabic calligraphy, gathered from
the best Moslem penmen in Cairo, Damascus and Aleppo, were
lost in his shipwreck, but he afterwards replaced them at Con-
stantinople to the number of two hundred : so varied, that the
punches formed from them would make not far from a thousand
matrices.
An ordinary font of English type contains not more than one
hundred separate types. A font of Arabic vowelled Arabic type
contains about i,8oo separate types. Each letter has three forms,
initial, medial and final, and each letter may have several different
vowel points above or below it, and the types of the letters are
grooved on the sides to admit of the insertion of the fine needle-
like types of the minute vowels.
After a visit to America, Dr. Smith returned to Beirut in June,
1841, having married Miss Maria W. Chapin, of Rochester, New
York, who died in about one year, July 27, 1842, leaving a son,
Charles, now (1907) professor in Yale College, the alma mater of
his father. After five years spent in preaching, travelling and
dose study of the Semitic languages, he revisited the United States
and returned January 12, 1847, having married Miss Henrietta S.
Butler, sister of Dr. Butler, of Hartford, Connecticut. In his new
reconstituted home in Beirut he now devoted his eneigies to the
preparation of a new translation of the Bible into the Arabic
language. He collected a library of the best critical books on
the Semitic languages, and on the text of the Scriptures, in Eng-
lish, French and Grerman, and laboured for eight years incessantly,
aided by the famous Arabic scholar and poet. Sheikh Nasif el
Yazigy, and Mr. Butrus el Bistany, a learned convert from the
Maronite faith. He obtained from Dr. Mashaka, of Damascus, a
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56 The Seven Pioneers
treatise on Arab music, which he translated into English. It was
published by the American Oriental Society in 1850.
Dr. Smith was a man of great business capacity, giving atten-
tion to the minutest details. For many years he read the proof-
sheets of nearly every work that was printed at the mission press,
and he bestowed much thought and labour upon the mechanical
apparatus of that establishment. To him every pursuit was sub-
sidiary to a faithful translation of the Word of God into the Arabic
language. Yet he did not neglect the regular preaching of the
Gospel, which he regarded as the first duty of every missionary,
and having early become a fluent speaker in the Arabic, this was
ever his delight It was said of him when I came to Syria,
February, 1856, that Dr. Smith could not only read Arabic
poetry, but could preach in such <* buseet " or simple Arabic that
the women of the Lebanon villages could understand him. Yet he
was disposed to question the practicability of translating children's
hymns into simple and yet classical Arabic. We have, however,
proved by experience that our most beautiful children's hymns have
been put into beautiful and simple Arabic, quite intelligible to the
children in the common schools. Dr. Smith published in Arabic
a book on the " Office and Work of the Holy Spirit," " El Bab el
Maftuah," which was a revelation to all speaking the Arabic
language.
In 1850 he had received the merited degree of D.D. from
Williams College.
Dr. Smith was familiar with the ancient classics, and with
French, Italian, German, Turkish and Arabic. His ideal of per-
fection was so high that it was difficult for him ever to be satisfied
with his work.
In April, 1890, 1 took my old Yale friend, Dr. Daniel C« Gil-
man, of Johns Hopkins Universi^, through our mission premises,
and as we entered that little upper room in the female seminary
building, formerly the mission house, or " Burj Bird," where the
Bible was translated into Arabic by Drs. Elr Smith and Van
Dyck, he said, " Dr. Smith was a Yale man and we are Yale men.
Why not put up a memorial tablet on the wall of this room
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William M. Thomson 57
commemorative of the great work of Bible translation done
here ? " I replied, ^ The only objection is the want of funds to do
it" " I will pay the expense," was the ready reply, and this
tablet was prepared and set in the wall.
VII. WiLUAM M. Thomson, D. D., Explorer and Author
OF " The Land and the Book"
As God raised up men in the West to give back the Bible to
the East, so He chose among these men those who should illustrate
the Bible to the West And there was divine wisdom in sending
Thomson, Robinson and Eli Smith to explore the Holy Land,
while still in its primitive state, before the irruption of Western
customs, implements, dress and means of communication. Dr.
Thomson was a born traveller. He loved the saddle and the tent,
the open air exercise, the evening talks at the tent door with Arab
sheikhs and villagers, the glorious sunrise and sunset effects of the
S}nrian sky, the wild flowers and sweet odours of the fragrant
herbs on the moors, the lofty mountains and dark ravines, the
waving grain of early spring, the early and latter rains, the long
rainless summer and the thunder and lightning of winter when
«* the voice of the Lord breaketh the Cedars, yea the Lord
breaketh the Cedars of Lebanon."
Of a high poetical nature and brilliant descriptive powers, he
seemed called of God to picture to the Christian world of the
West the unchanged and unchanging witness of the land to the
verity and veracity of the Book.
Dr. William M. Thomson was born of godly ancestry in
Springdale, Ohio, December 31, 1806, son of Rev. John Thomson,
a Presbyterian minister. He graduated at Miami University,
Oxford, Ohio, in 1829, and at Princeton Theological Seminary,
under Dr. Alexander, in 1832. He arrived in Beirut, Syria,
February 24, 1833, and thus was the eighth American missionary
in Syria, two having died, and two removed from Syria before
his arrivaL
In April, 1834, he removed with his wife to Jerusalem. One
month later, after seeing his family settled in his new home, he
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58 The Seven Pioneers
went to Jafia to attend to the forwarding of his goods. Gvil
war then broke out in Palestine. The fellahin, from Hebron to
Nazareth, rebelled against Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt, and besieged
Jerusalem. For two months a reign of terror prevailed in
Jerusalem ; siege, war, several violent earthquakes, plague in Jaffit,
pillage and murder in JerusaleuL Dr. Thomson was detained in
Jaf& and was unaware that an infant son (now Prof. W. H.
Thomson, M. D., of New York) had been bom to his wife. She
was in circumstances indescribably terrifying, amidst the roar of
cannon, falling walls, the shrieks of the neighbours, the terror of
servants and constant expectation of massacre by the enraged
mob of fellahin besiegers. After two months, Ali Mohammed
having reached JafIa with 12,000 troops, and marched on Jeru-
salem, Dr. Thomson followed the army and hastened to his wife.
He found Mrs. Thomson nearly blind from ophthalmia, accom-
panied with a high inflammatory fever, and twelve days after his
arrival, exhausted by the trials of the previous sixty days, she fell
asleep in Jesus and was at rest Her own letters written during
the days of agony and suspense are a beautiful illustration of the
sustaining power of Christian faith. Dr. Thomson removed to
Beirut, in August, 1834, with his infant son. He was afterwards
married to Mrs. Maria Abbott, widow of H. B. M. Consul
Abbott
In December, 1835, he opened a boys' boarding-school in
Beirut Rev. Story Hebard joined him in this work in 1836 and
continued it until 1840-41. On New Year's Day, 1837, a terrific
earthquake devastated Syria and Palestine, especially the town of
Tiberias, where 700 of a population of 2,500 perished, and Safed,
where from 5,000 to 6,000 perished out of a population of 10,000.
Dr. Thomson and Mr. Caiman, English missionary to the Jews,
were sent as a deputation by the people of Beirut to carry relief
to the suflerers : and his reports as published, giving a graphic
account of the dreadful and heartrending scenes at Safed, the
horrible wounds, the mangled bodies of the dead, the groans of
the hundreds of victims still alive and half buried under the ruins,
sent a .thrill throughout the Christian world. They built a
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William M. Thomson 59
temporary hospital, distributed money and food, and relieved the
suffering Jews, Moslems and Greeks as far as it was possible to do.
The survivors seemed paralyzed. One Jew refused to aid in ex-
tricating his wounded brother from under a pile of stones, unless
paid for it I Spiritual comfort seemed out of the question, for it
was the testimony of Dr. Thomson on this as on other similar oc-
casions, that great overwhelming calamities seem to harden rather
than soften the hearts of men. Dr. Thomson wrote,'' There is no
flesh in the stony heart of man. No man would work to help us,
except for enormous wages. Not a Jew, Christian or Turk lifted
a hand to help us except for high wages.''
In 1835, the same year in which the first building erected for
female education in Syria was built, at the expense of Mrs.
Todd (an English lady from Alexandria), in Beirut for Mrs. EO
Smith, on the lot in front of the present church, a seminary for
boys was commenced in Beirut, by Dr. Thomson, in which work
he was afterwards assisted by Mr. Hebard. English was taught,
and some of their pupils have since been prominent men in Syria.
In May, 1840, in company with Mr. Beadle and Dr. Van Dyck
he made an exploration of Northern Syria. In one of his letters
his description of a sunrise in the desert is a masterpiece of
brilliant imaginative writing. This description was printed in
the Missionary Herald and reached the Sandwich Islands, where
one of the missionaries cut up the whole passage into elegant
Miltonian blank verse, without altering a word. Indeed his
journals printed at length in the Missionary Herald were eagerly
read and universally admired.
On the 14th of August, 1841, the English fleet under Sir
Charles Napier arrived in Beirut harbour to drive Ibrahim Pasha
out of Syria. The combined English (twenty-one vessels), Aus-
trian (six) and Turkish fl'-.^J^s (twenty-four Turkish transports) an-
chored off* Beirut, b^i^ in all a fleet of fifty-one sail. The
United States corvette, Cyane, Captain Latimer, took on board
all the missionaries and landed them safely in Larnaca, Cyprus.
The bombardment began and continued while the Cyane was still
at anchor, and kept on for a month when Soleyman Pasha
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evacuated the city. In October, the missionaries returned, ex-
pecting to find the mission house in ruins. But on the contrary,
although the ground on the mission premises was ploughed by
cannon-balls, and two bombs had burst in the yard, the house and
printing-press were uninjured I The library, the costly apparatus
for the boys' seminary, the invaluable manuscripts and books,
and the large folio volumes of the Christian fathers, remained
safe just as when the missionaries left them.
Soon after, Ibrahim Pasha was driven back to Egypt, and
Syria and Palestine were restored to Turkish rule. But for the in-
terference of England, the Egyptian dynasty would have subdued
the whole Turkish Empire. While Ibrahim Pasha was in Syria
there was universal security and a better government than had been
known for centuries. On his departure, things returned to their old
course. Again in the Crimean War, England saved the Turkish
Empire from destruction. It did the same at the close of the
Bulgarian War, after the treaty of St. Stephano. And it may be
said that in 1861, by insisting on the evacuation of Syria by the
French army of occupation, it again saved Syria to the Turk.
And yet the Turks do not love the English !
In 1 841, war broke out between the Druses and the Maronites.
Many refugees were fed and clothed by the missionaries.
In 1843, Dr. Thomson and Dr. Van Dyck removed to the vil-
lage of Abeih in Mount Lebanon, and carried on the boys' semi-
nary, now transferred from Beirut. They continued teaching and
preaching until they were stationed in Sidon in 1851.
July 18, 1843, Dr. Thomson went to Hasbeiya where 150 men
had declared themselves Protestants, and on August ist, the en-
tire body left for Abeih to escape attack by armed men from
Zahleh and the region of Hermon, but they returned in the &11,
the fury of their foes being exhausted.
One day Dr. Thomson and two cfeflKlims went up the side of
Hermon to the solitary lodge of a poor vine-dresser, who was
deeply interested in spiritual things. He wrote of this visit, " It
was good to be there on that mountainside, in the lodge beneath
that olive tree, among those clustering vines, with that old man
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William M. Thomson 6i
of humble mien and tearful eye, the voice of prayer ascending
from full hearts to the canopy of heaven above our heads. Yes,
it was good to be there. I crept forth from this humble lodge
with eyes bedimmed with tears."
In April, 1845, civil war broke out again in Lebanon, and a
battle took place in Abeih. Dr. Thomson bore a white flag to
tlie Druses' camp, and through his prompt action in securing the
interference of the British consul-general in Beirut, a truce was
agreed on and a general massacre of the unfortunate Maronites
was prevented.
Whereupon the Greek and Maronite bishops of Beirut ordered
their people to protect the American missionaries. In Septem-
ber the missionaries were ordered down from Abeih by Chekib
EfTendi, the Turkish commissioner, and returned again in Decem-
ber.
From this time on, during his residence in Abeih and Sidon
(to which place he removed in 1851) until 1857, Dr. Thomson
was engaged in making extended missionary tours in Syria and
Palestine. It was my privilege to accompany him, on his invita-
tion, in February, 1857, through Palestine, when he was engaged
in elaborating his great literary work " The Land and the Book."
That journey, made one year after my arrival here, and with
such a guide and companion, marked an epoch in my life. It
^ established my goings " in Bible study and gave me a familiar-
ity with Bible scenes and localities which has been to me of
priceless value. On reaching camp at night, when we younger
i men were well-nigh exhausted by long stages, through miry roads
and swollen streams, he would sit up to a late hour writing up
his notes of travel with the greatest care, apparently as fresh as
in the morning. His buo)rant spirits, his thorough understanding
of men, his facility in settling difficulties, his marvellous knowledge
of Scriptural scenes and sites, his hearty good nature, willingness
to impart useful information about the sacred localities, and his
devout and reverent spirit, made him a most charming and in-
valuable travelling companion. Every mountain and hill, every
stream and valley, every rock and castle and cavern, every village
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62 The Seven Pioneers
and hamlet, were familiar to his practiced eye. His trusty horse,
which had borne him often, through the '^ Land/' seemed to know
every road and by-path.
Dr. Thomson was an enthusiastic geologist, and in this we both
heartily sympathized. He discovered the greater part of the fossil
localities of Mount Lebanon and directed me to them. I never
travel, or visit these localities, without recalling his valuable infor-
mation.
He felt deeply that the Bible could only be fully and clearly
understood by remembering its Oriental origin, and that it was
important to study and record, with scrupulous exactness, the
manners and customs, the language and salutations, the usages
and peculiarities of the modern inhabitants of Syria and Pales-
tine, before the influx of European ideas and habits should have
swept away their distinctive features as illustrative of the language
and thoughts of Bible characters.
His studious habits, his ready pen, his almost microscopic
powers of observation, and his habit of recording conscientiously
every new discovery and impression, enabled him to accumulate,
during his missionary life, a mass of material such as no one had
ever been able to secure. And he felt that he could not do a
better service to the Church and the world, than to turn the search-
light of the land upon the pages of the Book.
He was well fitted for the task and he did it well. He did it as
missionary work in the broadest sense, and how well he did it,
can be learned by seeing his volumes in the libraries of universi-
ties, colleges and theological schools, in the homes of pastors
and teachers, in Sunday-schools and public schools : quoted by
scholars, preachers and teachers, in commentaries, books of
travel, and encyclopedias. Nearly, if not quite 200,000 copies
of " The Land and the Book " have been sold.
When in the troublous war crises of 1841 and 1845 a number
of men left the mission for America and urged the abandonment
of the field, Dr. Thomson with Mr. Calhoun, and Drs. Van Dyck,
Eli Smith, De Forest and Mr. Whiting resisted the suggestion,
and stood to their posts, and saved the work from destruction.
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William M. Thomson 63
In June 23, 1859, on his return from a two years' visit to the
United States, he was stationed in Beirut, where he remained
for seventeen years, until his final departure for the United States,
August 7, 1876. I laboured as his colleague during those seven-
teen years and learned to love and admire him and trust in his
judgment.
In the fall of 1859, the population of Lebanon was in a state
of agitation and preparation for a renewal of the old war between
the Maronites and the Druses.
In the spring of i860 the war-cloud burst, and for sixty days,
civil war, the burning of villages, outrage and massacres dev-
astated Southern Lebanon, the Bookaa, the Anti- Lebanon and
Damascus. Thousands of refugees, men, women and children,
widows and orphans, crowded into Beirut. Dr. Thomson was
most active in the practical management of the distribution, by
a committee, of nearly ;f 30,000, in money, food and clothing to
the wretched sufferers. He had the special charge of the cloth,
ing department, and distributed the material for 100,000 gar-
ments.
When Lord Dufferin, and his successor. Colonel Frazier,
wished judicious counsel in matters pertaining to the reorganiza-
tion of the Mount Lebanon government, they consulted first of
all the two veterans in missionary experience and knowledge. Dr.
Thomson and Mr. Calhoun of Abeih.
Lord Dufferin, in an official report sent to England at the
time, in speaking of the part borne by the Syrian missionaries
in the work of relieving the refugees, states that " without their
indefatigable exertions, the supplies sent from Christendom
could never have been properly distributed, nor the starvation of
thousands of the needy been prevented."
On the 29th of April, 1873, his devoted wife, Mrs. Maria
Thomson, after more than forty years of a lovely and consistent
Christian life in this community, passed to her heavenly reward,
universally beloved and respected by people of all nation-
aUties.
On reaching the United States in 1877, he resided in New
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64 The Seven Pioneers
York for several years, and then removed to Denver, Colorado,
where he enjoyed the clear skies and the towering mountains,
which he said reminded him so vividly of his beloved Syria. In
that city, in the home of his daughter, Mrs. Walker, and with
the faithful ministrations of his unmarried daughter Emilia, he
remained until April 8, 1894, when he was summoned to the
heavenly Canaan, the unfading and unclouded '* Land of
Promise," by the great inspirer of the " Book " he had so faith-
fully laboured to illustrate and exalt before the minds of his
fellow men.
His actual connection with the mission in Syria .covered
a period of forty-three years and five months. His sojourn in
America lasted seventeen years and eight months. His latter
days were serene and happy ; enjoying the full possession of all
his faculties, he retained his interest in all that pertains to the
kingdom of Christ His life and work were a blessing to Syria,
in la}ring the foundations of the work now going on in all parts
of the land. In the annual meetings of the mission, when
grave questions were under discussion, he would rise to his feet,
walk to and fro, and give utterance to his views in terms so
clear, concise and convincing, that they generally settled the
question.
His life is an illustration of the fact that in the foreign mission
service there is scope for every kind of talent and acquisition.
Dr. Eli Smith could not have written '< The Land and the Book,"
and Dr. Thomson could not have translated the Bible. Dr.
Thomson found in Syria and Palestine a vast unexplored field
of Scriptural illustration. The land of the Bible, its topography
and customs, were well-nigh unknown among the great Chris-
tian nations of the West With unequalled facilities for travel-
ling in the land and studying the people, he used the talents God
had given him in illustrating the Word of God. Others engaged
more especially in translating that book into the Arabic lan-
guage, in founding schools and seminaries, in preparing a Chris-
tian literature, and in preaching the Gospel from the pulpit or
in the homes of the people. While he did what he could in
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William M. Thomson 65
several of these departments of labour, he gave more especial
attention to that for which God had prepared him by special
gifts and graces. His works do follow him. His name will be
remembered, with those of Eli Smith and Edward Robinson,
as one of the three Americans who were the pioneers of ex-
ploration of the Bible lands, as a means of illustrating the Word
of God
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IV
The Arabic Bible— Its Translation and the Trans-
lators (1848-1865)
** And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the na-
tions." — Revelation 22: 2
*• Hie labor^ hoc opus est''
FOREIGN missionaries have moved mountains. Grain by
grain, rock by rock, by steady work, year after year, toil-
ing, delving, tunnelling, the giant mountain obstacles
have been gradually melted away. After years of silent, unseen,
prayerful, agonizing work, suddenly a new version of the sacred
Scriptures is announced, and millions find the door of knowledge
and salvation suddenly opened to them. It is easy to read in a
Bible society report that the Bible has been translated into
Mandingo for eight millions, into Panjabi for fourteen millions,
into Marathi for seventeen millions, into Cantonese for twenty
millions, into Japanese for fifty millions, into Bengali for thirty-
nine millions, into Arabic for fifty millions, into Hindi for eighty-
two millions, and into Mandarin Chinese for two hundred mil-
lions. But who can comprehend what it all means ? To those
who claim that missionaries are, or should be, only men who are
failures at home, who are unable to fill home pulpits, but are good
enough for Asiatic or African mission work, such a statement
must be an unsolved and unsolvable riddle.
Translation is an art, a science, one of the most difficult of
all literary undertakings. To translate an ordinary newspaper
editorial from English into French, German or Italian, would
cost most scholars many hours of work. It is easier to
compose in a foreign tongue than to translate into it, adhering
conscientiously to the meaning, yet casting it so perfectly into
the native idiom as to conceal the fact of its foreign origin. Few
natives of Asia can translate from English into their own tongue
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Difficulties of Translation 67
without revealing the stiif foreign unoriental source from which
the material was taken.
Dr. Thomas Laurie in his able work " Missions and Science/'
p. 245, says, '' If any wonder why. so much pains should be taken
to make a version not only accurate but idiomatic, let him read
the following words of Luther in 1530: — ^'In translating, I
have striven to give pure and clear German, and it has verily hap-
pened that we have sought, a fortnight, three or four weeks, for
a single word, and yet it was not always found. In Job we so
laboured, Philip Melanchthon, Aurogallus and I, that in four days
we sometimes barely finished three lines.' Again he writes, « We
must not ask the Latinizers how to speak German, but we must
ask the mother in the house, the children in the lanes, the com-
mon man in the market-place and read in their mouths how they
speak, and translate accordingly.' "
If it was thus difficult for the learned Luther to translate from
the Hebrew and Greek into his own mother German, how much
more to translate from them into an Oriental tongue like the
Arabic! And few foreign missionaries can translate ordinary
tracts and books into the vernacular of their adopted country.
Men must have a peculiar mental bent and devote years to study-
ing and practicing the vulgar talk of the populace, and the pure
classical language of the local literature, if there be a literature,
and if not, to identify himself with those who are to read what
he writes, before he can translate with success. But when you
add to all this the work of translating a book of 960 pages from
the ancient Hebrew, the Old Testament, and another of 270
pages from the ancient Greek, the New Testament, so as to give
your readers the exact literal idea of the original, and this into a
language utterly diflferent in spirit, ideals and idioms not only
from the Hebrew and Greek, but also from your own tongue, and
remember that this is the Word of God in which error is inadmis-
sible and might be fatal; knowing that the eyes of scores of mis-
sionaries, and hundreds of native scholars in the future, as well as
savants in philology and linguistic science in Europe and America
will scan and criticize your work, and you might well exclaim.
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6S The Arabic Bible
"Who is sufficient for these things?" The true translator
" nascitur, non fit'* It is born in him, and without this native
genius and preparation he cannot succeed.
Translators of the Scriptures are ** called of God, as was Aaron."
Missionary boards send out young men to foreign lands, not
knowing to what special work God may call them. It may be
exploring, as Livingston ; or healing, as Dr. Parker, " who opened
China to the Gospel at the point of the lancet " ; or teaching, as
DufT, Hamlin and Calhoun ; or preaching, as Titus Coan of Hilo,
Sandwich Islands ; or it may be translating, as Morrison, Hepburn,
RiggSf Goodell, Eli Smith and Van Dyck.
In 1847 ^ committee of which Dr. Eli Smith was chairman,
and Drs. Thomson and Van Dyck were members, sent to the
United States an appeal in behalf of a new translation of the Bible
into the Arabic language, in which, after speaking of the com-
paratively evanescent character of translations of the Bible into the
languages of tribes evidently hastening to extinction, the appeal
rises to high and almost prophetic eloquence in speaking of the
future of the Arabic Bible :
" The Arab translator is interpreting the lively orades for the
forty millions of an undying race whose successive and ever
augmenting generatrons shall fail only with the final termination
of all earthly things. Can we exaggerate on such a theme ? Is
it easy to overestimate the importance of that mighty power that
shall send the healing leaves of salvation down the Tigris, the
Euphrates, the Nile, and the Niger ; that shall open living foun-
tains in the plains of Syria, the deserts of Arabia and the sands of
Africa ; that shall gild with the light of life the craggy summits of
goodly Lebanon and sacred Sinai and giant Atlas ? We think not
These and kindred thoughts are not the thoughtless and fitful
scintillations of imagination, the baseless dreams of a wild enthusi-
asm. To give the Word of God to forty millions of perishing
sinners, to write their commentaries, their concordances, their
theology, their sermons, their tracts, their school-books and their
religious journals : in short, to give them a Christian literature, or
that germinating commencement of one, which can perpetuate its
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Dr. Van Dyck's Account 69
life and expand into full grown maturity, are great gigantic
verities taking fast hold on the salvation of myriads which no man
can number, of the present and all future generations."
On the 2ist of February, 1885, Rev. James S. Dennis, D. D.,
then a member and librarian of the Syria Mission in Beirut, wrote
to Dr. Van Dyck requesting him to prepare a careful sketch of
the history of the translation of the Bible into the Arabic lan-
guage. The following account to p. 76 summarizes the facts
given in Dr. Van Dyck's reply :
** An account of the Arabic Version of the Scriptures made under the
auspices of the Syria Mission and the American Bible Society,
** At the general meeting of the mission held in Beirut, February, 1848,
mider the date of February nth, we find the following vote :
" 'Resolved, that at the end of the present term of the seminary
(Abeih) Butrus el Bistany be transferred to the Beirut station with a
view to his being employed in the translation of the Scriptures, under
the direction of Dr. Eli Smith.' (Mr. Bistany had been associated with
Dr. Van Dyck in the Boys' Seminary of Abeih, from the time of its
opening.) "
Under same date, February 11, 1848, we have the following
resolution :
"Resolved, that Dr. Smith be authorized to correspond with the
secretaries of the American Bible Society in relation to the contemplated
new translation of the Scriptures into Arabic."
Under date of April 4, 1849, we find the following :
"Dr. Smith reported progress in the work of translating the Scriptures,
and laid before the mission the first ten chapters of Genesis for examina-
tion, and Messrs. Whiting, Thomson, Van Dyck, Hurter, De Forest and
Ford were appointed a committee to examine what had been done and
report to this meeting. This committee reported April 7th, stating
'that they find the new translation' faithful to the original, and a
decided improvement upon the version we now circulate, and recommend
that the work be prosecuted to its completion upon the same general
principles which appear to have guided the translator hitherto. They
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70 The Arabic Bible
also commended the translator and those associated with him to the
fervent prayers of all the members of the mission, that they may be
guided by divine wisdom in the prosecution of this all important work.'*
It is plain from the above that Dr. Smith began to work on the
translation in 1848, assisted by Sheikh Nasif el Yazigy^and Mr.
Butrus el Bistany. First, Mr. Bistany made a translation into
Arabic from the Hebrew or Greek with the aid of the Syriac
Then Sheikh Nasif, who knew no language but Arabic, rewrote
what had been translated, carefully sifting out all foreign idioms.
Then Dr. Smith revised Sheikh Nasif *s manuscript by himself, and
made his own corrections and emendations. Then he and Sheikh
Nasif went over the work in company, and Dr. Smith was care-
ful not to let the meaning be sacrificed for a question of Arabic
grammar or rhetoric.
Under date of April 9th, the mission records state that ** Dr.
Smith submitted a copy of the new translation of the Book of
Genesis, with some remarks and explanations, and it was voted
that 100 copies of the new translation of Genesis be printed at the
expense of the mission."
As each form was struck off, a copy was sent to each member
of the mission, and the Arabic scholars outside the mission,
especially to the missionaries of other societies, and by special
vote in March 29, 185 1, all the members of the mission were urged
to give special attention to the new translation and to render
Dr. Smith all the assistance in their power to carry it forward to
its completion.
In 1852, during the visit of Dr. Edward Robinson, of Union
Seminary, Dr. Smith laid on the table the translation of the Penta-
teuch up to the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy, and a committee,
consisting of Messrs. Thomson, Whiting, Robinson, Calhoun,
Marsh of Mosul and Ford, examined the translation and approved
it, whereupon the translator was directed to finish the Pentateuch
and then take up the New Testament March 23, 1 85 3, Dr. Smith
laid upon the table the remainder of Deuteronomy, Matthew,
Mark, and to the twelfth chapter of Luke.
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Progress of the Work 71
March 3, 1854, Dr. Smith had completed during the year from
the twelfth chapter of Luke to i Corinthians.
April 3, 185s, Dr. Smith reported that the New Testament had
been completed, and also Jonah, Joel and Amos, and the print-
ing of the Pentateuch had reached the sixth chapter of Exodus.
April I, 1856, Dr. Smith made his last report, that in the Old
Testament^ after finishing Nahum he had taken up Isaiah, and
had reached the fifty-third chapter, and that in printing, the
Pentateuch had advanced to the end of Exodus, and the New
Testament to the sixteenth chapter of Matthew.
At the time of his death he had devoted nine years to this
work, or rather eight years of actual labour. A day or two be-
fore his death Rev. D. M. Wilson asked him if he had anything
to say about the translation. He replied, ** I will be responsible
only for what has been printed. If the work should be carried
on» I hope that what I have done will be found of some value."
Before narrating the work of Dr. Van Dyck in completing the
translation, let ps see what " helps " these learned scholars had at
hand as a '' translation apparatus," connected with the Old Testa-
ment. This list will deeply interest those who regard mission-
aries as unscholarly and behind the times.
1. Of Hebrew Grammars, they had Gesenius' Lehrgebaude (181 7),
his smaller grammar edited by Rodiger (185 1), a gift from the editor;
Ewald's Lehrbach (1844) <^d Nordheimer's Grammar.
2. Of Lexicons : Gesenius' Hebrew Thesaurus, now completed by
Rodiger (who kindly sent Dr. Smith the last part as soon as it left the
press) ; and also Robinson's Gesenius, a gift from the translator. He
had also Furst's Concordance and his School Dictiopary, also Noldin's
Concordance of the Hebrew particles.
3. Of Commentaries : Rosenmuller on the Pentateuch, and Tuch
and Delitzch and Knobel on Genesis. Also the Glossa Ordinaria, a
voluminous digest from the Fathers, and Pool's Synopsis, with other
more common commentaries in English.
4. Of non- Arabic versions of critical value : the London Polyglot (a
gifk of Mrs. Fisher Howe, of Brooklyn, New York), with Buxtorf 's
Chaldee, and Castel's Syriac Lexicon, and Schleusner's Greek Lexicon
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72 The Arabic Bible
of the Septuagiat, besides the lexicons which compose the seventh vol*
arae of the Polyglot. Also Tischendorf's Septuagint, containing the
readings of four ancient manuscripts; and, for a general Greek lexicon,
Liddell and Scott. Among modem versions Dr. Smith made constant
reference to that of De Wette's.
5. Of Arabic versions : Dr. Smith had besides that of Saadias Gaon
in the Polyglot, the Ebreo-Mauritanian version, edited by Erpenius,
and three copies of the version of Abu Sa'd, the Samaritan ; two of
these copies he hkd made from manuscripts some five hundred yean old,
and the other edited by Kuenen, with the readings and notes of three
manuscripts; also a distinct version in manuscript apparently made
from the Peshito written nearly five hundred years ago. The above are
ancient. Of more modem versions, I have the Romish edition re-
printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society, which we now circu-
late, and which is conformed to the Vulgate with frequent accommo-
dations to the Peshito. Also the lessons read in the Greek and Gredc
Catholic Churches printed at Shuwair and translated from the Septua-
gint but following after other readings than those of the Polyglot; and
the Karshuny lessons read in the Maronite Churches, printed at
Koshaiya and translated from the Peshito. This version of the Maro-
nites, if reference be had both to conformity with the Hebrew and ac-
ceptableness of style to modem readers, is the best of all, but it con-
tains, as well as the lessons of the Greeks, only a small portion of the
Old Testament.
6. Of other helps, Dr. Smith had Winer's Realworterbuch (last edi-
tion), De Wette's Introduction to the Old Testament, and Hivemick's
Introduction to the Pentateuch ; also Sherif-ed-Din-et-Tifasy on precious
stones, and the Arabic Materia Medica called Ma-la-jrisa : bodi useful
in explaining terms connected with natural history and kindred subjects.
The Hebrew text used was that of Michaelis, whose notes and especial
references are often valuable ; and also Dr. Rossi's various readings, and
Bahrdt's remains of the Hexapla of Origen.
7. This catalogue would not be complete without mentioning the
more important helps to a full understanding and proper use of the
Arabic language. Grammars : The Commentary of Ashmuny, on the
Aleiiyeh of Ibn Malik ; the Commentary of Deroanuny on the Teshll of
the same author, and Millu Jamy of Ibn el Haj^b, also Mughny el
Labib of Ibn Hashim, invaluable for its definitions of the particles. Of
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Van Dyck Takes Up the Work 73
rhetoric, the Mukhtasr and Muttowwal of Teftazany. Of dictionaries, I
have two copies of Feinizabady, and one of Jauhari, as well as the dic-
tionary Fdyumy, and the Constantinople edition of Feiruzabady with
definitions in Turkish. Of European works : the dictionary of Freytag
and the Arabic-Turco-Persian dictionary of Meninski. Also the Tarifdt
of Jorjimy, and the Kulliyat of Abu el Buka, which latter when fur-
nished with a (Hroper index will help to many definitions of great value.
After the death of Dr. Eli Smith many thought that the work
of translation must cease. Dr. Smith was so learned, so accu-
rate and conscientious, and so singularly prepared for this great
work, that it seemed as though no one could fill his place. But
though the worker falls the work goes on. The mantle of Eli fell
on Cornelius. God had been preparing for seventeen years the
man who was to complete the great work of giving the Bible to
forty millions of men. Cornelius Van Alan Van Dyck, M. D.,
came to S)rria, April 2, 1840, aged twenty-one years and four
months, the youngest American ever sent to Syria. He came as
a medical missionary, had never studied theology, but in seven-
teen years in Syria he had mastered the Arabic language, the
S)rriac, Hebrew, Greek, French, Italian and German. He was of
HoUandic origin, born at Kinderhook in 181 8. He had a genius
for languages, a phenomenal memory, a clear intellect, and ex-
celled in medicine, astronomy, the higher mathematics and lin-
guistic science. His knowledge of Arabic, both classical and
vulgar, was a wonder to both natives and foreigners, as will be
seen in the chapter on his life and work. He had been ordained
January 14, 1846, and afterwards received the degrees of D. D.
and LL. D., and later that of L. H. D., from Edinburgh.
At the next annual meeting of the mission after Dr. Smith's
death (April 3, 1857), a committee was appointed to examine
and report on the state of the translation of the Scriptures as left
by Dr. Smith. This committee consisted of Messrs. Calhoun, Van
Dyck, Ford, Eddy and Wilson, and reported that Genesis and
Exodus had been printed with the exception of the last of Exodus
which was in type but not edited. That the books of the Bible yet
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74 The Arabic Bible
untouched are Job, P^ins» Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Sol-
omon, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk, 2^echariah, Zephaniah, Haggai
and Malachi. The Historical Books from Joshua to Esther inclu-
sive, and the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations, had been put
into Arabic by Mr. Bistany, the assistant translator, but not revised
by Dr. Smith.
It was found that in the translation of the New Testament, the
Greek text followed had been that of Hahn, but in the first thir-
teen chapters of Matthew there are some variations from that
text according to the text of Tregelles and others.
The committee were unanimously of opinion that the transla-
tion of the New Testament had been made with great care and
fidelity, and that it could, with comparatively little labour, be
prepared for the press, and they accordingly recommended to the
mission to prosecute and complete its publication as soon as possible.
The mission then appointed Dr. Van Dyck to the work. He
was then living in Sidon, and removed to Beirut in November,
1857, and went on with the work as directed. As the American
Bible Society required a strict adherence to the Textus Receptus
of Hahn's Greek Testament, Dr. Van Dyck revised every verse in
the New Testament, taking up the work as if new. The basis
left by Dr. Smith was found invaluable^ and but for it the work
would have been protracted very much beyond what it really was.
The form adopted was the second font Reference New Testa-
ment. Thirty proofs were struck from each form as soon as set
up in type and these proofs were distributed to all missionaries in
the Arabic-speaking field, and to native scholars, and to Arabic
scholars in Germany, viz. : Professor Fleischer of Leipsic, Professor
Rodiger of Halle, afterwards of Berlin, Professor Fliigel of Dres-
den and Dr. Behrnauer, librarian of the Imperial Library, Vienna.
Some letters and proofs from some of these gentlemen and others
have survived, and have been placed in the standard copy of the
Old Testament, deposited in the library of the mission. The
proofs distributed were returned to the translator with the criti-
cisms of those to whom they had been sent, all of which were
carefully examined and decided upon.
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Its Simplicity of Style 75
In 1862, Dr. Van Dyck wrote to the American Bible Society
with regard to the labour involved in the translation of the Old
Testament : *' In the first place, it must be carefully made from
the Hebrew, then compared with the Syriac version of the Mar-
onites, and the Septuagint of the Greeks ; the various readings
given, and in difficult places the Chaldee Targums must be con-
sulted, and hosts of German commentators, so that the eye is
constantly glancing from one set of characters to another: then
after the sheet is in type, thirty copies are struck oflTand sent to
scholars in Syria, Egypt and even Germany. These all come
back with notes and suggestions, every one of which must be
well weighed. Thus a critic, by one dash of his pen, may cause
me a day's labour, and not tiU all is set right, can the sheet be
printed."
In regard to the style of Arabic adopted, it was the same as
had been adopted by Dr. Smith after long and frequent con-
sultations with the mission and with native scholars. Some would
have preferred the style " Koranic," i. e,, Islamic, adopting
idioms and expressions peculiar to Mohammedans. All native
Christian scholars decidedly objected to this. It was agreed to
adopt a simple but pure Arabic, free from foreign idioms, but
never to sacrifice the sense to a g^mmatical quirk or a rhetorical
quibble, or a fanciful tinkling of words. As a matter of fact, it
will be seen that in the historical and didactic parts, the style is
pure and simple, but in the poetical parts the style necessarily
takes on the higher standard of the original, e.g.. Job, Psalms and
parts of the prophets. The work of the^translation of the New
Testament was finished March 9, i860, and a complete copy was
laid upon the table at the annual meeting, March 28th, and that
same copy is now preserved in the mission library.
Dr. Van Dyck was assisted by a Mohammedan scholar of high
repute, Sheikh Yusef el Asir, a graduate of the Azhar University
of Cairo, whose purely Arabic tastes and training fitted him to
pronounce on all questions of grammar, rhetoric and vowelling,
subject to the revision and final judgment of Dr. Van Dyck.
In April, i860, the mission directed Dr. Van Dyck to carry on
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j6 The Arabic Bible
the translation of the Old Testament commencing with Leviticus.
The last chapter of Exodus was edited by Dr. Van Dyck imme*
diately after Dr. Smith's death, and printed, so that the whole of
Genesis and Exodus might be before the mission.
In 1864, an edition of the vo welled Psalms in parallelisms was
issued i6mo, and on August 22, 1864, Dr. Van Dyck reported
the completion of the translation of the Old Testament. Friday,
March 10, 1865, a celebration took place at the American Press,
in honour of the printing of the Old Testament, thus completing
the new Arabic translation of the Bible.
In the upper room, where Dr. Smith had laboured on the
translation eight years, and Dr. Van Dyck eight years more, the
assembled missionaries gave thanks to God for the completion of
this arduous work. Just then, the sound of many voices arose
from below, and on throwing open the door, we heard a large
company of native young men, labourers at the press and mem-
bers of the Protestant community, singing to the tune of Hebron,
a new song, " Even praise to our God," composed for the occa-
sion by Mr. Ibrahim Sarkis, chief compositor, in the Arabic Ian.
guage. Surely not for centuries have Uie angels in heaven heard
a sweeter sound arising from Syria than the voices of this band
of pious young men, singing a hymn composed by one of
themselves, ascribing glory and praise to God, that now,
for the first time, the Word of God is given to their nation in its
purity.
I translated this hymn into English, and on Sunday evening,
March 12th, a public meeting was held in the old church in com-
memoration of this great event, and addresses were made by Rev.
James Robertson, Scotch Chaplain, Mr. Butrus Bistany and
Rev. D. Stuart Dodge. The hymn was sung in Arabic and
English.
The English is as follows :
Hail day, thrice blessed of our Ciod 1
Rejoice, let all men bear a part.
Complete at length Thy printed word ;
Lord, print its truths on every heart 1
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Its Completion 77
To Him who gave His gracious word.
Arise, and with glad praises sing :
Exalt and magnify our Lord,
Our Maker and our glorious King 1
Lord, spare Thy servant through whose toil,
Thou gav'st us this of books the best,
Bless all who shared the arduous task
From Eastern land or distant West.
Amen ! Amen 1 lift up the voice :
Praise God whose mercy's e'er the same :
His goodness all our song employs.
Thanksgiving then to His Great Name 1
June 3, 1865, Dr. Van Dyck proceeded to New York, in
accordance with arrangements made with the American Bible
Society, and superintended the making of a set of electrotype
plates of the entire Arabic Bible in large type 8vo, and of the
vowelled New Testament. Two years later he returned to Beirut
with Mr. Samuel Hallock, an electrotyper, and superintended
electrotjrping the vowelled Old Testament 8vo, and editions of
the entire Bible and of the New Testament The American
Bible Society furnished the British and Foreign Bible Society
with a duplicate set of plates of the Bible and New Testament
made in New York and also of the vowelled Old Testament made
in Beirut
Thus was the Arabic Bible completed. In a short time ten
editions, containing forty thousand copies, had been printed.
The accuracy of its renderings, the idiomatic excellence of the
style, and even the beauty of the type, which Dr. Smith had
prepared especially for it, and which surpassed all that had gone
before as much as the translation excelled all previous effort,
made it popular among all classes, so that even the Moslem was
forced to commend the Bible of the Christian. No literary work
of the century exceeds it in importance and it is acknowledged
to be one of the best translations of the Bible ever made.
Since that day, not less than thirty-two editions of the Arabic
Bible and parts of the same have been printed, comprising about
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78 The Arabic Bible
nine hundred thousand copies, and on the title page of every
copy is the imperial permit and sanction of the government of
the Turkish Sultan. These books have been sent, and are still
being sent» by tens of thousands of copies, to the whole Arabic
reading Mohammedan world, from Mogador and Sierra Leone
on the Atlantic to Peking on the East: to Morocco, Algiers^
Tunis, Egypt, Sudan, Arabia, Zanzibar, Aden, Muscat, Bussorah,
Bagdad, India, the East Indies, Northern China, Persia, Mesopo-
tamia, Asia Minor, Palestine, Syria and to the new colonies of
Syrian emigrants in the United States, Brazil and Australia.
The best selling book in Syria and Egypt to-day is the Arabic
Bible. It is the loving gift of the one hundred and forty
millions of Protestant Christians to the two hundred millions of
Mohammedans of whom sixty millions speak the Arabic lan-
guage, while the rest use the Arabic Koran as their sacred book,
and are scattered all the way from the Canary Islands through
North Africa and Southern Asia to Peking in China.
As Mr. Calhoun has beautifully said in one of his letters,
" Just as Syria, once lighted up with the oil made from her own
olives, is now illuminated by oil transported from America, so
the light of revelation that once burned brightly there, lighting
up the whole earth with its radiance long suffered to go out in
darkness, has been rekindled by missionaries from America, in
the translation of her own Scriptures into the spoken language
of her present inhabitants." Priest Ghubreen Jebara, a learned
Greek ecclesiastic in Beirut, said in a public address, in 1865,
" But for the American missionaries, the Word of God had well--
nigh perished out of the language : but now, through the labours
of Dr. Eli Smith and Dr. Van Dyck, they have given us a trans-
lation so pure, so exact, so clear, and so classical, as to be accept-
able to all classes and all sects/'
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Organization of a Native Evangelical
Church (1848)
The Oriental Churches— Their sects and peculiar beliefs— Their re-
fonn hopeless — ^The native demand for organization — ^Wisdom of the
step— Protest of the Anglican Church— The Greek Church and baptism
— ^Ikons.
THE Oriental Churches may be divided into six great
classes, conaprising fourteen different sects :
I. The Monophysite, Eutychian or anti-Chalce-
donian sects, who reject the decrees of the Council of Chal-
cedon held in 541. These are four ; the Armenians, Jacobites
(or Syrians), Copts and Ab)rssinians. They all have their own
distinct ritual and calendar, are hostile to each other and all
other Christian sects, have a married parish clergy and reject the
primacy of the Pope.
2. The anti-Ephesian, who reject the Council of Ephesus in
431. These are the Nestorians or Chaldeans. These have a
married clergy and a high reverence for the Scriptures, and but
little picture worship.
3. The Orthodox Greek, who accept the seven General
Councils. The Greek Church is Rome decapitated, a priestly
S3^tem without a pontifex, an exclusive traditional church, which
allows the Bible to the people. In the Turkish Empire, its
patriarch and the most of its bishops are foreigners, speaking
only Greek and ignorant of the wants and customs of the people,
though of late the Syrians of the Greek Church have obtained
bishops of the Arab race. The parish clergy are married and
generally most illiterate. The present Anglican bishop in
Jerusalem, Dr. Blyth, remarked to a traveller in 1890, that " no
one but those who lived in the East could be aware of the gross
79
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8o Organization of a Native Evangelical Church
ignorance and immorality of the Greek priests." Ordinarily, the
practice in appointing priests is that of Jeroboam, who '* made
priests of the lowest of the people."
4. The Maronites, a papal sect, the ancient Monothelites, who
accepted the papacy 1182 a. d., during the Crusades. They
get their name from John Maron, monk, priest and patriarch,
who died 707 a. d. They adhere to the Oriental rite, conduct-
ing service in the Syriac, a language not understood by the
people. The only sin unpardonable by the priests is reading
the Bible. The people are chiefly peasants, in Northern Lebanon,
an illiterate people, and an educated priesthood, sworn to alle^
giance to Rome and yet like all the above, having a married
parish clergy. Their head is the Patriarch of Antioch, living
in Lebanon, and regarded by the people as hardly inferior to the
Pope.
In the da}rs of Bird and King, the patriarch vented his wrath
on the family of Lattoof d Asshy of Ehden for having leased
his house to Mr. Bird in 1827. " They are therefore accursed,
cut off from all Christian communion : and let the curse envelop
them as a robe and spread through all their members like oil,
break them in pieces like a potter's vessel, and wither them like
the fig tree cursed by the mouth of the Lord Himself: let the
evil angel rule over them by day and by night, asleep or awake.
We permit no one to visit them or employ them or do them a
favour, or give them a salutation or converse with them in any
form or manner, but let them be avoided as a putrid member
and as hellish dragons."
5. The SIX Oriental papal sects, who are converts from six
of the above sects to the Church of Rome. They are : the Papal
Greek, Papal Armenian, Papal Nestorian, Papal Coptic, Papal
Syrian, Papal Abyssinian. They maintain their own calendars
and saint's days, the marriage of the parish clergy, and various
ancient prerogatives, which the papal legates are now striving
most assiduously to abolish.
6. The Latins, a small community, composed chiefly of at-
taches of the French and Italian monasteries, and foreign European
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The Christian Sects
81
residents, who have conformed in all respects to the Church of
Rome.
These sects all agree sufficiently both in the common truth and
the common error which they hold to be classed as one — one in
their need of reformation, one in being an obstacle to the Chris*
tianization of the Mohammedan world. They all hold the doc-
trines of transubstantiation, of baptismal regeneration, priestly
absolution, Mariolatry and saint worship, image and picture wor-
ship, auricular confession and prayers for the dead. Their
patriarchs and bishops are celibate, chosen from the monastic
orders, but the parish clergy are allowed to marry once. Instruc-
tion in thb Scriptures is virtually unknown. The members of
these sects in S)rria, Palestine, Egypt and Persia, not including
Russia and Greece, are as follows :
Orthodox Greeks -
1,000,000
Maronites
300,000
Nestorians
140,000
Armenians
3,000,000
Copts
aoo,ooo
Abyssinians
4,500,000
Nestorian Catholics
ao,ooo
Greek CathoUcs
50,000
Jacobite Sjrrians
30,000
Other papal sects
300,000
Nestonans in India
* • 4
116,000
Total • . . .
o.6c6.ooo
Thus we have about ten millions of nominal Christians scattered
throughout the great centres and seats of Mohammedan power.
These Christian sects have never felt the impulse of such an
awakening as shook all Europe in the days of the Reformation.
About thirty years after the death of Luther, the German Protes-
tant divines opened correspondence with the Patriarch of Con-
stantinople, but he rejected their overtures with contempt. The
Greek Church *• knew not the day of its visitation." For three
hundred years after that time, with the exception of the sending
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82 Organization of a Native Christian Church
of papal legates, hardly a movement was made in Europe towards
modifying the state of the Eastern Churches.
It was not the intention of the early missionary pioneers, nor
was it the policy of the Board of Missions, to set up a new
church organization in the East It was hoped that the heads of
the Oriental Churches might be induced to reform their churches.
To this end, Fisk, Parsons, King and Bird visited the patriarchs,
bishops, abbots and priests in their houses and convents and
at first were received cordially. But as soon as they began to
distribute the Scriptures and preach, ^* to the law and to the testi-
mony," and that salvation is through faith in Christ alone, the
whole power of ecclesiastical persecution was turned against them.
They were excommunicated, cursed, reviled. The people were
warned against them. Bonfires were made of Bibles and tracts.
All were forbidden to harbour them, sell to them or buy from
them. The Maronite patriarch, being virtually lord of the
Lebanon, compelled emirs, begs and sheikhs to persecute these
Bible men or be themselves deprived of office and excluded from
heaven. The Jesuits obtained, through political intrigue, a firman
from the Sultan, forbidding the import or sale of the Scriptures and
all other books and ordering all existing copies to be destroyed.
But the light had begun to shine. The leaven was working in
many minds. One after another joined themselves to the mis-
sionaries openly or secretly, and attended the preaching services.
Yet when they asked for the administration of the sacraments,
baptism and the Lord's Supper, they were referred to their old tradi-
tional churches. But they would not confess to a priest nor accept
the idolatrous ceremonies growing out of the doctrine oftransub-
stantiation. The Maronites taught that inasmuch as the priest in
the mass converts the bread into the perfect divinity and humanity
of Christ, therefore he creates God, and as he " who creates is
greater than him who is created, therefore the priest is greater
than God." Yet the missionaries had been instructed " not to
interfere with the Oriental Churches, but to visit the ecclesiastics
and persuade them, if possible, to abandon their errors, which are
repugnant to the Word of God."
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Should We Proselyte? 83
Tlie missionaries accordingly gave themselves to the work of
education, Bible distribution and the press. But in 1832 the
Greek bishops in Latakia, Tripoli, Damascus and other places,
gathered the Arabic Bibles (printed in London from the version
of the Roman Propaganda) and burned them in the courtyards
of the churches. In 1829 the Maronite patriarch put to death
Asaad es Shidiak for reading the Bible and rejecting the errors ot
Rome.
In September, 1835, ^^^' ^^^ £1> Smith and William M.
Thomson and other missionaries » in reply to the request of a
papal Greek priest from Acre to profess the Protestant faith,
adopted the following minutes : " (i) It is not an object with
us to draw individuals from other native Christian sects and
thereby increase our own denomination. (2) Yet according to
the principles of the churches which have sent us hither, when a
member of any native sect, giving satisfactory evidence of piety,
desires the sacraments of us, we cannot refuse his request, how-
ever it may interfere with his previous ecclesiastical relations.'
On this basis, individuals of the various Oriental Churches, in-
cluding bishops, priests and others, were received to the Lord's
table, together with baptized converts from the Druses. But the
number of enlightened men and women increased in various parts
of the land and they demanded the right to be organized into a
distinct Evangelical Protestant Church of their own. This re-
quest was finally acceded to, and the first Protestant Native Syrian
Church was organized in 1848. Since that time twenty-eight
other churches have been organized in this mission, with about
2,600 communicants (4,364 since the beginning) from among the
Moslems, Jews, Druses, Greeks, Maronites, Nusairiyeh and
Bedawin Arabs.
In India, the Christian Church is the only organization which
gathers men of all the warring castes into one harmonious body.
And here, the Evangelical Church is the only place where con-
verts from all these warring sects sit together as brethren. The
whole number of Protestant Churches in the empire is now about
200, with 20,000 communicants and nearly 100,000 adherents.
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84 Organization of a Native Christian Church
The wisdom of thus erecting a separate Evangelical Church
has been demonstrated. It is an object-lesson to all the Chris-
tian and non-Christian sects, and an exhibition of the Christian
faith in its simplicity and New Testament purity. An honest
attempt to reform the Oriental Churches was made and
failed.
This powerful, intelligent, well educated and upright element
in the population is a living rebuke to ignorance, superstition and
ecclesial^tical assumption. It has weakened the tyrannical power
of the priesthood, and in fact to-day shields tens of thousands of
adherents of the old Churches from extortion and oppression,
through fear lest they break away entirely and join the Protestant
ranks. An old Maronite priest once complained to me, " You
Protestant missionaries have ruined us. Our people will not pay
for masses as they once did, and if we threaten them with ex-
communication, they laugh at us and threaten to become Prot-
estants."
The majority of the Protestant communities are from the
Oriental Churches, just as the apostles made the most converts
at first among the Jewish synagogues. But the question arises
now. Are we justified in keeping up the work of evangelization
among these Oriental Churches ? The consensus of the non-
Episcopal Churches in Europe and the United States would, no
doubt, answer in the affirmative. But the high ecclesiastical
party in the Anglican Church protests that this whole movement
is a mistake. It is denounced as proselytism, as an attempt to
build up one Christian Church at the expense of another. It is
said that these Greeks and Maronites and others have the
" creeds of Christendom," and we have no right to receive their
followers into our churches. We might reply to this charge by
the " et tu Brute " countercharge, that these same high sacerdo-
talists do not hesitate in England and America to receive scores
of Methodists and Baptists, Congregationalists and Friends to
their own church without feeling that they have committed the
heinous sin of proselytism. The work of missions in the East
can be justified without such an " argumentum ad homimm!*
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Its Necessity 85
Let us consider the whole question calmly in the light of God's
Word and Providence.
The chief and ultimate object of missionary work in Western
Asia is the conversion of the Mohammedans to the Christian
faith. They number 200,000,000 in Asia and Africa, and con-
stitute one of the great influential factors in the future religious
history of the race. The Gospel is to be given to them. All
the Christian Churches which have any missionary zeal admit
this. Thus far, they are almost unaffected by the great mission-
ary movements of the nineteenth century. They believe in one
God and in the divine origin of the Old and New Testaments (et
Tourah w'el Injeel) but regard the Scriptures as corrupted, deny
the divinity of Christ, His crucifixion and resurrection, ignore
the spirituality of religion, and look upon Christians as their in*
feriors and hereditary enemies. Having seen only the Oriental
type of Christianity, they despise its immorality and idolatry
and protest against the creature worship and image worship of
both the Greek and Latin Churches. Images and pictures are
the abomination of the Mohammedan world.
The pagans of the second century objected to Christianity
that it had neither altars nor images: the Moslem of the
twentieth century objects to Christianity that it has only images
and altars. The Christian missionary to-day urges a Moham-
medan to accept Christianity. He is met with the derisive
reply, " Thank God we are not idol-worshippers as are you
Christians, and, God willing, we never will be. We have lived
among Christians twelve hundred years, and we want none of
your creature worship. There is no God but God." The mis-
sionary may protest and explain, but until he can show the
Moslem a pure Christianity in life and doctrine, and illustrate
by living examples the Bible ideal of a Christian Church, his
appeals and argument will be in vain.
This state of things confronted all Christian missionaries in
Oriental lands eighty years ago, and it confronts them to-day.
These Oriental Churches are among the greatest obstacles to the
conversion of their Mohammedan neighbours.
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86 Organization of a Native Christian Church
Protestants will generally admit this with regard to the Church
of Rome, and at the same time there are those who contend that
the Greek Church is purer, and hence should t>e entrusted with
the work of evangelizing the Moslems and Jews in Western
Asia. As this question is now a " burning" one in the Anglican
Church, let us ask, What is the teaching and practice of the
Greek Church in Western Asia to-day ?
The Nineteenth Article of Faith of the Church of England
declares that '<as the Churches of Jerusalem, Alexandria and
Antioch have erred, so the Church of Rome hath erred, not
only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in mat-
ters of faith." And in Article Twenty-two, " The Romish
doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping and
Adoration as well of Images as of Reliques and also Invocation
of Saints, is repugnant to the Word of God."
The Greek Church teaches in its Catechism and Synnaxar the
following doctrines :
1. That salvation is merited by good works.
2. That baptism, the holy chrism and communion, are indis-
pensable to salvation.
In 1886, 1 wrote to Rev. Dr. SchafTas follows :
Beirut, Syria, /an. 4, 1886.
Prof. P. Schaff, D. D.,
Dear Brother : — I have at length secured the facts and iDforma-
tioD with regard to the mode of baptism among the various Chris*
tian sects in S]rria, for which you ask in your letter of September 14,
1885. The <' statement of Dr. Hitchcock, based upon the authority of
Dr. Van Dyck" as to the word '' amamud,** is evidently a misunder-
standing. I sent the letter to Dr. Van Dyck, and he replies :
^* There is no such Syriac word as amamud. It is evidently mistaken
for the Arabic word ma* mud.' The passive participle of Syriac *amad
(Arabic 'amadd) is *amid. The Arabic word ma'mud has been mis-
taken for a Syriac word. But that does not at all affect the argument.
Immersion, in whole or in part, supplemented by pouring if necessary,
is the Oriental mode of baptism. A Greek priest in Hasbeiya re*
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Baptism in the Greek Church 87
hoftiztd a Copt by immerson in the river of Shiba, /. /., in one of its
pools formed among the rocks."
In addition to what Dr. Van Dyck here states, it is well known
that the Orthodox Greek Church insists upon trine immersion as essen-
tial to salvation, whether in the case of infants or adults. Yet some-
times, in case of necessity, they baptize by pouring water three times
upon the head.
An adult woman, bom a Druse, and baptized by Mr. Calhoun when
a young girl, was rebaptized by a Greek priest near Tripoli, on being
married to a Greek. The priest's wife took her to a pool of stagnant
water, stripped off her clothes, the priest standing with averted face.
The priest then walked backward into the water, and inmiersed her
three times, turning his head the other way. The father, a native
preacher, was so outraged in his feelings by the act, that he left the
Protestant sect, on the erroneous idea that the Protestants could have
prevented it
A Greek priest in Munsif, in Mount Lebanon, had a child eight months
old brought to him for baptism. It was too large for the stone baptismal
font, so he held it on his left arm, and poured the water three times
over its head.
In a village near Tripoli, a mother took her child to the abbot of a
Greek monastery to be baptized. The abbot baptized it by holding it
on his left arm and pouring the water three times over its head. The
mother protested that this was not baptism, and complained to the
Greek bishop. He rebuked her, telling her that the baptism was per-
fectly legitimate and sufficient
A Maronite teacher has given me a statement about the mode of bap-
tism among the Jacobites or Syrians.
The priest strips the child to the waist, holds him under his left arm,
uses neither salt nor oil ; then pours water fhr^e times, with his right
hand, on the head, in the name of the Father and the Son, and the
Holy Ghost
In the Syrian-Catholic Church (Jacobite Catholic) the baptism is
similar to that of the Maronites. The priest takes the child from the
hand of the godfather and godmother in the door of the church and
carries him into the church, lajrs the child on a white veil on the floor,
then prays over a handful of salt, puts salt into the child's mouth.
Then he pinches the child's nostrils, saying : *' Open, ye nostrils, and
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88 Organization of a Native Christian Church
inhale the heavenly odours." Then he takes the child to the font, and
hands him to the godfather, who repeats the creed. Then the priest
asks him: ''Do you repudiate the devil and all his works?" Ans.
"Yes." "Do you believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost?" Ans. "Yes." "Do you believe in the incarnation and
death of Jesus Christ, and in the articles of faith of the Roman Catholic
ApostoUc Church ? " Ans. " Yes."
He then asks the name of the child, and does he wish to be baptized ?
" Yes." Then he prays over the water in the font. Then he drops
three drops of melted wax from the lighted taper into the water, for the
three persons of the Trinity. Then he makes the sign of the cross with
the candle in the water, saying : " God commanded four rivers to water
the four quarters of the globe. Thus God blessed you, O waters of the
wedding in Cana of Galilee," etc. Then the priest puts his hand into
the water three times, then drops three drops of oil into the water. Then
he repeats the question: "Do you wish to be baptized?" "Yes. I
wish to be baptized according to the baptism of the Catholic Apostolic
Petrine Church, and unite my intentions (purposes) with yours."
The priest then takes the child under his left arm, and holds his head
over the font and pours three handfuls of water on his head, in the name
of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He then raises up the child^
wipes his head with a towel, and hands him to the godfather. The
priest washes his hands and wipes them. He then brings the holy oil
of Mairon, bares the breast of the child, and anoints with oil, in the form
of a cross, his breast and two shoulders. He then wipes ofif the oil with
cotton, then washes ofif the oil with soap and water, then drains ofif the
water from the font, bums the cotton Jn the font, and washes out its ashes.
Then the priest gives the godfather a white towel (given by the fam-
ily), saying : " Take a pure white towel to meet your Lord in purity."
Then they walk around the church, carrying the child and singing :
" Blessed be thou, now baptized with the baptism of the Spuit." I do
not feel called upon to draw inferences from these statements; but some
things are plain.
1. Trine immersion is the baptism of the Greek Church, yet they al-
low pouring when immersion is not convenient
2. The Jacobites baptize by pouring three times.
3. The Maronites and Papal Jacobites by pouring three times.
The fonts in the Greek Churches are always small, and in case of
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The Worship of Ikons 89
large children or adults they must either pour or resort to pools or
rivers.
The word ^arnad in Arabic means to stand upright ; at amad means
to resolve, to purpose ; 'amid means a pillar ; tna^mudiyet means bap-
tism ; ma' mud means one baptizec^ as do mat amad and m'ammad.
Whether the meaning ''upright" and "standing" attached to this
word has anything to do with ih^ posture of the one baptized, it is not
easy to decide.
The Lord grant us all, and especially these dead Christian sects of
the East, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Yours affectionately,
H£NRY H. Jessup.
3. Penances are appointed to '' cleanse the conscience and
give peace of mind."
4. The communion is a sacrificial mass. In the liturgy of the
mass, hardly a vestige of the original institution of the Lord's Sup-
per is preserved. It is a sacrifice " for the believers who are dead, for
the primitive parents, for the fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles,
preachers, martyrs, confessors, hermits and teachers, and for the
soul of every just man who died in the faith." During the serv-
ice of the mass, persons enter the inner temple where the priest
is sacrificing, and lay down money to pay for masses for their dead.
5. They believe in a " limbus " where the souls of the departed
are received and kept until the Day of Judgment.
6. It teaches and requires the worship of " ikons " or holy
pictures. They repudiate carved images, but devoutly pray to
pictures, light candles and burn incense before them.
In the Synnaxar for the first Sunday in Lent is the abominable
expression, " As to the impious infidels who are not willing to
honour the holy images (ikons), we excommunicate and curse
them saying. Anathema." And in the Horologion, Beirut edition,
1849, page 696, is the following curse : " May the lips of the im-
pious hypocrites (-el-munafikeen) become dumb, who worship
not thy revered likeness, O Mary, which was painted by Luke,
the most holy evangelist, and by which we have been led to the
fiuth ! " In Uie Greek Churches, the worshippers bum incense.
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light tapers, bow before the filthy painted boards and devoutly
kiss them !
7. The Mariolatry of the Greek Church is also a grievous
error and a stumbling-blpck in the way of Mohammedans. The
following prayers are from the Horologion (Prayer-Book) page
678 : " We are lost through our many sins, turn us not away dis-
appointed, for thou alone art our only hope^ " We take refuge
in thee." "O thou who alone art the hope of Christians.**
«' Save from future punishment those who put their trust in thee.
Alleluia."
This last is a plain deification of the Virgin Mary, and led the
Mohammedans to charge, as they do to this day, that <'the
Trinity is a blasphemous elevation of a woman to a place in the
Godhead." Space will not allow our giving details as to the
worship of relics, the prayers offered to the reputed wood of the
cross and the brutal deception of the " Holy Fire " at Easter, an-
nually sanctioned and promoted by the patriarch bishops and
priests of Jerusalem as a proof of the orthodoxy of the Greek
Church.
It brings a blush to Ae cheek of every true Christian visiting
Jerusalem to know, that these ecclesiastics light a torch with a
lucifer match and then thrust it through a hole in the wall of the
Holy Sepulchre, telling the surging thousands of ignorant pil-
grims that this is a miraculous flame lighted from heaven ; while
Mohammedan military officers and guards, placed there to keep
the mob of crazed fanatics from trampling each other to death,
look on with disgust and contempt at such a fraud enacted in the
name of Jesus Christ !
The high Anglicans demand that we leave these ecclesiastics
to evangelize the Mohammedans, and get us out of the country 1
How, then, shall the Gospel in its purity be given to the Oriental
Churches ? With such doctrines and practices, there is no hope
of a union between Protestants and the Greek Church, until Prot-
estants submit to trine immersion at the hands of a Greek priest.
Again, there is no hope of reforming the higher ecclesiastics
and through them the people. The twelve labours of Hercules
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The Native Demand 91
were slight compared with such a task. The patriarchs and
bishops of the East are, as a class, wealthy, avaricious, masters of
political intrigue, unscrupulous, and trained to hierarchical tyranny
over the consciences of men, and will probably be the last class in
the East to accept the Gospel in its simplicity. No change in
liturgies, prayers, doctrines and usages would t>e possible without
a council of the four patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch, Jeru-
salem and Alexandria, and the Holy Synod of Russia, and such
a council for such an object is about as likely as a council at Rome
to abolish the papacy or a council at Mecca to abolish Islam.
High offices are bought and sold. In August, 1 891, an intrigue
was carried on by a high Greek ecclesiastic in Jerusalem to pur-
chase, the patriarchal chair of Antioch (in Damascus and Beirut)
by the payment of ;f 10,000 and the endowment of the chair with
nearly ;i^90,ooo on his death I
A third plan has been to preach the Gospel and give the Bible
to the people, leaving them in their own ecclesiastical relations,
in the hope of reforming the Church from within. This plan has
been patiently tried, as we have stated above, in Syria, Asia
Minor and Egypt, without success. For no sooner do men read
the Bible and become enlightened, than they make haste to
«*come out and be separate." Enlightened New Testament
students will not pray to a creature or worship a painted
board
The result has been that the people themselves have demanded
and compelled the organization of a new Oriental Evangelical
Church in Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Asia Minor. It has vin-
dicated the claims of Christianity to be a pure non-idolatrous re-
ligion. Mohammedans can see the Bible acted out in life in the
teaching and practice of the Protestant Churches.
In 1850, in the agreement between Baron Bunsen and Arch-
bishop Sumner with regard to the Jerusalem bishopric, it is said,
«« Duty requires a calm exposition of Scriptural truth and a quiet
exposition of Scriptural discipline : • • . and where it has
pleased God to give His blessing to it, and the mind has become
emancipated from the fetters of a corrupt faith, there we have no
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right to turn our backs upon the liberated captive and bid him
return to his slavery or seek aid elsewhere."
This is high authority, and the 20,000 communicants in the
Protestant Churches in the Turkish Empire are simply <' liberated
captives." The recent exhibition of iconolatry in Russia, when
a whole carload of holy '< ikons " or pictures of saints was sent
with General Kuropatkin on his departure from St Petersburg
for the war, to insure him victory, was received among the Mo-
hammedans of the Turkish Empire with derision and contempt.
They said, ** Do the Russians expect that painted boards are go-
ing to conquer the armies of Japan ? " The fact that the Greek
Church allows its people to read the Bible is full of promise, but
as long as it makes tradition of equal authority with the Bible, it
will hold on to Mariolatry and picture worship.
To place ourselves on a vantage-ground with the Mohammed-
ans, we must let it be thoroughly understood that we are dis-
tinct and separate from the idolatrous Oriental Churches. The
Moslems look on these " Christians " as creature worshippers.
They are now beginning to understand that the Protestants
hold to a purer faith. Sheikh Mohammed Smair, of the
Anazy Arabs, on entering our simple church in Beirut, stood
by my side in the pulpit, and placing his hand on the open
Arabic Bible, said, " Truly this is the house of God. There
is no image or idol here, only the house of God, and the Book
of God."
The Greek Church in the last twelve hundred years has writ-
ten its own condemnation. Where is the list of its converts
from Islam during this long period ? If it be replied in apology
that the Greeks have during this time been politically subject to
Islam and could do no proselyting work, we reply by pointing
to the Ottoman Tartar conquest of the Arabs, when the con-
querors embraced the religion of the conquered.
Alas, it is too true that the Greek Church in Syria and Pales-
tine has lost all missionary zeal, and has ceased to honour the
Holy Spirit while nominally holding to His divinity.
We as Protestants must present the Gospel to Islam in its
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Character and Organization 93
pristine purity and simplicity. Let us repudiate all alliances with
human traditions and anti-Christian idolatries.
The Oriental Churches have lost the spirit which might enable
them to evangelize Islam. They care not to do it. They can-
not do it. They will not do it. This " kingdom " of privilege
and service " shall be taken from them and given to another,"
even to the Churches of tlie Reformation.
The Evangelical Native Churches in Syria are all Presbyterian
in polity and doctrine ; those in Palestine, Episcopal in polity and
doctrine, but truly evangelical, and not in sympathy with high
Anglican assumptions ; those in Egypt, chiefly Presbyterian of
the United Presbyterian Church of the United States of America ;
those in Asia Minor and European Turkey almost all Congrega-
tional. In connection with the American Presbyterian Mission
in Syria are three presbyteries ; that of Mount Lebanon and
Beirut ; that of Sidon and dependencies, and that of Tripoli and
Hums. Their organization is regular but simple, and the annual ^
meetings are largely occupied with religious conference with a
view to the promotion of the spiritual life. The Syrian pastors
and elders have shown themselves able to conduct deliberative
bodies in a grave and orderly manner, and to yield gracefully to
the voice of the majority. Thus far, the American missionaries
retain their connection with their home presbyteries in the United
States, and at the same time, by consent and request of the Syrian
brethren, are regular members of the Syrian presbyteries, and
will probably continue so until the native churches are fully self-
supporting. There are twenty-eight churches with 2,600 mem-
bers, and the average congregations are 5,600.
Self-support is making good progress, but its great hindrance
is the phenomenal emigration of Syrians to the United States,
South America, Australia and the Transvaal. They have been
emigrating for twenty years, and tens of thousands of the strong
and enterprising young men have left their native land. Many
of the churches are depleted and crippled, like the country
churches in New England. Should the tide ever turn, and these
emigrants return, the churches would soon feel the impulse and
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94 Organization of a Native Christian Church
enter on a new era of growth and self-support. It is an encour«
aging fact that five of the educated native preachers who emi-
grated to North and South America have returned to Syria,
more than ever contented to remain here and full of enthusiasm
for the cause of the Gospel
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VI
Educational Foundation Stones
Abeih, 1846— Dr. De Forest's school for girls, 1847 — Simeon IL Cal-
houn, '* The Saint of Lebanon " — Cornelius Van Alan Van Dyck.
TWO institutions were begun during this period, the
Abeih Seminary for boys under Dr. Van Dyck, No-
vember 4, 1846, and Dr. De Forest's family board-
ing-school for girls, in Beirut. The Abeih Seminary passed un-
der the care of Rev. Simeon Calhoun, in 1849, and continued to
flourish as the highest literary institution in Syria, until the
Syrian Protestant Collie was opened in 1865.
Dr. H. a. Db Forest
The family boarding-school for girls in the home of Dr. and
Mrs. H. A. De Forest began in 1847 ^^^ continued until
Dr. De Forest returned to America in 1854. He and Mrs. De
Forest had proved the capacity of Syrian girls to pursue a
liberal course of education. Their cultivated graduates became
wives and mothers, whose homes were distinguished in Syria for
piety and high culture. Dr. De Forest insisted on teaching the
English language to the young women, in order to open up to
them the rich treasures of English literature. For years one
could pick out the girls taught by Dr. and Mrs. De Forest, and
some of them became eminent as teachers.
In 1854 Dr. De Forest was obliged by failing health to relin-
quish his work, and return to the United States. A nobler man
never lived. Tall of stature, courteous and genial, with a voice
of great depth and sweetness, a natural orator and a skillful
ph3rsician, he was universally beloved and admired. During my
first interview with him, in 1854, he gave me wholesome advice
with regard to caring for health. He said, " Beware of exposure
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to the Syrian sun. It is your enemy. Protect your head and
the back of your neck. I went to Syria with an iron constitu-
tion. I was wont to walk long distances at home without fear of
sun or storm. I thought I could do it in Syria. As a foreign
doctor I was in great demand, and walked through the narrow
lanes in the suburbs of Beirut, in the deep sand and under a
blazing sun with a small black hat and no umbrella. One day
after a long, hot walk, I felt a strange sensation in the back of my
head, and soon found I had a sunstroke. From that dreadful
stroke I never recovered. For twelve years I have studied and
taught and preached and practiced medicine, and never a week,
without that agonizing pain in my head. Even now I cannot
converse or read long without a return of the agony. I warn
you never to trust the Syrian sun." I have now for fifty-three
years acted on that advice, and have always carried an umbrella,
and in summer worn also a pith helmet hat. I have tried to
pass on Dr. De Forest's advice to successive generations of young
men who have come to Syria from America and Europe. In
three cases the advice was indignantly rejected. << I am not afraid
of the sun. I have always been accustomed to walk in sun and
rain with only a small cap on my head," etc. These three men
all died in a very short time of sunstroke and brain fever.^ The
direct rays of the Syrian sun on the back of the head of a Euro-
pean seem to act like the X-rays or radium.
Dr. De Forest and his accomplished wife were admirably fitted
to train young women in piety, intellectual knowledge and a
beautiful domestic life. The lovely Christian families in Syria,
whose mothers were trained by them, will be their monuments
for generations to come. In 1850, a report of Beirut station said,
*' Unhappily, only one of our native brethren is blessed with a
pious wife." At the present time there are nearly 1,300 women
who are church-members in the bounds of the Syria Mission,
and the girls of all sects are being taught in all the cities and
many of the villages of Syria. All honour to the men and women
^ These were volunteer English missionaries. One died at Bagdad,
and two in the Lebanon.
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97
who gave the first impulse to female education in Syria. Their
labours have aided as much if not more than any others in the
elevation and enlightenment of Syrian society. Dr. De Forest
died in the United States in November, 1858, greatly beloved
and r^^etted
Rev. Simeon H. Calhoun, ^«Thb Saint op Lebanon"
Mr. Calhoun was bom in Boston, of Scotch-Irish parents,
August 15, 1804, and graduated at Williams Collie in 1829.
While in college he was a sceptic and indifferent to religion, but
the prayers of a godly mother, who had consecrated, him to Christ
and to the missionary work at his birth, followed him, and in 183 1
he was converted. While engaged as tutor in college he was
noted for the peculiar simplicity and ardour of his piety, and for
the great influence he exerted on the students. " His delight in
the Scriptures was exceptional, and his remarks on the truths
therein revealed were uncommonly suggestive and stimulating."
He did not enter a regular theological seminary, but studied
theology with those two giants, Drs. Griffin and Mark Hopkins,
who constituted a theological faculty rarely equalled. In 1836
he was ordained, and left the United States in November as an
agent of the American Bible Society for the Levant. In 1843 he
was appointed a missionary of the American Board. During the
eight years of his work in Smyrna, Constantinople, Asia Minor,
the Greek Islands and Greece, he cooperated with the missionary
bodies, preaching in English and modern Greek, and was inde-
fatigable in teaching, touring, and distributing the Word of God.
On reaching Syria, in 1844, although forty years old and hav-
ing passed the age when men can readily master a foreign lan-
guage, his familiarity with the modern Greek aided him in
stucfying the difficult Arabic language ; difficult on account of its
guttural sounds and peculiar idioms.
Dr. Van Dyck, in his " Reminiscences," states that " When the
American Board deputation {Dr. R. Anderson and Dr. Joel Hawes)
reached Smyrna, they found Mr. Calhoun quite ready to relinquish
the work of Bible agent, and persuaded him to join the Syria Mis-
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sion. He came to Syria with them on a tour of inspection. They
recommended the opening of a seminary to be managed by
Mr. Calhoun when he should join the mission, and after he had
learned the Arabic. Mr. Calhoun took up his residence in
Bhamdoun, and so steadfastly and perseveringly applied himself
to the study of Arabic, that although somewhat advanced, he
was, in a little over two years, able to teach and preach in
Arabic." His teacher was Abu Selim, Yusef el Haddad of
Tripoli, who knew nothing of Arabic grammar, but was a fine
penman and full of anecdote and a great talker. If the deputa-
tion did nothing more than secure Mr. Calhoun for Syria it was
worth all the expense involved.
During the civil war of 1845 between the Druses and Maro-
nites, Mr. Calhoun summered in Bhamdoun, and used to ascend
the high mountain ridge above the village and from under a
walnut tree count the villages in flames. That jowz tree became
known as " Jowz Calhoun," just as a conical marl hill, east of
the village, where Mr. Beadle discovered a famous locality of
fossil Ammonites, was known as Bustan Beadle, or <' Beadle's
Garden."
In 1846 he visited the United States, and at Braintree, Massa-
chusetts, was married to Miss Emily Reynolds, a niece of
Dr. Storrs. This estimable lady was the worthy companion of
so noble, godly and consecrated a man, and made his home in
Abeih a fountain of blessed influence for thirty years. She
recently, November 4, 1908, died, in Natal, South Africa, where,
with her daughter, Mrs. Ransom, she was labouring to lead souls
to Christ.
In 1849 he was called to succeed Dr. Van Dyck as principal
of the high school or seminary in Abeih. To this work he gave
the best years of his life. In the summer of 1864 he visited
England, but did not return to the United States until June 10,
1875. His lecture-room in Abeih was the centre of a mighty
influence which is still felt all through Syria and the East He
was clear in statement, gentle in manner, dignified, yet in sym-
pathy with the poorest and most ignorant lad, patient and perse-
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Simeon H. Calhoun 99
vering. He was a scholar. His attainments were high as a
classical scholar and as a mathematician.
He was a theologian. He was a "Doctor in Divinity/'
whether made thus by the universities or not. When this degree
was conferred on him, he hesitated about receiving it, and finally
wrote declining it, stating as a reason that it was at variance with
the parity of the Christian ministry. His letter declining it was
published, but by a typographical error, lie was made to say that
it " was at variance with the ' purity' of the Christian ministry."
This error caused him great distress, and he said to me, "Brother
Jessup, perhs^ I had better have kept silence than to seem to
make such a charge as that against my brethren."
His depth and breadth of views on the great doctrines of Chris-
tian theology have been attained by few, and can be attained
only by those who, like him, draw from the fountain-head of
the sacred Scriptures, and are taught by the illuminating Spirit.
He often startled us with his fresh thoughts on old familiar sub-
jects. Yet he had nothing about him of the dogmatic theologian.
His own wide views of the many phases of truth kept him far
from any approach to bigotry. On essentials he was firm as a
rock and uncompromising ; in non-essentials his was the largest
charity and the full liberty of the New Testament.
He was an elTective preacher. His commanding presence, his
pleasant voice and his earnestness of manner, were all calculated
to give force to his words : but there was something in his preach-
ing beyond presence, or voice, or earnestness. The simplest
truths, enunciated in the simplest way, seemed to fall from his lips
with power.
The same things said by another would have made little if
any impression. This has been remarked by comparative
strangers, as well as by those who knew wherein lay the secret of
his great strength. Christ seemed to be in him and to be seen
through him.
He was a great teacher. In America or England he would
have been a Mark Hopkins or Dr. Arnold. Whether'the subject
was algebra or astronomy or Greek or the Bible, he taught his
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100 Educational Foundation Stones
pupils. They gre>v under his teaching. His object in teaching
was, first, to make wise unto salvation, and then to fit for. useful-
ness. And he succeeded, as is proved by the large number of
native labourers now in the field.
He was a loving, sympathizing friend and brother, and the sor-
rowing and troubled, whether foreign missionaries or native Chris-
tians, looked to him for comfort in the day of trouble.
He was a wise and prudent counsellor in our mission aflairs.
With excellent business capacities, executive power and natural
shrewdness, he could foresee with acuteness, advise with wisdom and
conduct with decision. He was mission treasurer for many years,
and used to say that he was not aware that there had ever been a dis-
crepancy ol five paras (half a cent) in his annual accounts.
After the massacres of i860, when Colonel Frazierwas British
commissioner in settling the new regime of government in
Lebanon, he made Mr. Calhoun literally the man of his counsel.
And when Daood Pasha, the first Christian governor of Lebanon,
entered on his duties, he often visited Mr. Calhoun in his house,
to consult him on questions pertaining to the Druse nation.
And the Druses, that brave, hardy, warlike, courteous yet
mysterious people, trusted Mr. Calhoun implicitly, asked his ad-
vice, and sent their sons to him for education. During the sum-
mer of 1 87 1, when I was in Abeih teaching in the theological
class with Dr. Eddy and Mr. Calhoun, a young Druse sheikh was
killed by falling from a roof. A stately funeral was given him.
Hundreds of white turbaned Druse sheikhs from villages miles
away came to condole with the family. I went with Mr. Calhoun
to express our sympathy. That great multitude were seated in
concentric circles under a great oak tree. As we approached,
they all arose and stood until we were seated. Then they all
saluted us over and over again, <' Allah grant us your life instead
of the deceased." " Allah spare to you your children." " The
will of Allah be done," etc.
No people can be more effusive in courteous and elaborate
salutation than the Druses. When they were all seated, there
was a great silence and all eyes turned to Mr. Calhoun. At
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His Influence on the Druses loi
length he spoke, " Whenever I see the dead body of a brother
man, I am filled with indignation, yes, I may say hatred^ All
seemed startled at this unusual remark from a man noted for
calmness and self-control. " Yes," he continued, " with hatred
of sin, which brought death into the world and is the cause of all
our sorrows, troubles and woes. Why should we not hate sin,
and love Him who knew no sin, but tasted death for every man ? "
Then there was silence. At length a venerable sheikh began to
discourse on the duty of patience and resignation, and the duty
of entire submission to the will of Allah, in eloquent and beauti*
ful Arabic, reminding one of Job or Moses or Abraham.
When the war of i860 began, I was a guest in Mr. Calhoun's
house in Abeih, and the Greek Catholic, Maronite and Protestant
men all fled to Beirut. The women and children remained and
brought all their valuables, money, jewelry and silks tied in
bundles and threw them at the feet of Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun.
They asked no receipt and did not even seal the packages and we
took them and piled them in a closet. Two months later when
the French army came up into Lebanon the Druses fell into a
panic and brought all their treasures to Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun
in the same confiding way, until all the treasures of Abeih were
in " safe deposit " in their humble, unprotected house. During
all those days of war and pillage, burning and desolation, I never,
up to the time of my leaving for Beirut, saw Mr. Calhoun per-
turbed or anxious. His placid face showed no sign of fear. The
very peace of God filled his soul and the light of God shone in his
face though '^ he wist not that his face shone."
On one occasion later on, his face did betray real agony.
Twenty-two hundred men had just been massacred through
Turkish treachery, by the Druse army at Deir el Komr. The
only men left alive were thirty Protestants of Ain Zehalteh who
had taken refuge in Rev. William Bird's house. Mr. Bird, much
against his will, had been compelled by the United States consul
to come away to Abeih with his family. The next day, Thurs-
day, June 2 1 St, was the massacre. That night the Druse begs
in Abeih came to Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Bird and said, << Deir el
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Komr is gone — the men all slain. None remain but those in Mr.
Bird's house. You must go at once and bring them away. We
will go with you, and hasten, lest the Hauran Druses, knowing
that Mr. Bird's house is full of Christian treasure, should break in
and kill your Protestants." Long before light they set out It
was an agonizing three hours' ride to both these brethren, and
more agonizing when they entered the town and rode over the
corpses of Mr. Bird's old neighbours and friends. They arrived
just in time. Those wild Druses of the Leja had brought a huge
beam and were ramming the door. But the Druse commander,
Bushir Beg, and his men drove them off, and Mr. Calhoun and
Mr. Bird entered and found the thirty men alive. The Druses
then took all of Mr. Bird's furniture and all the deposits and car-
ried them to the Druse Khulweh or assembly house and guarded
them securely. Then the two missionaries headed the proces-
sion, and with a Druse guard, conducted these rescued men over
to Abeih. The next day, Saturday, Mr. Calhoun alone, with a
Druse guard, took these thirty brethren to Beirut. He came to
my house, and as he opened the door, with a look of weariness
and pain such as I never before saw in his face, exclaimed,
" Brother Jessup, what does all this mean ? Truly God is speak-
ing to us." He returned at once to Abeih and with Mr. Bird
made daily trips to Deir el Komr bringing away on mules Mr.
Bird's furniture and library and such women and children as had
not been conveyed by the Druses to the seashore whence Eng-
lish gunboats carried them to Beirut. On the 26th, Mr. Cal-
houn wrote me, " I am weary."
Years afterwards, AH Beg Hamady, one of the leaders of the
Druse attack on Deir el Komr, told me why Mr. Bird's house was
spared on that dreadful day of wrath. AH Beg was a haughty
warrior. He led a regiment of rough-riders to the Crimean War
and had the rank of colonel in the Turkish army. Twenty-five
years after the massacre of Deir el Komr, in 1885, 1 called on AH
Beg in Baklin, his home. He was a tall, stately man, with a white
turban, a long beard, flowing robes, and received us with that
beautiful courtesy for which the Druses are so famous. A
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Deathbed Repentance 103
young man of the family was then in the college in Beirut. He
asked me, " Do you know why Mr. Bird's house was not attacked
during the massacre of i860 ? It was because of the character of
Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Bird. I saved that house and set guards to
protect it"
Years afterwards in Beirut a Druse called at my house one
day before sunset, and said he brought a message from AH Beg
who was ill and wished to see me. The messenger said, " Bring
your New Testament (Injeel) with you." I hastened to the house
with my Arabic Testament He was lying on a bed on the
floor, bolstered up with cushions. Fixing his piercing eagle
eye on me he said, '< I am a dying man. I honoured and loved
Mr. Calhoun,* and he loved the Injeel. Read to me the passages
he loved." I read to him the sweetest of the gospel invitations
and promises. He listened like one hungering and thirsting.
" Read more," said he, " read more. Is there pardon for a great
sinner like me ? " I was deeply aifected, and pointed him to the
Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. I led in
prayer, asking God for Christ's sake to forgive him, and he re-
peated the words after, me. After a long interview, at his re-
quest, I left the New Testament with him, promising to call in
the morning, and earnestly praying that the Saviour would
reveal Himself to this dying warrior. The next day I went
down to call on him, and met a long procession in the street
*« What is this ? " I asked " The funeral of Ali Beg." Mr.
Calhoun had been dead for nearly fifteen years, but I doubt not
he welcomed to glory this aged man of war and blood, ransomed
through their common Saviour Jesus Christ
Mr. Calhoun went to the United States in 1875 on furlough.
He spoke with great power at the General Assembly in Brooklyn,
May, 1876. He had always expressed the hope that he might
rest on Mount Lebanon, but he fell asleep in Buffalo. December
14, 1876. A return to Syria was fully expected, but disease
developed, and his fond desire of sleeping his long last sleep
beneath the shade of the Lebanon cypresses was not granted.
The return in the culminating years of his life to his native land
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104 Educational Foundation Stones
and the Christian Church of America was not» we are sure, with-
out meaning in the plan of an unerring Providence. Mr. Calhoun
was able before his health seriously failed to travel to a consider-
able degree in the United States, to make many visits, and to
address a number of the large and important assemblies of the
Church of Christ at home. He thus gave the rich garnerings of
his long and fruitful experience and the benefit of his profound
wisdom to the Christian public in his native land, and cast the
impress of his Christlike personality upon multitudes who
listened to his words and looked upon his benign countenance.
It has seemed to us that the sphere of his life's usefulness was
widened in this summing up of his career by his personal pres-
ence in the home land at its close.
Had he died in Lebanon the Druses and perhaps others would
have made his tomb a shrine of pilgrimage, so greatly was he
revered.
He was called " The Saint of Lebanon," and " The Cedar of
Lebanon" from his holy life and noble, commanding figure.
God called him to bear the cross and labour in the earthly
Canaan, and then called him to wear the crown in the heavenly
Dr. Cornelius Van Alan Van Dyck
No American name is more revered and loved in Syria and
the Arabic-speaking lands to-day than that of Cornelius Van
Alan Van Dyck.
He was born in Kinderhook, Columbia County, New York,
August 13, 1 8 18, studied medicine at JefTerson College in
Philadelphia, and sailed for Syria as a lay medical missionary in
February, 1840, when twenty-one and a half years of age. A
Christian woman in Hornellsville, New York, remarked to Dr.
Harris in 1903, that when she was a young girl in Kinderhook,
she heard a friend say one Sunday, " It is discouraging that at
our communion services to-day, only two persons were received,
one a negro woman and the other a young man named Van
Dyck." Yet this young man was one day to reflect greater
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Cornelius Van Alan Van Dyck 105
honour on his native church and town than even the famous
Martin Van Buren of Kinderhook, and will be remembered and
revered when the most of his Kinderhook cotemporaries are for-
gotten.
He was of Dutch descent, and owing to his father's financial
misfortunes, was left to gain his education largely through his
own efforts. When young he was a lover of nature, and pre-
pared an herbarium of all the plants of his native country. At
eighteen he lectured on chemistry to a school for girls.
He sailed from Boston, January 12, 1840, in the bark
Emma Isadora^ of 200 tons. The vessel was ice-bound in
Boston harbour for three days. There were nine missionaries,
three married men and Dr. Van Dyck, a bachelor of twenty-one
and a half years, and three other passengers. ** There were no
decent accommodations for passengers. The cabin was about
ten by thirteen feet Small pens called staterooms had been
* knocked up ' in the after hold, and five married couples were
crowded into this ' Black Hole.' The doctor slept in the deck
house over the companionway. The table was over the stairs,
resting on the railing, so as to shut off what little air could get
down below that way. On a previous voyage to the West Indies,
coffee had been spilled in the hold, and decayed, and produced
a bilge, the smell of which was simply indescribable. There is
nothing vile enough to compare with it. The agent of the
Boston mission house had bought as his sleeping outfit a small
blanket, too short at both ends, and as thin as a lady's veil, and
a thin cotton spread, and this for a winter voyage. But for a
buffalo robe he brought with him from home and a thick over-
coat, he might have suffered. He was young and in robust
health and did not mind matters at all. But the case was
different with those five poor ladies, who were shut up below,
and compelled to endure the smell of the bilge. A strong
current of air drew down from the foresail into the forecastle,
whence it drew through the hold to the cabin, taking the whole
abominable compound of stinks, and keeping it up, on those
poor creatures below, whence it came up through the companion-
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way under the dining table in the deck house. You may imagine
the result!
''They reached Smyrna February 26, 1840, in forty-five days
from Boston, and were received into the families of Messrs*
Temple and Riggs. Mr. Adger was absent. Mr. S. H. Calhoun
was stationed at Smyrna as agent for the American Bible
Society. He was absent on duty in Athens. Some time in March
they took Austrian steamer for Beirut, calling at Larnaca,
Cyprus, where they met Messrs. Ladd and J. Thomson and also
Mr. Hebard, who was en route for Constantinople.
" On the 2d of April they anchored off Beirut and were met
by Messrs. William M. Thomson and E. R. Beadle, who came
alongside. Though they had a clean bill of health, they were
landed with all their goods and boxes (which in his case consisted
of a small box of books and a trunk) in the quarantine, and kept
fourteen days in durance vile in a leaky house. Then at the
end of the fortnight some of them were taken into Dr. Thomson's
family and some into Mr. Beadle's. Dr. Eli Smith was then in
the United States, Mr. Hebard in Constantinople, and Messrs.
Lanneau and Sherman in Jerusalem. Miss Tilden was teaching
with Mr. Beadle in the Beirut Boys' Seminary." *
Arriving in Syria April 2, 1840, he began at once the study of
Arabic which he kept up all his life, with remarkable success. In
May, 1840, he made an extensive tour in Northern Syria with Dr.
Thomson, and in July proceeded to Jerusalem to have the medical
care of the missionary families. Returning to Beirut in January,
1 841 , he made the acquaintance of Mr. Butrus Bistany, a recent con-
vert to the Protestant faith from the Maronite sect These two
young men formed a warm attachment Bistany was a scholar and
an industrious student, and their congeniality of taste bound them
together their whole lives. At Mr. Bistany's funeral, in 1883, he
was requested to make an address, but was so overcome that he was
only able to say with deep emotion, " Oh, friend of my youth !"
Dr. Van Dyck studied Arabic with Sheikh Nasif el Yazigy,the
poet, and Sheikh Yusef el Asir, a Mohammedan Mufti, graduate
* Quoted from Dr. Van Dyck's " Remmiscences.''
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Van Dyck's Mastery of Arabic 107
of the Azhar University in Cairo. The former was Dr. Eli
Smith's Arabic assistant in Bible translation for eight years, and
the latter assisted Dr. Van Dyck also for eight years in the same
great work. He soon mastered the best productions of Arabic
poetry and literature, and by his wonderful memory could quote
from the poetry, proverbs, history and science of the Arabs in a
way which completely fascinated the Syrian people. They said,
*' He is one of us." He had no peer among foreigners in his
knowledge of the Arabic language and literature. This taste for
language was natural to him, and was a divine gift and a divine
preparation for the g^eat work of Bible translation to which in due
season God called him.
On the 23d of December, 1842, he was married to Miss Julia
Abbott, whose mother, the widow of the British Consul-General
Abbott, had married in August, 1835, ^^v. William M. Thomson.
In June, 1843, he removed with Dr. Thomson and Mr. Butrus
Bistany to Abeih in Lebanon, fifteen miles southeast of Beirut^
where he founded the Abeih High School, which was afterwards
known as the famous Abeih Seminary, and which was under the
care of Rev. S. H. Calhoun for twenty-six years, from 1849 to
1875. During his six years' stay in Abeih, he prepared in Arabic
school-books on geography, algebra, geometry, logarithms, plane
and spherical trigonometry, navigation and natural philosophy.
These books, afterwards revised by himself, continue to be stand-
ard works in the Arabic language.
His geography of Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine, is
a thesaurus of graphic description, and full of apt quotations in
poetry and prose from the old Arab geographers and travellers.
The people delight in it and quote it with admiration. I found
it to be one of the best possible reading books in acquiring a
knowledge of the Arabic vocabulary.
In 1847 he was a member of a committee with Drs. Eli Smith
and G. B. Whiting to prepare the appeal in behalf of anew trans*
ladon of the Bible into the Arabic language, which we have al-
ready quoted in the chapter on Bible translation. From this
time until 1857 ^^ ^i^ed in Sidon in a house *' on the wall," witb
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his father-in-law, Dr. Thomson. Their field extended to T)rre
and Tiberias and to Mount Hermon and even Damascus. And
they made extended tours, preaching and healing the sick. Their
house in Sidon was open to all, and their evening Bible classes
were thronged with young men.
When he removed from Abeih to Sidon, he expressed great
joy at the prospect of giving himself more completely to the work
of preaching. But his linguistic tastes led him more and more to
lay up great stores of Arabic learning.
Dr. Eli Smith died January 1 1, 1857, having laboured eight years
in the translation of the Scriptures. In the chapter on Bible
translation we have given a full account of Dr. Van Dyck's suc-
cess in finishing it. It was itid^^A finished. But few errors, and
those of secondary importance, have ever been found in this won-
derfully accurate translation. It is the enduring monument of
the scholarship, taste and sound judgment of the two eminent men
whom God raised up for the work.
In 1865 he went to New York to superintend the electrotyping
of the whole Bible, to save the enormous expense of setting up
the type whenever an edition was printed. While in America he
gave instruction in the Hebrew language in Union Theological
Seminary in New York, and was offered a permanent professor-
ship, which he declined, saying, " I have left my heart in Syria
and thither I must return." He returned to Beirut in September,
1867, and in addition to his regular duties as editor of the press
and of the weekly journal, the -AT^jAr^, he accepted the professor-
ship of pathology in the medical department of the Syrian Protes-
tant College, and continued in this o0ice until 1883, when he re-
signed. During the sixteen years of his connection with the
college, he published a large Arabic volume on pathology, an-
other on astronomy, and a work on chemistry. He aided in the
foundation of the observatory, and brought out a telescope which
he afterwards sold to the college. Together with Drs. Post,
Wortabet and Lewis, he conducted regular clinics in the St. John's
Hospital of the Knights of St. John of Berlin.
After his resignation from the Syrian Protestant College, he
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The Van Dyck Jubilee 109
accepted an invitation from the Greek Hospital of St. George in
Beirut and continued to attend its clinics for ten years, and aided
largely not only in raising its character, but in inducing the
wealthy Syrian Greeks to contribute to its enlargement and its
higher efficiency. In 1891, the year of his jubilee of fifty years
in Syria, the Greek citizens placed a white marble bust of Dr. Van
Dyck in the open court in the midst of the hospital as a proof of
their appreciation and gratitude. It was the first memorial bust
erected in Syria in modern times, and the Greek Society have
shown great liberality and sincere gratitude by setting it up to com-
memorate the labours and life of an American Protestant mis-
sionary physician. Several eloquent addresses were made, and
Greeks, Mohammedans, Maronites, Protestants, Catholics and
Jews united in the celebration.
During the latter years of his life he published in Arabic eight
volumes of science primers and a fine volume, " Beauties of the
Starry Heavens." His last Arabic work was the translation of
** Ben Hur," which was published after his death by two of his
pupils at the " Muktataf " Press in Cairo.
Dr. Sarroof states in a brief Arabic memoir, that Dr. Van
Dyck was most sensitive with regard to the honour due to Dr.
Eli Smith, and would never allow the translation of the Bible to
be spoken of as his alone. When Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil,
called upon him in 1877 he complimented him on his translation
of the Bible. Dr. Van Dyck at once replied, " Perhaps Your
Majesty has not been informed that I am not the only trans-
lator. The work was begun by Dr. Eli Smith, and after his death
I completed it." He scorned flattery and once on receiving a
visit from a deputation of learned sheikhs and Ulema from Da-
mascus, the leading sheikh, a noted scholar, began to praise the
doctor in efflorescent Oriental style, and asked, " What gifts and
talents must a man have to attain such learning as you have ? "
The doctor curtly replied, " The humblest may attain to it by in-
dustry. He who strives wins."
On April 2, 1890, his jubilee was celebrated by his friends,
native and foreign. Committees had been formed in Syria and
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Egypt, and subscriptions raised. On the day of his jubilee depu-
tation after deputation visited him, presenting addresses and tokens
of esteem. The native committee presented him with a purse of
;£'50o. The American missionaries gave him a Gothic wahiut
case containing all of his Arabic publications, twenty-six in num-
ber, elegantly bound. A photographer presented him a large
picture of himself in an Oriental frame. The managers of the
Greek Hospital gave him a silver coffee set, and a valuable
gift was presented him from the Curatorium of St John's
Hospital.
Among the addresses presented to him on his jubilee were
those from the Central Committee, from the Orthodox Greek
Patriarch of Antioch in Damascus, Dr. Edward C. Gilman of the
American Bible Society, the Curators of St. John's Hospital, the
Syrian Evangelical Society, the session of the Beirut Church, the
Greek Bishop of Beirut, the Alumni of the Syrian Protestant Col-
lege, the Syrian Young Women's Society, the Y. M. C. A., the
undergraduates of the Syrian Protestant College, and an elaborate
address from his brethren of the Syrian Mission read by the Rev.
Dr. W. W. Eddy.
In 1892 Dr. Van Dyck received the honorary degree of
L. H. D. from the University of Edinburgh.
After a brief illness, he entered into rest on Wednesday morn-
ing, November 13, 1895. The public sorrow was perhaps un-
parallelled in Syria. He had requested that no word of eulogy
be uttered at his funeral and the request was strictly complied
with. It is an old custom in Syria for the poets to read eulo-
gistic poems at funerals, and no Oriental custom was more dis-
tasteful to him, so that literally a score of poets were greatly dis-
appointed. But a few days after, on Wednesday, November 30th,
by general request, the writer pronounced a funeral discourse to
a large congregation. His admiring friends, however, sent to
the local press, and to his old pupil, Dr. Iskander Barudi, not
less than forty-seven elegiac poems, which were published in a
volume.
His old pupil and fellow teacher. Dr. John Wortabet and a
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TOMB OF DR. C. V. A. VAN DYCK STATUE OP DR. DANIEL BLISS
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In Memoriam ill
few associates, erected over his grave a monument of red Aber-
deen granite suitably inscribed in both English and Arabic :
Cornelius Van Alan Van Dyck
Bom in Kinder hook , August 77, 18189
Died in Beirut ^ November 77, i8gSf
4fter labouring SS years among the sons of the
Arabic language.
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VII
Life in Tripoli
The glory of the Lebanon — A missionary home — Coffee and poisons
— ^The fellahin — Geology in Syriar-Sketches — My first sermon — ^A
furlough.
AS will have been seen, my personal connection with the
mission did not begin until nearly the end of the second
period of the mission's history. Before and after the
annual meeting already spoken of, I visited several stations in
Mount Lebanon, — Bhamdoun, Ain Zehalteh, Deir el Komr and
Abeih. In Ain Zehalteh I heard my colleague, Mr. Lyons,
preach his first Arabic sermon, and then took my first meal in a
Syrian home, that of Mr. Khalil Maghubghub, the teacher. As
I had never seen the thin Arab bread called *' markoak," which
is baked in round sheets about fifteen or eighteen inches in di-
ameter, I took a loaf and spread it on my lap supposing it to be
a napkin. On my asking Mr. Lyons why they had no bread, he
replied with a smile, " Because they eat their napkins ! " I ex-
claimed, and the teacher on hearing of my mistake joined us in a
hearty laugh. On every visit since that time to Ain Zehalteh
during these fifty-three years, I am reminded of my eating my
napkin.
On April 23, 1856, we went up by French steamer to Tripoli,
the station to which I had been appointed by the mission as a
colleague of Mr. Lyons. We were accompanied as far as Tripoli
by the Aikens, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Calhoun who were en route
for Hums. Mrs. Wilson was already in Hums.
I was soon domesticated with Mr. and Mrs. Lyons in Tripoli.
That city had a reputation for the aristocratic pride of its people,
both Moslems and Greek Christians. Mr. Wilson and Mr. Foote
had made many warm friends there. Only one man, Mr. An-
tonius Yanni, whose father was a Greek from the Island of
xxa
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Cedars of Lebanon 113
Miconos, had become an open Protestant. As American vice-
consul he was obliged to be courteous to Americans, much
against his religious prejudices^ but by degrees, read the Bible
with Mr. Wilson from beginning to end, and came into gospel
light and liberty. He used to tell with much amusement of the
horror with which he received a religious tract from Dr. Thom-
son in the Meena, and then, holding it at arm's length, ran a
mile and a half to his home in Tripoli and burned it in the
kitchen. He then went to the priest and confessed his sin. The
priest fined him three piastres (twelve cents) for having received
the tract, and forgave him, but then bethinking himself, asked,
" What was the name of the tract ? " Yanni replied, " Asheat al
Ahad," a selection of Psalms to be read Sunday evening. "Ah,"
said the priest, " those were the Psalms of King David, and to
burn them was a great sin." So Yanni paid three piastres more
and went away much perplexed at the logic of the priest
As the summer drew on, the heat increased, and we walked
out at evening through the shady walks among the orange
orchards, enjoyed the luscious apricots and plums and often gath-
ered shells along the seashore, to send home to our friends. I
studied Arabic about six hours daily, with three teachers, Abu
Selim of the Meena, the Port of Tripoli, who had taught Mr.
Gdhoun in 1841, Nicola Monsur, and Elias Saadeh, a young
Greek, who in after years came out boldly as a preacher of the
pure Gospel. The scenery of the plain of Tripoli with its luxu-
riant gardens is beautiful. But the crowning glory of the scene
is that goodly mountain, Lebanon. It rises in the distance, range
upon range, at its base bordered with gardens and orchards, with
here and there a stone-walled village, hardly distinguishable at
this distance from the white rock of the mountain ridges, while
further up is bleak, rocky desolation. Towards the southeast, the
highest range recedes, sweeping eastward in a majestic curve,
and returning again towards the southwest, thus embracing in an
amphitheatre of grand dimensions, the famous valley of the
'* Cedars of Lebanon," while to the north of this valley, and al-
most due east from the city, the summit of Jebel Makmel sits
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114 L^^^ ^^ Tripoli
enthroned above all in snowy magnificence. Here the range of
Lebanon proper terminates, and towards the northeast you see
the immense precipice, where that mountain abruptly sinks to a
level, and sweeps away to lose its identity among the shapeless
hilb and undulating plains, which extend to the Orontes, and
border the '' entrance of Hamath." You may gaze at the scene
for hours and days and not be weary. You may view it at sun-
rise, when the sun bursts forth in all its glory from the snowy
summits, revealing peak after peak and valley after valley, dis-
solving the mists, reflecting the rays of the monarch of heaven
from the sheets of ice which encircle the brow of this monarch
of earth, and throwing long spectral shadows down the dark
ravines ; or at evening when the last rays of the setting sun array
the clouds in crimson and purple and gold, and then the rugged
forms of the mountain peaks, bathed in a flood of mellow light,
seem to lose their sternness, gradually fading from view in a halo
of indescribable glory ; or at midnight, when the full moon bekms
down so serenely and brightly through the transparent Syrian
air, that you can almost forget the absence of the sun, and the
tall diffi stand out clear and cold, and awfully silent, overwhelm*
ing the mind with a new sense of the presence of Him who made
the heaven and the earth, and the everlasting mountains, and be-
fore whose glory even the " glory of Lebanon " shall be a thing
of naught ; and though this be oft repeated, you will not be too
weary to wonder, or too indiflerent to praise. Here you become
conscious of that indescribable something in mountain scenery
which exalts, and at the same time humbles the spirit, and the
earnest wish begins to bum within your soul, that it may be
yours to live and die beneath the shadow of Mount Lebanon.
My first duty was language study. We had no good diction-
aries. My principal one was Freytag's quarto Lexicon in four
volumes, the meanings all given in Latin, and studying Arabic
with such helps was a weariness to the flesh. We had also little
reading primers, and reading-books, with the geography and
arithmetic published at the American Press. The chief difficulty
was obtaining suitable teachers. My first teacher was Abu
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The Study of Arabic 1 1 5
Selim Diab, who was recommended by Dr. Van Dyck as having
been the teacher of Mr. Calhoun in Lebanon^ in 1845. He knew
no grammar and taught me more blunders than I was aware of
at the time, but his chief excellence was story-telling, in which he
used correct Arabic. When it became necessary to study gram-
mar, we secured Sheikh Owad, a fanatical and conceited Mos-
lem» who loathed the necessity of teaching the sacred Arabic
grammar to a foreign ** infideL''
The mission at that time had no definite rules for Arabic study
and no examinations of new missionaries, so that each new re-
cruit was obliged to stumble along as best he could. Some mis-
sionaries for this reason acquired habits of false pronunciation
which adhered to them all their lives. One of my chief advan-
tages in acquiring the colloquial was almost daily association with
Mr. Yanni who was the most voluble and rapid talker I have met
in the East. Once able to understand him, I could understand
everybody. I began Arabic writing with Abu Selim, and during
my six months' visit to America the following year I kept up
Arabic correspondence with him. But it should be stated that
an Arabic letter in those days consisted of three parts : a long,
flowery, poetical introduction covering one-third of the page, a
similar conclusion covering the last third, and a brief letter in the
middle. Important business, however, was written in a postscript
diagonally across the right hand bottom of the page, and this
was the part generally read by the receiver. Ever since, I have
written my Arabic letters myself. A missionary who cannot
himself write a letter in the vernacular is greatly crippled and
embarrassed in his work.
The boards of missions now, having learned by experience, in-
sist upon a definite course of language study and rigid examina-
tions, failing in which the new missionary is expected to resign.
The houses occupied by the missionaries in those days were
the old-fashioned native houses in the cities and mountain vil-
lages. The roofs generally leaked and the waUs were soaked by
the winter rains, so that the walls were often discoloured by green*
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li6 Life in Tripoli
ish fungus. In the mountain villages the houses were dark, with
heavy earthen roo&, mud floors and few windows. Glass win-
dows were almost unknown when I came to Syria. The first
labour of a missionary in occupying a mountain house was to
have openings made in the stone walls, and window frames and
sash brought up from the cities on the plain. These facts seem
almost incredible to the modern Syrian dwellers in the cities and
the better villages of the Lebanon range, where the houses are
rapidly becoming thoroughly Europeanized, — dry, airy and com-
fortable.
My first home in Tripoli was homely enough. For a year be-
fore my marriage and for six months after it, I enjoyed the hos-
pitality of my dear colleagues, Mr. and Mrs. Lyons.* But in the
fall of 1858 we hired a house which stood near the site of the
present Greek Church. Only a few rods to the south of this
house was the Massaad house where Mr. Wilson had lived be-
fore, and where my brother lived afterwards. Between the two
was a ruined Moslem wely (or tomb) surmounted by a moss-
g^own dome and overgrown with brambles and stunted fig
trees, — ^the haunt of snakes. In 1855 Mr. Wilson caught in a
box rat-trap a snake five feet long, and after my brother took the
house, his wife, on going to her room one evening, saw a huge
serpent hissing on the iron bars of the open window.
Our house consisted of two rooms on the.ground floor, open-
ing into a vegetable garden, and two rooms on the roof of a
neighbour's house, reached by a flight of thirty stone steps, with
a kitchen and servant's room under the stairs. One of the rooms
on the ground floor, a long, low, narrow, rakish aflair, had been
used as a stable, and it required days of work to shovel out and
wash out the accumulated filth. The broken stone floor was
mended up, rat-holes filled with stone and mortar, two windows
cut in opposite walls, the walls whitewashed, poison applied to the
woodwork, long strips of white cotton cloth nailed to the black-
ened and half-rotten ceiling, — and our parlour became the admi-
ration of the boys and young men who crowded in on stormy
winter nights to warm themselves by the cook-stove in the lower
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RURAL SCENES IN LEBANON
1. Basket-making in a Lebanon village. 2. Feeding the fatted sheep
and baking bread. 3. Winnowing the grain by tossing it in the air.
4. Spreading grapes on the ground to make raisins, in a Lebanon vine-
yard. 5. Ain Zehalteh fountain. Washing the fatted sheep. 6. Druze
watchman in a Lebanon vineyard.
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A Missionary Home 117
end of the room. To reach our bedroom we crossed a paved
yard, sheltered by umbrellas when it rained, then up a covered
staircase and across a flat, uncovered roof. The following fall we
removed to the Tromb house on which three new rooms had
been built of the porous sandstone, plastered on the outside with
white mortar. After the first hard rain in November, these walls
absorbed water like a sponge, and the inside walls were soon
coated with mould of many colours, — ^yet we wintered there, and
bore the discomforts as best we could.
My second summer in Duma, in 1858, my wife and I spent in
the house of a Greek priest, Soleyman. It was an antique moun*
tain house, consisting of two long parallel rooms, separated by a
wall of kowar (woven reeds plastered with clay, and divided into
sections or bins, holding wheat, barley, cut straw, and various
household stores). This wall extended only three-fourths of the
height of the ceiling. No other house was obtainable at that
time. The floors, as usual in those days, were of clay, which
was washed over weekly by the women and rubbed down with a
smooth pebble, thus killing the flees and renewing the surface.
Over this were spread mats which were a protection. As the
peasants leave their shoes at the door, and use no chairs or
tables, the floors did good service. But our chairs and tables
soon broke through the crust of clay, to the dismay of the
priest's wife, who was a very patient, hard-working woman.^
The only roads in those days were caravan tracks and bridle-
paths. The first wheeled vehicle known in Syria was in 1861,
and that on the French diligence road to Damascus, the only
carriage road in Syria until about 1865 a little branch road was
built to Baabda, the winter seat of the Lebanon government.
Since that time roads have gradually been built The carriage
road to Sidon was not finished till 1902 and the completion of
'Since those days the village has been completely transformed. Emi-
grants to North and South America have returned enriched and have
built beautiful homes, with tiled roofs, glass fronts and marble floors,
T3ring with city houses. Indeed this holds true of the Lebanon villages
for a hundred miles along the mountain range. Everywhere the people
say, '* This was done with American money."
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1 18 Life in Tripoli
the one to Tripoli is now (1909) in the near future. For twenty
years a road has been surveyed from Sidon to Judaideh. Suc-
cessive kaimakams have taxed the people grievously for building
this road. After building a few hundred rods the kaimakam
would be removed to another district, carrying the road funds in
his pocket. Similar jobbery and robbery were carried on for many
years by the governors of Latakia and Hamath who reported to
the government progress in taxing the people and building the
road which has never yet been completed.
There was one institution in Tripoli, which still exists in many
cities in Syria, which was a source of stupefying wonder to the
average small boy. I refer to the vice-consulates of the Euro-
pean Powers. France and England were represented by foreign-
ers, but Russia, Austria, Italy, the United States, Belgium, Den-
mark and Switzerland, by Oriental Greeks and Catholics. In
the simple life of those old days, ** to be a vice-consul was
greater than to be a king." On feast days, especially the Turk-
ish official holidays, they marched with stately tread through the
narrow streets, preceded by armed, gaily caparisoned Moslem
kavasses or janizaries, with their tall silver-headed staves rattling
on the pavement, the pompous dragoman or interpreter in the
rear, a fringe of small boys all around, like the American boys
following the elephant The ordinary Moslems looked on with
bitter disdain, but they were careful to keep silent lest they draw
on themselves the wrath of czar, emperor or king. Feast days
were innumerable. In the Greek Church the people are obliged
to refrain from work for about fifty holy days in addition to Sun-
days, so that the working men lose one-sixth of their working
days. To make the round of calls needed on a first-class feast
day, either Moslem or Christian, was a strenuous business. In
those days to refuse coffee or sweets was to imply that you
feared poisoning, and twenty coffee cups of black Arabic coffee
were a peril to the health. The old way of getting rid of an
obnoxious pasha or condemned criminal or secret enemy was to
put corrosive sublimate in coffee, and I have been often warned
! in going to a certain place to avoid drinking coffee. Once in
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Arab CoSee 119
Hasbeiya, when visiting at the house of good Deacon Kozta, the
Turkish kaimakam called. He was a new governor, and every
honour was shown him. Coffee was made as a matter of course.
But Kozta, in order to relieve any suspicion on the part of His
Excellency, brought in the coffee himself, in a little tin boiler on
a tray. The tiny cups were on the tray, inverted. He took a
cup, turned it over and over, to show that nothing was in it, and
drank it himself. Then taking the same cup he filled it from the
boiler and handed it to the governor, who drank it cheerfully.
Ordinarily, sugar was not used, partly because in those days it
was rare, and partly because it resembled the white powdered
poisons.
Only quite recently Dr. Mary P. Eddy was warned not to
drink coffee in a certain bigoted Maronite district, lest harm
befall her, but that old custom is rapidly going into disuse.
Since the chemical laboratory of the Syrian Protestant College
was established, the rulers of Mount Lebanon have frequently
had analyses made of the stomachs of men dying suddenly,
and poisons have been detected and the culprits punished, so
that it was no longer easy to poison men through a cup of coffee.
Coffee is the national beverage of the Arab race and indeed of
the whole Eastern world, and the coffee-house is an orderly, quiet
place, only broken in upon by the voice of the professional
hakawati, or talk maker, who reads or recites, with violent
gesticulations, the glory of Antar the Arab Hercules, or some
other ancient lay. In those early days, drunkenness was confined
to Oriental Christians and Nusairiyeh. The Moslems, as a rule,
were total abstainers, and this fact, in spite of their other vices,
has tended to maintain their virile vigour as a race. But Euro-
pean civilization has brought in its train the fashion of drink, and
many Mohammedans high and low have yielded to its fascina-
tion. The ruling pashas provide their guests with champagne
and costly beverages, and the lower classes of Moslems vie with
Greeks and Catholics and Armenians in drinking that poisonous
liquor known .as arack, distilled from barley or grapes, which
crazes the brain, and is already responsible for three-fourths of
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120 Life in Tripoli
the crime of the Turkish Empire* When I came to Beirut in
1856, there was one grog-shop kept by an Ionian Greek. The
paslia closed it, but the Greek consul opened it as being under
the protection of a Christian power. The bark I came in
from Boston to Smyrna had a cargo of New England rum.
Commerce of this kind has done its best to ruin the people of
Turkey, as it is now decimating the tribes of Africa. The strong
ground for temperance taken by American missionaries in
Turkey has given them great influence among the Moham-
medans, and the drinking habits of certain European Christians
have proved to be a serious stumbling-block.
In July, 1856, we removed from Tripoli to Duma, a Greek vil-
lage of the Northern Lebanon Mountains. It is about 2,600 feet
above the sea, with beetling clifTs rising around it on the east, south
and west, while the mountainside slopes down to the north into
the deep ravine of Nahr el Jowz, beyond which another range
rises between the ravine and the plain of Tripoli and the Koora.
Mr. Lyons and I leased the house of Simaan Abden Noor Abu
Ibrahim, for ten dollars for the summer. I made a mountain bed-
stead before leaving Tripoli, as I brought out a kit of carpenter's
tools, and it only broke down once or twice during the summer.
The floors of the two-roomed house were of mud, rubbed smooth
with a round stone, and under the mud were reeds and stones,
and often the legs of bedsteads and chairs would pierce through the
floor to the dismay of the occupant Mr. and Mrs. Lyons cur-
tained ofT one-half of their large room with an American flag for
a bedroom. The other half served as parlour, dining-room and
servant girl's room. My big room with a window was divided
into my bedroom, the storeroom and cook's room. As Mr*
Lyons' room had no window, a special contract was made with
the owner to put in a glass window. This required the tearing
down some twelve feet of the thick stone wall, which was three
feet thick. The roofs were of huge logs covered with large
stones, thorns and earth. Owing to the building of fires for
heating and cooking for many years on flat round stone moukadies
or hearths on the floor, with no chimneys, the smoke had covered
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Summer in Duma 121
the ceiling wifh a densely black shining coat of soot, which was
claimed to have a preservative effect on the wood. The effect on
the eyes of the people, of sitting in a dense cloud of wood and
tobacco smoke for hours, every winter, day and night, could be
seen in the almost universality of eye diseases. We took our
teachers with us and I used to go to the grove of snobar pines
east of the village, and study in the sweet resinous air of the grove.
Every feast day the house was crowded from morning
till night with those hardy peasants and ironmongers. High up
in the southern cliffi were the mesabik or iron smelting furnaces
or kilns, where iron ore was abundant and the forests were cut
down for fuel. The rough little pigs were then brought down to
the village and reheated on charcoal fires, and hammered out into
plates for making horseshoes and nails. The iron was exceed*
ingly malleable and the Duma Greek smiths supplied all Northern
Syria with horseshoes and nails. Their industry was admirable
and we could hear the ring of their anvils all night long as they
took turns at the hammer.
But in a few years the forests were gone, the furnace fires went
out, and the smiths bought Swede's iron in Beirut and Tripoli in
bars, bent them by heat and brought them on mules to the vil-
lage. The Arab horse and mule shoe is a plate of iron covering
the entire foot, a very useful plan on these rocky roads. The
sanitary arrangements of the village, as in all Lebanon villages at
that time, were simply shocking. And the orchards and gardens
around it were unspeakably vile. We had to teach our landlord
over again, what Mr. Wilson had taught him three years before,
and our insistence on decency and cleanliness seemed to him quite
a piece of Franjy folly. Years later, when Rustem Pasha, an
Italian by birth, became governor of Lebanon, he made a great
sensation by ordering every house in Lebanon to provide a
decent outhouse, but he enforced the rule, to the great benefit of
the people. I once made a tour in Coele-Syria, visiting some
twelve or fifteen villages, and there was not in one of them an
outhouse,, except in one house in Tulya.
One of the eccentric characters of Duma was Hajj Ibrahim,
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122 Life in Tripoli
the Egyptian doctor, the impersonation of conceited ignorance.
Nothing surprised him. He had heard it all before. We told
him of Robinson Crusoe, and loaned him the Arabic translation
of the book.^ Yes, he heard of Crusoe when he was with the
army of Ibrahim Pasha, in Yemen. He doctored by bleeding
and giving various decoctions to the poor peasants. An old
man eighty-five years old was dying of physical exhaustion. The
Hajj bled him in both wrists, until he expired. I was sent for,
as I lived near by. Seeing the old man actually expiring, I asked
the Hajj what he had done. '' I bled him in the right arm for
belghum (phlegm) and in the left for dem (blood) and the only
trouble is that I did not take quite enough blood." As it was
too late to protest, I kept silence. One day in the summer of
1858, the Hajj called in his usual pompous and af&ble style and
requested the gift of some '' journalat " or American newspapers.
Supposing that he wished them for wrapping-paper, we gave him
some copies of the New York Weekly Tribune^ for which he ex-
pressed great gratitude. Some three weeks after, he came again,
effusive with thanks, and said he could not express his obligation
to us, and insisted that we go with him to his vineyard and eat fresh
grapes and figs. On passing his house he obliged us to go in
and take a cup of Arab coffee. As we entered he repeated his
thanks for the papers so earnestly that we asked what use he had
made of them. <' Look here," said he, and he led us to an
earthen five gallon jar in the corner of the room, in which he had
dissolved the papers into a pulp and, adding olive oil, had fed
them to his patients, and, said he, '< The medicine works like a
charm, nothing like it, I thank you with all my heart" We
looked on solemnly, and then after coffee was served, went to his
vineyard, where he loaded us down with fruit.
Years after, in November, 1864, 1 was a guest of Mr. W. E.
Dodge in New York, just after the reelection of Abraham
Lincoln, and the Republican glorification dinner was at the
Metropolitan Hotel. Mr. Dodge took me as his guest, and in the
waiting-room he introduced me to Horace Greeley, editor of the
* This had been printed in Malta.
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The " Tribune 'V as Medicine 123
New York Tribune. I told him the above incident, and of the
powerful medical efficacy of the Tribune. He shook with laughter
and at length he inquired, ** Do tell me, how did it act ? Was it a
cathartic or an emetic ? " I was unable to answer, but judging
from the vigorous health of the Dumaites, it must have been a tonic.
The simple-minded fellahin of Duma were in some respects a
puzzle to me. Not one of the villagers had ever been educated.
The priest could read and write but the people never had a chance
to learn. One feast day, Mr. Lyons and I told the crowd gathered
in our house of the cannibals who eat B'ni Adam (man), and that
they had killed and eaten a missionary, a Khowaja. Instead of
looking sad, they all burst into uproarious laughter, and one of
them, named Ghuntoos, pulled off his tarboosh, threw it on the
ground and roaring with laughter exclaimed, ** And did they eat the
signora (the lady) too ? " It is difficult to give a psychological
explanation of such conduct.
That first summer in Lebanon was a continued delight Arabic
study, magnificent scenery, intensely interesting geological strata
and fossil remains, meeting with the people, and trying to express
myself and to understand their salutations and stories, the priests
and monks, the muleteers, the donkeys and camels and flocks of
sheep, the simple, sturdy life of the peasants and their unbounded
hospitality, their readiness to argue and discuss, and to hear the
European news, their pride in their rocky terraces, the result of
the industry of ages, their Abrahamic plows and threshing-
floors and bread making, their great acuteness and at the same
time extraordinary credulity, their religious views and their stock
arguments against other sects than their own, gave one constant
themes for study and a longing desire to do them good. Duma
is on a mountain slope surrounded by high clif& of cretaceous lime-
stone, full of interesting fossil shells. It was a pleasure to me to
collect these fossils and send them to America*
Geology in Syria
How I have enjoyed geological research these fifty-three years
in Syria 1 The range of Mount Lebanon, 100 miles long, is of
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124 Life in Tripoli
cretaceous limestone with strata of recent sandstone and lignite
and dykes of basaltic rock. Anderson of the Lynch expedition,
Dr. E. R. Beadle, Dr. W. M. Thomson, Rev. William Bird of
Abeih, Lartet, Conrad, Fraas, Noetling, C. E. Hamlin, E. Hull,
Max Blankenhorn and lastly Prof. R. P. Whitefield and my son-
in-law, Alfred E. Day, of the Syrian Protestant College, have de-
scribed most of the cretaceous fossils of Mount Lebanon and the
Jurassic fossils of Mejdel Shems, south of Mount Lebanon. The
geological structure of Lebanon has had much to do in determin-
ing the history and diversifying the habits of the inhabitants.
Two ranges of mountains running north and south, parallel with
the seacoast and separated by deep cut valleys, extend, the west-
erly one all the way from Asia Minor to Kadesh Barnea, and the
easterly one from the region north of Baalbec to the gulf of
Akabah. Jhe limestone soil formed by the disintegration of the
richly fossiliferous cretaceous limestone strata, and the black soil,
formed by the crumbhng of the volcanic rocks, are constantly
renewed, needing little fertilizing to make them productive. Sun
and rain seem to be all the fertilizers needed in the great part of
Syria.
The indurated limestone of Lebanon and Palestine furnishes
solid building stone and has developed a hardy race of stone-cut-
ters and builders, quite different from the indolent dwellers on the
great plains where the want of stone compels the people to build
houses of adobe or sun-dried brick. So also the character of the
warlike Druses of the Leja (Trachonitis), east of Jordan, seems to
have been made more independent by the frowning deep cut de-
files and tortuous passages in the basaltic dykes which form their
home, as did the Black Hills the home of the Modoc Indians. In
these narrow, crooked, deep gorges a few men can stand against
hundreds, and their frequent successes in cutting to pieces bodies
of Turkish troops have added to their untamed ferocity.' The
architectural stones of Syria are varied and valuable. There is
the recent sandstone of the coast overlying the limestone of
which most df the coast cities have been built for ages, the cream-
coloured indurated limestone of the temples of Baalbec and Pal-
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THE KADISHA RIVER
Which runs from B'sherreh to Tripoli.
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Geology in Syria 125
myra, the orange Nerinean limestone of the hills near Mar Rukus»
of which Post Hall of the Syrian Protestant College has been
built, the lithographic limestone of both Lebanons, the ribbon
stone of Deir el Komr, and the crystalline trap rocks of Northern
Syria and of the giant cities of Bashan and Banias. The city of
Hums is built of black basalt and its streets are beautifully paved
with cubical blocks of the same material.
Fossil fish abound in the white lithographic limestone of
Northern Lebanon at Sahil Alma, and Hakil. Oyster shells are
found (Ostraea Syriaca) in beds and ledges through the ranges of
Lebanon. There are also fossil bivalves and univalves in endless
variety, in Ehden, Duma, Abeih, Deir el Komr, at Shweir, Tel
Wakid, Bhamdoun, Aaleih, Mukhtara, Mejdel Shems, and many
other places* There are Ammonites, Strombus, Area, Nerinea,
Nerita, Cerithium, Scalaria, Natica, Corbula, Cardium, Trigonia,
Hippurites, Perna, Lima, Trochus, Terebratula, Nummulites, and
whole mountains of the Oolite. I began early in my life in Syria to
collect fossils, and finally gave my entire collection to the Sjrrian
Protestant College. Dr. W. M. Thomson, author of " The Land
and the Book," was enthusiastic in collecting, and told me of
many localities. The unique collection of our beloved Rev. Will-
iam Bird has also been secured by the Syrian Protestant College,
and Prof. Alfred E. Day is engaged in determining and describing
those not hitherto described. Once I sent a camel load of quartz
and calcite geodes from the hill east of Baaklin to the college,
and another ^time I sent from Tell Kelakh, on the wagon road to
Hums, nearly half a ton of beautiful pillars of columnar trap by
wagon to Tripoli where the missionaries forwarded tliem to the
college cabinet in Beirut. One summer I sent by cart from Jum-
hoor, on the Damascus Road, to the college cabinet a huge block
of Nerinean limestone, containing thousands of these beautiful
spiral shells. The block is about four feet long and two feet and
a half wide and eighteen inches thick. Dr. D. Bliss had it pol-
ished on three sides, and it constitutes a lasting monument of the
most ancient pre- Adamite inhabitants of Syria. One of my first
horseback rides in Syria was to a then well-known locality of
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126 Life in Tripoli
quartz geodes above Baabda, about an hour's ride from Beirut on
horseback. Our party consisted of Dr. Eli Smith, mounted on
his little white horse. Rev. J. E. Ford on his own steed, and Mr.
Hurter, the printer, with us new missionaries. Bliss, Aiken, Dr.
Haskell, Lyons and myself on beasts of low degree, hired from a
Moslem khanajy in Beirut. Mr. W. W. Eddy joined us at
Baabda, and we climbed up to the locality on the chalky hill,
where I filled my little borrowed saddle-bags with the quartz
geodes, lined with beautiful, clear crystals. I wrapped them in
paper and tied them with string to keep them from injury.
From the duhr or summit, we rode down cautiously the steep de-
scent to Kefr Shima, where Mrs. Eddy had kindly invited us to
dinner. On our return towards evening to Beirut through the
olive and mulberry orchards, we rode at a moderate, dignified
pace, but as we returned to the broad sand road between the pine
groves, suddenly a white streak seemed to flash by me, and my
old horse which had no doubt '' seen his fast days " grew restless.
Mr. Lyons, my nearest companion, exclaimed, " There goes Dr.
Smith on his Whitey," and in a moment every horse broke into
a gallop. As my poor steed began to gallop, the saddle-bags be-
gan to wallop, flying up and down and flapping like wings,
pounding his ribs and making an unseemly rattling, until the bags
began to rip and tear, and I was obliged ingloriously to fall to the
rear and enter the city, last of the train. But I landed my geodes
safely in Mr. Lyons' house and soon after shipped them to friends
in America.
It has generally been my custom in making long journeys, in
which mules are required to carry beds, tents and provisions, to
pick up stones during the day, take them in my saddle-bags to the
tenting place, and wrap them in bed bundles in the morning. At
times I have known muleteers to wonder at the increasing weight
of the loads, but the average muleteer cares little for weight as
long as the two sides of the loads balance. Perhaps you will ask.
How could you find time, in making missionary tours, to stop and
pick up specimens ? It did not take up much time, but it re-
lieved the tedium of long rides, and thus the dreariest and most
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The White Man's Burden 127
rocky regions became full of interest, and I found constantly new
beauties in the variety of fossil remains and in the marvels of
geological upheaval
He who has an eye for beauty will see it. A botanist will revel
in what to another is a wilderness of weeds. I have found de-
light in hot plains and stifling valleys and chilling heights, be-
cause I found wonders of stratification, and colossal mountains
tipped over and the strata lying at all angles from vertical to hor-
izontal. In April, 1 856 Just eight weeks after landing in Syria
I went to Tripoli and Duma with Rev. David M. Wilson. He
was a hearty Tennessean, a plain, blunt man, with a big heart,
and mighty in the Scriptures. My object in going was to secure
a house for the summer in Duma and visit Gharzooz. We hired
packhorses in Tripoli of Mohammed a Muslim. We had neither
saddles nor bridles, only pack-saddles with rope stirrups and rope
halters. Going over a breakneck road without getting our necks
broken, we slept at Duma at the house of Abu Ibrahim where
many missionaries have since summered.
The next day we rode to Gharzooz,, and when half-way, we
stopped on a high ridge and left our horses with the muleteer.
Mr. Wilson^ knowing my taste for geology, said he would take
me down to the Fossil Fish locality at Hakil. So down we
walked, carrying our simple lunch, in a blazing sun, down, down
to the bottom of the deep gorge, then through Hakil, where a
Greek blacksmith showed us the way to the quarry. We found
some good specimens, and went back and rested at the black-
smith's house. Then up we went, my pockets full of stones, '
and when I reached the top, my clothes were soaked with per-
spiration and a cold north wind was blowing. We mounted and
set out, and soon I was chilled through and reached Gharzooz with
blinding headache. This taught me a lesson, never to walk up-
hill in travelling in Syria. A young man once said to Dr. Eli
Smith, '^ Doctor, why don't you dismount going up a steep hill
and ease your horse ? " Dr. Smith replied, " That is what I have
a horse for, to carry me up." Walking up-hill in Syria at any
season is dangerous, if followed by riding or standing in a wind
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128 Life in Tripoli
I would cordially recommend to every young man going out
as a missionary to study some branch of natural science. Let
him pursue it in his missionary field as a means of recreation,
mental invigoration, relief from the routine of regular duties,
and a means of gaining enlarged ideas of the power, wisdom and
goodness of God, who created alike the Book of Nature and the
Book of Revelation. As Hugh Miller says, " There are two rec-
ords, and both were written by one hand." These records are
the Mosaic and the geologic, that of the pages and that of the
ages. I think my life has been prolonged by the outdoor
exercise involved in studying the rocks of Syria.
Sketches of Syria
May, 1856 — ^The coast of Syria has just been visited with one
of the most violent storms ever known at this season of the year.
The rainy season generally begins in November and ends in
March or April ; and from that time onward a shower is rarely
known on the seacoast The amount of rain which fell during
the past winter was not as great as usual. In the month of
April there was but little rain, and by the middle of May the
weather became settled. The owners of mulberry gardens had
built their frail summer-houses of reeds and matting in the open
air ; the process of feeding the silkworms was considerably ad-
vanced, and all were anticipating a fine yield of silk to compensate
for the losses of last season. But on Wednesday, May 28th, the
air was thick with a dark cloud bank over the sea, and distant
thunder, towards the south and on the mountains, threatened a
storm.
Before midnight the rain fell in torrents. The thunder and
lightning were fearful. The whole atmosphere seemed one sheet
of flame. On Thursday the storm continued with such violence
that the streets were flooded, and the beautiful river Kadisha
rose to a height unprecedented at this season of the year. Above
the city, it swept over vineyards and orchards, destroying prop-
erty, and in one of its branches a little girl and boy were en-
gulfed in the water and drowned Towards evening, we walked
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A Syrian Tempest il^
out upon the bank of the river. It was a terrific scene. The
roar of the waters dashing through the narrow arches of the
stone bridge, and thence over the dam eight feet in height —
now almost concealed by the volume of the water — was really
fearful. The river was rushing with mad violence in its haste to
mingle with the sea. Its surface was covered with grass, sticks
and shrubs, uprooted by the mountain torrents, and brought
from distant heights not far from the snowy valley of the*' Cedars
of Lebanon." But the most remarkable feature of the scene was
the colour of the water. It was of deep red colour, like blood,
and the angry tide seemed crested with a bloody froth. The
origin of this discolouration is in the ochreous soil which abounds
along the sides of Lebanon, and is washed down by the rains.
The river seemed literally " laden " with it, as the Arabic term
for a rise in the river imports, and at the point where the waters
of the river mingle with the sea, the blue waters were discoloured
by this deep red colour of the stream for a great distance, the
outline between these two seemingly inharmonious elements
being visible for miles. This singular colour of the water,
common to many of the streams of Lebanon, gave rise to that
mythological story connected with the river Adonis (now the
Nahr Ibrahim), between Tripoli and Beirut. Lucian says of the
river Adonis, that ** at certain seasons of the year, especially
about the feast of Adonis, the river assumed the colour of blood,
in sympathy for the death of the beautiful hunter who was killed
by a wild boar on the neighbouring mountains."
Nothing could be more natural for an uncultivated, imaginative
people given to creature worship, than the ascription of such an
origin to this remarkable colour of the water. Even more en-
lightened minds have been filled with amazement at the phenom-
enon. The feast and worship of Adonis, which were observed
extensively in ancient Phoenicia, like other s)^tems of idolatry,
stained and contaminated the character of the Jewish nation in
the tumultuous da)rs of their decline, even as the earth stains the
pure water of an agitated river, and were known to the prophet
EzekieL The fabled death of Adonis had given rise to the
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130 Life in Tripoli
annual commemoration of the event, when the Phoenician maids
mourned his death with every display of grief. The great feast
continued some time, consisting of two parts — a season of
mourning and a season of joy. As this occurred yearly in public,
the Jewish women soon learned to unite in the celebration of an
event so well calculated to enlist their sympathies, especially as
it is an Oriental custom, preserved until the present time, for the
women to lament the death of a young man with most extrava-
gant manifestations of grief. Thammuz is the Hebrew name for
Adonis, and when the prophet Ezekiel was shown the various
abominations of the house of Israel, he regarded this '' weeping
for Thammuz " as the greatest of all.
In allusion to this is Milton's language, when summoning up
the various " devils,"
*' who were known to men by various names,
And various idols through the heathen world. . •
** Thammuz came next behind.
Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured
The Syrian damsels to lament his fate,.
In amorous ditties all a summer's day ;
While smooth Adonis from his native rock
Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded."
And in his "Hymn of Christ's Nativity," in speaking of the
destruction of heathenish superstition, allusion is made to the
scene:
*' Peor and Baalim
Forsake their temples dim.
With that twice battered god of Palestine,
And mooned Ashtaroth,
Heaven's queen and mother both,
Now sits not girt with taper's holy shine ;
The Libyian Hammon shrinks his horn,
In vain the Syrian maids their wounded ThammuM mourn.**
The same superstitious imagination which transformed the
muddy stream of Lebanon into the blood of Adonis also invested
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The Adonis Myth 131
a mountain flower of Lebanon — the scarlet Adonis — with a
similar mythic character. This flower, which abounds on Mount
Lebanon in the spring, was said to have sprung from the blood
of Adonis, and
''From shape and hue and odour
Grieved for Adonis/'
But enough of this strange, yet beautiful myth. The storms
which have deluged the country and discoloured the waters of
the Kadisha, in Tripoli, giving rise to this allusion to the past
were also a present reality, and were exceedingly destructive of
life and property. In Beirut the storm continued a whole day.
Three men were killed by lightning, one had his beard burned
off, and the printers in the America Mission Press felt the shock
of a heavy stroke which passed down the lightning-rod. Near
Sid9n, three men were killed by one stroke. A tree was struck
within a few yards of the house of Rev. Mr. Eddy at Kefr
Shima. During this one day three-fourths as much rain fell as
during the whole previous winter. Large quantities of merchan-
dise along the shore of the harbour at Beirut were swept into the
sea and were destroyed. It was a memorable storm, and will
afford material for many a story and conversation among this
gossip-loving people. The old Moslems gathered in crowds at
sundown along the shady banks of the river, and discussed the
event with declarations of submission to the «« will of God,"
which would be quite commendable were they not inspired by a
heartless fatalism.
June 7, 1856 — There are no newspapers in Syria. Th^ near-
est approach to one is the Miscellany, published occasionally by
the missionaries in pamphlet form. An Arabic newspaper has
also been recently commenced in Constantinople but it is little
known here and its circulation is quite limited. Hence news in
Syria is traditional to an extent which is quite unpalatable to us
as Protestants, to say the least. Whatever of local news is afloat
is so encumbered with *' new versions " and exaggerations among
a people not specially attached to the truth, that it is necessaiy
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132 Life in Tripoli
to wait several days before the exact facts can be ascertained
We have just had proof of this.
A day or two since, it was currently reported that a Maronite
had been imprisoned for cursing the name of Moses, one of the
prophets of the Koran. To-day we learn from authentic sources
that it is otherwise. A Maronite, a man of bad reputation even
among his own sect, took occasion, when in the company of sev-
eral Moslems, to curse most violently the name of Jesus Christ.
They were greatly enraged, and immediately obtained his arrest,
and he now lies in prison, awaiting orders from Constantinople,
whither the governor of the city has written, requesting authority
for his execution. The aggravation of the offense consists in its
being a curse against the name of one of the six great prophets
of the Moslems : Adam, Noah, Moses, Solomon, Christ and Mo-
hammed being of equal dignity in this respect. If the man had
cursed the name of God Himself, it would have been considered
a light matter, not worthy of the slightest notice, and what every
Moslem is guilty of every day if not every hour of his life. Nor
did the crime consist in its being an insult to Christ as God, for
the Moslems deny the divinity of Christ ; but it was because it
was a curse upon One who is " the greatest of the prophets next
to Mohammed." The reason of this is a distinction which the
Moslem makes : " If you curse God," says he, " God is merciful
and will forgive; if you curse a prophet he cannot forgive ; there-
fore you are to be punished by the sons of the Prophet." This
is a gross and monstrous perversion of sacred truth, and ^ the
" mercy of God " is made the general apology for every species
of blasphemy and profaneness. It enters into the very texture
of society, forms a seemingly inseparable element in conversation,
and it is almost impossible to converse with a Moslem without
hearing the name Allah in every breath. Whether this blasphe-
mous Maronite will receive any further punishment than a
month's confinement in a dark, damp, loathsome dungeon, re-
mains to be seen. The position of the Sultan with regard to re-
ligious liberty, will, of course, prevent a decree of death ; but it is
a great offense in the eyes of the Moslems, and they demand a
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Moslem Respect for Christ 133
great punishment. What a disgrace to the name of Christianity,
that one who is called a Christian should be punished by the
enemies of Christianity for blaspheming the name of our Divine
Redeemer, whom they esteem only as a prophet and a man.
Truly, one does not wonder that Moslems despise such a Chris-
tianity I Yet the nominal Christians of Syria are proud, ignorant,
and self-sufficient. Oh ! fallen, fallen Syria I Corrupted, marred,
disrobed of thy ancient glory! Crushed to the earth by ten
thousand leaden weights of form and superstition, until thy once
pure throbbing heart has ceased to beat. Physical symbols speak
forth in living eloquence thy glory and thy fall I
Yonder snowy peak of Lebanon, pure, serene as light itself,
lifts its awful form, ancient and majestic as thine own glorious
past ; while from his base bursts forth a turbid river, stained as it
were with blood, sweeping away in its progress the lives and
tenements of men, and discolouring with its ruddy tide the pure
blue waters of the sea — and this is thy present, this thy fall, fair
Syria ! But is there no future ? Is there no resurrection from
thy moral death ?
As certainly as the waters of yonder river mingle with the sea,
and yonder sea ascends in unseen vapour, again to mingle with
the sky ; so certainly shall the day of thy glory come again, and
thy people rejoice in the light of a preached, believed and be-
loved Gospel I And this is thy future, " For the mouth of the
Lord hath spoken it."
Duma, Mount Lebanon, Syria, August ig, 1856.
My dear Father :
In accordance with our plan mentioned in a previous letter, and
suggested no less by the interesting nature of the scenes to be visited
than by a regard for our own health, we set out this morning from our
mountain home in Duma, for the Cedars of Lebanon and the Ruins of
Baalbec. When one has been applying himself constantly to books and
study for a long time in this climate, a kind of nervous weakness comes
upon the system, bringing with it an indifference to mental pursuits
which the experience of missionaries in years past, and our own brief
experience, proves to be most effectually relieved by a change of air and
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134 Life in Tripoli
occupation. This is found in Syria by travelling over the mountains,
and we are just beginning a journey which will continue for a week.
Setting out upon a journey in Syria is far different from anything you
have ever known, unless it were in those early days in Montrose history
when all travelling was on horseback, and the lawyers accompanied tl^
judges from town to town, carrying their baggage in saddle-bags. I
think a Syrian missionary would make a very good Western pioneer.
This morning we had no railroad tickets to buy, no depot to reach,
no carriage to put in order, no harness to perplex us, and no smooth
plank road before us to effeminate our tastes and unfit us for the steep
ascents of life. The first business in a journey is to provide animals.
Lorenzo has a horse which Mrs. Lyons will ride. We must have then
horses for Lorenzo and myself, a mule for Shehedan and Mennie each,
and mules to carry our beds, bedsteads, kitchen apparatus, provisions
and tents. He is not a wise traveller who n^lects his overcoat, white
umbrella, drinking cup, straps, strings, papers, drawing-paper (if he can
sketch), geological hammer (if he be given to scientific research), mar-
iner's compass, spy-glass, pamphlets for pressing flowers, and a full
supply of clothing adapted to the coldest and hottest extremes of weather.
The pocket Bible, hymn-book, Arabic Testament and Psalter are quite
indispensable.
The muleteers, having agreed the night before to be ready at sunrise,
appear at that time, but without mules enough, and we were delayed
until nine o'clock. Sjrrian muleteers are men of a character sui generis.
They are like the Cretans of whom the apostles speak, proverbially
faithless, and if one makes extensive calculations based upon their word,
he will suffer the consequences. For our saddle animals they brought a
fine mare, and a little ash-coloured, sleek-skinned mule which we thought
best Lorenzo should ride as the mule was not strong enough for me.
At a little before nine we set out. The " Cedars " are a little north of
east from Duma, but in order to cross the fearful ravine which lies to
the northeast of us, we had to make a gradual descent for an hour in a
northwesterly direction and then ascend again three hours before we
were out of sight of our own village. With the burning sun upon our
heads and slow-paced animals, it was tedious enough. Mennie carried
little Mary in her arms on the back of the mule. Arab women ride on
mules without a side saddle or stirrups, having a cushion on the top of
the pack-saddle, and keeping themselves from falling by holding on to
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Through the Country 13^;
a rope which secures the cushion in its place. It is not surprising that
they sometimes fall, especially when carrying an umbrella and a child,
and travelling over a Motlnt Lebanon road. Mennie was thrown before
we had been two hours on the road. In descending the Duma moun-
tain, we passed terraces of mulberry, fig and grape, and the cotton
plant. Irish potato, Indian corn, tobacco, beans, squashes, and egg-
plants were growing side by side in great luxuriance, while the hedges
were covered with great clusters of ripe blackberries. This is the season
of figs and grapes, both of which are now in their prime. How I would
delight to welcome you to these beautiful gardens and vineyards and
show you the tempting clusters of large white and purple grapes, and
the red and white figs which melt like honey on the tongue. These are
the native luxuries of Syria, and the season of vintage is the jubilee of
the Mount Lebanon peasantry.
After descending the mountain, passing the old convent of Mar
Yohanna (St. John) where two poor ignorant monks eat and drink
and sleep, we reached the beautiful level valley, about a mile and a half
long and an eighth of a mile wide, through which flows a little river of
clear cold water, irrigating the large fields of Indian com, which seem
80 much like home, that I almost forget that I am in Syria. The
fragrance of the tassels and silk in the morning breeze was almost equal
to a visit to the old farm at home. But how soon the scene changes.
Leaving the beautiful valley, we thread our way through a dirty village
of the Metawilehs, and find a street so narrow that the baggage animals
are compelled to return and find another route. We then ascend the
mountain towards the village Kefoor — passing a large stone sarcophagus in
the field, a ruined convent with its old oak tree, the almost universal ac-
companiment of a ruin in Syria.
You would be interested in the geological character of this goodly
mountain, which we are rapidly ascending. We are now riding over
strata of limestone rock all of which slope upward from the sea to the
mountain top at an angle of between twenty and thirty degrees. Oc-
casionally you come to a bed of iron ore, a vein of whitish yellow sand-
stone, or a trap dyke, and then come back again to the original lime-
stone rock. These trap dykes, or masses of igneous rock, seem to stand
like monuments on a great battle-field, telling the history of Lebanon in
language not to be mistaken. Here is a vast black mass of trap, stand-
ing all alone among the shattered masses of the white limestone strata,
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136 Life in Tripoli
seeming to exult in a consciousness of strength and to rejoice at the
havoc it has made. And perhaps it would thus tell its own story :
<' Long, long ago, when the sea slept on the face of yonder mountain
summit, and all these rocks reposed beneath its cr3rstal waters, I was a
molten, shapeless mass in the very centre of the earth. Heaving, rest-
less, burning for distinction, I asked for a commission to do as others
had done, in breaking up the surface of the earth. My request was
granted. And forth I came, seething, bubbling, heaving up the mighty
rocks, breaking through the crust of the earth, while the sea foamed
and boiled, and dashed away in wild confusion as I raised on my shoul-
ders the vast range of Lebanon. You see yonder trio of mountain
peaks, Hermon, Sunneen, and Makmel. On each of those the strata lie
horizontal, and from the precipices at their sides were broken off those
huge cliffs which now slope down to the east and west, forming a kind
of parapet of defense on either side, as the great centre of the range was
raised steadily up from unknown depths below. This black mass upon
which you now stand extends but a few rods on the surface, and then
again the white limestone seems to be the prevailing rock. But you
will find again a few furlongs away a vaster extent of my own fiery sub-
stance, and journey where you will on Lebanon, you will find every-
where proofs of my presence, fragments of my shattered body. Yon
may think me insignificant, perhaps a mere phenomenon. But go down
along my black crystalline system — ^follow one of these pentagonal
columns, and after descending many thousand feet far below this lime-
stone, which on the surface makes such a magnificent display, you
will still wonder at my vastness and strength ; and when you approach
the region of perpetual fire, you will feel my throbbing pulse and
understand that the same great force which, under the direction of the
great Creator of the Universe, first upheaved mighty Lebanon and
made it the glory of the earth, is till working far beneath the surface,
and in its giant pulsations shakes the solid crust with earthquakes and
devastates it with liquid volcaqic fire. Now you may learn that I am
Lebanon, for I elevated these giant ranges, and now sustain them upon
my scarred and blackened body. Now I am hardly noticed by the
hastening traveller, while yonder lofty white cliff elicits his admiration
and enjoys an immortal name. Learn from my experience that one
may labour and another reap the fruits of his labour. One may toil
and suffer, and another receive the praise. For I, who constitute the
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The Black Trap's Soliloquy 137
great mass of the earth, am comparatiyely unknown, while this superficial
film of limestone strata, which I have toiled to shatter and upheave,
dwells in sunshine above the clouds, clad in a mantle of glory, a name
and a praise in the earth."
In such unspoken language have these rocks discoursed to me as I
have journeyed along to-day on the toilsome ascent of Lebanon. We
are now on our way to the cedars which are sublime in their antiquity,
and to Baalbec which is equally interesting from the strange mystery
which hangs about its origin, but here are rocks, older and more vener-
able than either ; rocks on which the cedars grow, and from which Baalbec
was first built. The cedars are but the growth of a day, and Baalbec is
but the child of an hour, compared with these rock-ribbed mountains,
ancient as the sun.
But we must journey on. After reaching the summit of the range
northeast of Duma, and in a southeasterly direction from Tripolii
we have a magnificent prospect on every side. After looking at the sea,
the southerly mountains, Tripoli, and the coast sweeping in a sharply
defined curve towards Latakia, 3rou turn and gaze towards the cedars.
There they lie, a little dark green clump of trees five hours or nearly
fifteen miles away. On the east, north and south of them the great sum-
mits of Lebanon, smooth and round as the shaven head of a Maronite
monk (begging pardon of the mountains for the comparison), look down
in silence on the scene, while towards the west, the amphitheatre opens
upon the sea far away and far below. The mountains are so lofty and
grand that this little cluster of evergreen cedar seems like a mere spot of
moss on their rocky sides in the distance. But these are the cedars and
we will journey on, hoping soon to stand under their ancient boughs
and enjoy their sweet, refreshing shade.
It is now two o'clock p. m., and our muleteers, who are paid by the
day, seem determined to lengthen the road, and by delays innumerable
contrive to disappoint our hopes of spending the night at our place of
destination. We give them notice, however, that if they do not get
through we shall not pay them for more than one day for the journey
from Duma to the cedars. This stirs their latent energy, but they
finally fall back again, and we are compelled to pitch our tent in an open
field, near a little fountain. On our way, we saw in the afternoon the
farmers in one field reaping and threshing their grain, and in another,
flowing and sowing the wheat just taken from the threshing-floor. The
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138 Life in Tripoli
season is so short on these heights, six or seyen thousand feet abore the
sea, that harvest and seed-time come in the same week. The great part
of the wheat in Sjrria is winter wheat. On the plains between Lebanon
and Anti-Lebanon (called the Bookaa) they sow their wheat later as
there is little snow, but here they hasten to put in the seed before the
cold winds and the driving mountain storms prevent all outdoor labour.
As we came through the wheat fields to-day, the little girls engaged in
the harvest would bring a handful of wheat to our horses, and expect a
present. The custom is peculiar to this portion of Lebanon, and some
of our men who came from Southern Sjrria were quite offended by it,
thinking it a disgrace to the people. Yet we gave a little coin to the
children, and I thought it by no means so great a disgrace as these Arabs
seemed to think. The mountaineers of Lebanon are an industrious,
hard-working people, but they are exceedmgly ignorant. When the
Gospel shall have taken hold of the people, as it has in America, there
will be a style of character developed her^ which will be truly noble and
commanding. The Arab mind has capacity enough. It nec^s the light
of truth, education and elevation. As it is now, the great part of the
women think that they have no souls, and the men treat them like
slaves. One learns from such a state of things how suggestive an index
of the degree of the civilization and moral elevation in a country is the
position of woman.
I must not forget to allude to one of the notable things of to-dajr's
experience. Many people think that the ** Cedars of Lebanon '* are
found in but one place. This is a mistake. On our road to-day, we
have passed thousands of young cedars, and some of considerable size,
all growing vigorously. They are green and beautiful, identical in
bark, leaves, and cones with what I have seen and heard of specimens
of the true cedar. To-morrow will decide.
Wednesday, August 30th — This morning we arose early, struck our
tents, ate our breakfast, mounted, and were off for the Cedars. They
were in sight all the time, yet we were nearly two hours in going about
in a zigzag course among the little hills, or rather, rounded knolls,
which abound in the vicinity of the cedars. The ground was covered
with fragments of basaltic rock and iron ore, fossils an<^ crumbling lime-
stone. There are wheat and barley fields within twenty rods of the
ancient trees. As you approach the cedars, you are astonished at their
almost entire isolation. There is hardly a tree visible for miles, except'
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CEDARS OF LEBANON IN BAROk GROVE
Ancient B'Sherreh Grove of Cedars of Lebanon. They are surrounded
by a wall built by Rustem Pasha, Governor of Lebanon.
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The Cedars of Lebanon 139
log those which grow in the villages scattered here and there down the
valley towards the sea. There is certainly but one other tree to my
knowledge within two miles. The surface of the ground is of a light
yellow colour, the prevailing stone being limestone, and a more arid, dry,
uninviting soil could hardly be conceived. Thorns and thistles abound.
There are great thickets of a dwarfed species of the barberry high up
under the ledges near the summit of the loftiest mountains. There is
one peculiar species of thorn (for almost every shrub on Mount Lebanon
produces thorns) which grows in little mounds, about a foot in diameter
and perhaps eight inches high, of a pea green colour and covered with
beautiful flowers. The flowers are dry like silk paper, and are very
tempting, but the moment your hand approaches them it is met by in-
numerable thorns or spines like needles, which teach you circumspection
in the future.
We are now entering the ancient grove of the cedars. The muleteers
are far behind and in the still, sweet air of the morning, we enter the
sacred shade. Sacred indeed — ^but not as these superstitious people be-
lieve, on account of any sanctifying virtue in the trees themselves — for
this is a blasphemy — ^but sacred in their history, their interesting asso-
dations, their wondrous antiquity. The birds are singing in their
branches, and the slight breeze sighs in plaintive, melancholy music,
like the voice of the pine in November nights, as we ride slowly through
the grove, over the undulating surface, to the level spot used from time
immemorial as a camping ground by travellers from all parts of the
world. The tent is soon pitched, a woman is despatched to bring a jar
of water from the fountain more than a half hour distant, our things are
all arranged, and away we go, one to one place, another to another, to
take measurements, to sketch, to meditate, to wonder, and to praise.
The results of our investigations are somewhat as follows : The grove
of the cedars stands in a vast amphitheatre of lofty mountains which
border it in grand magnificence on the north, east and south. The
slope of these mountains downward is at an angle of nearly forty-five
degrees, being covered with a loose, sliding soil, of alight yellow colour.
The cedars are nearer to the northern range than to the southern. It
is perhaps 100 rods to the base of the slope on the north side. The
width of the valley from north to south, I should think, must be about
two and a half miles, perhaps less. The surface of the valley between
these three ranges is very uneven, consisting of innumerable small.
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140 life in Tripoli
rounded hillocks or moraines, covered with loose stones, thorns and
thistles, but without rocks of any large size, though some of them are
simply rough ledges of limestone rounded by the action of the sun and
snows and storms of ages. The ground on which the cedars stand is of
the same general character. They occupy about six of these mounds,
the distance from outside to outside in an easterly and westerly direction
being about fifty rods, and nearly the same from north to south. The
difference in elevation between the top of the highest hillock and the
lowest intervening valley in the grove is about 100 feet I infer this
from the fact that we could look down from ourencampmoit, which was
on about the highest level, upon the tops, of some quite tall cedars in the
valley below. The number of cedars is about 400. Of these, the
greater part are quite large and high, many of them being straight enough
for a ship's mast and spars. The leaves and bark are exactly like the
American fir tree, and the cones of the younger trees also resemble
them. One peculiarity of these trees is their angular appearance. The
limbs of the older trees grow at right angles with the trunk, and that too
at the very top of the tree, where the limbs are often very laige, giving
the tree top the appearance of a mushroom, or an umbrella. The top of
one of the twelve largest trees sends out branches horizontally so nu-
merous and regular that one might make a floor of great uniformity and
almost perfectly level, by simply la]ring boards from branch to branch.
The top of the tree above the limbs, where the silvery green leaves seem
matted together and sprinkled with the dark brown cones, is like a Damas-
cus carpet of the finest texture, and is remarkably beautiful. The twelve
largest trees are natural wonders. The people have a tradition with re-
gard to these twelve trees that Christ and the eleven apostles once vis-
ited the spot, and stuck down their walking staves in the earth, and from
them sprang the greatest and oldest trees. Mr. Calhoun, who has often
visited this spot, and has counted the rings which indicate each succes-
sive year's growth, infers fix)m this indication, as well as from the fact
that these old trees have not increased in size for 200 years, as is known
from a name carved in the solid wood, that the trees are at least as old
as the days of Solomon. If I were to give names to the twelve trees it
would be those of the twelve patriarchs, and not of the apostles.
I have enjoyed this day's visit beyond description, and I shall ever
treasure up the meditations and memories connected with my first visit
to the Cedan of Lebanon. Who can imagine a more glorious scene than
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My First Arabic Sermon 141
this goodly Lebanon when all its mountain valleys were filled, and its
hilltops crowned with such trees as these ? The *' glory of Lebanon "
must have been something glorious indeed. But how much of this
glory has departed, and this solemn, solitary grove, 6,500 feet above the
sea, in the region of the snows, on a sterile soil, without a fountain or a
stream to give it vigour, seems to flourish in perpetual verdure and ever-
renewed strength, a memorial of the past, a glory in the present, and a
promise for the future ; showing forth the greatness, the majesty and the
sovereignty of God, to all generations. The Cedar of Lebanon in its
glory was used by the Psalmist as the symbol of a righteous man, and
the judgment of God upon the unrighteousness of His people is given thus
in die tenth chapter of Isaiah : *' The rest of the trees of his forest shall
be few, that a child may write them."
I would gladly linger longer here and speak of the numerous allusions
to these "cedar trees," "cedars of Lebanon," the " trees of the Lord
which He hath planted," etc., but time will not permit.
I have numerous sketches of the cedars from various points of view,
and the cones, mosses, stones, gum from the trees and flowers from the
grove, I will send on to you in due time. I have omitted to mention
that the two largest trees are about fifty feet in circumference, and ten
others vary from twenty to fifty feet. The people are very careful not
to mutilate the trees, and an old monk lives in the trunk of one of the
trees, making it his business to furnish honey, milk, fruit and water to
the travellers, and then expect a bukhsheedi in return. There is a
church for saint and image worship under one of the trees, and the igno-
rant people come here to receive a blessing. Thank God we come to
these scenes without that idolatrous superstition, which while it professes
to expect the blessing, brings down the curse of the Almighty.
Peaceful is our sleep under this cool shade, for our covenant-keeping
God is here.
I preached my fiist Arabic sermon in January, 1857, in Tripoli.
This sermon was finished December 15, 1856, just ten months
and eight days after my arrival. It was the fruit of weeks of
labour on the Arabic, with my teacher, Mr. E. Saadeh. He was
only a novice in Arabic grammar at the time, but in after years
he became an authority. The congregation numbered about
ttdxty. I read from the manuscript I was greatly complimented.
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142 Life in Tripoli
but that was from the true politeness of the company. They
listened respectfully, but how much good they received I would
not dare to conjecture. I did not preach another sermon for
three months. I continued to preach from manuscripts for
a year, and then broke loose from the bondage and ever since,
excepting on rare occasions, have used only an English outline,
or an Arabic skeleton. I still keep that first sermon as a
curiosity, but could not be hired to preach it again exactly as
it is written, for love or money. Preaching in Arabic has been
my delight. For forty-nine years it has been my joy. It is now
much easier for me to preach in Arabic than in English. Coming
to Syria fresh from the seminary, I had only six written English
sermons, and I have not written more than a dozen since. In
Arabic preaching I have always aimed at simplicity in thought
and language. Our Syrian native preachers are apt to use
** high " Arabic. Now high Arabic is beautiful. It is ringing and
poetical, and, to an audience of Arabic scholars, is a literary
treat. But the common people do not understand it. They
wonder and admire but they are not fed. I have often heard
them say after listening to a sophomorical sermon, <' The man
was ' Shatir ' (smart) but we did not understand him." I have
always aimed at the common mind. And simple Arabic in a
religious discourse is enjoyed as much by the scholars as the
classical would be. A manuscript in Arabic preaching is a clog
and hamper. You cannot write the simple colloquial and hence
you fall into a stilted semi-classical style. I always watch to
see whether the women and children are paying attention. If
not, I let down my style at once to their comprehension. It was
said of Dr. Eli Smith, as a proof of his great accomplishments,
that the women of Bhamdoun could understand his preaching. I
have been accustomed for all these years to address Sunday-
school children and speak every Friday forenoon to our Girls'
Boarding-School and the British Syrian Girls' School, and the
constant practice of speaking to the young has not only kept
my heart young, but has kept my tongue young and simple.
I heartily recommend all foreign missionaries to practice speak-
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The Sanctified Hog 143
ing to the women and children, especially the children. It is no
small part of my comfort in retrospect, to think of the thousands
of Syrian children to whom I have preached during fifty years.
And the love and confidence of the children, in a land where
there is so much of priestly tyranny and fanatical bitterness
against us as missionaries, is a source of joy and comfort inde-
scribable.
Tripoli was a quaint old city, with its snow-white houses,
surrounded on three sides with green olive and orange groves,
and above it the brown sandstone castle of Raymond of
Toulouse, on a range of low hills which is cut through by the
dashing river Kadisha or Abu Aali which comes down through
deep rocky gorges from the Cedars of Lebanon and runs through
the city, through the orange gardens to the sea, which is a mile
distant. The people were three-fourths Moslems and one-fourth
Orthodox Greeks, and a few Maronites and Papal Greeks and
about fifteen Jews. Several of the mosques were once Oriental
churches and the Great Mosque had a spacious court, paved with
stone, hundreds of feet in extent.
The keeper of this mosque was Sheikh Rashid, a man of great
dignity and nobility of bearing, who was a model of courtesy
and a friend of the Christians and had several times prevented
an uprising of the Moslems against the Christians. His son
Sheikh Aali succeeded him and was very friendly to all
Americans, though conceited and conscious of his dignity as
" Mikaty " or time-keeper for the mosques of Syria. He had
half a dozen clocks, English, French, German, Swiss, and
American, and was often put to it to keep them ruhning together.
His maktab or office was near the north gate of the Great
Mosque, and there, seated on his cushion on the Turkish and
Persian rugs, he received his visitors and furnished tobacco and
coffee. One day a Maronite from Lebanon was driving a hog
to the I^aronite quarter of the city, when it broke away and ran
into the court of the Great Mosque around the corridors, by the
minbar (pulpit) and the quiblah or mihrab (niche towards Mecca)
and thence out into the street. Sheikh Aali was horror-struck.
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144 ^^'^ ^ Tripoli
The sacred mosque had beea defiled, polluted beyond remedy,
by an unclean animal whose very name could not be mentioned
without using the word " Ajellak Allah/' may God exalt you
above the contamination of so vile a subject. A council was
called. The mufti came and the kadi, and the chief sheikhs
and Ulema. They sat around in solemn silence, until at length
Sheikh Aali cautiously broached the awful subject, concluding
with, '' the holy place has been polluted and must be closed and
never used again for prayer to Allah." Then silence, until the
mufti cheerfully reassured the desponding faithful as follows:
** My children, no h^urm has been done. When that creature,
Ajellakum Allah, entered the mosque, the great holiness of the
place at once transformed it into a lamb, and it remained a lamb
until it went out at the gate when it resumed its original char-
acter." All exclaimed, <' El Hamdu Lillah, Sabhan £1 Khalik.
Praise to Allah. Praise to the Creator." Mutual congratulation
followed. That mufti should have been made an honorary
member of the Philadelphia bar.
Another interesting character in Tripoli was Saleh Sabony, a
devout Moslem, but one of the truest and most self-sacrificing
friends the American Mission ever had in Syria. He was a
confectioner making jezariyeh and buklawa and lived in great
simplicity. Being a friend of Mr. E. Saadeh, my teacher, he
often came to see us and offered his services in anything we
might need. When we leased, for seventy years, a room to be
used as a chapel, he superintended the repairs and then acted as
sexton to keep unruly street boys quiet.
He then volunteered to go with us on journeys, acting as
muleteer, guard and companion. He loved to hear the Gospel
and often said, " I love Jesus Christ, but I cannot understand the
Trinity." He defended us against Moslems, Greeks, Catholics,
and Jews and they could not answer him. He acted as assistant
to Dr. G. B. Danforth, then to his brother-in-law. Dr. Charles
William Calhoun, and has now, 1907, been for twenty-two years
the constant friend and helper of Dr. Ira Harris at tlie Meena or
Port of Tripoli. It is a beautiful sight to see this gray-bearded
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Saleh Sabony 14^;
and white-turbaned Moslem acting as hospital usher and keeper,
comforting and encouraging the poor Moslem women who
throng the clinics of Dr. Harris. His fidelity, strict integrity
and veracity are wonderful and he regards all Americans as his
brothers and sisters. His intellectual difficulty about the Trinity
does not prevent his offering prayers to Christ. In June, 1906,
Saleh called on me at the house of Rev. Paul Erdman in
Tripoli. His eyesight is feeble and his strength failing, but he
was as cheerful as when I first knew him. I asked him about his
means of support He said, *' I have lost all my property and
live by simple doctoring of the people's sore eyes and earn a few
piastres now and then. A loaf in the morning and another in
the evening is all I need. Allah is good." I then said to him,
'' Saleh, you have always said you could not become a Christian
because we believed in the Trinity. Now you know we do not
believe that God begets and is begotten, as Moslems assert.
Does not the New Testament say that the Father is God, Christ
the Word is God and the Holy Spirit is God?" "Yes."
" Well, you need not worry to explain it. The Bible asserts it
and you can leave it there. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners ? " ** Yes." " You have read
this invitation, 'Come unto Me/ all ye that labour and are heavy
laden and I will give you rest ' ? " " Yes." " Do you think He
can save you ? " '• Yes," said he, " I have known that for forty
years." •' Will you accept the call and come to Him ? " " Yes, I
can." " Very well," said I. " If you can put yourself in His
hands you will be safe. Let the philosophical question alone."
He assured me that he prays to Christ as his Saviour. Dear
man, may he be " accepted in the Beloved."
Sheikh Yusef El Asir, who was a graduate of the Azhar Uni-
versity in Cairo, and laboured eight years with Dr. Van Dyck in
translating the Bible into Arabic, helped me to translate into
Arabic several beautiful children's hymns and then taught them
to his sons and brought them to me to recite them. Years after,
I met one of them, a telegraph operator, and he assured me that
he had not forgotten the hynm, '< Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me."
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146 Life in Tripoli
When the Lord comes to make up His «' jewels/' I doubt not
there will be many saved from among the Moslems of Syria. A
Moslem sheikh once said to Miss Taylor, '< Many Christians will
rise from Moslem graves in Syria."
January ii» 1857 — Dr. EU Smith passed away January ii,
1857, as stated in the sketch of his life ; Dr. Van Dyck succeeded
him in the work, removing from Sidon to Beirut in October.
Mr. Eddy removed to Sidon in September, 1857, and Mr. Ford
in August, 1859, on Dr. Thomson's return from America to join
Dr. Van Dyck in Beirut. In February, 1857, I accepted Dr.
Thomson's invitation to accompany him and Mr. Aiken on a
tour through Palestine. It was the opportunity of a life-time to
go with such an experienced traveller, explorer and author, and
such a genial companion as Dr. Thomson. He made the land
expound the Book all the way from Sidon to Hebron, and from
Capernaum to Jericho. Every hill and valley, every rock and
stream, every ruined wall and temple became vocal and eloquent
The whole land was stamped on my memory and the Bible be-
caq[ie a new book. I learned from that saintly scholar, what I
never ceased to urge on young pastors and theological students,
that the best preparation for the Christian pastorate is not a
fellowship of two years spent amid the bogs and clouds of
German university speculation, but a tent life of six months un-
der the clear sky of Palestine, where the land will confirm the
Book, and both Old and New Testaments sparkle with divine
light and human life and reality. When Professors Park, Hitch-
cock and H. B. Smith visited Syria and Palestine together in
May, 1870, they came to Abeih to visit the missionaries and visit
the theological class. They all expressed deep regret that they
had not visited Palestine in the beginning of their ministerial
life, and declared that they should henceforth urge upon their
students to make the tour of Palestine. The older missionaries
assured me that a tour with Arab muleteers and servants, after
the first year of language study, was an excellent way of learning
the colloquial Arabic. And I found it to be so.
On the i6th of June, 1857, 1 sailed for America to be married.
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My Marriage 147
and acted as the escort of Mrs. Eli Smith and her five children.
The three boys were Charles (now professor in Yale), Edward
Robinson (a connoisseur in art), and Benjamin Eli (editor of the
Century Dictionary). All of them inherited Uieir father's
scholarly tastes.
We crossed the Atlantic in the side wheeler, The Vanderbilt^
which was afterwards given to the United States government
and transformed into a war cruiser. We sailed from Havre July
8th and reached New York on the 19th, having had constant
fogs. We ran by " dead reckoning," 3,000 miles without seeing
sun or stars, and when we stopped on the 19th the fog suddenly
lifted and we were near the Sandy Hook light-ship.
I took Mrs. Smith and the children to Brooklyn and then
crossed to Jersey City where my father and sister, Mrs. J. B.
Salisbury, were awaiting me. I then went on to Montrose, and
after journe}nngs oft, I was married, October 7th, to Miss Caro-
line Bush in Branchport, New York. After our marriage we
visited my old friend and my father's friend. Rev. Dr. S. H. Cox,
then chancellor of Ingham University, at Leroy, New York.
The doctor gave us a reception, and read us a poetical address
which was followed by an Arabic address by Professor Roerig of
the university, to which I replied in Arabic. He had studied in
Constantinople and Cairo, and his Arabic was stiff and stilted. I
was amused at his calling a girls' school <' El Madriset el
Mo'annisiyet," /. ^., the feminine school, whereas it should have,
been " Madriset el Binat " — girls' school.
We had expected to sail from Boston in the new sailing bark,
Henry Hill^ in December, but learned that it did not leave
Smyrna until October 31st. It reached Boston December 29th
and was advertised to sail January 30th, but did not sail until
February 23d. During this visit home I met again that
apostolic missionary. Dr. Henry A. De Forest, whom I first
met in Hartford in September, 1854, on his arrival from
Syria. He loved Syria as I do now and his descriptions of
Syrian scenery and climate, its mountains and skies, the blue
sea and the wild flowers, were simply fascinating. He died
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HS Life in TripoU
November 24, 1858, in Rochester, his wife surviving him nearly
forty years.
Our voyage to Syria was long. We were becalmed frequently.
On March 2ist, Captain Watson told us we had only made one
hundred miles in a week. On March 29th we entered the
Straits of Gibraltar. It was a dead calm and nearly fifty sailing
vessels, like ourselves, were being carried eastward by the current,
which dashed and boiled almost like the rapids above Niagara.
There being no wind, the rudder was useless and we drifted,
sometimes stern foremost, and other vessels were drifting around
us, and in danger of collision. At 7 p. m., a five-knot breeze
filled the sails and we went gaily on our course, reaching Malta
April 4th. Rev. Mr. Wiseley, the Scotch chaplain, took us to visit
the capuchin monastery of dried monks. Each holy monk on
his death is desiccated, and then dressed in his monkish robes and
set up in a niche to grin in a ghastly way at all brethren and
visitors. The monk who showed us about was a corpulent and
jolly brother and talked freely in Italian with Mr. Wiseley. We
asked Mr. Wiseley to ask the monk how long it takes to diy a
monk. He said that depended on the man's physique. Mr.
Wiseley dryly remarked, •' It will take a long time to dry you."
The old monk shook with laughter, as if he were enjoying think-
ing what a time his successors would have in reducing him to
the mummy condition. Captain Watson was greatly chagrined
that the new bark, Henry Hill^ proved to be slower than the old
Sultana,
We reached Smyrna April 13th. Mr. Dodd met us on board
with news of the wonderful revivals all over the United States and
we rejoiced together. We remained in Mr. Dodd's house until
April 20th, when we took passage in the Messageries French
steamer, Ganges^ for Tripoli. On Sunday the iSth, I heard Mr.
Dodd preach in Turkish and I preached at 4 p. m. in English.
I enjoyed hearing little Hetty Dodd singing the children's hymns I
taught her two years ago, and the family were enjo)ring the
melodeon I had ordered for them at that time from Mr. Theodore
Lyons at Montrose.
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Back from Furlough 149
We sailed by Chios, Satnos and Patmos and anchored a few
hours at Rhodes. Two years before I had visited the old castle
north of the town. We went again to see it and found only an
immense funnel-shaped cavity in the ground. The powder
magazine under the castle had been exploded by lightning and the
castle walls, foundations and all went flying over the town leav-
ing only a gaping crater. As we sailed along the coast of Cilicia
the snow-capped range of Taurus seemed far more beautiful than
either the Sierra Nevada of Spain, the white mountains of Crete
or Mount Elias of Greece.
On Monday, April 27th, we landed in Tripoli, our Syrian home.
We were greeted by our colleagues, Mr. and Mrs. Lyons and
loved friend, Mr. A. Yanni. Many Syrian friends called to wel-
come us, among them Elias Saadeh and Abu Selim Diab, my old
teachers, and Saleh Sabony, the Moslem.
Letters came from Rev. D. M. Wilson in Hums telling of bit-
ter opposition by the Greek bishop who has knocked down a
young inquirer with his cane, and the city is in an uproar. One
young Greek girl, who came to hear Mrs. Wilson read the Bible,
was seized and dragged by her hair through the streets and Mrs.
Wilson fears for the life of her husband. Young men come in
crowds to argue with him but they find him mighty in the Scrip-
tures. One of his favourite texts is, " To the law and the testi-
mony : if they speak not according to this word it is because
there is no light in them '' (Isa. 8 : 20).
As I write these words in June, 1907, there is a flourishing
Protestant Church in Hums, with a native pastor and a prosper-
ous self-supporting boarding-school. The Greek bishop of to-
day was himself taught, when a child, in a mission school in
Lebanon, and he has the New Testament as a text-book in his
own schools.
In May we leased for seventy years a vaulted room to be used
as a chapel. During the repairs the huge stone lintel over the
old door had to be taken down, and Saleh, our Moslem friend, had
it slid ofl* upon his head and then he lowered it to the ground.
It was a compact limestone slab, seven feet long and a foot square
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150 Life in TripcA
and must have weighed about three hundred pounds. He is one
of die strongest men in the city. Once in Duma, a Ldxuion vil-
lage, he had cut a handle in a stone weighmg one hundred and
fifty pounds, and would raise it widi one hand and dirow it over
his shoulders. The people of Beshaleh, a neighbouring village,
hearing of Saldi brought their champion athlete, who broke
Saleh's record by lifting the stone and holding it in one hand
over his head. This stone lifting is one of the usual feats of the
Lebanon peasantry.
The leasing of that room for seventy years was a curious trans-
action. After vain attempts to buy a house to be refitted for a
church, we succeeded, after weeks of bargaining, in leasing a large
arched room or koboo thirty by forty feet and twenty feet high for
seventy years at one hundred piastres per year (^00) paid in
advance, and ten piastres yearly " wokf " tax to be paid to the
family of the lessors. This lease was drawn up in the American
vice-consulate and signed by Messrs. Lyons and H. H. Jessup
and Mohammed and Ahmed Shellaby and Antonius Yanni?
year of the Hegira, 1274, and middle of month Showwal, A. d.,
May 26, 1858. And the figures were also written in reverse
order 8581 to prevent error in the future. At the end of the
seventy years the owners could only take possession on repaying
all that the lessees had expended on it during the seventy years
with interest so that it amounted virtually to a sale. About
thirty-three years afterwards, in 1891, Talcott Hall was built in
Tripoli, and the old Shellaby koboo was sold by the mission.
Yanni remarked after the lease had been signed and the money
paid over, that " Satan must have been asleep when that bargain
was made or we could not have got it so cheap." While the
koboo was being repaired, Saleh slept in it to keep watch. The
Moslem said to him, '< What, sleep in a church and you a
Moslem." " Yes," he said, " and to-morrow I may pray in it,
and who will hinder ? "
The summer and fall of 1858 were times of ominous portent
There were rebellions north of Tripoli and highway robbery all
over the land. In Jeddah, the seaport of Mecca, the Moslems
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Women at Church 151
rose and massacred the foreign consuls and nearly all the Chris-
tian population. The Moslems of Tripoli reported that firearms
had been landed by a French gunboat, whereupon they bought
five hundred muskets and the government in Beirut sent ten
pieces of cannon to Tripoli to protect the city against the
Maronite Christians of Zgharta. Southern Lebanon was also
in a state of unrest and misrule, a condition which continued
through the whole of the next year and finally culminated in the
outbreak of i860.
Last Sabbath (/th of November) I preached for the first time
in the new chapel. Mr. Lyons preached the two previous Sab-
baths. The chapel is situated in one of the principal streets, and
the people say it is like a fisherman's net, for it catches every-
body who passes by. The consequence is that there is generally
a great crowd around the door, and many passing in and out
On Sunday last, there were about fifty in their seats, and the
attention was good. I preached from Gal. 6 : 14, '< God forbid
that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ"
I had the heads written out, but preached extempore, and suc-
ceeded better than I anticipated. We are now waiting for the
curtain which is probably on its way from Boston to Smyrna.
At present no Arab women come, or at least only a few, but when
the curtain is up, the women can come and be shielded fi-om the
gaze of the men.
We are very thankful that we have so good a room for re-
ligious worship. It looks as though it were originally built for a
church, although it was first a store, and then a grog-shop. We
are obliged to preach in very simple language, as the majority of
tlie people cannot understand the classic Arabic, and in reading
the Scriptures we are obliged to explain carefully the meaning.
I trust that the opening of our chapel will prove a dawning of
a new day in Tripoli.
Wednesday, November loth — Mercury, A. m., 79° ; p. m., 75^.
Mr. Wilson writes from Hums that two great Arab tribes, the
Mowalee and the Hadadee, have had a battle just outside of the
city gate of Hums. Mr. Wilson^ witnessed the battle. The
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152 Life in Tripoli
Mowalee were beaten. The villages about Hums are being
plundered, and the people are flying to the city to get protection
within the walls. Mr. Wilson well remarks that it is well for the
Sultan's government that these wild denizens of the desert expend
their strength in fighting each other rather than in rebelling
against the government. The troops of the Pasha of Beirut
which passed through here some days ago are now among the
Nusairiyeh trying to find and kill Ismaeel Khire Beg, who was
governor of Safita, and who had the battle near Tripoli in June.
The only charge I can hear of as made against him is that he is
not a Moslem and will not pay bribes enough to the government.
Tuesday, November i6th — We hear to-day that Ismaeel Khire
B^, the Nusairiyeh chieftain, has been slain by his own mother's
brother. Ismaeel fled from the Turkish pasha who came after
him, and took all his goods, household furniture, and valuables
on five or six hundred mules to the north. While stopping at
the village " Ain Keroom " one of his party died, and the funeral
was attended at once. While they were weeping at the funeral,
the uncle of Ismaeel approached and asked why they were weep-
ing. " We are weeping for the dead," said Ismaeel. " Who
will weep when you are dead ? " said the uncle, and drawing his
pistol, shot Ismaeel through the heart. He fell and as he was
expiring, pled with his uncle to take care of his son. The ruf-
fianly, heartless uncle seized the boy and shot him before his
dying father's eyes, and then seized all his property and his wife
whom he made his own wife at once. The Turkish pasha, who
wished to take Ismaeel alive, has seized the uncle, but will not
probably inflict any punishment upon him. One can hardly
conceive a more brutal act, yet such things are too frequent to
be noticed in this land. This man who was killed had committed
deeds during the last few months which will hardly bear record-
ing. - He seized rebellious subjects, burned out their eyes, cut off
their ears and noses, and flayed them alive. Truly " the dark
places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." The
physical miseries of the^unevangelized nations are surely enough
to awaken tlie sympathies of philanthropists in evecv land.
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Intertribal War 153
Thursday, November i8th — We have letters agaia from Hums.
There has been another battle between the Arab tribes. The
Mowalee who were beaten in the first battle sent to the Metawileh
sheikhs of Baalbec for help. The Metawilehs came with a large
force and joined the Mowalee against the Hadadee, but the
Hadadee routed them both, and about fifty were killed. Zano,
the muleteer who is our letter-carrier, lives in a village only five
minutes from the gates of Hums, and yet through fear he has
removed his family and property into the city. Hums is in a
barbarous region. Tripoli is civilized in comparison with it.
Monday, November 22d — To-day we have been writing and
studying, and I have been out among the people. I found a com-
pany of men from the neighbouring village, none of whom could
read or write. They never heard of America, and wished to know
how many days' journey it would be to one riding a mule. I told
them about four hundred and sixty-six days, but as it is by sea
and not by land, we go in thirty days by steamer, and sixty or
seventy by sailing vessel. They wondered at the very thought of
such a stupendous distance, and asked me what I came here for^
leaving all my friends behind. I spent half an hour in talking about
Christ, and several Moslems were in the crowd. You can hardly
conceive the ignorance and mental vacuity of such men as these.
The missionary work went on with little interruption. At
Alma, southeast of Tyre, a village of 500 souls, forty had become
Protestants, and a church was dedicated on November 7th. The
new converts were violently persecuted. A Moslem inquirer
from Bagdad was rescued from the Jesuits in Tripoli and sent
to the Malta Protestant .College. During that year there were
thirty-two schools, and 1,065 pupils, 268 of them being girls.
The number of pages printed was 2,258,000, about one twenty-
ninth of the pages printed in 1905.
The work of female education received a new impulse in the
arrival of Misses Temple and Johnson at Suk el Gharb, and Mr.
and Mrs. Daniel Bliss removed from Abeih to that village to aid
them in opening a girls' boarding-school. Miss Johnson's health
failed and she returned to America in 1859.
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154 Life in Tripoli
In May, 1858, Rev. R. J. Dodds and his family, later of the
Reformed Presbyterian Mission in Latakia, went to 2^ahleh to
found a mission. They were forcibly driven out by a mob led
by a dozen priests. They were shamefully treated and grossly
insulted. The government of Lebanon was at that time divided
and weak, and the Zahlehites defied it They boasted of their
prowess, of their 1,000 men^armed with guns, and gloried in the
protection of the Virgin to whom their cathedral church was
dedicated. The Orthodox Greeks^ who were in the minority,
were more liberal than their Papal Greek townsmen, but in op-
posing Protestantism they were a unit They had no schools
and cared nothing for education. They were brave, rough, and
hospitable to everything but the Bible. Their business was
chiefly in sheep, wheat and barley, which they bought from
Kurdish shepherds and the Hauran Arabs. For this purpose
they made frequent trips to the plains about Hamath and Hums
and to Hauran, going in bodies of twenty armed men and fearing
no foe. They boasted that no Druse or Moslem could live in
Zahleh. Some of the families became wealthy and all were in-
dustrious. In religion their bishops and priests were supreme.
They had heard of the " Bible men " from America, and occa-
sional native colporteurs had visited the town, but when Mr.
Dodds arrived with his family, the town was in consternation and
the priest-led mob made short work of driving ihem down to
Moallakah, where, under a Moslem governor, they were allowed
to rest in peace. Mr. Dodds then withdrew to Latakia and
founded the mission which has continued to the present time.
In 1859, just one year later. Rev. W. A. Benton of Bhamdoun
(only five hours on horseback from Zahleh), who had met many
of the Zahleh merchants and muleteers during his ten years of
Syrian life, resolved to beard the Zahleh lion in his den. So,
taking his wife, who was a noted doctress, and his little children,
with beds and clothing and books, he entered Zahleh as guest of an
Orthodox Greek. The priests soon heard of it, and raising a mob
went to the house and literally carried them all, bag and baggage,
out of the town down the valley until they were beyond the
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Driven from Zahleh 155
sacred soil of Zahleh, and then dumped them in the wilder-
ness.
Zahleh was not yet open. It needed the discipline of God's
hand in war and disaster and humbling defeat by their merciless
Druse foes, to teach them their weakness and open the way for
messengers of peace. One solitary man, Musa Ata, a Greek
Catholic (or Papal Greek), had become a Protestant, but owing to
his family and position was able to hold out in spite of boycotting
and priestly anathemas. In 1872 I conducted his funeral and
preached to a curious and noisy crowd of 1,000 Zahlehites in the
schoolhouse of Miss Wilson, the brave Scotch lady, who alone at
that time held the Gospel fort in Zahleh. The Lebanon School's
committee had a school previous to that time in Moallakah, and
in 1 87 1 the Syria Mission voted to establish a regular station in
Zahleh.
In June, 1859, Dr. Thomson arrived from America and trans-
ferred his residence from Sidon to Beirut Rev. J. A. Ford re-
moved to Sidon. On leaving Beirut Mr. Ford expressed his great
relief in leaving the Beirut church, which a few ambitious men
had controlled, and in which self-support had been persistently
opposed. It was hoped that Dr. Thomson, from his age and ex-
perience, would be able to guide the church in ways of wisdom.
In fact, no effort had been made up to this time to enforce or in-
duce self-support in the feeble native churches. Nothing was
paid for their preaching or education. Abeih Seminary, the
leading school, gave board and tuition without charge. The same
was true of all the schools in the land. The churches were weak
and education was such a discredited exotic that parents rather
expected to be paid for allowing us to experiment on their chil-
dren. The value of preaching and teaching was yet to be learned.
The teaching of Mr. Calhoun in Abeih was thorough and spiritual,
as narrated elsewhere, and its fruits are now seen all over the land.
At the opening of 1859, Dr. Van Dyck had the whole of the
new translation of the four Gospels in type. Five thousand nine
hundred and sixty-two volumes and tracts were issued from the
press in 1858, and 3,638,000 pages were printed. Seven stations
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156 Life in Tripoli
were occupied : Beirut by Dr. Thomson, Dr. Van Dyck and Mr.
Hurter, mission printer ; Abeih by Mr. Calhoun ; Deir el Komr
by Mr. Bird; Bhamdoun by Mr. Benton; Sidon by Messrs
Ford and Eddy ; Tripoli by Messrs. Lyons and H. H. Jessup,
and Hums by Mr. Wilson ; in all ten missionaries and one printer.
But clouds were gathering in the political sky and there were
ominous mutterings of the coming storm. On August 30th a
quarrel between a Druse and a Maronite boy about a chicken
in the village of Beit Mirri, on a mountain ridge east of Beirut,
led to a bloody affray between the two sects which raged a whole
day. The Druses lost twenty-eight more than their opponents and
vowed vengeance.
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VIII
The Massacre Summer of i860
EVEN now I find it difficult to recall the scenes and events
of the Syrian massacres of i860 without a shudder.
Every event was so branded into my memory that it
seems but yesterday that this beautiful land was grimed with fire
and sword, pillage and carnage.
Mount Lebanon is a range of mountains extending 100 miles
along the seacoast, and some thirty miles into the interior. The
Damascus Road, in those days a mere mule track, afterwards a
French diligence road, and now an *' Abt S)rstem " Railway, di-
vides the Lebanon into two provinces, the Northern, chiefly Mar-
onite Catholic, and the Southern, Druse, mixed with Maronites
and Greeks. The Druses are neither Moslem nor Christian, but
a peculiar, secret, m}^tic sect, having no priesthood and no assem-
blies for worship, claiming to be Unitarians, or believers in one
God, infinite, indefinable, incomprehensible and passionless, who
has become incarnate in a succession of ten men, the last of whom
was the mad Egyptian caliph. Hakim b'amr Illah, who was as-
sassinated A. D. 1044. They are more of a political than a relig-
ious society, and the national spirit is intense. The Druse nation
can neither increase nor decrease. It is lawful to pretend to
believe in the reUgion of any sect among whom they dwell.
Among the Moslems they are Moslems, among the Jews, Jews,
among the Greeks they are Greeks, among the Romanists they
are good papists, and among the Protestants they are evangel-
ical Biblical Christians. In politics they look to the English for
protection, and have always favoured the American schools.
They are courteous, hospitable, industrious, temperate and
brave. The okkal, or initiated class, use neither tobacco nor
liquors of any kind. Any one leaving their sect for Christianity
would be disinherited.
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158 The Massacre Summer
They live in Lebanon, in Wady Et Teim, northwest of Mount
Hermon, and in Hauran.^ They number in all between 75,000
and 100,000. They have several feudal families in Lebanon, the
Jumblatts, the Arslans, the Telhooks, the Bu*Nakids, the Abdul
Meleks, the Hamadys, the 'Amads, etc. Said Beg Jimiblatt was
called Kees ed Druse, " The Purse of the Druses," Khattur el
Amad, the '« Sword of the Druses," and Sheikh Hassein Telhook^
the " Tongue of the Druses." As a national body they are com-
pact, united and bound to obedience in peace and war.
The Maronites of Northern Lebanon are a Romish sect, in ab-
ject obedience to their priests, bishops and patriarch, at that time
an illiterate people with a well-trained priesthood. The sect is of
great antiquity and for centuries maintained its independence in
the heights of Northern Lebanon against Moslems, Greeks and
Bedawin Arabs. In the twelfth century, during the Crusades^
they accepted the primacy of the Pope and have ever since been
devoted to Rome. The patriarch was, in the beginning of mod-
ern missionary work in Syria, the unscrupulous enemy of light
and of God's Word, claiming the right to arrest, imprison and
even put to death any Maronite reading the Bible or leaving the
sect He caused the death of Asaad es Shidiak in 1829, the first
Protestant martyr in Syria in modern times. These Oriental
hierarchs are avaricious, haughty, and full of political intrigue,
encouraging their people to oppress other sects. Their policy is
to keep the people in ignorance, educating only those in training
for the priesthood.
In the beginning of the eighteenth century the Druses called
to the government of Lebanon, the Mohammedan family of
Shehab, a branch of the Beni Koreish, and allied by blood and
marriage with the line of the prophet Mohammed. The Shehab
emirs had ruled Hauran ever since the taking of Damascus by
their ancestor, Khalid, surnamed the *• Sword of God." In the
twelfth century Sultan Noureddin gave them the petty princi-
pality of Hasbeiya and Rasheiya at the foot of Mount Hermon.
' It is not correct to say «* the Hauran," the Arabic form of Auranitis.
In Esekiel 47 : x6, there is no definite article. It is simply Hauran.
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The Nero of Syria 159
They long remained firm friends of the Druses and placed the
feudal system of the Druse begs on a firm basis.^
But, in 1756, two of the Shehab emirs were converted to Chris-
tianity and became Maronites, and several others followed their
example. This fact increased the ambition of the Maronite
patriarch to crush the Druses and bring all Lebanon under his
sway. The ruler of all Syria including Lebanon, at this time, was
the infamous and cruel tyrant Jezzar Pasha of Acre, whose pastime
was burning out the eyes, mutilating and impaling men obnoxious
to him and his minions. Nofel Eflfendi Nofel, one of the most
learned and excellent men of modern Syria, told me, in 1865,
that his grandfather was publicly impaled by Jezzar, a sharp stake
being driven through his body from below and out of his mouth,
and he was left to die of this horrible torture.
He was the Nero of modern Syria, and degraded and corrupted
the people by extinguishing all self-respect, and dividing them
into hostile factions, each anxious by fawning and cringing to
gain his favour. Colonel Churchill says that he inaugurated that
unscrupulous policy, which continued to i860, of keeping the
Lebanon in a constant state of weakness and paralysis.
Up to the time of Jezzar Pasha in Acre, and the Emir Beshir
Shehab in Lebanon, there had been no *' fanning of religious ani-
mosities " in Lebanon. Druses and Christians lived together in
perfect harmony. During the wars of the feudal chiefe. Druse
and Christian together fought promiscuously on rival sides. The
Emir Beshir Shehab who ruled from 1789 to 1840, although a
Maronite, never thought of rallying the Maronites in a crusade
against the Druses. He felt that the Druses were the most im-
portant element of his power, and never in all his wars called for
aid from the Maronites. The Christian sects, Maronite and
Greek, now prospered and increased in wealth and security, in
striking contrast to the condition of their coreligionists in the
great towns and on the plains, who were under direct Turkish
rule. The city Christians were allowed to live as they paid the
tribute. If suspected of having money they were forthwith
'See Churchill's ** Druses and Maronites,'' p. ao.
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robbed. A Christian was not permitted to ride even a donkey.
He must dress only in black. He could not have his seal en-
graved in Arabic, that language being too noble for his usage ;
his name was engraved in Hebrew or Greek. . If his house was
noticed as higher than that of his Mohammedan neighbour it was
pulled down. His corpse might not be carried before the door
of a mosque. The Christians sought relief by bribing prominent
and influential Mohammedans to befriend them.
In 1 831 Syria passed under the dominion of Mohammed Ali, *
viceroy of Egypt, and his son Ibrahim Pasha, and he enforced the
equality of all sects before the law. The Moslem aghas, eflendis
and kadis conspired to nullify his liberal laws and after the battle
of Nezib in which Ibrahim Pasha destroyed the Turkish army,
he executed some scores of these fanatical Moslem agitators.
Christians were admitted into the local councils and allowed
liberty of dress, person and property. Commerce increased and
the country prospered.
But in the summer of 1840, the allied fleets of England, Austria
and Turkey bombarded the Syrian seaports and drove Ibrahim
Pasha back to Egypt. As he had enforced a military conscrip-
tion on all sects, the Maronites refused to yield and consequently
they welcomed the fleets. In six months Syria was restored to
the Turks, and everything went back to its old condition of op-
pression, extortion, and misrule. The Emir Beshir Shehab sur-
rendered and was banished to Malta. The Emir Beshir Kasim
Shehab succeeded him as governor of Lebanon and soon alien-
ated all the Druse sheikhs by his haughty and arrogant treat-
ment and his threats to put them under the iron rule of the Mar-
onite patriarch. This patriarch now issued an Irlam or circular,
virtually abolishing the ancient and feudal rights of the Druses.
Colonel Hugh Rose, British commissioner, in a despatch at this
time states that " the Maronite clergy show a determination to
uphold their supremacy in the mountains at the risk of a civil
war." At the same time the Druses were ordered by the Emir
Beshir at the instigation of the patriarch, to close the Protestant
schools which had been opened in their villages. The bishop of
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Its Gallicidal Origin 161
Beirut boasted that ere long the Maronites would drive the
Druses out of the country. Under the old emir, religious toler-
ation had been sternly prohibited, and as we have seen in the
sketches of King, Bird and Goodell, the early efforts of Protestant
missionaries were promptly crushed. Any one who was known
to hold intercourse of any kind with Englishmen or Americans
was immediately put under the ban of excommunication. The
idea was sedulously impressed on the minds of Maronites and
Greeks, that the English were free masons and infidels, and as
such, outcasts from the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
On the arrival of the British fleet ofTthe coast in 1840, a decree
was issued throughout the mountain that whoever went down to
look on the ships should have his eyes put out. But the presence
of the English army and imperial commissioner, on Syrian soil,
broke the spell. The Druses everywhere welcomed the English,
asked for schools and wanted to be taught, enlightened, civilized.
This increased the bitter hatred and animosity of the patriarch
and his priests and monks against the Druses, and their eflbrts,
to stir up discord and strife in the mixed districts south of the
Damascus Road.
On September 14, 1841, an affray took place at Deir el Komr,
arising out of the shooting by a Maronite of a partridge on a
shooting preserve of the Druse chief, Nasif Beg Abu Nakad.
The Druses lost thirty-two killed and wounded and the Maronites
thirteen, and a Druse army was suddenly mustered and sur-
rounded Deir el Komr, and only the prompt interference of
Colonel Rose, H. B. M. Consul-General, who happened to be in
the town, prevented a general war. The Druses now prepared
for war in self-defense, and the Maronite patriarch announced
that he and his clergy was ready to head the Maronites and ex-
terminate the Druses. The Druses also entered into a compact
with the Turks and were guided by their secret instructions. On
October 18, the Druse army of the Jumblatts, the Abu Nakads
and the Amads, ag^in attacked Deir el Komr and kept up the
fight three days, burning houses, and the Abu Nakads burned the
neighbouring Maronite villages, slaughtering the inhabitants.
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V
Oa the 1 6th, Colonel Rose, with Ayub Pasha arrived from Beirut,
just in time to save the male population from ^ ruthless massacre.
Colonel Churchill says, *' When Druse vengeance is once aroused,
it is remorseless. They imbrue their hands in blood with a sav-
age joy that is incredible. Yet as a general principle, they never
touch women."
The war now became general throughout Lebanon, the Greek
Christians joining the Druses in attacking the Maronites. In less
than ten days the Druses had completely subdued the Maronites
residing among them, sacking and burning their villages and
convents, and, but for the moderation and intense activity of
Naaman Beg Jumblatt, the war would have been carried into
Northern Lebanon. " The Maronite patriarch, bewildered by
the sweeping successes of those he thought to exterminate, shut
himself up at first in a room in his convent, and finally negotiated
for refuge on a British man-of-war."
On November 5th, Deir el Komr surrendered to the Druses,
and the Emir Beshir Kasim rode out, deprived of his arms and
his turban, in great chagrin, and as he approached Beirut, saw
the villages of Baabda and Hadeth in flames, together with his
own palace and those of the Shehab emirs, and he saw the Mar-
onite fugitives being wounded, plundered even to the women,
and stripped by the Turkish irregular cavalry, sent out to restore
order. The Maronites declared that " they would sooner be
plundered by the Druses than protected by the Turks."
The crushing of the Maronite power in Lebanon encouraged
the Druses and certain Turkish officials to attack 2^1eh and
even exterminate the Christians of Damascus. But by the
energy of H. B. M. Consul Wood in Damascus, the effort failed
and the bloody wave was stayed. For two years Lebanon was
in constant ferment, until January I, 1843, the Porte mvested the
Emir Haider Abu Lama, a Maronite, as kaimakam for the
Christians of Lebanon, and the Emir Ahmed Arslan as kaimakam
for the Druses south of the Damascus Road. As a large body
of Maronites lived in the Druse district they protested against
being under Druse rule. The Greeks, however, were quite
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Dcir cl Komr 163
content to have a Druse governor. The Maronite patriarch
then declared that '* all Lebanon must be under either Druse or
Maronite rule, the blow must be struck, and he who strikes first
will have two chances to one in his favour." This principle the
Druses acted upon. Colonel Churchill says that large funds had
been received by the Maronite patriarch from France and Austria
to relieve the sufferers from the last civil war, and he used these
funds for the promotion of a second.
In January, 1845, Said Beg Jumblatt summoned a grand meet-
ing of all the Druse sheikhs at Mukhtara. Being the wealthiest
chief of the Druses his influence was supreme. In April, the
storm burst, in Deir el Komr, Jezzin and Abeih. In Abeih Dr.
Thomson bore a flag of truce to the Druse leader who had be-
sieged the Shehab emirs and the Maronites in the castle.
Hostilities ceased and the timely arrival of Colonel Rose saved
the lives of hundreds of Christians. A Turkish governor was
placed in Deir el Komr and matters settled down to the usual
quiet of alarms and rumours. The feudal chief, Beshir Beg Abu
Nakad, driven out of his ancestral seat in Deir el Komr, vowed
vengeance and bided his time.
Deir el Komr increased in wealth, in silk weaving and various
industries, and its merchants built elegant stone houses paved
with marble, while, as Colonel Churchill says, ** their wives and
daughters were apparelled in silks and satins, and blazed with
jewelry, gold and pearls and diamonds. They boasted of having
2,000 warriors, who, if properly led, could have defended their
town against any army the Druses could raise. Beshir Beg Abu
Nakad wished to build a house on his land about a mile west of
the town, but they refused him permission, and threatened to
raze as fast as he would build. He desisted, but exclaimed,
" Those dogs, I will yet lay the foundations of my house with
their skulls ! "
The town of Zahleh, the other Lebanon Christian stronghold
on the east of Lebanon, and facing the great plain of the Bookaa,
had risen rapidly to wealth, by its trade in sheep, wool, and in
wheat from Hauran. Its population was about 12,000, boasting
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164 The Massacre Summer
3,cxx) warriors, horse and foot, and claiming that they protected
the great plain of the Bookaa from the marauding raids of the
Druses and Bedawin Arabs. They were Orthodox Greeks and
Greek Catholics, and were in a kind of federal alliance with Deir
el Komr for general protection against the Druses.
In the Anti-Lebanon, at the foot of Mount Hermon, was the
large village of Hasbeiya, with a population of 6,000 Orthodox
Greeks and scarcely 1,500 Druses. The Mohammedan Shehab
emirs, worried and in constant conflict with the Druses, had a
warm friendship for the Greeks and the few Protestants of the
town. Long before this time Protestantism was well established
in Hasbeiya, a church edifice built, and Rev. John Wortabet,
M. D., was the faithful pastor. But the whole region around
Hermon was insecure. Highway robbery and murder were
constant. In Druse Lebanon, Colonel Churchill declares that
" In ten years, upwards of eleven hundred murders were com-
mitted without an attempt at investigation or inquiry."
French intrigue was active, and as Churchill says, " In Northern
Lebanon the Maronite kaimakam, the Maronite ^ patriarch and
the French consul-general formed a triumvirate, animated by two
principles, submission of the civil to the ecclesiastical power, and
exclusive devotion of both to France." France was at that time
the *' elder son of the Church," and all Catholic sects in Syria
looked to France as their protector. It was even proclaimed that
Lebanon would be occupied by a French army. The Greeks on
the other hand looked to Russia, and the Druses to a great extent
to England for protection.
I cannot enter into the part borne by Khurshid Pasha of Beirut
in the events which culminated in the awful massacres of i860.
I would refer the reader to Colonel Churchill's book, "The
Maronites and the Druses," for his views of the political situation
and the treachery of that infamous character.
But in 1859 we saw clearly that a crisis was at hand. Arms
and ammunition were being imported freely by both parties
without objection from the custom-house officials. Dr. Thomson
said to me that the then existing dual government of Lebanon
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Moslem Connivance 165
could not last. A murderer in the north would find a refuge in
the south, and a murderer in the Druse region had only to cross
the Damascus Road and he was safe from arrest. The mountain
thronged with untried and unhung murderers. The blood of
their victims cried to God for vengeance.
The Maronite Bishop Tobiya of Beirut organized a Maronite
Young Men's League, for the extermination of the Druses. His
chief lieutenant was one Aiub Beg Trabulsy, who once presented
blooded Arab mares to Secretary William H. Seward In
Damascus itself, the new liberties granted to the Christian sects,
their growth in wealth, the appointment of their prominent men
to foreign consular offices, with armed kavasses before whom
haughty Moslem eifendis must stand aside and give way, and
the inroads made on the pride and exclusiveness of Damascene
Mohammedans, whose city was the third of the holy cities,
ranking after Mecca and Jerusalem ; all these and other causes
had kindled fires of fanatical hatred and preparations were made
for the destruction of their Christian vassals and the restoration
of the ancient glory of Islam. So holy was this city, and so
strong the feeling of its divine rights, that up to that time the
Ottoman government had exempted its population from the
military conscription.
Colonel Churchill lays great stress upon the point that the
then existing dual kaimakamate in Lebanon was utterly dis-
tasteful to the Turkish government, and that '* their object was
to show (to the European Powers) that no government but their
own could possibly succeed in Lebanon."
In 1859 I was living in Tripoli, a seacoast city fifty miles
north of Beirut. It is a Moslem city whose aristocratic families
and Ulema look with disdain on the small population of Greeks
and Maronites dwelling among them. But, as is generally the
case, where the Christians are in a small minority, there had
never been any attack by the Moslems on the Christians, but
the chief reason was probably the existence of a powerful
Maronite population in Lebanon, near by on the east, who
often, out of mere bravado, threatened to attack the Moslems
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of Tripoli should they injure their Maronite and Greek fdlow
citizens.
But in Southern Lebanon matters had become critical. On
the 30th of August, 1859, a quarrel between a Druse and a Chris-
tian boy about a chicken led to a bloody ai&ay, in the village of
Beit Mirri, nine miles east of Beirut on a high mountain range
2,500 feet above the sea. Both Druses and Maronites were rein-
forced and the battle raged a whole day in which the Druses lost
in killed twenty-eight more than the Christians. The Druses,
chafing under their defeat, began to prepare for civil war. All
through the fall and winter, both sides hastened their preparations.
The government of Beirut could have stopped these movements
at any moment, and prohibited the importation of arms and am-
munition. But for some reason they did not interfere.
On the 26th of March, i860, 1 left my home in Tripoli with
my wife, to attend the annual meeting of the mission in Beirut,
expecting then to spend the spring and summer in Abeih, in
Southern Lebanon, preparing an Arabic atlas and assisting Mr.
Calhoun in the boys' seminary. The mission meeting was inter-
esting and yet saddening. The Civil War in America had crip-
pled the resources of the Board, and we were obliged to retrench,
disbanding schools and reducing work in the press. We had the
counsel of Mr. William A. Booth of New York, and Mr. Alpheus
Hardy of Boston, who were in Beirut, having just completed the
tour of Palestine, and while the general outlook was encouraging,
all felt that a cloud of ominous portent hung over the land. Some
of the American tourists, coming from Damascus early in April,
found the Metawileh attacking the Christian villages southeast of
Baalbec. Threatening rumours came from all parts of Lebanon,
but it was felt that there would be no general outbreak until after
the gathering of the silk crop and sale of the cocoons, as all par-
ties depend on the silk crop for their livelihood. Mr. Calhoun,
therefore, left April 5th for Aintab to visit that wonderful mission
station, and returned May 22d. Mr. and Mrs. Bird of Deir d
Komr, with Mr. and Mrs. Bliss, left on the same steamer for a
visit to Tripoli, returning April 20th. On the 8th of May we
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Gathering Clouds 167
removed to Abeih and enjoyed the cheery hospitality of Mrs.
Calhoun, whose bright disposition was like sunshine in the gloom
of apprehension which filled all minds. The air was thick with
news of outrage and murder : two Christians killed at Owaly
bridge near Sidon, four Druses killed at Medairij on the Damas-
cus Road, three Christians at Jisr el Kadi bridge ; two Moslems
at Juneh north of Dog River near Beirut; muleteers carrying
flour to Deir el Konu* stopped by the Druses, the highroad
everywhere dangerous. The Druse leader, Said Beg Jumblatt,
held constant councils, and his adherents poured in from all
quarters.
I was busy with my work, conducting Arabic prayers in the
seminary at 6 a. m., Arabic Bible study in Isaiah at 8, and then
working on the Arabic atlas with Mr. Ibrahim Sarkis.
The Druse begs of Abeih, Kasim Beg Abu Nakad and his
brothers, Said Beg and Selim Beg, were constant in their assur-
ances that we need have no fear in Abeih, as they would guar-
antee that whatever might occur, this village would be protected^
and they kept their word. Mr. Calhoun returned May 22d,
finding great excitement in Beirut and all over the land. All
confidence in the ruling authorities was lost. Dr. Thomson and
the United States consul in Beirut sent up word urging us and
Mr. Calhoun and family, and Mr. Bird and his family in Deir el
Komr, to remove at once to Beirut. The consul sent up an armed
kavass, together with Hamiyeh, a venerable Druse horseman
from the Emir Ahmed Arslan at Shwifat, to remain with us and
accompany us to Beirut. Mr. Bird replied that he could not
come away and leave the Protestants in that field, as his presence
was a protection to them. Mr. Calhoun declined to leave, and
did not remove during the whole of that battle summer. The
circumstances of my family made my duty more clear, as it was
impossible to say when all communication between Beirut and
Lebanon might be cut off. On the 23d we heard of ten murders
in the Shuf district near Deir el Komr, and also the burning of
the Maronite Convent of Ammeuk near Deir el Komr, and the
murder of the superior in his bed.
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i68 The Massacre Summer
The placid, undisturbed peace of the saintly Mr. Calhoun was
a joy and an inspiration. He knew the Druses well, better prob-
ably than any foreigner, unless it were Colonel Churchill, who
had lived among them twenty years, and written a history of
their religion and their feudal families and the Lebanon. Every
day the Druse begs called, and after giving Mr. Calhoun news of
what was going on in other parts, renewed their assurances of
perfect security in Abeih, where the bulk of the property belonged
to the Druses, and the peasants were largely their tenants. Be-
sides it was understood among the Druses that no American or
Englishman was to be harmed. This was partly from shrewd
policy, and partly because their only schools were those opened
by the Americans.
The Protestants in Ain Zehalteh, nine miles east of Deir el
Komr, were now in danger, not from their own Druse begs, but
from the horde of wild Druses from Hauran east of the Jordan,
who were now pouring into Lebanon in response to signals
flashed by fires from Lebanon to Hermon and from Hermon to
the regions beyond.
Mr. Ford came up from Sidon May 24th, and accompanied
Mr. Calhoun to Suk el Gharb, to consult with Mr. Bliss with
regard to the closing of the Suk Girls' Boarding-School, as the
teachers were in a panic, and the parents were anxious to have
their daughters sent home. That day three Druses were killed
on the plain near Beirut.
A Maronite champion now appeared on the scene, Ts^nnoos
Shahin el Beitar, who had led the rebellion of the Kesrawan
peasants against their feudal sheikhs of Beit el Khazin, with the
aid of the Maronite patriarch.
On Saturday the 26th| we made an American flag to hoist
over the mission premises as a protection in case the hordes
from Hauran should invade this district, for we had no fear from
the Lebanon Druses. The whole population were in a state of
apprehension. Bodies of armed Druses, horse and foot, marched
from village to village, singing their weird song, " Ma hala. Ma
hala, kotl en Nasara 1 " " How sweet, how sweet, to kill the
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The Storm Bursts 169
Christians/' Early on Sunday, May 27th, the Protestants of the
village all came to Mr. Calhoun to get advice. Shall we stay or
go down to Beirut? Mr. Birbari, teacher in the seminary, was
much exercised, as his relatives were in Hadeth on the plain
which was threatened by the Druses. Mr. Calhoun reassured
him, and said that as soon as he thought it unsafe for them to
stay he would give them word. Kasim Beg Abu Nakad came
in and reassured them that nothing should happen in Abeih.
At ten o'clock we went down to the little church under Mr.
Calhoun's house. That church was an old tank or reservoir be-
longing to the Im Hassein house which was burned in 1845, and
repaired and occupied by Mr. Calhoun. It was my turn to
preach. I looked down on a company of anxious faces. I had
begun the service and was reading the first verse of '* My faith
looks up to Thee," '' Araka bil eeman," when the report of a gun
near by, followed by a scream, startled the congregation. Just
then a man ran by the church door shouting, «« Abu Shehedan is
killed. Rise and run for your lives 1 " That church was emptied
in a moment It had been agreed beforehand among the Prot-
estants, Greeks and Maronites, that if any Christian was killed in
Abeih they would all run en masse down the steep mountain
descent of six miles to Moallakah, a large Maronite village on the
seashore and thence twelve miles to Beirut. So no time was
needed for consultation.
The entire male Christian population fled, over walls, terraces,
vineyards and through pine groves and the rocky slope, avoiding
the roads. A few fell by the way, waylaid by the Druses, but the
great majority reached Moallakah in safety and some went on to
Beirut. Kasim Beg came at once with the Druse sheikhs and ex-
plained the matter to Mr. Calhoun and myself. He said that in
the civil war of 1845, -^hu Shehedan killed xa Druse of Binnai, a
small Druse village one mile over the ridge from Abeih, and the
family had been watching for fifteen years an opportunity for re-
venge, and this morning a small body of them crept in and sur-
prised him and shot him. He said he regretted it deeply and had
driven the men away, and would guarantee that there should be
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170 The Massacre Summer
no more shooting in Abeih. But his new assurances came too
late. Not a Christian man or boy over ten years was left in the
village. As the Druses never touch women in their wars, the
Christian women and girls all remained. And now began a pro-
cession of Maronite, Greek and Protestant women to the house
of Mr. Calhoun. It was a little house of five small rooms below
and two up-stairs, one of which, a low, vaulted room, part of an
ancient castle ruined long ago, formed Mr. Calhoun's study.
From the windows you could look down on the lower spurs of
Lebanon and beyond them, fifteen miles away, in plain sight, on
the Cape, the city of Beirut. Every one of these women
brought a bundle of valuables to deposit for safe-keeping with
Mrs. Calhoun. There was gold and silver money, jewelry,
precious stones, bridal dresses embroidered with gold thread, and
even rugs. These things had no labels, were unsealed, and the
women did not ask for receipts, so absolute was their confidence
in these good missionaries. Mrs. Calhoun's closets were soon
full and piles of bundles lay on the floors. Four months later,
September 25th, when a detachment of the French army, which
had landed in Beirut August i6th, moved in two columns into
Lebanon, the Druses fell into a panic and stampeded to Hauran,
leaving their women and children behind, and then the Druse
women in town brought their jewelry and treasures and threw
them at Mrs. Calhoun's feet, so that these missionaries, who had
been years before cursed and excommunicated by the Maronite
patriarch, bishops and priests, as " incarnate devils," now held in
trust without a receipt all the wealth of both Christians and
Druses.*
That Sunday was a weary and dismal day. All to the north
we could see the smoke of burning villages, and just below
'This confidence of the people in the missionaries continues to this
day, and the Syrian emigrants of all sects, in the United States, Brazil
and Australia, often send back their savings to their families in sterling
drafts on London payable to the order of the American missionaries.
Mr. W. K. Eddy in one year received thousands of pounds in this way,
and he deposited the money and paid it out through his own checks.
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Druse Successes 171
Abeih a Maronite village was burned. Scores of frightened
women and children filled the open court oi Mr. Calhoun's house^
crowded on the pavement, making it difficult for Mrs. Jessup and
myself to reach the rickety wooden staircase leading up to our
room. That room had a second door opening upon the terrace
above towards the boys' seminary, but we fdt so little concern
about Mr. Calhoun's house that we did not look to see whether
that upper door was locked. We soon had occasion to regret
the oversight.
Monday, May 28th, we had finished the sheets of the Arabic
atlas. Messrs. Appleton in New York had prepared the maps in
outline, putting in the rivers, mountains, etc., and we had written
in the names in Arabic in India ink. These sheets were placed
in a tin case and shipped, June 30th, on the bark Speedwell to
the United States, and there the artists t>hotographed them upon
stone and printed an edition, the first correct atlas in the Arabic
language. Kasim Beg sent to Moallakah and tried to induce the
refugees to return and attend to their crops, but in vain. Mr.
Bird sent a boy messenger from Deir el Komr saying that the
water-supply was cut off, and the people in great straits for food,
as the Druses had stopped all traffic on the roads. That evening
Rev. J. A. Ford, Mr. P. Carabet and three guards arrived from
Beirut with orders from the consul that we remove to Beirut.
On the 27th of May, 3,000 men of Zahleh advanced to attack
the Druses of the Arkoob, near Aindara. On the Damascus Road
they were encountered by 600 Druses led by their sheikhs and
after fighting all day, the Christians were defeated and fled. The
Druses then entered the Metn at Modairij, and burned down some
Christian villages. Indeed during the month of the war, some
sixty villages in that district were entirely destroyed. The
Christians lacked leaders and discipline. Every priest, monk and
sheikh wanted to lead and give orders, and the result was utter
confusion and defeat. They were brave enough, but had no
good leaders. The Druses on the contrary had perfect discipline,
skillful and daring leaders and all moved as one man.
Khurshid Pasha of Beirut had stationed a regiment of Turkish
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172 The Massacre Summer
troops at Hazimiyeh, three miles from Beirut at the foot of
Lebanon, on the road running from Northern to Southern
Lebanon. Tannoos el Beitar, hearing that the large Maronite
villages of Baabda and Hadeth near Beirut, home of the Shehab
emirs, were in danger, sent 300 men to protect them. The
pasha allowed the force to go to Baabda, but the next day. May
29th, sent word to the emirs to send back the reinforcements, as
he would protect them. They obeyed, but immediately the mass
of the male inhabitants fled to Beirut, having lost all faith in his
assurancies of protection. On the morning of May 30th, the
Druses from our part of Lebanon descended on Baabda and
Hadeth, compelling their Greek and Protestant tenants to go with
them and help in burning those two fine villages. We saw the
column of black smoke ascending all that day, and the Druse
begs came in and told us what had been done.
At 9 p. M. we went up-stairs. I closed the door at the head
of the stairs and lighted the candle on the bureau. Just then
Mrs. Jessup, who was hardly able to bear a sudden shock, called
out '* Listen I " and hurried into the vaulted study which was in
darkness. I turned and saw the bedstead shaking violently, and
just then out crawled a burly fellah, who rushed to me trying to
kiss my feet and begging to be allowed to stay under my protec-
tion. I had never seen him before, and ordered him to leave. I
never carry weapons and was glad I had none at that time, or he
might have followed Abu Shehedan. He refused to go. I
threw open the door at the head of the stairs and pushed him to-
wards it, and planting my foot in the middle of his back, sent
him headlong down the stairs. He fell into the crowd of women
who were gathered there and were allowed to sleep there, and
they broke into terrified screams. Then there came a clamour of
voices and a loud laugh. " Why," said they, " it's old Shaheen«
He was afraid of the Druses and crept in through the upper door
^and under the bed, expecting you to protect him ! " He was al-
lowed to stay near the house all night, but the nervous shock
was not soon forgotten. All that night, the drear sound of the
Druse war-song echoed over the mountains and would startle us
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Unconcern of the Turks 173
from sleep. On this day, May 29th, the Druse begs came and
begged Mr. Calhoun to write the European consuls, and secure
their influence to stop the war. Mr. Calhoun was anxious to go
to Deir el Komr to see Mr. Bird and confer about his removal to
Abeih, but the Druse begs advised him not to go, owing to the
marauding parties on the roads and passes. We could hear
firing to the north and east and south and the air was lurid with
smoke. Here were the subjects of the Porte killing one another
and destroying the mountain villages, and yet the pasha's troops
outside of Beirut looked on, doing nothing, but occasionally aiding
the Druse bands in killing Lebanon refugees on the highways
leading to Beirut Khurshid Pasha was afterwards brought to
trial and, at least temporarily, disgraced. After burning Hadeth
and Baabda, the property destroyed in Central Lebanon was im-
mense. The silk crop comprising tons of cocoons had been
carried off or burned. The Druses hurried on with mules,
donkeys and camels to remove their plunder, and '' hundreds of
Maronites with their families flying from the Druse mountains
and coming north to Beirut by the seashore were suddenly
intercepted by the Druses and Turkish irregulars and cut to
pieces, the latter sparing neither woman nor child."* The
gardens around Beirut now became hourly thronged with masses
of unhappy fugitives, lying about under the trees in all directions,
some bleeding, some naked, all in the last stage of destitution.
The Europeans in Beirut now bestirred themselves to aid the
sufferers, and subscriptions were appealed for to America and
England. We could hear the Druses on all sides rejoicing over
their victories. Kasim Beg sent down to Moallakah-by-the-Sea,
and begged the Abeih Christians to return, but they refused, and
soon all reached Beirut and crowded our mission premises. On
the morning of the 30th of May, Mr. Hurter, our good mission
printer, arrived in Abeih, bringing muleteers and a ** Takht-el-
Erwam," or palanquin, to convey Mrs. Jessup to Beirut. So, on
the 31st of May, we set out for Beirut, over that rough, rocky,
tortuous road, the muleteers steadying the takht to keep it from
^ Churchill, p. 146.
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174 I'h^ Massacre Summer
capsizing in the narrow zigzags of the road We were frequently
passed by armed bodies of Druses hastening north to the Metn
district, the men carrying guns, swords and ammunition and the
women bread and water. These Druses saluted us with profuse
salutations and we had no fear whatever of beinjg; molested. Our
course lay along the shelf or terrace of Lebanon, keeping at about
the height of 2,500 feet above the sea, passing Ainab and Shem-
lan, and thence to Suk el Gharb, the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Daniel Bliss, and the site of our girls' boarding-schooL We found
the village in great excitement. They were all Orthodox Greeks
and Protestants, and were in favour with the Druses, and donning
white turbans for their own protection, had been forced to help
in the burning of Baabda and Hadeth. Their white turbans had
saved them from being killed by Turkish irregulars, who hung
around the villages during the pillage and burning. Our nine
horsemen, including the three armed guards, and the attendants,
made a heavy draught on the hospitality of Mrs. Bliss, especially
as it was now well-nigh impossible to get provisions from Beirut,
and no flour could get through from Damascus. Mr. Bliss and I
walked over to the neighbouring house to see the famous Colonel
Churchill, the English officer of engineers, who stood on his flat
roof watching with his field-glass the burning villages of the
Metn. This remarkable man of the Marlborough family came
to Syria at the time of the bombardment in 1841, remained as
British agent, and, liking the climate, settled at B'Howwara in a
Lebanon valley, married a Syrian lady and spent nineteen years
in studying the history of Lebanon and especially the religion
and history of the Druses, and published two octavo volumes
which are reliable and deeply interesting. He was allied by his
second marriage with the Maronite Shehabs and yet was the con-
fidential adviser and military counsellor of the Druse begs and
sheikhs. Regarding this war as begun by the Maronite patriarch
and bishops, who openly announced their plan for exterminating
the Druses, and anticipating that, after a short season of village
burning and plunder as had been usual in previous civil wars,
peace would be restored, he threw his whole influence on the side
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Escaping to Beirut 175
of the Druses, and actually planned the " Bethel and Ai " cam-
paign against Zahleh. But, in justice to him, it should be said
that as soon as the Druses, with the aid of Turkish military of-
ficers of the Nizam, or regular army, began to disarm the Chris-
tians and then massacre them like sheep, he turned against them,
wrote to them and spoke to them denouncing them as wild beasts
and fiends. His book on '< The Druses and Maronites " is the
only correct published account of the struggle of i860 and its
political causes and results.
At 2 p. M. we resumed our march to Beirut, taking Miss
Temple and the teachers, with nine girls of the boarding-school
and a crowd of refugees. The descent over rocks and ledges on
the old mule track was a perilous one for the takht, with one
mule ahead and the other behind, but we at length reached the
plain at Kefr Shima, and in five hours and a half reached Beirut,
not having seen a living creature on this road generally thronged,
excepting one black slave looking for plunder in the smoking
ruins of Hadeth and an ownerless, hungry dog. All the way
down we could see the columns of smoke in Lebanon, showing
that some twenty-five villages were in flames. We saw the
Turkish military camp whose sole object seemed to be to restrain
the Maronites and give the Druses a free hand.
We found Beirut in a ferment, the Moslems morose and in-
solent, threatening trouble, and tht Christian refugees, terror-
stricken, hungry and shelterless, fearing for their lives and not
knowing whom to trust. Their ecclesiastics had urged them to
begin the war, and now were powerless to aid them. We found
it necessary to open relief measures at once. Two hundred and
fifty refugees were sleeping in the room now occupied by the
steam printing machines of the American Press. We had daily
religious services and the crowds of fellahin sleeping on our
premises would venture in and hear words of heavenly comfort.
The new translation of the New Testament had just been pub-
lished, and it was ready for hundreds, and later on for thousands,
who had heretofore been taught by their priests that Protestants
were the enemies of God and man.
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176 The Massacre Summer
Our missionaries were now at their stations : Dr. Thomson and
Mr. Hurter in Beirut. Dr. and Mrs. Van Dyck had just gone to
Europe on furlough on account of his impaired health ; Messrs.
J. A. Ford and W. W. Eddy were in Sidon ; Mr. Bird in Deir el
Komr ; Mr. Calhoun in Abeih ; Mr. Benton in Bhamdoun, Mr.
Wilson in Hums and Mr. Lyons in Tripoli. I occupied the house
of Dr. Van Dyck in Beirut.
Letters from all the stations agreed in the existence of a reign
of panic and terror among the Christian population everywhere.
The American and Irish United Presbyterian missionaries in Da-
mascus wrote of constant threats by Moslems of a general massacre
of all Christians and foreigners. It was even said by Druses, Mos-
lems, Metawileh and Arabs, that orders to that eflfect had come
from Constantinople. About this time Mr. Wilson, with his Syrian
helper, Mr. Sulleebajerawan, set out from Hums to Tripoli to get
information as to the state of things and consult with Mr. Lyons
as to duty. On reaching the bridge of the Orontes, three miles
from Hums, they were suddenly surrounded by a party of Beda-
win Arabs, who ordered them to dismount. Mr. Wilson spoke
to his companion in English, telling him to say nothing, but
listen to what the Arabs would say. One said, " Let us kill them.
Our lord, the Sultan, has ordered us to kill every ghawir ' (infidel)
native or foreign. We can throw their bodies into the Aasy
(Orontes), and take their clothing and horses as booty." Another
objected, ** We cannot do this without orders from the sheikh.
Let us take them to the sheikh and do his bidding." This counsel
prevailed, and to the sheikh's tent they went A little after, the
sheikh arrived, and Mr. Wilson told him the story, and asked
why his men had arrested them on the public highway. The
sheikh replied, " Khowaja, it is a time of peril. No road is safe
now. Why did you set out for Tripoli through that always dan-
gerous region without a guard from the governor of Hums ? I
will escort you back to Hums, to the governor, and there my re-
sponsibility ceases. Be sure not to go again without a guard."
They went to Hums, obtained a guard, and made the journey to
Tripoli and back safely. But ere long Mr. Wilson was persuaded
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Said Beg Victorious 177
to remove his family and go with Mr. Lyons and his family to
the seaside village of Enfeh, nine miles south of Tripoli, where they
were in a Christian Greek population, and had a quiet summer.
Said Beg Jumblatt had by this time assumed the command of
the Druse forces of Lebanon, and hearing, through an intercepted
letter from the Maronite bishops to the people of Zahleh and
Deir el Komr, that the Maronites boasted of " an army 50,000
strong," whereas the Druses could only muster 12,000, and that
this was " a war of religion," resolved on " war to the knife."
On June ist, 4,000 Druses suddenly attacked Deir el Komr.
The Jumblatts, Abu Nakads, Amads and Hamadis poured down
upon the town. Only half of the Christians joined in the defense.
The other half had made secret submission to the Abu Nakads.
Yet the battle lasted all day, the Druses losing 100 killed, as the
Christians fired from their stone houses. June 2d, the town sur-
rendered to the Druses, and the day following Tahir Pasha ar-
rived from Beirut with 400 soldiers. After the surrender, the
Druses burned 1 30 houses and then retired. The pasha remained
a fortnight and although the people were suffering from famine
and want of water, he assured them of their safety and said,
"Resume your ordinary occupations. Fear nothing. Deir el
Komr is as safe as Constantinople." June i8th he returned to
Beirut
Said Beg now attacked Jezzin. His brother, Selim Beg, led
2,000 Druses who suddenly pounced on the town. The people
fled. Twelve hundred were cut down on the mountain. The
women and children fled down towards Sidon, joined by hundreds
of men pursued by Kasim Amadi, agent of Said Beg. As this
body of 300 Christians approached the walls of Sidon, the gates
were closed against them, and they were attacked by a horde of
city Moslems and village Metawilehs, who slaughtered them alL
The house of Dr. Eddy in Sidon was on the eastern wall, and
from his window he saw Moslem acquaintances killing these un-
armed fugitives and called on them to desist. But the bloody
work went on. Young girls and women were carried off" by their
assailants who heeded not their screams for help.
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178 The Massacre Summer
Several Catholic monasteries and nunneries were invaded,
robbed and burned^ nuns being carried oflf, and in some instances
suffered personal violence. " In the wealthy convent of Mesh-
moushy, thirty monks had their throats cut." ^ The plunder here
was something fabulous, — in gold vases, cups, jewelled crosses
sparkling with diamonds, besides whole heaps of money, the ac-
cumulated stores of a century. The whole was valued at ;f 80,000.
The buildings, after being stripped of furniture, doors and win-
dow-shutters, were burned.
In Sidon itself the alarm had become appalling, and the lives
of the Christian natives. Catholic and Protestant, as well as the
two missionary families, were in imminent peril from the Mos-
lems. But the opportune arrival of H. B. M. ship Firefly^ Cap-
tain Mansell, June 3d, and the vigorous measures taken by that
gallant officer, overawed the governor and the populace, and re-
stored confidence to the people.
The Druses now turned their attention to Hasbeiya. Sixteen
years before, in 1844, thirty armed horsemen from Zahleh had
come to Hasbeiya and driven out eighty Protestants who would
not give up the right to read the Word of God. The Greek
bishop of Hasbeiya was in league with the pugnacious Zahleh
** defenders of the faith." But now, alas, both towns were to fall
victims to Druse ferocity.
i There were in Hasbeiya two characters whose names have gone
down to everlasting infamy, Osman Beg, the Turkish colonel,
and the Sitt Naaify, sister of Said Beg Jumblatt. Osman as a
soldier may have thought he was obeying orders, but his sum-
mary execution in August for treachery, by Fuad Pasha, would
indicate that his conduct in Hasbeiya was the result of his own
fanatical hatred of Christians. Sitt Naaify was a woman of great
intellectual power, sternness and duplicity, yet none could sur-
pass her in apparent courtesy and hospitality. These two were
in constant conference, she in her palace above the town and he
in the seraia in the midst of the town.
On Sunday, June 3d, the Druse forces surrounded Hasbeiya.
^Churcbilli p. 157.
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Sitt Naaify — A Syrian Jezebel 179
The Christians demanded protection from Osman Beg. He told
them to go out and defend themselves. They went out and
fought all day and then returned en masse and took refuge in the
spacious seraia. Then Osman asked the Sitt Naaify her wishes.
She replied unconditional surrender and the delivering up of their
arms. Osman gave them a written guarantee, pledging the
faith of the government for their personal safety. The next
morning she came down and witnessed the stacking of their
arms. The best were selected by the Druses and the Turks
and the rest, eight hundred stand, were packed on mules osten-
sibly to be taken to Damascus, but actually divided among the
Druses.
The unfortunate Christians in the seraia were now enduring
the double misery of imprisonment and starvation. Water was
hardly to be got. Bread was scarce and at exorbitant prices.
The men lived chiefly on bran, dried beans and vine leaves, and
gradually they lost strength, hope and courage. The women in
despair tore off their ornaments and gave them to the Turkish
soldiers, to move them to pity. They appealed with frantic grief
to Sitt Naaify to release their husbands and fathers. She se-
lected a few who were tenants of her son-in-law, Selim Beg, and
ako asked the Protestants to accept the protection of her house.
A few consented, but the rest said, " No, Osman Beg has prom-
ised to protect us and why should we go to you ? " Colonel
Churchill insists that she protected the men in her house in order
that, when the day of reckoning came, she might prove her
clemency and favour to the Christians. I notice in Black's life
of the Marquess of Dufferin, he claims that the Sitt Naaify was a
noble woman, " a bright exception to the above record of bar-
barity, that she took on herself to shelter within her house four
hundred Christian fugitives, and when their would-be murderers,
panting for more blood, demanded of her to give up the dogs of
Christians, she replied, ' Enter if you dare, and take them.' The
poor refugees by command of their patroness were carefully es-
corted to Mukhtara, thence to Sidon, and thence brought off by
a British man-of-war to Beirut." Colonel Churchill, who was in
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i8o The Massacre Summer
constant communication with the Druses, gives an entirely differ-
ent account, as we shall see.
Word of the condition of Hasbeiya reached Damascus, and the
Christian bishops and European consuls demanded of Ahmed
Pasha the governor that he send immediate relief to Hasbeiya.
So he ordered a Druse sheikh, Kenj d Amad, who had been for
a fortnight laying waste the Bookaa With fire and sword, burning
Christian villages and slaying every Christian he could overtake,
to proceed with 150 horsemen to bring all the Christians of Has-
beiya and Rasheiya to Damascus I Stopping at Karaoon he took
sixty Christians with him, and being joined on the way by Ali Beg
Hamady, the lieutenant of Said Beg Jumblatt, they entered
Hasbeiya together on June loth. The fugitives were thrust into
the seraias and the order of Ahmed Pasha was read. The Chris-
tians were overjoyed, and cried, " Long live the Sultan ! " Kenj
and Ali Beg then went to Sitt Naaify to receive orders. Colonel
Churchill says, " All depended upon Sitt Naaify. Whatever was
to be said must be said quickly. Ali Hamady had to make a
last, perhaps a presumptuous appeal, and he made it. Said Beg
was inflexible, but a woman's heart might yet relent. ' Are the
Christians all to be massacred ? ' said he, earnestly looking in her
face. ' Think of their families, the widows and the orphan babes,
and take compassion. Spare those fine young men. Execute
the leaders, the most turbulent, the most obnoxious. Come down
and see fAem executed if you will, but spare, oh, spare the rest I *
* Impossible,' she exclaimed, * impossible ; my brother's orders are
peremptory and explicit,' holding a letter from him in her hands.
« Not a Christian is to be left alive from seven to seventy years/
Not another word was uttered. The Druses now thronged to
the seraia. Colonel Osman Beg ordered the trumpets to sound.
The soldiers stood to their arms. The seraia is three stories high,
surrounding an open court in the middle with spacious chambers
and lofty corridors. The soldiers now drove the Christians down
into the central court, beating and stabbing them and tearing off
their clothes. The gates were then thrown open and the Druses
rushed in with a loud yell. The soldiers were ordered to go out.
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The Butchery at Hasbeiya i8i
and then the butchery began, the Druses first firing and then
springing on the unarmed Christians with yataghans, swords and
hatchets. Yusef Raies, who had paid two hundred pounds to
Osman Beg for protection, was the first victim. Then the Moslem
Shehab emir, Saad ed Deen, was decapitated, and his head sent
as a trophy to Said Beg. He had befriended the Christians.
Thirty other Shehab emirs were also killed. Then the Protestant
elder, Abu Monsur Barakat, who had been stoned and persecuted
by many of these Greek neighbours around him, seeing the im-
pending fate of all, stood up and prayed for them all and for the
fiendish Druse butchers, and as he prayed he was cut down by a
battle-axe. And as he said, ' In Thy name, Lord Jesus,' his
murderer responded, < Call upon your Jesus and see whether He
can help you now I Don't you know God is a Druse ? ' "
Nine Protestants were killed in the seraia : of the remainder,
some took refuge at Sitt Naaify's, who saved them, it is believed,
in order to prove to the English her own innocence, and some fled
through the mountains to Tyre.
Colonel Churchill says that in the evening Sitt Naaify went to the
seraia, and " for a long time feasted her eyes on the ghastly
sight." Eight hundred mangled corpses lay piled on each other
before her. " Well done, my good and faithful Druses," she ex-
claimed ; '* this is just what I expected from you."
Osman Beg then gathered the women and children and took
them to Damascus, where on the 9th of July they went through
another massacre.
We in Beirut received constant news from Hasbeiya, and all
the surrounding region, of burning, pillage, and universal ruin.
Thousands fled by night to Tyre and there awaited transport to
Beirut. Mr. Eddy and Mr. Bliss now went to the British Consul-
General Moore and asked for one of his armed kavasses to go as
their escort, and they would go to Hasbeiya and try to save the
imprisoned Christians. The consul-general, acting with the pro-
Turkish policy of Palmerston of absolute non-interference, de-
dined, saying that he " could not interfere in the domestic af-
fairs of the Turkish Empire." As no one could go without such
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i82 The Massacre Summer
an escort, and the Druses would respect none but a British guard,
the journey was reluctantly abandoned. Then came the dreadful
news, on Thursday, June 14th, that on Sunday, June loth, 800
Christians were massacred in Hasbeiya. Every Christian house
was burned, as was the Protestant Church. The Druses carried
off the bell and the furniture before firing the roof.
On Friday a crowd of refugees arrived by sea from Tyre and
came to my house. Among them was a Hasbeiya Protestant,
Jebran Haslob. His clothes and hair were matted with blood.
In the seraia he had covered himself with dead bodies, lay in a
pool of blood until 2 A. m., when he crept to a window, let him-
self down to the ground and ran all night to the west, and by
hiding in the daytime and traveUing at night, he reached Tyre
exhausted. There he got food and was sent on board a ship com-
ing to Beirut His accounts were heartrending.*
Just before the Hasbeiya massacre, Mr. Bliss had volunteered
to take a mule train loaded with flour to relieve Mr. Bird and his
large family. During the siege, Mr. Bird had gone through the
Druse lines to Ain Zehalteh and brought away thirty Protestants.
They reached B'teddin after sunset and as firing was going on,
the Druse sheikhs insisted on his waiting there until morning, before
entering Deir el Komr. All that night houses were burning right
in the direction of his own house, and the flash of musketry was
incessant. The next morning he entered the town with these
thirty refugees, thirty more mouths to feed and the town supplies
cut off! So Mr. Bliss had some apprehension that he would not
be able to get through the cordon of besiegers. About an hour
this side of Deir el Komr he passed through the Druse village of
* In December the Sitt Naaify was brought to Beirut. Her house was
at once surrounded by hundreds of Hasbeiyan widows wailing and
shouting, ''Give back our husbands, brothers and sons 1 " They sent
word to Fuad Pasha that if she appeared in the streets she would be
torn to pieces. She was thrown into prison and placed on trial. On
the nth of the following May, her brother, Said Beg Jumblatt, died in
the Beirut prison. On November 37, i860, the infamous Mutsellim of
Deir el Komr died suddenly in the barracks, and rumour was busy as
to his having drunk a fatal cup of coffee.
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Hamiyeh and His Cucumber 183
B'Shafteen. Suddenly a Druse sprang out from a hedge, rushed
up, seized the bridle of Mr. Bliss's horse with his left hand and
drew out from under his cloak with his right hand, and thrust to-
wards Mr. Bliss a long cucumber I The situation was so grotesque
that all burst into laughter. Years after Dr. Bliss, as president of
the Syrian Protestant College, passed that way, and seeing the
selfsame Druse by the wayside, recognized him, and asked his
name. '* Hamiyeh," he said. " All right," said Dr. Bliss, ** come
to Beirut and you shall have work." He came, and for some
twenty years was the faithful gatekeeper of the college, true to
his trust and Uked equally by the teachers and pupils.
Mr. Bliss reached Deir el Komr in safety. Bushir Beg Abu
Nakad passed him through the lines to Mr. Bird's house. This
was June 12th. Mr. Bird did not feel willing to come away then,
but said he would do so whenever it was plain duty. He felt
that his presence was a restraint on the Druses, but the large
company in his house and the gathered treasure of the people
made the situation extremely perilous to himself and family. So
Mr. Bliss returned alone to Beirut with his Moslem muleteers and
American consular kavass.
Just at this time Dr. Thomson sent to me an elderly Arabic
scholar, asking me as an act of charity to employ him as an
Arabic teacher. He was a white-bearded and truly venerable
man, Tannoos es Shidiak, from Hadeth, brother of the Protestant
martyr, Asaad es Shidiak, who was starved to death by order of
the Maronite patriarch, just thirty-two years before. Tannoos in
1825 gave his brother Paris a caning for reading the Bible and
other books belonging to Asaad. He was now very friendly to
us Protestants and having fled with his fellow townsmen May
29th, before the burning of Hadeth, he had lost everything,
having barely a quilt to cover him at night. So I read daily
with him in Arabic his '* History of Mount Lebanon and its
Feudal Families." It was an opportune time to read of the old
families of sheikhs and begs who were now in deadly strife, with
the aid of the author himself, but the circumstances were not
favourable for much consecutive study.
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184 T^^ Massacre Summer
Ships of war now began to arrive in the port ; the Firefly had
been on the coast for many months making a chart of the entire
Syrian coast for the British Admiralty, and Captain Mansell's
charts are now the standard for all navigators in these waters.
Captain Mansell gave himself cordially to the work of protecting
the seacoast cities. Then came the Gannet, a gunboat, and the
Exmauth, eighty guns, Captain Paynter. There ako arrived two
French war steamers, and a Russian fifty-gun ship.
On the 14th of June Mr. Eddy came from Sidon on ^t Firefly ^
bringing dreadful particulars of the work of burning and mas-
sacre all through his missionary district, from Tyre to Sidon, and
east to Merj Aiyun and Hasbeiya ; Khiyam, Ibl and Deir Mimas
burned, churches ruined, schools scattered, people either killed,
or refugees, and all possibility of itineration or missionary work
at an end for the present As the time for his furlough was near,
the mission authorized him to take his family to the United
States and he sailed June 26th. Mr. Ford also left Sidon and
came to Beirut to aid us in the work of caring for the refugees.
So many thousands of refugees had now come to Beirut that
the Moslem populace became threatening, and there was a gen-
eral panic and stoppage of business. Every night hundreds of
Maronites and Greeks went on board the shipping in the harbour
to sleep, and the conduct of the traitorous Khurshid Pasha only
increased the public anxiety. The European consuls warned
him of the dangers of the situation, but no one trusted him.
Two Christian strongholds now remained in Lebanon, Zahleh,
which had hitherto defied the Druses, and Deir el Komr, which
lay helpless and starving in their hands. On June 14th, Ismail
el Atrosh, the leader of the Hauran Druses, after massacring 700
Christians in Rashaiyat el Wady, joined his forces with the Leb-
anon Druses and moved up the Bookaa to attack Zahleh. This
town, then of 10,000 inhabitants, lies on both sides of a narrow
valley through which roars and dashes the cold mountain stream,
the Bardouni. It is four miles north of the Damascus Road on
the eastern slope of the Lebanon range. Its people had been for
years prosperous, trading in wheat, sheep and siUc, and they had
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An Ancient Battle-Field
not only defied the Druses but the government itself, im,^
were a rough, hardy, vigorous race and if well led, and had they
been supported by the bragging horde of Maronites just west of
them and not ten miles distant, could have defended their town
against even the 8,000 Druses who were coming to attack them.
But the Kesrawan sheikhs, monks and priests contended for the
right to command, and no one moved to the relief of Zahleh. In
Zahleh itself counsels were divided. Jealous disputes arose, and
the different parties charged each other with treason. Yet on
the morning of the 14th, 200 horse and 600 foot sallied forth to
the plain of the Bookaa to meet their foe. This great plain, fifty
miles long and from five to ten miles wide, has been a battle-field
from the days of Sargon and Nebuchadnezzar down to i86o.
The Christians were defeated and dispersed and the Kurds,
Arabs and Druses returned to their camp carrying seventy Chris-
tian heads on the points of their spears. The next day the Chris-
tians repeated the sortie with similar results. The Turkish kai-
makam at Moallakah, a suburb of Zahleh, now tried to persuade
the Zahlehites to give up their arms and trust to him and his soldiers
to protect them, but they declined and preferred to trust to their
own right arms.
On the morning of the iSth, the Druses attacked from the
plain, repeating the tactics of Joshua at Ai, drawing the Zahleh
men, numbering some 4,000 men, out of their town, and down
the valley below Moallakah, when suddenly from tlie heights
above, 1,200 Druses came running down. They soon reached
the centre of the town and set fire to the houses, when the Zahleh
army, panic-stricken, turned and fled up the northern side of the
gorge, fighting as they went, the Druses picking ofT stragglers,
but before sunset the entire population had crossed the ridge to
the northwest 3,000 feet above the town and reached the Mar-
onite districts, whither the Druses cared not to pursue them.
The town was now plundered and laid in ashes. That is, the
poplar wood ceilings and roofs were burned out and the limestone
and adobe walls left standing. The churches were rifled. The
great church of Saiyedet en Neja, '* The Lady of Refuge/' i. i.,
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i86 The Massacre Summer
the Virgin, which the priests had told the people would mirac-
ulously protect the town, was destroyed, only bare walls left
standing. The most of the money and jewelry was saved and
the Zahleh people were able to return in the fall and rebuild,
before the people of any other town.
The fall of Zahleh filled the Christians with consternation.
The cowardice of the Maronites and the conduct of the Turks
had betrayed them. ** Though 15,000 Maronites were standing
by their arms within six hours of Zahleh, not one moved to its
defense, owing to the treason of their selfish aristocracy and the
bombastic ravings of their bigoted and contemptible priesthood."^
And now came the turn of Deir el Komr. Through the
urgent demands of the United States consul in Beirut and the
advice of his fellow missionaries, Mr. Bird brought his family
over, three hours' ride, across the deep gorge of the Damur River
to Abeih, on Monday, June i8th. He was obliged to leave the
thirty Protestants of Ain Zehalteh in his house, and the Druse
sheikhs promised, as Mr. Bird came away, that his house should
not be molested. On that day Mr. Calhoun came down to Beirut
and we had a mission conference that evening at Dr. Thomson's.
Mr. Ford of Sidon reported that the Metawileh chiefs of Belad
Beshara had brought multitudes of Christian refugees to Sidon
and the governor refused to admit them until compelled to do
so by the English vice-consul. It was a relief to know that Mr.
Bird was safely out of Deir el Komr, as the Druse vultures of
Hauran and the whole Druse army of Lebanon were now sur-
rounding that ill-fated town.
: We were driven to earnest prayer. The element of fury and
the thirst for blood were raging unrestrained. Damascus was
threatened. Beirut was threatened. Provisions were becoming
dearer, and thousands were without food or shelter. Dr. Thomson
said, " Brethren, the work of forty years is destroyed, and if we
are spared, we must begin again." Others said, " It cannot be
that the new translation of the Scriptures is to be in vain, or that
the foundations already laid can be utterly uprooted." We all
* Churchilli p. 189.
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Treachery at Deir el Komr 187
felt that the plowshare of the divine judgments was rending the
soil of Syria to prepare the way for a new seed sowing in the
future.
On Tuesday, the 19th of June, Mr. Calhoun returned to Abeih
as calm and unquestioning as if he had been in a New England
village. His peace was like a river and comforted and en-
couraged us alL On that same day the Druses began to con-
centrate around Deir el Komr. Kasim Beg in Abeih told Mr.
Calhoun on his return that matters looked serious for Deir el
Komr. The Christians there asked Abd es Salaam Beg, the
Turkish colonel, what was the meaning of this new army of
Druses. He replied that there was no real cause for alarm, but
they had better bring their valuables to the seraia, where they
would be safe until order was restored. " Forthwith, men, women
and children began streaming into that building from every
quarter, carrying trunks, chests and bundles filled with clothes,
linen and jewelry, with gold, pearls and diamonds in profusion^
an immense booty which the Turks proceeded to divide among
themselves. The majority of the men were now crowded within
the seraia and adjoining buildings. Then began the slaughter.
Every Christian in the streets and houses was cut down. They
had been disarmed by the Turkish colonel on promise of pro-
tection. Priests fled to their churches and were butchered before
their altars " (Churchill).
On Thursday the 12th, Ali Beg Hamady led the armed
Druses to the seraia and demanded admittance. The kaimakam
(colonel) refused to open the gates but pointed to a low wall
close by. Over went Uie Druses " like bloodhounds into a sheep-
fold,'' and began to hew in pieces the helpless men within the
walls. With axes, swords and bill hooks the slaughter of
Hasbeiya was repeated. For six long hours the infernal work
went on. *< The blood at length rose above the ankles, flowed
along the gutters, gushed out of the waterspouts and gurgled
through the streets. The Turkish colonel sat smoking his pipe,
the bowl resting on a corpse, and the stream of blood running
beneath him into the inner court" Not a body was buried.
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i88 The Massacre Summer
Twenty-two hundred bodies lay, heaps on heaps, nearly all that
was left of the manhood of Deir el Komr. The Druse leaders at
once gathered the women and children, and led them, a heart-
broken and terror-stricken company, down to the mouth of the
Damur River on the sea, and sent word politely to the English
consul to send and take them to Beirut.
The Gannett Captain West, and the Mohawk, Captain
Lambert, were sent at once and embarked the wretched sufferers.
The women frantically threw themselves into the surf in their
anxiety to get on board, some holding their infants high above
their heads. Several had sabre cuts. Most of them had not
tasted food for four days. But they were all brought safely to
Beirut, and found lodgings where they could, in khans, vacant
rooms and under the olive and mulberry trees.
On Thursday evening, June 2ist, Kasim Beg Bu Nakad called
about nine o'clock on Mr. Calhoun (see sketch of Mr. Calhoun's
life in this volume) and Mr. Bird. After an ominous silence, he
said to them, <<The Deir has fallen, not a man remains alive,
excepting those in Mr. Bird's house. But they are in danger.
It is hard to restrain the Hauran Druses. We have protected
the house thus far, but cannot much longer. You will do well
to go with us early to the Deir and bring away those thirty
men."
Very early in the morning they set out, a silent, sorrow-stricken
pair. In three hours they reached the town. The air was thick
with smoke from the burning houses. The streets were blocked
with corpses. Old friends and pupils of Mr. Bird, and neighbours
for long years, lay ghastly stiffened corpses along the streets,
and Druse men and women were still at work stripping the
corpses of the last shred of clothing. At the seraia was that
awful hecatomb of hundreds of the dead, stripped, mutilated and
indistinguishable. They hastened to Mr. Bird's house. A band
of wild Hauran Druses had just brought a long roof timber and
were using it as a battering-ram on Mr. Bird's door. The Abu
Nakad begs drove them back and ordered them off. The
terrified Syrian pastor within and his flock, hearing the familiar
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Mr. Bird's Plucky Rescue 189
voice of Mr. Bird, opened the door. The Druses now took Mr.
Bird's furniture and books up to their khalweh or sacred room
and kept it until he could send for it. The two heart-stricken
and weary brethren then began their journey home to Abeih^
leading the procession of the rescued ones, whom Ali Beg
Hamady years after told me he had guarded out of esteem for
Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Bird.
A few of the men of the leading families, the Meshakas, the
Dumanis, and others were invited before the massacre to Mukh-
tara by Said Beg out of motives of policy and were escorted
safely to Sidon. On Saturday, June 23d, Mr. Calhoun alone
escorted the Ain Zehalteh men to Beirut. All along the streets
from the suburbs into the city they were taunted and threatened
by the Moslems, and felt that they were hardly safer here than
in Lebanon. Mr. Calhoun hastened back to Abeih and there he
remained all through that summer of peril and anxiety.
On the 5th of July, Mr. Bird and family sailed for the United
States. His station was gone, his people killed or scattered. He
and Mrs. Bird were quite prostrated from long watching and
weariness by day and night and needed the rest of a complete
change. Meantime we in Beirut had been through our season
of terror by day and night.
June 2 1st, Khurshid Pasha went to Deir el Komr and arrived
after the awful massacre was over. What he said and what fol-
lowed I cannot vouch for. Colonel Churchill gives details, which
are shocking in the extreme, of his interviews with leading Druses,
etc. But it is well known that the Druses and Moslems had
agreed upon a day for the sack and massacre of Beirut. Two
thousand armed Druses had entered the town and were secreted
in the Moslem houses or were walking about the streets. The
thousands of refugees constantly recognized Druses who had
massacred their fathers, brothers or husbands ia Jezzin, Hasbeiya
or Deir el Komr. The whole city was in a ferment. We after-
wards learned that Sunday, the 24th, was the day fixed for the
burning and massacre of Beirut. On the 22d, a Moslem was
killed in the public square in Beirut. Immediately the shout
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190 The Massacre Summer
arose that a Christian had done it. All the shops were at once
closed and deserted. An armed rabble paraded the streets sing-
ing war-songS| and demanding the arrest and execution of the
murderer before sunset, or they would rise on the Christians dur-
ing the night and massacre them. Europeans were insulted.
The French consul-general had a sword flourished in his face.
An Englishman had a pistol snapped at him. A young Maro-
nite was then seized, dragged along to the seraia, and after a hasty
trial was condemned to death and was taken outside the gate and
executed, although undoubtedly innocent The poor lad calmly
and heroically said, " I am innocent. God knows I am inno-
cent ; but if my death is necessary for the safety of my brethren^
I gladly give up my life."
The mob was thus for the moment satisfied, but the night was
a sleepless one. All the ships of war lowered their boats, filled
with armed marines, ready to land on a signal from the shore.
Every ship sloop and coasting craft in port was covered from
stem to stern with crowds of trembling fugitives.
But God in His providence interposed. The next morning,
June 23d, there arrived from Constantinople a Protestant Hun-
garian, General Kmety, whose Turkish title was Ismail Pasha,
with 1,800 troops. He was a confrere of Louis Kossuth, the
Hungarian patriotic leader, and on the crushing of the revolution
of 1849, ^^d ^o Constantinople and entered the Turkish military
service as Ismail Pasha. He had been sent on demand of the
European ambassadors in Constantinople as the only officer they
could trust, to restore order in Syria. His troops were instantly
landed, and the general called together the European and Ameri-
can consuls to ascertain the state of things. He then called to*
gether his officers, and gave them directions to place guards at
the European and American consulates, and detachnients all
over the city. Then, drawing his revolver, he said to the offi-
cers, " You are to keep the peace. If a Christian is injured or
killed in any part of the city, I will shoot the officer in whose
section the event occurs without a trial. Do you understand ? "
Thus Beirut was saved. The Druses, who had been welcomed by
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Beirut in Turmoil 191
the Moslems, and who walked with braggart air through the
bazaars receiving the congratulations of the Moslems, who decked
their firearms with flowers, now slunk away and went back to the
mountains. It was days before the city was quiet On the 23d,
Messrs. Eddy and Ford arrived from Sidon on the English ships
of war, bringing 1,000 women and children from Deir el Komr
and Merj Aiyun. The European consuls met and sent a letter
to the Druse chiefs warning them to stop the war and threaten-
ing them in case they should invade Northern Lebanon. This
alarmed the Druses, and evidently broke whatever alliance ex-
isted between them and Khurshid Pasha.
That afternoon, by advice of Dr. Barclay, I took Mrs. Jessup
on board H. B. M. ship Extnouth, eighty guns, Captain Paynten
The captain received us very courteously. Being aware of her
delicate condition he refrained from firing salutes while we were
on board. Several European families came on board for the
night and a large number of wounded refugees were being kindly
attended by the ship's surgeons. The better class of families in
Beirut chartered sailing vessels and steamers and left for Athens,
S}aa and Alexandria. Merchant steamers laden with goods
were ordered to take their goods back to Malta.
From the British official papers '< relating to the disturbances
in Syria/' page 48, it is stated plainly that '' nothing could con-
vince the Christian population of Beirut, but that the fate of their
brethren at Deir el Komr, Hasbeiya and Rasheiya awaited them
at the hands of the Turkish authorities and their troops."
That night a comet appeared, which filled the superstitious com-
mon people with apprehension of <' war, pestilence and famine."
Sunday, June 24^1, Dr. Eddy and family came on board the
Exmouth, and at 2 p. m. we returned to the shore, as the con-
sul, having a guard of five soldiers from General Kmety,'felt sure
that his house was secure, and invited us to his house. We then
entered into negotiations with the captain of the American bark
Speedwell to take us with Dr. Barday and family to Cyprus.
Dr. Thomson was fruitful in expedients, and it was arranged that
if the captain would consent, we would go the next day, and
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192 The Massacre Summer
hundreds of Syrians were ready to take passage at the same time.
That night at the consul's we could hear firing in Lebanon, and
every noise in the streets seemed the beginning of an outbreak.
It was a troubled Sunday. The Arabic service was crowded with
refugees who were sleeping under the Pride of India trees near
the church door. But the English service was omitted. We
were all living by the day, simply trusting, praying earnestly for
divine guidance and sure of safety under the shadow of His
wings. We felt comforted, however, by the manifest divine inter-
position in sending a Protestant general just at this awful crisis,
to hold Beirut with a grip of iron, and to save this city as a refuge
for the homeless, houseless and hungry refugees from Lebanon
and the interior.
Monday, June 2Sth — This morning we removed from Consul
Johnson's house back to Dr. Van Dyck's house. Then came a
rumour, which proved to be false, that the Druses were coming,
and for a time the whole town was in a panic, but General
Kmety's prompt action quieted the Moslem populace and the
panic subsided.
Dr. Thomson's house was adjoining ours, and we went over to
dine with him, as all our goods and utensils were packed, in an-
ticipation of leaving town. At 3 p. m., word having come that the
Speedwell would sail soon for Cyprus, we again sent for porters,
and walked down, taking <' bag and baggage," to the port and
went on board. It was a small clipper bark, loading with wool
for Boston. The weather was intensely hot, with a strong west-
erly wind, so that the sea was rough, and the crowds of refugees
on the deck were suflering the agonies of seasickness. The
sailors soon cleared a space large enough for us to spread our
bed, and around it we piled our baggage. Dr. and Mrs. Barclay
and his sister, Mrs. Consul Johnson, were our neighbours on the
deck. We curtained off a space around our bed, and were just
being rocked to sleep, when one of the deck passengers suffering
from delirium tremens made night hideous with his shrieks of
terror. All along the shore, near the custom-house, lay the boats
from the English, French and Russian ships of war with marines
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A New Arrival I93
ready to land at a moment's warning by signal of a cannon dis-
charge from General Kmety's artillery. But the troubled nighty
June 25th» wore away and the bright sun cheered us all. The
captain now announced that he could not fix a day for sailing to
Cyprus. We then tried to induce one of the Liverpool screw
steamers in port to go to Cyprus, but in vain, and in the after-
noon, on the urgent request of Dr. Barclay, our physician, with
the aid of Mr. Ford, we again removed for the sixth time in four
days, and went ashore at sunset, bag and baggage. The " bag "
we were allowed to take, but as the custom-house officials had all
left, the watchman would not allow anything else to pass. So we
walked up to the house to an empty room, well-nigh exhausted.
Mrs. Ford, Mrs. Black, daughter of Dr. Thomson, and others
promptly provided bed and bedding and all things needful. At
three o'clock the next morning, my wife gave birth to a daughter.
Never were friends more kind and attentive and thoughtful. Our
hearts were filled with thanksgiving to God and gratitude to these
" friends indeed." The good Syrian woman, Im Shaheen, brought
by Mrs. Black to help us, was a devout Maronite. Shortly after
the advent of the dear child, she came to me, as I stood on the
flat roof outside our door, to congratulate me, when she suddenly
exclaimed, " Rah el Kurseh," pointing to Beit Mirri on Lebanon,
where stood the country palace of the Maronite Archbishop
Tobiya of Beirut. " The palace is gone I " I looked and saw
the bright flames of the burning palace of the man, who, next to
the patriarch, had done more than any other Maronite to precip-
itate this awful civil war. The next few days were crowded with
interest. Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Bird were busy, with an escort of
Druses, in bringing from Deir el Komr to Abeih all Mr. Bird's
property. The American kavass brought down from Abeih
forty people and seven students of the seminary. The mission
voted to suspend the seminaries, and Mr. Bliss took six of the
schoolgirls back to Lebanon to villages not likely to be molested.
Mr. Calhoun, always placid in his strong faith in God, wrote down
from Abeih, *< I am weary." No wonder, after going day after
day to that charnel house of putrefying corpses^ which so recently
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194 I'hc Massacre Summer
had been the prosperous capital of Lebanon. On the 28th, we
were surprised to receive Mr. Eddy's horse from Sidon, sent on
by Kasim Beg el Yusef, who was called by the people" Azraeel/'
or the " Angel of Death." On the 28th, Sitt Naaify, of Hasbeiya,
sent out seventy Christians, whom she was supposed to be pro-
tectingf to reap in her fields, and they were all cut off by the
Druses. That day began the great Moslem feast of Sacrifice, or
" Aieed ul Adha," which lasted four days. There was little sym-
pathy among the Christians for the Moslems in their rejoicings,
and in some parts of the land, Christians instead of sheep were
being offered as sacrifices. On the 30th, the Speedwell sailed for
Boston. By it we sent the case of Arabic maps to the Appletons.
On Sunday, July ist, no church bells were rung in Beirut I
preached in English, and Mr. Araman and Dr. Wortabet in
Arabic. We appointed daily meetings in the little church, and
recommended Friday for observance as a day of fasting and prayer.
Mr. Cyril Graham, an English traveller, now visited Deir el
Komr and its horrors, and then went to Said Beg Jumblatt, leader
of the Druses, to present the consular letter calling on him to
stop the war. This great " Friend of the English " assured Mr.
Graham that he knew nothing of recent events and had no in-
fluence whatever with, the Druses. Bushir Beg Abu Nakad, who
had boasted that *' he would lay the foundations of his house with
Christian skulls," now insisted that he was quite innocent and ig-
norant of what had been going on. Mr. Graham returned to
Beirut, thwarted at every step, but the consular letter did stop the
massacres in Lebanon. At length the Maronite leaders signed
a paper forced on them by Khurshid Pasha, making peace on
condition that the past be forgotten, no plunder restored, and
no indemnification given. This satisfied the Druses, enriched
with the spoils of the murdered Christians, and there was peace
in Lebanon.
July 2d, we formed an Anglo-American relief committee,
headed by Consul. General Moore and the American Consul J. A.
Johnson, and later on, by the German Consul-General Weber,
with English and American residents. We sent off urgent ap-
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Relief Work Organized 195
peals to Europe and America for help for these thousands of
refugees. The British naval commanders in port seconded our
appeals, and from that time on until November the best of our
time and strength, from sunrise to sunset, was devoted to relief
work. We had carefully prepared lists of the refugees from hun-
dreds of villages, until we had 16,000 names of persons receiving
aid. In August and September money came pouring in from all
over the civilized world, even from India and Australia, so that
we handled over |l 150,000, the accounts being strictly kept by
Mr. James Black, the eminent English merchant, and the Imperial
Ottoman Bank. I used to begin at sunrise and work till sunset
for months, in that stifling heat, my whole body covered with
blotches of prickly heat. Our Syrian teachers were working with
us as clerks and assistants, sifting out the lists, and ferreting out
impostors, and helping in the religious services. Work in the
printing house was suspended and some of the rooms used for
relief work. The ladies, headed by Miss Emilia Thomson and
Mrs. Consul Johnson, directed a large corps of S]a'ian Protestant
women, many of them recently widowed, in cutting out, and bind-
ing in bundles, cotton cloth and prints, with needles and thready
for 100,000 garments.
On Saturday, July 7th, Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Frazier, Dr. Hatty
and Rev. Jules Ferette of the United Presbyterian Mission in
Damascus, reached Beirut after a journey of terror and narrow
escapes. They reported the condition of things in Damascus as
most alarming. Christians were reviled, insulted and threatened^
and all the men were forced to wear black turbans. That same
Turkish regiment, which a month before had presided over the
massacre in Hasbeiya, was now ordered into the Christian quarter
of Damascus to " protect " the Christians. These unarmed and
defenseless people now tried to propitiate their protectors. They
bribed and feasted them and raised hundreds of pounds for this
purpose.
The European consuls appealed in vain to Ahmed Pasha.
Even the British consul refused to believe the urgent representa-
tions of Rev. S. Robson that a massacre was imminent, and
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196 The Massacre Summer
would not believe it, until forced by his kavasses to go on the
roof and see the ascending flames of the Christian quarter. At
length, on the 9th of July, three Moslem lads were arrested for
trampling on crosses in the street and insulting Christians. They
were sent, accompanied by police, through the bazaars to sweep
the Christian quarter. This insult was the signal for the Moslems
to rise. Two men started shouting, " Deen, Deen, Deen Mo-
hammed *' (religioUi religion, the religion of Mohammed). This
was enough. At once an infuriated mob of the lower classes
with guns, swords, battle-axes and pistols rushed to the Christian
quarter, shouting, "Kill them, butcher them, plunder, burn,
leave not one aUve, fear nothing, the soldiers will not touch us."
Then began the work of plundering and burning. The supply
of water was cut off. By sunset the whole Christian quarter was
in a blaze. The first day the chief thought was plunder, and all
the rich spoil of the Christian houses was carried off, gold, silver,
copper, money, jewelry, rugs, silks and Damascus wares. The
people tried to escape but were driven back by the Turkish
soldiers. Then began the work of butchery. The Christians
were cut down in the houses and in the streets. The priests
were tortured in their churches and then beheaded. Nothing
seemed able to prevent the extermination of the entire Christian
population.
But God had prepared a deliverer. In 1848, the Emir Abd el
Kadir, prince of Algiers, after resisting the armies of France for
fifteen years, surrendered to the French General Lamoriciere,
and took a solemn oath of loyalty to France. That engagement
contains the following language : " Grace to God only. I give
my sacred word that does not admit of any doubt. I declare I
will not again excite my people against the French either by
person or by letters, or by any other method. I take my oath
before Mohammed, Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ, by the
Tourat (Old Testament), the Ingeel (New Testament), and the
Koran, by the book of Bokhari and that of the ' Moslem.' I
take this oath solemnly from my heart and tongue. This oath is
binding both on me and my friends, who sign not this present
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Abd el Kadir 197
paper with me, because they do not know how to write. Com-
pliments of Abd ei Kadir, son of Moohyeh-ed-din."
He was then retired in 1852 by Louis Napoleon in honourable
exile to Damascus, the city of his choice, with a princely pension.
He was accompanied by one hundred of his faithful Algerine
body-guards, and purchased a spacious house in Damascus,
which had been for ten years a model of hospitality, open to all.
He was visited by European notables, French nobility, English
lords, American tourists, Protestant and Catholic missionaries,
and Mohammedan pilgrims from Asia and Africa. No visit to
Damascus was complete without a call on this noble Moghrabi
emir. He was the noblest type of an Oriental, devout in his re-
ligious belief in one God, constant in prayer, a lover of the poor,
bounteous in his benefactions to them, broad and liberal in his
views. Dr. Meshaka, the Protestant doctor. United States vice-
consul, and author, was one of his intimate friends. He declared
all men to be his brothers.
Colonel Churchill, who wrote his memoir after his death in
1883, says of him, " His brightest laurels were his reverses. He
had accepted his destiny with cheerfulness and resignation, and
joyfully contemplated his career as finished. But Providence
had reserved for his brows another and a nobler wreath, a work
of mercy; and, heaven- directed, he arose this day to do the deed
that was to shed fresh lustre on his name."
When the attack began, he was in the suburbs of the city far
away from the Christian quarter. No sooner did he hear of it,
than he sent out his faithful Algerines into the Christian quarter
with orders to rescue all the wretched sufferers they could meet.
Hundreds were safely escorted to his house before dark. Many
rushed to the British consulate. Rev. Mr. Graham, Irish Presby-
terian missionary, was cut down with a hatchet in the street.
Rev. Mr. Robson, dressed as a woman, escaped to the house of a
friendly Moslem efTendi. Dr. Meshaka fled through the streets,
until he was rescued by a Moslem friend, just after he had
received a cut in the head from a hatchet. But he lived to be a
swift witness against the instigators of this dreadful carnage. On
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198 The Massacre Summer
the 23d of August Dr. Meshaka sent to Beirut the following account
of his experience during the outbreak (translated from the Arabic) :
" On Monday morning, the 9th of July, the city was quiet and
his highness the Emir Abd el Kadir had left for the village of
Ashrafiyeh on business (about twelve miles up the river Barada).
At 2 p. M. excitement was caused by the government having
put some Moslems, in chains for having made that morning
crosses in the streets and obliged the Christians to trample over
them. I was then alone in my house. My kavasses had gone
to the seraia on business. But the Kavass Haj Ali returned
immediately. It was then that the insurrection reached our
quarter and I could not go out alone. I sent my kavass at
once to the Emir Abd el Kadir, to beg his highness to send me
some of his Algerines for my protection. He had then returned
from the village and sent me four, but being without arms, they
could not reach me. But my kavasses came boldly to me alone.
I then locked the doors of my house. I had only time to put
some money in my pocket, when the door was broken open and
many ruffians rushed into the house, the most of them irregular
Turkish troops. They began firing frequently but I escaped
from them with my kavass and my two young children, Ibrahim
and Selma, by going out of a door at the back of the house.
Their attention was diverted from me by plundering the house.
I then resolved to hide myself in one of the neighbouring
Moslem houses, until I could escape safely to the house of the
Emir Abd el Kadir. But none of them would receive me. I
then directed my steps to the house of his highness, and a party
of the rabble met me and fired at me. I threw them some gold
coins to turn their attention from me, and returned to the street
of Bab Tooma where soldiers were stationed. Here I met
^mother party of plunderers. I threw them money as before.
Then I met many armed persons and knew eight of them. I
afterwards gave their names to the local government Six were
caught, and two of them were hanged on the 20th inst. Some
of diem attacked me with firearms, some with axes and dubs
and one with a sword.
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Meshaka's Story 199
** My two children were behind me, crying to the men, « Kill us
and leave our father I We cannot live without him/ One of
these ruffians came and struck my daughter SeUna with an axe
and wounded her. I then threw them more money to divert
them.
'< Thanks be to God, all the shots missed me though one of them
shot at me twice at two yards' distance. I was, however, wounded
by axes and clubs. I received a severe wound in the head from
an axe and had not my kavass weakened the force of the blow,
it would have killed me. I was also struck by a large club on
my eye and received several wounds on my right arm from a
sword. After severe suflfering, by the aid of my kavass, who
was constantly with me, I reached the house of Mustafa Beg
Hawashe, appointed by the government to protect the quarter.
When I saw the beg I asked him to receive me into his house.
He refused and sent me to the house of Paris el Keif, a notorious
ruffian in the same street. I saw from the windows the mob
breaking into Christian houses and massacring the inmates. The
beg's people were plundering and some of the plunder was
brought to the house where I was. This made me feel unsafe,
and I planned to escape after dark to Mustafa Beg's, who would
not dare to kill me in his own house. Just then a body of armed
men knocked at the door and came in. They were Abd el
Kadir's men with my friend Said Mohammed es Sautery. He
had been searching for me and finding my house plundered and
empty, traced me to Mustafa's house. He then obtained eight
Algerines from Abd el Kadir and demanded me of Mustafa who,
alarmed, sent his nephew to guide them to me. I was taken at
once to the Emir Abd el Kadir's, where I was received very
kindly, but as I was covered with blood and the house was
crowded with Christians, the emir allowed Said Modammed es
Sautery to take me into his own house. The Said then went to
look for the members of my family and was searching until the
morning. He found all but my son Selim, who, after being
given up as dead for three days, was found in the house of the
daughter of Ali Agha Katilee in the Shaghiir quarter.
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200 The Massacre Summer
" I remained a month in the house of Saifd Mohammed es
Sautery and was very kindly treated. As we were only half
clothed and had only two or three piastres in money, Sheikh
Selim Effendi el Attar sent me clothes and money. He shel-
tered, in his house, more than one hundred Christians, providing
them all necessaries.
" As for me, I was on the morning of the 9th a rich man, and
on the loth a poor man, but I ought to be thankful to God for
saving my life and that of my family. There was a sufficient
reason for the distrust which I felt in the house in which they
first put me, because, since the arrival of H. E. Fuad Pasha, it
has been proved that Mustafa Beg, his nephews and his people,
by different devices, murdered hundreds of Christians, one of
whom was Rev. Mr. Graham, Irish missionary. The Almighty
saved me from their brutality. The beg, his two nephews and
some of his people were hanged on the 20th inst." The wound
by an axe affected Dr. Meshaka's sense of smell in a peculiar
way. Meat and certain vegetables had such a nauseous odour
that he could only bear it by closing his nostrils. This continued
for many months and he could not allow the odour of cooking
meat in the house. The medical profession were much interested
in his case.
Fresh hordes of Kurds, Arabs, Druses, with the Moslem popu-
lace and soldiers now began the dreadful work of massacre. All
that night and the next day the pitiless work went on. But
Abd el Kadir and his men stood between the living and the
dead, and, forming the Christians into detached parties, forwarded
them under successive guards, first to his own house and then to
the great castle, where he reassured them, consoled them, fed
them. " There, as the terrific day closed in, nearly 12,000 of all
ages and sexes were collected, and huddled together, a fortunate,
but exhausted residue, fruits of his untiring exertions. There
they remained for weeks, lying on the bare ground without
covering, exposed to the sun's scorching rays, their rations cu-
cumbers and coarse bread."
Abd el Kadir himself was now menaced. His house was full
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Abd cl Kadir's Bravery 201
of hundreds of fugitives, European consuls and native Christians.
Hearing that the mob was coming, '' the hero coolly ordered his
horse to be saddled, put on his cuirass and helmet, and mount-
ing, drew his sword. His faithful followers formed around him,
brave remnant of his old guard, comrades in many a well-fought
field, victors at the river Mootaia, when with 2,500 horse and foot
he defeated the army of the Emperor of Morocco 60,000 strong.
'' The fanatics came in sight. Singly he charged into the midst
and drew up. ' Wretches,' he exclaimed, ' is this the way you
honour your prophet ? May his curses be upon you I Shame
upon you, shame ! You will yet live to repent. You think you
may do as you please with the Christians : but the day of ret-
ribution will come. The Franks will yet turn your mosques
into churches. Not a Christian will I give up. They are my
brothers. Stand back or I will give my men orders to fire.'
The crowd dispersed. Not a man of that Moslem throng dared
raise his voice or lift his arm against the renowned champion of
Islam."
All honour to that noble man I His work of mercy and
humanity became known all over the civilized world, and all
the rulers of Europe sent him letters and tokens of acknowledg-
ment.
On the 15th of September I saw at the United States consulate
in Beirut a beautiful pair of gold-mounted revolvers properly
inscribed as a. present from the President of the United States to
Abd el Kadir, and I afterwards saw them at his house in
Damascus. Both Abd el Kadir and Schamyl, the Circassian Mo-
hammedan prince who was obliged to surrender to Russia, wrote
eloquent protests against the massacre, as contrary to Islam and
the Koran, and these were widely distributed.
In 1883 the great emir passed away, aged seventy-five. Sixty
thousand persons, it is said, followed him to his grave, and among
the vast throng there were many bowed with " grateful grief,"
at the remembrance of how gallantly he had stood by the flying
Christians when the gutters of Damascus ran with the blood of
their kith and kin.
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202 The Massacre Summer
From Schamyl, the Circassian^ to the Emir Abd el Kadir :
To him who is famous among all, renowned for his exalted
benevolence above all mankind, who extinguished the fires of insurrec-
tion when they were at their height, and uprooted the tree of enmitj,
whose proportions had become like Satan himself 1 Moreover, praise to
him who grants to his servant piety and faith, that is, to the beloved
Abd el ICadir the Just Peace be unto you, and may the palm tree of
glory and excellence continue fruitful in your life.
After this, we state, after there had smitten my ears that which
paralyzes the hearing and from which human nature revolts, with re-
gard to what happened in Damascus between the Moslems and those
under their covenanted protection (zimmeh) the Christians, events
which ought not to happen among the people of Islam which tend
to the spread of corruption among men ; my hair stood on end and my
face grew dark with melancholy, and I said, How has corruption ap-
peared on sea and land, in the horrors men's hands have wrought !
And I wonder how any among the rulers could be so blind as to enact
such a mighty iniquity in the face of what the Prophet of God (prayer
and peace from God be upon him !) has said. ** Whoever oppresses
one under covenant, or lessens his rights or taxes him beyond his
ability or takes from him aught by force, of such am I the accuser in
the resurrection day." This is a just and true remark. When then
I heard that you had spread the wings of compassion and mercy to
them, and checked those who passed the bounds set by God most
Exalted, and that you had run a good course in the highway of praise,
and had deserved all thanks, I was pleased with you, and God the
Exalted will show you His approbation in that day when neither wealth
nor sons will remain with you. For you have loved the word of the
great prophet whom God the Exalted sent as a mercy to the ages,
and you have held in check those who violated his law and majesty.
(God forbid that any should transgress his laws !)
'' My object in writing this is to show you how well pleased I am
with you, and may my episde be to you as a refreshing draught of cold
water.
From the poor Schamyl the stranger .
Reply of Abd el Kadir to Schamyl:
Praise to God, Lord of the ages. Prayer and peace from
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1. Amir Abd el Kadir. 2. Sir William Muir. 3. Butrus Bistany.
4. Dr. Meshaka.
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Prince Schamyl 203
God upon our lord Mohammed' and upon all his brethren the prophets
and apostles 1
From the poor one to his master the rich, from Abd el Kadir the
son of Moohyeh-ed-din-el Hasneh, to the brother in God and the be-
loved for God's sake, the Imam Schamyl I God has been our portion at
home and abroad. The peace and mercy of God be upon you I . . .
After this we say that your most precious letter has reached us; your
discourse was a joy and a delight to us. What you have heard and
been pleased with in regard to our protection of the people of the
** zimmeh " and the covenant (Christians), and our defense of their
lives and their virtue, was, as is well known to your precious intelli-
gence, necessitated by the commands of the law most holy and exalted,
as well as by humanity and self-respect. For our law fulfills the
rules of a generous nature and requires the doing of all those praise-
worthy actions which lead to friendship by a bond closer than that
of a golden collar upon the neck. In every sect violence is abhorred.
Its practice is vile ; yet man, often in the hour of temptation, sees that
to be good which is not good. 1
By the name of Him whose we are and to whom we return, I dep-
recate the lapse of the followers of religion and the want of faith in
the Victorious One, in Truth and its Defender. Unlearned men have
begun to think that the root of the faith of Islam is stupidity, brutality,
harshness and violence. It is well to be patient and God will bring
deliverance. There is no object of worship but God.
These letters are interesting from the remarkable history of
their authors and. as indicating the current and shape of the
opinion of the more enlightened Mohammedans in the East in
these days.
One of the proposed solutions of the future of Syria was
the appointment of Abd el Kadir as viceroy over all Syria. But
it is well that he was not. In an interview with an Englishman
familiar with the Arabic, he stated that if made viceroy, he
would govern justly, but that he would not allow Christians to
enter the army, nor to testify against Moslems, << as Christians
can never be on an equality with Moslems," as the Mohammedan
** Shera " (the religious law of the Koran) is paramount to all
other laws, and must be obeyed above all. He would regard
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204 The Massacre Summer
Christians as '* zimmeh " or under covenant, and entitled
to entire protection as long as they pay tribute. This view of
Abd el Kadir, the finest specimen of Mohammedan manhood in
modern times, shows how impossible it is for a Moslem sov-
ereign to grant equal rights to Christian subjects. Where the
people are all Moslems, a Moslem ruler does well But in a
mixed population, a Moslem ruler cannot grant equal rights to
non-Moslems and must exclude them from miUtary service and
from the high God-given right of testifying in a court of justice.
Seven thousand Christians had been killed or burned alive in
their houses, i,ooo of them in the Franciscan convent. A sur-
vivor, who was a boy at the time, told me that he was in the Greek
Church when the mob broke in and that they took thirty priests
one by one and cutting off their ears, noses and hands would
call on them to deny Christ and then behead them amid fiendish
jeers. This young man said that although thirty years had
passed, he would often awake at night screaming with terror at
the memory of that horrible scene. Young girls and women
were carried off to Moslem hareems and forcibly married to
Moslems.
The news of this massacre spread terror all over the land, and
Jerusalem, Jaffa, Acre, Tyre and even Aleppo were in great
danger. One Russian steamer took i,ooo refugees to Alexandria.
July 17th Fuad Pasha, the grand vizier of the Sultan, arrived
with three frigates and additional troops. He was clothed with
absolute authority over the military and civil officials and ordered
to punish the guilty at once. The next day there was an eclipse,
which added to the terror of the ignorant populace. On the
19th, we printed the Sultan Abdul Majid's new firman, and it
was publicly read before Moslems and Christians, but no one
responded, " Long live the Sultan," the usual reply at such a time.
On the 20th Fuad Pasha was visited by a black-veiled procession
;• of 3,000 widows and orphans and seemed to be much affected.
He promised to provide for them and to punish the murderers.
Abro Effendi, secretary to the pasha, formed mixed commis-
sions to examipe the claims for indemnities for all foreigners.
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Damage Claims Adjusted 205
The daims of the natives were to be settled by the government
itself. The American and English Commission consisted of
Abro Eflfendif Mr. James Black, Dr. Thomson, Mr. M. Beihum
and myself. We had to examine claims for damages to
American property in Damascus, Hasbeiya, Deir el Komr,
Sidon and other places, amounting in all to about |lio,ooo. The
purely American claims, as to the correctness of which we could
give our word of honour, were allowed to the last piastre. But
we learned that the majority of the lists handed in by the sufTer-
ing natives were cut down one-half and often three-fourths, and
then paid in orders on the government, which were bought up by
brokers and bankers at less than half their value, so the real
suflferers never got a fourth of what they lost.
The British flag-ship Marlborough (131 guns, Admiral Martin)
arrived on the 24th of July, and soon after there was a fleet of
twenty-five British ships of war, and nearly twenty French,
Austrian, Dutch, Italian, Greek and Turkish ships. Then came
news of the. coming of a French army of 10,000 men, and in
case of need of as many more of other nations. Mustafa Pasha
declared that he would resist their landing, and the Moslem
populace became much excited. But soon orders arrived from
Constantinople that the troops were coming at the request of the
Sultan, and to aid him in restoring order.
Khurshid Pasha, who had been sent by Fuad Pasha to Latakia
on some trivial errand, returned on the 26th, expecting to resume
his office at the seraia. But before his arrival, Admiral Martin
addressed an emphatic protest to Fuad Pasha, demanding that he
be punished. He said, ** The Turkish government will have no
claims to consideration if it should not do voluntary and ample
justice. The matter will probably be taken out of their hands,
if they exhibit any indication of shortcoming." He also de-
manded '< conspicuous retribution to infamous functionaries.**
So on the arrival of Khurshid he was arrested at the landing, his
sword taken from him and he sent as a prisoner to the barracks.
The missionaries, Thomson, Bliss and m}^elf, called on Admiral
Martin, and on the other officers of the fleet The sight of that
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2o6 The Massacre Summer
display of two and three deckers, all full-rigged ships, lying in a
line a mile long off the port, was one never to be forgotten. On
shore we had our hands full, and the distribution of money and
clothing to the wretched refugees kept us constantly busy.
There was great excitement among the Lebanon Druses when
they heard of the coming of a French army, and some of their
leaders proposed to burn the remaining Christian villages in
Southern Lebanon, massacre the remnant of the people and then
flee to Hauran. But in the providence of God this plan was
thwarted. Mr. Calhoun said that was the only time when he was
really in danger, as the begs, his friends, would have been unable
to stem the tide had such a course been adopted by the leading
sheikhs.
Colonel Frazier now arrived, August ist, as British commis-
sioner to cooperate with Admiral Martin, and it appeared that
the time of retribution had come. On the 29th of July Fuad
Pasha reached Damascus with 2,000 troops, and arrested all the
leading officers, civil and military, and hundreds of the prominent
Moslem sheikhs and eflendis, and put them in prison. He began
at once a rigid investigation. We cannot enter into all the
details of the punishment he visited on that guilty city. General
Ahmed Pasha, the governor and military commander of Damas-
cus, who was proved by Mohammedan evidence to have caused
the massacre, was shot, and with him Osman Beg and two other
officers who presided at the Hasbeiya massacre. One hundred
and seventeen others, officers, police and Bashi-bazouks, were also
shot. Four hundred Moslems were condemned to imprisonment
and exile. Fifty-six of the leading eflendis and sheikhs of the
city were hanged. Eleven of the notables were exiled to Cyprus
and Rhodes, which was a very light sentence.
A levy of one million dollars was made on the city, which was
not a tenth of the loss suffered by the Christians. He then com-
pelled the Moslems to vacate three districts of the city and put
Christians into their houses, and made a prominent Moslem house
into a temporary Greek church. In the course of the few
months following he compelled the Moslems of the city and the
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Damascus Pays the Piper 207
neighbouring villages to carry away the debris and ashes of the
Christian quarter, outside of the city, and to cut down poplar
and walnut trees for rebuilding the Christian quarter. They
were also obliged to furnish flour to the Christians left in
the city. A raid was also made on all the Moslem houses, and
beds, rugs, clothing and copper utensib were recovered and
given to the sorrowing Christians. In the course of a month
eleven thousand of the Christians were transported to Beirut and
lodged in the quarantine buildings, and in khans and houses
rented for the purpose by tlie government. We used to stand
on the Damascus Road to see these long processions of men,
women and children passing mournfully along, on horses, mules,
donkeys and cameb, a melancholy sight. Among those in the
quarantine buildings were 600 children. Within a month 100 of
them had died from exposure and improper and insufficient
food. All these 11,000 names were added to our relief lists, and
garments were given to every man, woman and child.
Not the least crushing blow, however, to the pride of Moslem
Damascus, was the immediate enforcement of the military con*
scription. From the days of Mohammed until i860, Damascus,
as one of the four holy cities (Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem
being the other three), had been exempted from the conscription,
and no Damascene Moslem ever entered the army. But now
Fuad Pasha seized the opportunity to humble the proud city.
Within three months 21,000 men were sent handcuffed to Beirut
and thence by ship to Arabia, Asia Minor and European
Turkey. Some hundreds were culprits more or less directly im-
plicated in the massacre, and the rest were thrust into the army,
and ever since, the conscription has been enforced. A large
stone barracks was erected at the entrance of the Christian
quarter to prevent any recurrence of a Moslem invasion.^
^ In December the following urgent orders were sent to Damascus, to
be enforced by the army :
Section i appoints a committee of four Christians, three Moham-
medans, and a secretary and president elected by Fuad Pasha. The
members of the committee must be from the higher classes of the com-
munity.
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The spectacle of the arrival in Beirut, week after week, of
bodies of one hundred, two hundred or five hundred Damascus
Moslems, some of them sons of the highest families, all with
their wrists fastened in wooden stocks, nailed fast, was an object-
lesson to the whole country and especially to Beirut. And dur-
ing all these subsequent years the memory of the punishment
visited on that city has kept the Christians in safety. The
French army of occupation began to arrive August i6th, and in
a few weeks entered Lebanon. A Turkish army also entered
Lebanon from Sidon by way of Hermon, to cut off the re-
treat of the Druses. But a gap was left in the cordon, and 2,000
Section a requires one thousand Mohammedan men with two hundred
mules, to be collected from Damascus itself and all of the villages
within a distance of three hours or nine miles in every direction, for
the purpose of cleansing the ruined quarter and preparing it for build-
ing.
Section 3 requires that all tools and implements needed in this work,
such as shovels, pickaxes, baskets and ropes, together with the pro-
visions of the labourers, shall be furnished by the city and the above
mentioned villages.
Section 4 orders the storing away in proper magazines of all the
beams, timbers and hewn stones found among the ruined houses.
Section 5 requires that all the labourers and animals must be on hand
ready to work within three days of the date of the proclamation.
Section 6 requires the immediate repair of all the water-pipes and
canals leading to the Christian quarter, and inasmuch as the most of
those skilled in the construction of the watercourses are Christians, that
class may be employed, and their wages must be paid by the Moham-
medan citizens.
Section 7. An overseer shall be appointed in every district of the
Christian quarter with two guards, to attend to the collection and prep-
aration of the building materials which have escaped destruction.
Section 8. One hundred and fifty howr trees (this tree is a white-
barked poplar which grows tall and straight and is much used for roof-
ing houses) are to be cut down from the gardens of Damascus, and
from the villages in every direction around for a distance of fifteen
miles, according to the number of trees found in each place.
Sections 9 to 14 provide for the proper registration of all the trees
cut down, the giving of receipts to the sheikhs of the villages for them,
and the marking the trees with the stamp of the '< commission " to pre-
vent their being removed and others substituted in their room before
they are taken into the city for use.
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The European Commission 209
Druses escaped to Hauran to the utter chagrin of the French
General Beaufort d'Hautpol who found himself thwarted by
Turkish treachery.
On September 8th, Lord DufTerin arrived, and the European
commission was organized to investigate the massacres and plan
for a new government for Lebanon. The members of the com-
mission were as follows: Fuad Pasha, for Turkey; Lord
Dufferin-and-Claneboye, for England; M. Beclard, for France;
M. Novikoff, for Russia; M. Weckbecker, for Austria; M. De
Rehfuss, for Prussia.
Its labours extended over five months, its last and twenty-
fifth meeting taking place March 5, 1861, the day of the in-
auguration of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States.
Owing to diflferences of opinion among the members as to
who should be punished, the French advocating the execution of
a few leaders, and the English the hanging of the actual rank and
file perpetrators of the massacres, and owing also to the fact,
stated by the biographer of Lord DufTerin (p. 42), that " unfor-
tunately British policy was then strongly pro-Turkish," and
"M. Thouvenel (French minister), who acted with energy
throughout, had a good deal of difiiculty in persuading Lord
John Russell to consent to the landing of an international force;"
and owing also to the consummate ability of Fuad Pasha who
succeeded in arousing the jealousies of the European Powers to
thwart the ends of justice, — the result as a fact was that not a
single Druse was executed. Many were tried and condemned.
Several hundreds were temporarily exiled to Tunis and Belgrade,
Cyprus and Crete. France and England were fearful of each
other's influence in Syria. Lord Russell saw in the French oc-
cupation a preparation for annexation and determined that it
should cease. The international treaty fixed the term of the oc-
cupation at six months, but, owing to the unsettled state of the
country, and the difficulty of embarking an army from a har-
bourless coast in midwinter, it was prolonged four months and
the last French soldier sailed June 8, 1861. It had thus lasted
from August 16, i860, nearly ten months. During the last
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four months, the Emperor Napoleon III proposed a still longer
occupation, and for a few weeks, as we learned from Colonel
Frazier, who remained after Lord Dufferin departed in May,
1861, there was imminent danger of war between France and
England, which would have been ruinous to Syria. We were
distinctly informed by official authority, *' that if France did not
evacuate Syria by the 5th of June, England would drive her out
by force of arms. Already io,ocx> troops were in readiness in
Malta and Gibraltar, and," said our informant, ** if necessary,
England will land troops at Acre and Tripoli on the Syrian
coast and arm the whole non-Christian population of Druses,
Moslems and Arabs, and expel the French, no matter what hap-
pens to the Christians." It was a very serious crisis. Very few
knew what was transpiring between London and Paris. But the
French departed on time, and the world was saved the spectacle
of English officers leading an army of unhung Druse and
Moslem murderers against the French army, which came in the
interest of our common humanity to put a stop to the awful
Syrian massacres.
The joint commission completed its labours March 5, i86i.
" It laboured faithfully to reorganize the country ; it endeavoured
to restore the scattered Christians to their homes ; to rebuild their
ruined tenements ; to fix the amount of their pecuniary indemni-
ties ; to supervise the criminal procedures against the inculpated
Turkish authorities and the Druse malefactors; and lasdy, to
frame such a plan of government for the Lebanon, as might bid
fair to give the inhabitants that peace, order and security which
they had been vainly invoking for twenty years." *
The " Organic Statute " agreed upon, and finally approved by
the Sultan, made Lebanon a distinct, independent pashalic, un-
der a Mutserrif, or pasha, appointed by the Sultan and confirmed
by the six signatory powers (now including England, France,
Germany, Russia, Austria and Italy). He must be a Latin
Catholic, and not a native of Syria, and cannot be removed but
by consent of the European ambassadors in Constantinople.
^Churchill, p. 258.
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L
GOVERNORS OF LEBANON
1. H. E. Daiid Pasha. 2. Wassa, Pasha of Lebanon,
of Lebanon. 4. Franco Pasha.
3. Rustem, Pasha
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The Lebanon Province 211
Lord Dufferin, twenty-seven years later (1887), when Viceroy
of India, was confronted with a somewhat analogous problem in
the rising of the Ghilzais, an Afghan tribe, and in a letter to the
British Minister of Foreign Affairs, suggested the substitution for
the existing regime in Afghanistan of some such system as that
established by him and his fellow commissioners in the Lebanon
in 1 861.1
He says, <' Every plan in Lebanon failed in turn, until we put
each principal section of the people imder its own chief, assisted
by divisional councils, with an intertribal (volunteer) police, im-
der an independent governor, appointed by the Turks, though
not himself a Mohammedan. Under this system the domestic
independence both of the Druses and the Maronites remained
perfectly free and uncontrolled. The Turkish troops garrisoned
certain strategical points outside the privileged limits, but no
Turkish soldiers were permitted to be quartered on the villagers^
or to enter within the liberties of the tribes. Within a couple of
years after these arrangements had been carried into effect, blood
feuds entirely ceased, and from that time until the present day
the Lebanon has been the most peaceful, the most contented and
the most prosperous province of the Ottoman Dominion."
The three seaport cities, Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon, which front
the middle, the northern and southern extremities of Lebanon,
being ports of entry, and having a large Moslem population, were
excluded from the Lebanon district and remained under direct
Turkish rule. Thus, to ' this day, Lebanon has had no seaport
and all traffic and passenger travel must be through ports in the
hands of the Sultan's officials.
Lebanon has had seven Christian pashas since 1861, Daud,
Franco, Rustem, Wassa, Naoom, Muzaffiu", and Yusef, the present
ruler. As Lord Dufferin says, " It is the most peaceful, contented
and prosperous province of the Ottoman Dominion." It pays no
taxes to Constantinople and its army is a volunteer army of
Maronites, Greeks, Catholics, Protestants, Druses and a few
Moslems. The people are industrious and easily governed.
» "life of Lord Dufferm," p. 58.
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212 The Massacre Summer
Since i860 the value of property has increased a hundredfold.
Vast regions have been brought under cultivation and planted to
the mulberry, olive, fig and vine. The very architecture of the
houses has improved wonderfully, and macadamized carriage
roads zigzag through the mountain range in every direction.
On New Year's Day, 1861, Syria was prostrated, humbled and
sitting in sackcloth and ashes. Homeless widows and orphans,
exiles, despairingly begged for the restoration of their property
and the rebuilding of their homes. Schools were closed, church
buildings in ruins and the people dead or dispersed.
The foreign missionaries were mostly gathered in Beirut
Dr. Crawford of Damascus had summered in the Moslem town
of Yebrud, north of Damascus, and was unable to reach Damas-
cus until the /th of August and soon after, with Rev. S.
Robson, came to Beirut After frequent consultations, we de-
cided to hold on to all our stations, and reoccupy them when
the land became settled. But the prospect was dark enough.
It seemed as though the work of forty years was swept away.
On the 18th of September, i860, 1 wrote to my brother Samuel,
then studying in preparation for the Syria Mission work, as fol-
lows:
" I think the prospect brighter for our mission. The Druses
are to be attacked at once, and the Christians restored to their
homes as soon as possible. Tell George Post not to give up
Syria. Dr. Van Dyck is overburdened, and must have some one
to relieve him of the medical work, to give him time for the
translation of the Old Testament Let nothing discourage you.
I regret having written anything to put you in doubt, but when
one expects every minute to be massacred (as we did in July) he
cannot write very encouragingly. Now, we are all hopeful, and
I doubt not we shall need you both and more besides, before
December, 1861."
Dr. Van Dyck had returned from Europe and at once resumed
work on the translation of the Old Testament Mr. Ford re-
turned to Sidon. We never doubted that God would bring good
out of this appalling disaster. And He did.
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Eflfcct of Civil War in the United States 213
To add to the gloom of the year 1861, the Civil War began
between the federal government in the United States and the
Southern seceding slave states. Financial ruin seemed impend-
ing over the Northern states. Churches and missionary societies
were staggered and crippled. The Board of Missions sounded
the note of warning and retrenchment. No boarding-schools
could be reopened — no new books published — no new mission-
aries sent out. In the spring of 1861, we were all assembled in
Beirut at our annual meeting, when the mail brought the news
of the firing on Fort Sumter. We were startled and thrilled,
and as one man felt like starting for home to defend our beloved
country's flag from dishonour.
But it soon became evident that God had still a work for His
servants to do in Syria.
The total receipts of the Anglo-American and German Relief
Committee, up to December 31st, were over ;6'20,ooo or ^100,000,
of which one-fourth came from the United States. This sum
was expended on bedding, clothing, medical relief and bread.
Of this sum ^0,000 was given in wheat for seed, ^14,000 for
clothing, ^5,000 for medical relief, ^3,000 for soup rations through
the soup kitchen of the Prussian deaconesses, and the balance in
food and clothing. Twenty-flve thousand dollars of this sum
passed through my hands and was distributed in cash to the
needy according to carefully prepared lists, and all the accounts
were audited by a British merchant in Beirut.
The number of refugees on all our lists in Beirut, Belad, Baal-
bec, and Sidon reached 26,000. In addition it should be re-
membered that large sums were raised in Catholic Europe which
were distributed through the European consulates and the
Romish orders. The Turkish authorities also furnished rent and
a small pittance daily, especially to the refugees from Damascus,
Deir el Komr and Hasbeiya. In December we had distributed
1,000 shepherds' coats for elderly people. One steamer several
weeks later brought from England 2,000 beds, 4,000 blankets,
500 rugs and forty large boxes of clothing, most of it almost
entirely new.
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214 '^^ Massacre Summer
Lord DufTerin in his report to the British Foreign Office, in
speaking of the part borne by the American missionaries in
this work of humanity and religion, awards to them unmeasured
commendation, declaring that *' without their indefatigable exer-
tions, the supplies sent from Christendom could never have been
properly distributed, nor the starvation of thousands of the needy
been prevented*'
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IX
Light After Darkness
Eight results of the upheaval — ^Enormous development of BiUe circu-
lation — ^The new impetus to educational work.
''The wrath of man shall praise Thee: with the remainder of wrath
wilt Thou gird Thyself."— A. f6 : lo.
THE year i860 had thus been a crisis in the history of
S)rria. It was also a crisis in the Protestant missionary
work. From that time the tide turned. The plow-
share of God's judgment had upturned the soil and overturned
many of the mightiest obstacles to the Gospel Syria had been
little known in Protestant England and Germany and little
cared for. But great disasters, famines, pestilence and massacres
draw forth human sympathy and make all men brothers. The
events in Bulgaria in 1876, in Armenia in 1894, in China in 1900
and the Indian famine in 1900, prove the power of Christian
sympathy. After the massacres, Syria was filled with corre-
spondents of the English, Scotch, Dutch, Swiss and American
journals, who supplied their readers with facts concerning the
appalling condition of the Oriental Christian sects in Syria. I
was asked by Dr. George W. Wood of New York to act as " our
own correspondent " for a new Christian daily journal just started
in New York, The New York World, edited by Rev. Dr.
Spalding. To this journal I wrote about thirty letters, giving
minute day-to-day accounts of the massacres and the resultant
suflferings of the survivors, and these letters probably had some-
thing to do with the awakened interest in Syria. Then came
messengers of mercy from America, England, Scotland, Germany
and Switzerland, who opened' schools, orphanages and hospitals
all over the land
ai5
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2i6 Light After Darkness
We can see several distinct results more or less direct from
the events of i860.
To understand these results in Syria, let us look at what had
already been accomplished. The American Mission had es-
tablished thirty-three schools with 967 pupils, 176 of them girls.
There were four organized churches with seventy-five members.
The press was printing about 4,000,000 pages annually, and had
printed from the outset 1 12,825,780 pages. The New Testament
had been translated, and two editions printed ; a i2mo reference
edition and a pocket edition, and in i860, 4,293 copies were
sold notwithstanding the poverty of the people. The country
had been largely explored. Patriarchs and bishops had ceased
to hurl anathemas at the *' accursed sect " of the Protestants.
Education and the press had opened the eyes of multitudes.
The Protestant sect had been legally sanctioned by imperial
firman, and became entitled to official recognition and protec-
tion. The American Mission in Syria had withdrawn, in 1843,
from Jerusalem and all of Palestine south of Acre and Tiberias,
and concentrated its efforts on Lebanon, the Bookaa and Northern
Syria. A large number of prominent Syrians had embraced
Protestantism, among them the martyr Asaad es Shidiak, Gregory
Wortabet, Butrus Bistany and Dr. Meshaka of Damascus. The
two latter are immortalized by their contributions to Arabic
Christian literature.
When the smoke had cleared away, after the close of the war
of i860, and a reasonable estimate could be made of the actual
losses of the Protestant community, it was found that only nine
Protestants had been killed out of a community of several hun-
dred. One missionary. Rev. Mr. Graham of the Irish Presbyterian
Mission in Damascus was killed. The Hasbeiya church was
partially destroyed. The scattering of villagers and people of
the large towns like Zahleh, Hasbeiya and Deir el Komr, was a
great disaster and set back all systematic work for months.
But on the other hand the final outcome was a great gain to
Syria, as will appear from the following eight results.
I. The power of the old feudal families and tribes was forever
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The ** Organic Statute** 217
broken. These sheikhs, begs and emirs had enjoyed ahnost
unlimited power. The fellahin^ or farmers were their serfs. A
Druse beg or a Shehab Maronite emir could order twenty or fifty
fellahs to leave their work without notice, and walk before him
ten or twenty miles, without compensation. These feudal lords
were gradually appropriating the landed estates, and shared with
the monks the best property in Lebanon.
But by the new <' Organic Statute," the official status of these
titular families was forever abolished, and since that time they
have had to take their chance with others in getting office.
Their sons now go into business, or enter college to become
lawyers, doctors or officials. As a fact, the kaimakam of the
great Druse district of Es-Shoof in Southern Lebanon has been
chosen alternately from one of the two great rival Druse houses
of the Arslan emirs and the Jumblatt begs. In the other
districts which are either Maronite, Greek or Papal Greek » the
kaimakams are taken from the predominant sect. Each district
has its medjlis or local council, and the pasha at the capital of
the mountain has a central council and court of appeals.
2. The political power of the native hierarchy was broken.
The patriarchs and bishops, priests and monks, had interfered in
the courts, set up and put down officials, and made Lebanon on a
small scale what the papal states were before Garibaldi entered
into Rome. They even had the power of life and death as in the
case of Asaad es Shidiak. They kept the people in ignorance,
and allowed of no schools, excepting those for training up a
priesthood. They had for ages been appropriating the best lands
of Lebanon, by intimidation of men on their death-beds, and by
seizing the property of widows and orphans, so that it is true
even to-day, that all the most fertile land, the finest water rights
and the wooded hills of Lebanon belong to the bishops and the
monks, and the fellahin are chiefly their tenants.
But the upheaval of i860 deprived the priesthood of political
power. The collapse of the patriarch's crusade to exterminate
the Druses lessened greatly his prestige. When Rustem Pasha
> «« Fellah " means " plowman.''
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2i8 Light After Darkness
was in office (from 1871 to 1881) he exiled the Maronite Bishop
Butrus el Bistany of B*teddin to Jerusalem, for political intrigue
and banished a Papal Greek priest from Zahleh for beating
a Protestant in the street*
In the purely Maronite districts, the priests still try to
'< manage" political affairs, but the people have learned their
rights and are free to assert them.
3. A stable, free, and virtually independent government was
established in Lebanon. This was politically and socially the
greatest boon to Syria in modern times. It is the freest, most
peaceful and prosperous province in the empire, and is envied
by the other provinces. It opened the way for the vigorous and
industrious people to improve their property without fear of
armed horsemen, tithe gatherers, extortioners and bribe-taking
officials. No longer do mercenary judges and arbitrary rulers
intimidate witnesses and corrupt the tribunals.^ The taxation is
light and is all expended on local interests. When murders
occur, the culprits are arrested and imprisoned, and murders
would be much fewer, were capital punishment allowed.
4. The domineering pride of the Damascus Mohammedans
was broken. The enforcement of military conscription, the
enormous money levies on the city and Moslem villages, the
increase of the military garrison, and the introduction of
municipal improvements, have lowered the tone and subdued the
manner of the Damascene Moslems towards native Christians and
foreigners. Christian schools have multiplied, the Turkish
schools for boys and even girls are crowded with pupils, news-
papers are published and read, and there is friendly intercourse
between Moslems, Christians and Jews.
5. The war of i860 forced tens of thousands of the people,
great and small, rich and poor, out of their secluded villages and
brought them into contact with foreign Chriistian benevolence.
^That priest, Jeraijiry, afterwards was made bishop and patriarch, and
became the most broad-minded and liberal of the Romish cleigy, the
friend of education and most courteous and friendly to Americans.
' At the present time, alas, this is no longer true.
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Results of Reform 219
The very men whom their priests had taught them wei'e godless,
enemies of God and man, and emissaries of Satan, had fed and
clothed them for months, given them medicine and medical
attendance and helped them in rebuilding their houses in the fall
and winter. No wonder that months afterwards, deputation after
deputation came to Beirut asking the missionaries for teachers
and schools, and that there was a growing demand for Arabic
Scriptures and other useful books.
In some of the remote and stricken villages there are now
flourishing evangelical churches. In Zahleh, from which mis-
sionaries had twice been driven out and stoned, there is a fine
church edifice and four Protestant schools. This is the town
which sent thirty armed horsemen in July, 1848, to Hasbeiya,
ordering the Protestants to leave on penalty of death. In i860
the mission had twenty-seven village schools. Now in the same
territorial districts there are not less than 150, and the number
could easily be increased were the means sufficient.
6. A demand for education. No sooner had the sky cleared
after the storm of i860, than there sprang up in all parts of the
land a demand for schools, which has continued tb increase until
the present time. It has resulted in the founding of not less
than twenty Protestant boarding-schools and institutions in Syria
and Palestine whose influence for good is incalculable.
7. Then came a new demand for the Arabic Scriptures and
other religious and miscellaneous books. Tlie new translation of
the Arabic New Testament was printed in March, i860, just
before the outbreak of the Civil War, and was ready for the
multitudes who poured like a flood into Beirut from hundreds of
villages in and around Mount Lebanon. Many out of their
deep poverty bought the New Testament, to others it was given,
and thus God's Word went back with the poor and stricken and
disheartened people to comfort them in their desolate homes.
On August 23, 1864, Dr. Van Dyck completed the translation
and printing of the Old Testament, and in June left for the
United States to attend to electrotyping the entire Arabic Bible.
Since that time thirty-two editions of the Bible and parts of it
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220 Light After Darkness
have been issued from the Beirut Press, all of which bear on the
title page the imperial sanction of the Ottoman government
Up to 1909, more than nine hundred thousand copies of the
Arabic Scriptures have been printed at the Beirut Press, and it
now has a capacity for printing 50,000 Bibles a year.
Dr. A. J. Brown says that " the Beirut Press is next to the
greatest mission press in the world, being exceeded in output
only by the Presbyterian Mission Press in Shanghai."
The demand for the Arabic Scriptures is increasing, not only
in Syria and Palestine, but in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Arabia,
India, Egypt and the Soudan, Tunis, Algiers, Morocco, Zanzibar^
Aden, the East Indies, North China, and every other country
where the Arabic language is read and spoken.
Much the same is true of the religious, educational and scientific
works published by the American Press. About seven hundred
and fifty millions of pages of all classes of publications have been
printed at the American Press. The first impulse given by this
press has called into existence a score of printing houses in
Beirut and other parts of Syria. The largest of these is the
Jesuit Press of the University of St Joseph, which has published
a translation of the Vulgate Bible into the Arabic and a large line
of works in Arabic literature.
The land is filled with newspapers, and the people have awa.
kened to a new intellectual life. Native booksellers tell me
that the best selling books in the monasteries and among
monks and priests are the flashy French novels translated into
Arabic.
But the best selling book throughout the East to-day is the
Bible. It has now a firm footing in the empire, and has been
published in eleven languages. The Arabic version contests with
the Koran the supremacy over the future intellectual, moral and
religious life of the Arab race. The Koran is in one language
exclusively for one sect, and is not allowed to be translated ; there
are no Koran societies for distributing Korans among non-
Moslems, and any copy of the Koran found in the possession of
a native Christian or a European traveller is confiscated The
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Turkish Schools 221
Bible is freely offered for sale to all. More than sixty thousand
copies of the Scriptures are sold annually in the Turkish Empire.
The Word of God is having " free course " and it shall " be
glorified."
8. After the events of i860 and largely as a result of Protes-
tant Missions, there was an intellectual and educational awaken-
ing throughout the whole Turkish Empire. The American
schools had been in operation forty years, before the Turkish
government officially promulgated (in 1869) school laws, and
instituted a scheme of governmental education. But there was
no public school system for all the people. The government
schools are for Mohammedan children, and thus exclude the
millions of Christian children who must be provided for by their
own sects, or by missionary societies.
In 1864 there were said to be twelve thousand five hundred
elementary mosque schools for reading the Koran, in which there
were said to be half a million of students. In 1890, according to
official reports, there were in the empire 41,659 schools of all
kinds of which 3,000 are probably Christian and Jewish. As
there are 35,598 mosques in the empire, and each mosque is
supposed to have its " medriseh " or school, there would appear
to be about 4,000 secular government schools not connected
with the mosques, independent of ecclesiastical control by
mollahs and sheikhs, and belonging to the imperial graded
system of public instruction ; yet many of the mosque schools
have now been absorbed into the government system so that
there may be 20,000 of these so-called government schools. The
great majority of the schools, public and private, native and
foreign in the empire, have come into existence since i860, and
now there are in the empire not less than 1,000 Protestant
schools, with nearly 50,000 pupils. Of these 20,000 are girls, a
fact most potent and eloquent with regard to the future of these
interesting peoples.
I can only recount briefly the history and work of the various
evangelical institutions of the post-massacre period, i. ^., since
the year i860.
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222 Light After Darkness
The Beirut Female Seminary
After the events of i860 there followed an unprecedented
demand for education for both boys and girls^ and this in higher
schools than those in the villages. Foreign languages were
wanted^ especially the Frenchi owing to the intimate commercial
relations between Syria and France. After the reconstruction
of Lebanon, the Abeih Seminary was reopened. But owing to
the strictly vernacular policy enjoined by the American Board
of Missions neither English nor French could be taught in it
The same was true ol female education. Dr. De Forest had
taught all the young women in his family school the English
language, and it proved a priceless boon to them. But after
the departure of the American young ladies who were expected
to carry on his work, the question was reopened in Beirut,
with regard to the propriety of teaching English and French.
As it could not be done in a school supported by the Board
it was decided in 1861 to open a girls' boarding-school in
Beirut independent of the Board, and with native Syrian
teachers.
The first contribution towards it was given by Colonel Frazier
H. B. M. Commissioner. Mr. M. Araman, his lovely wife and
Miss Ruf ka Gregory who had been trained in the families of
Mrs. Whiting and Mrs. De Forest, undertook the work. The
school soon attained a high reputation, and after the departure
of Miss Gregory (as Mrs. Muir) to Australia, it was found
necessary to engage American lady teachers, and through the
labours of Miss Everett, Miss Carruth, Miss Jackson, Miss Lor-
ing, Miss Fisher, Miss Thomson, Miss Barber, Miss Law, Miss
ToUes, and Miss Home, with an excellent corps of Syrian
teachers, the seminary has become the leading girls' boarding-
school south of Constantinople. It began with six charity
pupils and now has sixty pa}ring boarders, and gives a high
grade diploma to its graduates. And these graduates are in
demand as teachers at good salaries in Syria and Egypt
When Dr. A. J. Brown, secretary of the Presbyterian Board
pf Missions, visited Cairo in 1902 with his wife they were sur«
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BEIRUT
1. The Elliott F. Shepard Manse. 2. Ancient Bab ed Dirkeh, Beirut.
3. Deir el Komr, Gateway of Seraia, In which sat the Turkish colonel
during massacre of 1860. 4. American School for Girls, Beirut. 5. The
Gerald F. Dale, Jr., Memorial Sunday School Hall. 6. Pillars of Forty
Martyrs, Beirut.
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Teaching English 223
prised and delighted to attend an evening reception at the house
of a lady eminent as a teacher in Cairo^ where they met about
fifty cultivated ladies, her fellow graduates of the Beirut Semi-
nary.
The EngUsh language is taught thoroughly, as it is now in all
the Protestant high schools for boys and girls in Syria and Pales-
tine and Egypt. The demand for English is one of the facts to be
confronted in the opening of the twentieth century. It is rapidly
supplanting French and Italian. No school can succeed witiiout
it In 1870, on the transfer of the Syria Mission to the Presby-
terian Board of Missions, this institution was adopted by the
Women's Board of Missions and has been maintained by them to
the present time.
On December 14, 1870, the executive committee of the semi-
nary consisted of Drs. Thomson, Van Dyck, H. H. Jessup, of
Beirut, Messrs. Bird and Calhoun of Abeih, Dr. Daniel Bliss and
Dr. George E. Post of the Syrian Protestant College. We then
addressed to the new Presbyterian Board of Missions an historical
statement and appeal on behalf of the seminary. We urged the
raising of an endowment of ^30,000, or, in default of this, a
permanent provision for its support. We said, ** We believe that
it has an important future before it in the great work of female
education and evangelization in this land. It is an institution
which should enlist the sympathies and prayers of the mothers
and daughters of the thousands in our Presbyterian Israel. Here
in the land of Hannah and Rachel, of Ruth and Mary, would we
lay wisely and permanently the foundations of a school which is
to train the daughters of Syria of all sects and tribes in all the
generations to come."
In 1864, the mission authorized me, during a brief visit of
thirteen weeks in the United States, to raise funds for the
erection of a suitable building for the Beirut Seminary, on the
mission premises, by adding to the old mission house or " Buij
Bird," erected by Rev. Isaac Bird in 1834. With the cordial
cooperation of Hon. William E. Dodge, and Mr. William A.
Booth of New York, Matthew Baldwin, John A. Brown, Horace
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224 Light After Darkness
Pitkin and Jay Cooke of Philadelphia, and many others, a sum of
ten thousand dollars was raised. A cholera epidemic interrupted
the building from July to November, 1865, but it was completed
and dedicated in 1866. In 1869 a beautiful porch was erected
over the main entrance by Mrs. D. Stuart Dodge.
What changes and what contrasts are suggested by such a
building, and for such an object on the shores of old Phoenicia I
Young maidens of the children of Japheth coming seven thou-
sand miles across the great ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules
to teach the Semitic girls the religion of their own greatest
Prophet, the Incarnate Son of God I An American school for
Syrian girls! An evangelical school for Moslem and Druse,
Greek and Maronite, Papal Greek, Jacobite, Armenian and
Jewish girls ! Any school for girls would have been an impossi-
bility when the American missionaries first landed in Syria.
The people thought and said that there was more hope of teach-
ing a cat than a girl. The Moslems said that girls could not be
trusted with a knowledge of reading and writing. Girls were
to be servants, slaves, beaten, despised, degraded, dishonoured.
They could not be trusted. No Moslem would allow his
wife's face to be seen by his own father or brother. No
Moslem would mention the word woman in the presence of
other men without saying, ** Ajellak Allah," which means. May
God exalt you above the contamination of such a vile subject !
The Mohammedan religion has destroyed the family, degraded
women, heaped ignominy and reproach upon the girls. Secluded
at home, veiled when abroad, without training, veracity, virtue
or self-respect, men despised them and they despised themselves.
If a European doctor insists on seeing the face of a sick Moslem
woman, the husband has often been known to say, " Never, let
her die first — but no man shall ever see her face."
The Oriental Christian women were driven into partial seclu-
sion by the intense fanaticism of their Moslem neighbours.
When the seminary was opened in 1861, no parent could be in-
duced to pay a piastre for the education of a daughter. The
first class of six consisted only of charity pupils, and the first de-
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Labour of Love 225
mand for payment for board met a serious rebellion. From
1 861 to iS/Of the burden of supporting this school rested on me.
The American Board declined to help it as it taught English and
French.
This school was carried on in faith. At times we did not
know where the funds for the week's expenses were to come
from» but the Lord provided wonderfully and the school lacked
no good thing. On the last day of December, 1869, Mr. Araman,
the teacher, came to me and asked for money to the amount of
three or four thousand piastres (about ^150) to pay urgent bills.
I told him we had not a piastre in the treasury. We conferred
and laid the matter before the Lord in prayer, and he went
away. Just then came a knock at the door. Mr. Stuart Dodge
came in with a package containing thirty-three and a half Na-
poleons, which he had found in the mission safe, deposited there
by Mr. Booth and labelled '' for the girls* school." Then came
another gift of ten Napoleons from an unexpected source, ma-
king 850 francs or about ^i/Of so that our prayers were answered
and our credit saved.
For nine years I raised by correspondence with personal
friends and Sabbath-schools the salaries of the teachers and the
scholarship funds to support the girls. Tourists passing through
Beirut gave substantial aid, but it was a growing burden, and
great was my joy when the new Presbyterian Women's Board of
Missions assumed the support of the Beirut Girls' School and
placed it on a substantial basis. Up to that time the school had
no financial connection with the American Board. Miss
Everett, its first American teacher, was appointed missionary
of the Board, but her salary was paid by Mrs. Walter Baker,
the saint of Dorchester.
We fought the battle to maintain the school, although it was
not on the simple vernacular basis required by the American
Board, and I regard it as one of the best labours of my life that
I carried this darling school on my shoulders and on my heart
for nine years. It has been a blessing indescribable to Syria and
the East A change has come over men and women, too, in
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226 Light After Darkness
Syria. In 1878, the seminary received from paying pupib
eleven hundred dollars. It no\v (1909) receives annually about
three thousand dollars and has to turn away many pupils for
want of room.
It is a high school teaching Arabic grammar, arithmetic, alge-
bra, astronomy, botany, physiology, history, ethics, English and
French, with music and drawing for those willing to pay for
them. There is a regular academic course giving a diploma
which warrants the preparation of the graduates for teaching.
It is also a thoroughly evangelical and Biblical school. All the
pupils are instructed daily in the Bible, and brought under re-
ligious influence in the church and Sabbath-school and in the
seminary family. Nothing of religious instruction is abated or
relaxed on account of the religion or nationality of any pupil.
Her parents know that it is a religious institution, and yet are
willing to pay for its privileges. The Orientals do not believe in
non-religious schools. They think every man is bound to have a
religion of some kind, and prefer to have their children taught
our religion rather than none at all.
The building cost about eleven thousand dollars. The lumber
was brought from the state of Maine. The windows and doors
were made in Lowell, Mass., as before mentioned. The stone
pavement of the floor was brought from Italy, the tiles for the roof
from Marseilles. The cream-coloured sandstone of which the
walls are built was quarried near Beirut ; the stone stairs are from
Mount Lebanon. The desks are from New York, the zinc roof of
the cupola from England, the glass from Vienna, and the pe-
troleum oil for the lamps from Batoum. The playground in the
rear of the seminary is shaded with beautiful zinzalakht or Pride
of India trees which were planted in 1839 by Dr. Thomson and
Mr. Story Hebard. In the attic of the old part of the seminaiy
building is the room where the Bible was translated by Dr. Eli
Smith (1848-1857) and Dr. Cornelius V. A. Van Dyck (1857-
1865). This great work is commemorated by a marble tablet on
the wall, erected by Dr. Daniel C. Gilman of Johns Hopkins
University.
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Syrian Girk 227
Just in front of the church is a memorial column, to mark the
site on which was erected in 1835, for Mrs. Eli Smith, the first
edifice for the education of girls ever erected in the Turkish Em-
pire. It was a day-school for thirty little girls which only con-
tinued for a few months and was suspended on the departure
of Mrs. Smith for Smyrna where she died September 30,
1836.
The pupils of the Beirut Seminary are native Syrian, Egyptian
and a few Armenian girls, from ten to sixteen years of age.
Many of them are bright and quick to learn, and comely in ap-
pearance. Nine out of ten of them have black eyes, as have the
majority of the Arab race. A blonde in Syria is rare, and conse-
quently greatly admired. These girls go forth from the semi-
nary cultivated and refined, ready to be teachers of youth or
. wives and mothers of families. Many of the graduates have been
truly converted. This seminary is a light shining in a dark
place, and it has been shining to such good purpose that the
dark place itself is becoming light. Beirut is a city of schools,
and it has none more useful or successful than this American
female seminary. In April, 1904, the alumnae of the seminary,
resident in Egypt, presented to the institution an elegant oil
portrait of Miss Eliza D. Everett, the first American teacher in
the seminary, and who was connected with it for more than
twenty-five years. Mrs. W. W. Taylor (nee Miss Sophie B. Lor-
ing) of the seminary in the year 1886 raised in the United
States the necessary funds for building a summer home or sani-
tarium for the Beirut Seminary. It is located in Suk el Gharb
on a rocky ledge overlooking the mountain slopes, the plain and
the blue sea, is well built and convenient and is known as Beit
Loring or Loring House. It is in sight of Beirut, and nine
miles distant, 2,500 feet above sea level.
The British Syrian Schools and Bible Mission
This interesting mission is a direct result of the massacres of
i860. I well remember the arrival of its founder, Mrs. J. Bo wen
Thompson, in the latter part of October, i860. We had been for
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228 Light After Darkness
four months labouring early and late to feed the hungry and
clothe the naked refugees, who had gathered in thousands in
Beirut The city and environs were crowded with widows and
orphans. Large contributions had come from England in
money, clothing, blankets and bedding. I learned that an Eng-
lish lady, who had been connected with the London Syrian Re-
lief Fund, had arrived in Beirut anxious to do something for the
temporal and spiritual welfare of the widows and orphans. We
found her to be an intelligent and consecrated Christian
widow, whose husband, Dr. Thompson, had died in the British
Military Hospital at Scutari after service in the Crimea, and who
had lived several years in the vicinity of Antioch, and who had
come to aid in the relief of the sufTering. We extended to her
the hand of welcome and sympathy, and during all the nine
subsequent years of her life in Syria it was our privilege to co-
operate with her in her work for the daughters of Syria. She
began at once her labours by hiring a house and gathering the
widows and orphan girls to learn sewing and reading. She
opened a laundry for the men of the British fleet, thus giving em-
ployment to many women. She engaged the services of experi-
enced young women teachers trained in the American Mission
" for such a time as this," and soon had a flourishing school.
Her work extended to the homes of her widows and orphans,
Hasbeiya, Damascus, Zahleh, etc., until in twelve years she had
twenty-three schools, twelve in Beirut and eleven in the interior,
with 1,522 pupils, seventy-nine teachers, and seven Bible- women.
After her death, November 14, 1869, her work was carried on
successively by her sisters, Mrs. Augusta Mentor Mott and Mrs,
Susette Smith* and was greatly enlarged until there were forty
schools, 3,000 pupils, and a corps of Bible-women. The mission
is undenominational, although Mrs. Thompson and her sisters
belonged to the Church of England, and their English lady
teachers have regularly attended our mission services with their
Syrian teachers and pupils.
These English and Scotch ladies have certainly evinced the
most admirable courage and resolution in entering several of
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British Syrian Schools 229
these places, without European society^ and isolated for months
together from persons speaking their own language, except when
visited by the missionaries on their itineration or by casual
tourists. And not a few of these consecrated women have
laboured at their own expense and given largely of their private
means to carry on the work.
Such instances as these have demonstrated the fact that where
woman is to be reached, woman can go, and Christian women
from Christian lands, even if beyond the age generally fixed as
the best adapted to the easy acquisition of a foreign language,
may yet do a great work in maintaining centres of influence at
the outposts, superintending the labours of native teachers, and
giving instruction in the English language. The young girls
graduating from our Beirut, Sidon and Tripoli boarding-schools
and the British Syrian Training Institution in Beirut, cannot go
to distant places as teachers and aught not to go according to both
foreign and Syrian standards of propriety without a home and
protection provided for them. Such protection is given by a
European or American woman who has the independence and
resolution to go where no missionary family resides and carry on
the work of female education.
The British Syrian schools are doing a good work in promo-
ting Bible education, and the relations between their teachers and
directors and the American Mission have always been of the
most harmonious character. And why not ? We are engaged
in a common work surrounded by thousands of needy perishing
souls, Mohammedan, pagan and nominal Christian, — and the
Lord's husbandmen ought to work together, forgetting and
ignoring all diversities of nationality, denomination and social
customs. There should be no such word as American,
English, Scotch or German attached to any enterprise that
belongs to the common Master. The common foe is united
in opposition. Let us be united in every practicable way. Let
our name be Christian, our work one of united sympathy,
prayer and cooperation, and let not Christ be divided in His
members.
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230 Li^t After Darkness
The Institutb of the Prussian Deaconesses of Kaiserswsrth
IN Beirut
The Orphan Home» boarding-school and Johanniter Hospital,
with which the Prussian deaconesses are connected, were estab-
lished in i860. The two former are supported by the Kaisers-
werth institution in Germany, and the latter by the Knights of
St John of Berlin. These consecrated sisters have trained
hundreds of orphan girls and educated the daughters of the
foreign residents for more than forty-five years. They have
regularly 1 30 orphan girls, and about one hundred European
paying boarders and day pupils.
These schools were a direct outcome of the massacres of i860,
and the teachers and nurses were among the first to come to the
relief of the sufferers, and for months kept open a soup kitchen
for the hungry in aid of which our Relief Committee supplied
*3,ooo.
The Johanniter Hospital of Beirut
This noble institution was a direct outgrowth of the massacres
of i860. The Knights of St. John in Berlin sent Count Bismarck
Bohlen who hastened to send medical aid and nurses to the
sufferers from the massacres. They began their work in Sidon
and then removed to Beirut where Fuad Pasha gave them a tract
of land, a rocky hillside where they built a commodious hospital.
The nurses are a corps of nine deaconesses from Kaiserswerth, and
the physicians the American medical professors in the Syrian
Protestant College. The sitd is salubrious and cheerful and
thousands of patients, indoor and outside-clinical, have blessed its
founders and attendants for forty-four years. A local Curatorium
of Germans, British, and Americans, is the organ of communication
with the Order of the Knights of St. John in Berlin. The Em-
peror William II, on his visit to Beirut in 1898, conferred a
decoration upon Rev. George E. Post, M. D., the dean of the
American faculty.
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Mrs. Watson's Schools 231
Mrs. Watson's Lebanon Schools
Soon after the massacres, in 1862 I think, Mrs. £. H. Watson,
after teaching in Valparaiso, New York and Athens came to
Syria and opened a girls' school in Beirut, then in Shemlan and
lastly in Ain Zehalteh. The Shemlan school was transferred
to the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East, and
recently to the British Syrian Schools and Bible Mission. Mrs.
Watson erected two school buildings in Ain Zehalteh as a per-
manent school for Protestant orphan boys, and purchased a large
tract of land whose income was to support tiie school. Mrs.
Watson died in Shemlan July 29, 1891. The Ain Zehalteh
property has been diverted by her heirs to personal use and the
school perished for want of support.
The Shemlan school has been a blessing to the land and con*
tinues to give a sound Christian training. Under the care of the
British Syrian Mission its future is assured.
Church op Scotland Schools for Jewish Boys
AND Girls in Beirut
These schools were established in 1865 under the care of Rev.
James Robertson then pastor of the Anglo-American Congrega-
tion in Beirut. They are now under the care of Rev. George M.
Mackie, D. D., with an efficient corps of teachers, and a boarding-
school for Jewesses has been opened under the direction of Miss
Milne. One of the teachers of the boys' school is a converted
Jew of the family of Harari of Damascus, who has been a faithful
teacher for more than thirty years. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon have
now undertaken the teaching in the boys' day-schools. These
schools have done much to break down the contemptuous pride
and the superstitious practices of the Syrian Jews, and the results
of forty years of patient labour are apparent in the friendly
attitude of the younger generation.
Dr. Mackie, as acting pastor of the Anglo-American Congrega-
tion in Beirut, has endeared himself to the whole community.
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232 Light After Darkness
Miss Jessie Taylor's St. George's School for
Moslem and Druse Girls
This school was opened in 1868 for the poorest of the poor
Moslems. For a long time it had only day pupils, but now for
years it has received from twenty to forty boarders and with her
sewing classes for poor women, has been an mitold blessing to
hundreds of Moslem families. Miss Taylor has won the confi-
dence of all classes, native and foreign, and has instructed multi*
tudes of women and girls. On her seventieth birthday she re-
ceived a testimonial of seventy gold sovereigns from her friends
of the foreign community, and still lives to bless the people of
Syria. Mohammedan men as well as women come to consult
her, and often come in crowds to her evangelical preaching
service on Sunday evening.
References to her and her work will be made later.
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After the Massacres
Removal to Beirut — ^Retrenchment — ^The Abu Rikatx
IN i860 I was transferred from Tripoli to Sidon. But my
goods, shipped on a *' shakhtoor/' were driven into Beirut
harbour by a storm, and the mission by an emergency vote
directed me to stay in Beirut where I have since remained. I
undertook the Arabic preaching to lessen the burden on Dr.
Thomson.
In May of that year Mr. and Mrs. Wilson left for America with
their children, one of whom, Samuel Tyndale, is now president
of Maryville College, Tennessee.
The English preaching services also devolved upon us. The
missionaries had maintained them since 1826. It was in 1866
that the Church of Scotland agreed to supply those services, be-
ginning with the Rev. James Robertson.
The French occupation was a curse to Syria. Fifty grog-
shops and many houses of ill fame were opened and drunkenness
became a vice theretofore little known.
In April, 1861, Rev. D. Stuart Dodge with his bride, Ellen
Phelps, sister of William Walter Phelps, visited Syria. His
meeting Dr. Bliss, who came down from Suk d Gharb to meet
Mr. and Mrs. Greorge D. Phelps of New York, was the beginning
of a friendship never interrupted since, and which resulted in
the founding of the Syrian Protestant College, of which his
sainted father, William E. Dodge, laid the corner-stone in
December, 1871.
In February, 1 861, we heard that Mr. Lincoln had offered my
father a diploknatic post, and on his refusal had offered to appoint
my brother Samuel consul at Beirut. It was thought he could
a33
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234 After the Massacres
master the language during his incumbency and then enter his
missionary work.
We successfully dissuaded Samuel from a step which would
have been so disastrous to his missionary influence. It would
have impregnated his whole future with a political tinge that
would have been in direct antagonism to the spiritual character
of his life-work. Samuel thereupon volunteered as a chaplain^
and my brothers George, William and Huntting also entered
the army. But the relief work we were engaged in in Syria
was a duty so high and pressing we had to choke down our
eagerness to go home and do our share.
July 3d the Sultan, Abdul Medjid died and was succeeded
by Abdul Aziz. On the 4th, a brilliant comet was visible, and
we had our Fourth of July celebration, with the native illumination
of the city in honour of the new ruler. I made an address from
Isaiah 8: 12, which from its reference to the '^confederacy''
was startling to my hearers.
July 1 8th Daud Pasha was inaugurated as governor-general
of the new pashalic of Mount Lebanon. The ceremony took
place in Beirut barracks, llie firman of appointment was read
in Turkish and Arabic, and addresses were made by Maronite
and Greek priests, and the cavalcade set out for Deir el Komr.
During the reading, a Deir el Komr widow saw in the crowd the
Druse who had murdered her husband and by her screams
compelled the pasha to order his arrest and imprisonment at
once. As the pasha's party of mounted Christians and Druses
entered Deir el Komr en route for the palace of B'teddin, the
widows who had returned sprang on the Druse horsemen and
forbade their reentering the town. They had to retreat and take
another road. During the summer, the French wagon road to
Damascus was completed and became a great public benefit
The French evacuation in June did not eradicate the effects of
the occupation. These were both good and evil. The French
army restored order, reassured the people, and quieted the land.
But the army followers, who opened forty liquor saloons and
many houses of ill fame in Beirut, introduced among the thousands
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Evil Influence of Europeans 235
of youths in Beirut licentiousness and intemperance to a degree
never known before.
I regret to say that the example of the English was not much
better. In July, 1861, five midshipmen from the British liner
Mars came ashore in Beirut and after drinking more brandy
than was safe, entered the confectionery shop of M. Troyet, a
Frenchman,* and demanded more liquor. M. Troyet, seeing
their intoxicated condition, refused them, whereupon they
opened a broadside of chairs and canes upon the mirrors, glass
cases, jars, and furniture of the saloon, doing damage to the
amount of five thousand francs. Complaint was made and the
••young gentlemen" were court-martialled, imprisoned, and fined
to the full amount. A fine example for Englishmen to set be-
fore the Arabs of Beirut.
In August, 1 861, 1 visited Zahleh from which Messrs. Dodds
and Benton were expelled in 1859. I found five Protestants,
Musa Ata and others, but the people at large looked at me with
undisguised animosity. I wrote at the time, " The scenery about
Zahleh is charming ; around you are the ranges of Lebanon and
the splendid plains of the Bookaa half covered, at this season,
with bright green fields of Indian corn, and the threshing-floors
piled high with myriads of sheaves of wheat and barley and
other grains. A small river of cold crystal water, the Bardouni,
runs down through the narrow valley which divides the town
into two distinct quarters. The people are a hearty, vigorous,
and superior looking race, and some day the Lord will bring
them into the light."
The Turkish government began to collect a million dollars
from the Moslems of Damascus, and their rage was so great that
they plotted another massacre. They planned killing the pasha,
and then all the Christians and foreigners left in the city. But
though the plot was discovered and thwarted, yet it produced a
new panic in the city and all over Syria. Miss Mason and Miss
Temple reopened the girls' school in Suk with six pupils. Mr.
Calhoun, in the Abeih Seminary, being unable for want of
funds to open the school, received a small class of men for theo*
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236 After the Massacres
logical instruction. In the printing of the new Arabic transla-
tion of the Old Testamentt Dr. Van Dyck had proceeded as far as
.the thirty-third chapter of the Book of Numbers. But owing to
the inferior character of the old printing machine^ it was ex-
tremely difficult to obtain a register, that is, to have pages corre-
spond on the opposite sides of the leaf. So Mr. Hurter, the
printer, was authorized to visit America and obtain, if possible, a
new and improved machine.
A meteor, said to be of the size of the full moon, passed over
Anti-Lebanon early in August and moved to the southwest of
Mount Hermon, leaving a train of fire behind it. It passed off to-
wards Carmel and exploded with a noise like a cannon.
A young Englishman named Lee visited the famous Dog
River, nine miles from Beirut, for the purpose of studying the
inscriptions on the ancient rock-hewn tablets of Sesostris,
Esarhaddon, and others, of which there were nine. On reading
his ** Murray's Guide," he was surprised to find that the face of
one of the ancient tablets had been smoothed down by a chisel,
and a French inscription cut upon it, commemorating the
French military expedition to Syria in 1860-61 with the name
of Napoleon III, and the officers of the army. Supposing it to
have been the work of some unauthorized vandal, he took a
stone and defaced the emperor's name from the inscription. On
his return to Beirut he was summoned to the British consulate to
answer a charge of the French consul that he had destroyed
French property. He then wrote an apologetic answer to the
French consul and also expressed his surprise that the French
officials who had sent Renan to explore the Syrian antiquities
should have authorized the destruction of one of its most ancient
monuments. The French consul returned his lett^ as unsatis-
factory and there the incident closed.
In September Messrs. Ford and Lyons laid the corner-stone of
/ a new church in El Khiyam. Sixty dollars of the money used in
this building was money received by me from Sunday-schools in
America and given to poor Protestants for buying seed wheat.
They sowed the wheat, harvested it and repaid the money for
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Retrenching 237
the church edifice, and thus it has done a double service, in giv-
ing bread to their bodies and the bread of life to their souls.
On September 20th, we received orders from Dr. Anderson of
the A. B. C. F. M. to cut off one-third of our expenses. So
we met and applied the surgeon's knife, cutting down our own
salaries, and those of all the native agents, and closing the boys'
and girls' boarding-schools. We did this as an expression of
our sympathy with our sufTering friends in America. October
17, 1861, I wrote to the missionary society of Illinois College
urging the claims of missions and apologizing for a brief letter
on the ground of pressure of duties, as I had to preach in Arabic
every Sunday and in English once a month, conduct a weekly
Arabic Bible class, a singing school, translate hymns for a new
hymn-book, correspond regularly with the missions at Aleppo,
Aintab, Latakia, Smyrna, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Cairo, at-
tend to receiving and forwarding all mails, English and Arabic,
and all boxes for the press, and for individuals, attend to a large
private correspondence, attend meetings of the Anglo-American
Relief Committee, and the Claims Commission for losses during
the massacres.
At this datq the mission was reduced to seven men, Messrs.
Wilson and Hurter having left for America and Messrs. Eddy
and Bird being still absent, and we were earnest in pleading for
reinforcement. We had abandoned, for the time being, the
whole of Syria north of the Dog River, and awaited help from
our afflicted native land. I removed my home in Beirut to Beit
Jebaili in the eastern quarter and was surrounded by Damascene
refugees, many of them very delightful and lovely people. Mrs.
Jessup and I opened at once a Sunday-school and I had a weekly
Bible class for men and women. In 1862 we opened a school
for their girls with a pupil of Mrs. De Forest, Mrs. Saada Haleby,
as teacher, and soon we had ninety girls under instruction.
That school was afterwards in 1864 transferred to Mrs. Bowen
Thompson, founder of the British Syrian Schools.
The severe retrenchments and closing of Abeih Seminary com-
pelled leading Protestants to send their sons to Lazarist and Jes-
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238 After the Massacres
uit Schools. Even the zealous Dr. Meshaka of Damascus, the
Martin Luther of Syria, sent his son to Antura, the famous school
of the Lazarists. In October, 1861, the French fleet of six liners
sailed away from Beirut At the same time two of the better
class of Druse sheikhs, Yusef Abdul Melek and the Emir Mo-
hammed Arslan were released from prison and returned to their
homes, and were afterwards useful in the government of Lebanon.
My brother Samuel was ordained by the New School Presby-
tery of Montrose, September loth, having been excused from his
regiment for the purpose and then returned to the army, where he
remained until after the battle of Malvern Hills, July 31, 1862.
In the middle of October, Beirut was visited by its first epi-
demic of dengue fever, called by the Arabs " Abu Rikab " (father
of the knees), from the severe pain at the knees. Not less than
25,000 out of a population of 60,000 of the people were sick at one
time.
Whole families were prostrated, but very few died. It was
supposed that no more than 2,000 of the 60,000 people escaped
it. It was probably caused by the filthy state of the city and the
gardens, after the residence of so many thousands for nine months,
with no regard for sanitary precautions and no steps taken by
the government to prevent disease. For forty days not a cloud
appeared and the sky was like burning brass. There had been
but one day of rain for six months. The sick longed for rain.
About December ist, when the dark clouds had gathered in the
southwest larger than a man's hand, Fuad Pasha ordered the re-
ligious heads of all sects to assemble in the public square and
pray for rain. After they had assembled, the wind rose and one
Maronite priest prayed holding an umbrella over his head. Fuad
Pasha had not studied his barometer in vain, for that night the
rain descended in torrents and continued for ten days. The air
was cooled, the sick recovered, and the epidemic ceased.
A strange event took place at this time in Beirut. Mr. Giur-
gius Jimmal, a wealthy Protestant of Acre, whose house was at-
tacked by a gang of Moslem robbers, succeeded, with the aid of
his servants, in binding them and shaving ofT their beards^ They
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Fuad Pasha 239
complained of the indignity^ and the government arrested Mr.
Jtmmal and put him in irons for ten days and only released him
at the protest of G>lonel Frazier^ H. B. M. Commissioner in Syria.
The robbers were not molested.
November, 186I9 was a period of great anxiety. The Board
had cut off $6fiOO from our mission funds. We were all over*
worked The great work of the mission, the translation of the
Scriptures, was in jeopardy. The health of Dr. Van Dyck was
very precarious. He suffered from severe headaches, was thin
and weak, and had serious effusion in his joints. Yet in addition
to his labours of Bible translation, he was constantly called on for
medical advice and attention, in the mission families and among
the people, and we were full of apprehension lest his health fail
and the great work of Old Testament translation be indefinitely
postponed. This fact added force to our appeals for reinforce-
ment, but none came for fifteen months afterwards.
On December 14, 1861, Fuad Pasha left on the frigate Tayif
for Constantinople to enter on his office as Sadr Azam or grand
vizier. The Beirut people gave him an ovation on his departure
and no man in modern times has been more popular in Syria*
He took with him fifty blooded Arab horses, the finest display ever
seen in Beirut. Not less than 3,000 trunks, boxes, barrels, baskets,
and packages were sent on board the corvette which went with
the Tayif as a tender. The Pasha of Beirut sent him some 500
baskets and boxes containing lemons and oranges, dried fruits,
silks, rugs, furniture, and all the chief officials vied with each
other in sending him rich presents. In return he bestowed liber-
ally decorations of different grades of the Medjidiyeh order.
On December 20th, Mr. Ford of Sidon sailed for England, at the
expense of the Turkish Mission's Aid Society, for three months'
absence, to plead the cause of Christian education and evangeli-
zation in Syria. In a letter to Dr. Wortabet, January 4, 1862, 1
stated that immediate steps would be taken to establish a large
Protestant native institution in Beirut of a high order, with the
cooperation of all the missions in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt
As will be seen elsewhere, in the sketch of the Syrian Protestant
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240 After the Massacres
College, we had under serious consideration the sending of a
learned Syrian, Mr. B. Bistany, to join Mr. Ford in his appeals
for the new institution. It was wisely given up. A dual control
in an institution will end in disaster. A native school, founded
and supported by natives, should be under native control. A
foreign school, founded by foreign funds, should be under foreign
control.
On December 28th, we were in intense anxiety with regard to
threatening war between England and America, growing out of
the Mason and Slidell affair. It would have cut off all our mails
and supplies and would have been inexpressibly disastrous to our
work.
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XI
Further Growth (i 862-1 865)
Temporary converts — Systematic giving — Mr. CoflBng's murder— The
Nusairiyeh — The plan for a college.
THE opening of 1862 was marked by a mission vote of
momentous consequence. It was to establish a college
in Beirut with Rev. Daniel Bliss as its president, and on
August 24th he sailed with his family for America to raise funds
for its support. In April Miss Temple left for the United States,
and after her arrival she was married to Mr. George Gould of
Boston. On the 27th of July Rev. William Bird and family were
welcomed back to Syria. They had been absent for two years,
and took up their residence in Abeih, the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Calhoun. In October Miss Mason opened a girls' school in Sidon
and resided with the family of Mr. Ford. The Beirut Girls'
Boarding-School also opened in October, taught by Mr. Michaiel
Araman and Miss Rufka Gregory, with no support from the
Board.
Early in January, during the rainy season, the city of Mecca,
the Holy City of 150,000,000 Moslems, was visited by a cloud-
burst with terrific thunder and lightning. It commenced at mid-
night and the swelling flood poured down from Jebel-en-Nur into
the midst of the city, and filled up the sacred mosque, the Haram
Esh Sherif, with water to the depth of sixteen feet, submerging
the famous black stone, and with it thirty unfortunate men who
were sleeping in the mosque. The greater part of the fine library
of Arabic books was utterly destroyed, a loss beyond repair, as this
library contained several books not extant in any other library in the
world. Three hundred houses and shops were destroyed, 300 lives
lost, and one-third of the city was in ruins. Was it an accident or a
Providence, that the British Consul-General Wood of Tunis ar-
rested an agent from Mecca with letters on his person proving
241
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242 Further Growth
that the Damascene massacre was concocted in Mecca? This
coming in connection with the flooding of the Kaaba is a proof
that sometimes the plots of the workers of iniquity return upon
their own heads.
January 35th— At that date there were six hundred Protestants
in the Sidon district, five hundred in Lebanon, two hundred in
Beirut, forty in Hums, and thirty in the Tripoli field. A part of
the Hasbeiya widows now decided to return to their ruined town
and homes. They had a meeting at my house, and one of them, a
consecrated Christian woman, addressed them in language which
it almost broke my heart to hear. She comforted them with the
words of Christ, telling them that He loves them and will be a father,
husband, and brother to them, and if they love Him, will bring them
home to rest in peace in heaven at last She said, ** Be patient
and trusting ; have faith in God ; love one another and try to bear
up under this heavy load of sorrow." I felt that this truly was
the sweet fruit of the Gospel and I thanked God that some of
these poor sufTering ones had been taught to look to Jesus for
rest and peace.
It was at this time that the mission voted to set apart Rev.
Daniel Bliss to the principalship of the new literary institution.
A spasmodic Protestant movement took place at B'teddin-el-
Luksh, near Jezzin. It was a characteristic Maronite device to
stop the oppression of their priests. We sent a teacher and
opened a school. The bishop and priest arrested and imprisoned
several men and began their usual policy of force and excom-
munication. Colonel Frazier, H. B. M. Commissioner, interfered
on their behalf, and they held out six months, when, having carried
their lawsuit against the priests, they became reconciled and re-
turned to Rome, and drove out Asaad el Ashshi, the teacher.
This is a typical case. In at least a dozen Maronite villages of
Lebanon several hundreds at a time have professed Protestant-
ism, obtained a school, frightened the priests, secured their
claims, and slid back again to the old sect with the blandest of
smiles, as though they had efiected a fine business transaction.
Such has been the case with B'teddin-d-Luksh, Cana, Wady
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THE BEIRUT NATIVE EVANGELICAL BENEVOLENT SOCIETY,
1876
1. Michael Gharzuzy. 2. Nicola Tobbajy. 3. sSelim Kessab. 4. Fran-
cis Shemaoon. 5. John Abcarius. 6. Michael Araman. 7. Ibrahim
Hourani. 8. Yusef Abd en Nur.
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Systematic Beneficence 243
Shehrur, Deraoon, Mezraat-Yeshua, Kornet-el-Homra, and other
places, until all that is necessary in a Maronite village, when
the tyranny of the priests becomes too galling to be endured, is
to threaten to become Protestants en masse, and then the clergy
surrender. Yet each such movement lets in a little light, sows a**
few Bibles, teaches the children a few hymns and Scripture
truths, and in most cases removes old prejudices against Protes-
tantism. The people tell us that the very presence of Protestant
missionaries in the land is a shield over the people against the
extortions and oppressions of their clergy.
A new movement now took place in the Evangelical Church
in Beirut which was a blessing to the people. An evangelical
missionary society was formed on the systematic benevolence
plan, every one, old and young, agreeing to give a fixed sum,
however smaU, every week. The amount thus raised surprised
every one. The officers were all Syrians. Similar societies were
organized in Abeih, Suk, El Khiyam, and Deir Mimas. The
great part of the Damascenes and Hasbeiyans, widows in the
school of Mrs. Bowen Thompson, who were wretchedly poor, in-
sisted on writing their names, and took delight in giving of their
deep poverty for the spread of the Gospel. The cheering news
from Hums that a multitude was seeking instruction, that two
Greek priests had doffed their robes and opened shops, that three
villages near Damascus were asking for teachers, and a general
awakening in Zahleh, Shweir, and Aitaneet, inspired the Beirut
society to assume the entire support of M. Sulleeba Jerawan in
Hums. The letter from Hums signed by thirty-six men was
very touching. They said that they had been taught by Mr.
Wilson to study God's Word and they had done so for two years
and now they longed for a spiritual guide, for " We are as sheep
without a shepherd. We are ready to suffer persecution and loss.
Come over and help us." A month later hot persecution arose,
imprisonment, beating, and anathemas. Many who were forced
back into the Greek Church formed a Bible class and were aided
by an enlightened priest, Aiesa, who largely aided the Protestant
movement
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244 Further Growth
This was the first movement towards " Christian Giving " in
Syria. One of the brethren said to me, " Truly the Lord has
prepared our hearts for this." Another said, ** There is a great
preparation for this among the people, and it will be good to feel
that we are giving to the Lord, and helping others as the Lord
has helped us."
The Greek priests in Hums, having exhausted all their own
means of persecution, had recourse to the Moslems of the baser
sort, telling them that these Protestants are Free Masons or wor-
shippers of the sun, who deny the existence of God, hoping thus
to stir up violence against them. Mr. Jerawan went and re-
mained for years as their leader and guide, and was at length
ordained as their pastor, and in 1872, Rev. Yusef Bedr succeeded
him. In writing to Dr. Anderson of these new accessions in
Syria, I urged him not to expect too much from them. " The
almond trees, now in full bloom, are loaded down with their
mantles of snow-white blossoms, yet their fruit may be so small
as hardly to repay the gathering. Yet, however we may be disap-
pointed in human appearances, we know that the Lord's promises
are not always almond blossoms."
The rehabiUtation of the refugees from Damascus, Hasbeiya,
Rasheiya, and other places, proceeded slowly. Not one Druse
had been executed, and the people feared to return to their
ruined homes and confront the murderers of their friends.
Lebanon was more secure under a Christian ruler, Daud Pasha.
The Druse leaders, in order to educate their boys, set apart
some of their " wukf " revenues and opened a boarding-school in
Abeih, calling it the Davidic School, from Daud Pasha, and he
was present early in February at its formal opening on Sunday.
The attractive feature of Abeih was the existence of the Abeih
Seminary of Mr. Calhoun, a man held in profound reverence by
the entire Druse nation. And the first principal of this Druse
school was a former pupil and teacher of Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Asaad
ShidQody.
Syria was now outwardly quiet. But nothing can give it
permanent quiet but the prevalence of the pure Gospel of Jesus
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The Hairs of Mohammed's Beard 245
Christ which is a religion of righteousness and peace. The great
bane of Syria is the multitude and virulence of the conflicting
sects. There can be no true peace until these hostile elements
are reconciled, and nothing can reconcile them but a common
faith in Jesus Christ Mohammedanism has ceased for the pres-
ent to be aggressive. Romanism, with its creature worship, can
never appeal to Mohammedans. A pure Gospel can conquer both.
On March 20, 1862, the city of Beirut received from the Sultan
" three hairs from the beard of the Prophet Mohammed," to be
placed in one of the mosques. The military was called out and
marched with music and banners to escort the wonderful and
sacred gift of the Sultan, while crowds of long-robed Moslems
and filthy dervishes and sheikhs joined the procession which bore
the holy relics to the Great Mosque. The whole Moslem popu-
lation was excited, and the baser sort uttered threats against the
infidels, etc., but Ahmed Pasha kept the town in quiet. Some
thought that Abdul Aziz sent it at this time, in order to coun-
teract the rapidly increasing European and Christian influence in
Beirut which is leaving the Moslems in the minority. Another
more likely explanation is, that it is to effect a compromise be-
tween the Egyptian and the land route of the holy Hajj or pil-
grimage to Mecca. The Egyptians wish the Hajj to go via the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The interior towns wish it to
go via Aleppo, Damascus, and down east of the Jordan to
Mecca. This raises Beirut to high religious rank, and as Damas-
cus is « Bab el Kaaba " (or " Gate of the Kaaba "), so Beirut is the
port of the Kaaba, and it became necessary to give it the needed
sanctity by sending three holy hairs of the Prophet's beard. The
effect on the Beirut Moslems was various. Some ridiculed them
as spurious. Others insisted that the use of any relics of any
kind is forbidden in the Koran, and say, << Are we to imitate the
Christians in creature worship?" In 1890 two hairs from the
same beard were sent to a mosque in Tripoli and received by the
populace with frantic demonstrations bordering on idolatry. So
Moslems as well as Maronites and Greeks hold to the veneration
of the hairy teeth, and bones of their saints.
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246 Further Growth
The people of Hasbeiya were notified on returning to their
homes that indemnity would be paid them for their losses, but no
Christian testimony would be received as to the amount of the
losses. They bring Moslem or Druse witnesses. As the leading
Moslems of the Shehabs had been killed, and the Druses were the
very persons who had massacred the Christians and sacked the
town, the case was simply exasperating. The Druses knew that
they would have to pay whatever was assessed, so they swore
down the Christian losses to the lowest possible figure. It is
hardly credible that Fuad Pasha could have known of this iniqui-
tous procedure. But who could blame the Turks when the
European Powers looked on in silence and suffered such things
to be done I
On the 29th our boys' day-school was examined and the
son of the sherif of Mecca was present and after listening
with much interest, expressed his satisfaction with the work of
the pupils. Dr. Robson wrote from Damascus that the Algerian
body-guard of the Emir Abd el Kadir in Damascus has been re-
duced to a handful, and the emir says, " Damascus is like a fire
in the desert smothered with sand. A blast of wind may kindle
the flames again."
April 5th — ^A letter came from Mr. Calhoun, dated Alexan-
dretta, March 31st, telling of the murder of Rev. Mr. Cofling.
Mr. Calhoun was on his way to the annual meeting of the Aintab
Mission, Mrs. Coffing and Dr. Goodell of Constantinople were in
Antioch, and on reaching there, he received the sad news.
Mr. Morgan and he set out at once, reaching Alexandretta after
sunset March 26th, finding Mr. Cofling already dead. Mr. Coff-
ing left Adana, Monday, March 24th, intending to reach Alex-
andretta Friday evening. The first part of the way he had a
government guard of three men, but dismissed two and came on
with his servant, the muleteers, and a single guard. Within three
miles of Alexandretta, robbers in ambush in the jungle fired on
the party. Two balls struck his left arm, shattering the bone
and severing the large artery. The servant had a ball through
his lungs and a chance native traveller had his arm broken.
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Murder of Mr. Coffing 247
Mr. Coffing was brought to Alexandretta that night to the United
States vice-consul, Mr. Levi, and died at five o'clock the next
morning. The servant died after four dajrs of suffering. It was
supposed to be the work of fanatical men from Hadjin, whence
Mr. Coffing had been driven last summer, who had threatened
his life.
On the 6th of April, the French admiral took the American
consul of Beirut on his flag-ship, the coxy ttXt Mogadare, to Alex-
andretta to investigate the facts as to Mr. Coffing's murder. This
act of courtesy was highly appreciated by all Americans in Syria.
Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Goodell went immediately on to Aleppo and
Aintab to the annual meeting. It was afterwards learned that the
murderers were two Moslems from a village above Alexandretta.
They had confessed the crime. The villagers for a time defied
the government. The two murderers were arrested May 2 1st
and one escaped And in September, one named Ahmed was
executed in Adana in the presence of five thousand spectators.
He was beheaded and the Turkish executioner was seven minutes
hewing off his head with a huge dull knife. Ahmed confessed
the crime and said he was instigated by none but the devil.
The statistics of the Beirut church at this time showed thirty-
seven members, a Sunday-school of one hundred and fifty, and a
native missionary society of one hundred and seventy-five mem-
bers, with weekly offerings of seven dollars and a half. I had a
weekly singing-class of three hundred and fifty children. We
had two boys' day-schools with ninety pupils, a girls' school of
seventy, and a dozen boarders in tlie girls' boarding-school.
Miss Mason opened her school in Sidon. Miss Temple sailed
for America to enter one of the " united " states.
On Tuesday, May 6th, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, ac-
companied by Dean Stanley, entered Beirut and received an ova-
tion unparallelled in Syria. The Damascus Road for three miles
was lined by tens of thousands of Beirutians and Lebanon moun-
taineers, and he entered the city with the thundering of cannon
firing a royal salute, amid the shouts of the multitude. After re-
ceiving and returning official visits, he visited the British Syrian
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248 Further Growth
Schools of Mrs. Bowen Thompson, and I had the honour to con-
duct him through them, and explain their origin in caring for the
widows and orphans of the massacres of i860. He expressed
himself as much pleased with the school, and all present were de-
lighted with the mild and modest demeanour of the Prince. In
Damascus, Rev. S. Robson, who was in the midst of the massacre,
conducted His Royal Highness through the ruins of the Christian
quarter and narrated to him the story of those days of horror and
blood.
My son William (now stationed at Zahleh) was born April
26t}i, while Dr. Goodell was here, and Dr. Goodell remarked,
<' It will be' no more remarkable should this child become a
missionary and preach in the Mosque of St Sophia, in Stam-
boul, than it was when we were born, that we should come to this
land and live to see what we now see in Beirut." At this writing,
in 1908, that infant is the Rev. William Jessup, of Zahleh, Syria,
who has a devoted wife and four daughters, and is labouring
faithfully for the people of Lebanon and the Bookaa. He has not
yet preached in the Mosque of St. Sophia, which is a church
turned into a mosque, but he and his colleagues in Turkey are
doing what they can to preach the Gospel to people of all the
Oriental sects.
When in Beirut, Dean Stanley called on Rev. Dr. Van Dyck
to inquire with regard to the translation of the Bible into the
Arabic language. Dr. Van Dyck showed him the New Testa-
ment which was completed in April, i860, and told him that the
Old Testament was finished as far as Job and considerable work
done on the prophetical books.
Between Hebron and Mar Saba, in that howling wilderness,
the party of the Prince was surrounded by a body of armed
Bedawin Arabs. The Turkish guard made no resistance. The
Arabs demanded the surrender of a certain Turkish officer they
supposed to be in the party. On finding that he was not there
they demanded money. The dragoman then said to them, " Do
you not know that this man is the son of the Great Queen of the
Angliz ? " " Oh," said they, '' is that so ? then minshan Khatroo
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Prince Albert Edward's Escape 249
(for his sake or pleasure) we will let you off/' and thus the future
king escaped through the condescending permission of these
barelegged robbers of the desert. They could have carried him
off to the trans-Jordanic wilderness, in spite of the ridiculous
guard sent by the Pasha of Jerusalem, but they allowed him to
pass.
We took a step forward this month by requiring pay from the
pupils of our day-schools. This was the first demand for pay-
ment in a mission school and the people have accepted the situ-
ation. It is a step in the right direction and there will be no
retrograde.
May 13th we were visited by Rev. and Mrs. H. Guinness. I
bought a bay horse of Mrs. Guinness for ^38.80. He was strong,
a good trotter, but a hard backed animal. I once loaned him to
Dr. Van Dyck for a trip to Suk el Gharb. On his return. Dr.
Van Dyck said, '• Brother Jessup, I would like to buy half of that
horse." " Why ? " said I. " I would like to buy one-half of him
and shoot my half." His hard trot, like a four-post bedstead,
thump, thump, was most painful to the doctor with his distract-
ing headaches, and he thought the horse ought to be abated.
Violent persecutions broke out against the Protestants all over
the Lebanon and in Hums. In Lebanon, Daud Pasha proved a
pliant tool in the hands of the priests, and Colonel Frazier, British
commissioner, declared his utter disappointment in the narrow-
minded, illiberal course of the pasha, who yielded slavish obe-
dience to the priests. French influence was predominant, and
the Jesuits were given a free hand in Lebanon, because it was
the policy of Napoleon to support the papacy. As England,
through the policy of Lord John Russell, had shielded the Druses
from punishment, the nominal Christians of Syria, notwithstand-
ing the munificent charitable aid of the English people, hated the
Angliz, and as Protestants were known by the name Angliz, they
were persecuted by the bishops and priests of the old sects in the
most relentless manner. At B'teddin-el-Luksh, where the Mar-
onite peasants had been ruined by the Druses and their houses
burned, a large body who became Protestants were in turn driven
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250 Further Growth
from their newly built homes by the pitiless fury of the monks
and priests. Daud Pasha, anxious to please France, gave full
liberty to the priests to root out Protestantism. G>lonel Frazier,
disgusted and chagrined at finding himself unsustained by the
Foreign Office in his attempts to secure religious freedom in Leb-
anon, declared his intention to resign and to labour for the
removal of Daud Pasha. Two American young men, Rev. J.
Hough, a classmate in Cortland Academy, and Carter, a brother
of my Yale classmate, visited me in Beirut and went on through
the Holy Land. While bathing in the Jordan, Carter was drawn
under and swept away by the muddy current and his body after
four days' search could not be recovered. Hough went on home
in great sadness.
The withdrawal of troops for Montenegro led to an increase of
murder and outrage, which the pasha checked by hanging two
Moslem murderers in Damascus and a Druse murderer in Hasbeiya.
And per contra^ a Greek Catholic, who murdered a Druse near
Deir d Komr, was hung at B'teddin, in the palace of Daiid Pasha.
News came of the murder of Rev. Mr. Merriam of Philippopolis
by brigands. The English residents sent us a telegram forwarded
from Alexandria, that '' General McClellan had surrendered his
whole army to Lee." As my brother Samuel was in McQellan's
army, the news filled us with great anxiety although we did not
credit it for a moment. We found all the British residents on
the side of the South, and it became very difficult to have any
intercourse with them. It was a great relief afterwards to find
that the rumour^was false and it was an equal relief to learn that
my brother was safe and was about to resign and prepare for
Syria.
In July the vowelled edition of the Arabic New Testament was
issued from the press, marking an era in Bible work in Syria. Hith-
erto it had been printed without the vowels, so that non-Moham-
medan children have found it very difficult to learn the Arabic
correctly. Now the Christian schools can be supplied with this
beautiful book, and learn to pronounce the Arabic language as
correctly as the proud Moslems who boast of their Koran.
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A Children's Hymn-Book 251
The last act of the Anglo-American and German Relief Com-
mittee was performed August nth. Sixty thousand piastres
were voted for the relief of Hasbeiya widows and orphans in
Sidon and Tyre, twelve thousand for medical aid in Damascus, ten
thousand for needy cases in Lebanon, the surplus to be devoted
to keeping up the Beirut hospital until the next January.
In the summer of 1862, 1 had the joy of seeing a children's
hymn-book published at our Beirut Press, ** Douzan el ICithar '*
{'* Tuning of the Harp "). I wrote my musical friend, Dn
Charles S. Robinson of New York, who had aided me in bearing
the expenses, as follows : " It has sometimes been a question
with me whether the Arab race is capable of learning to sing
Western music well. (This is partially due to the one-third in-
tervals between the whole notes as against our one-half intervals.)
The native music of the East is so monotonous and minor in its
melody (harmony is unknown), so unlike the sacred melodies of
Christian lands, that it appeared to me at one time that the
Arabs could not learn to sing our tunes. It is difficult for the
adults to sing correctly. They sing with the spirit, but not with
the understanding, when using our Western tunes. But the
children can sing anything, and carry the soprano and alto in
duets with great success. All that is needed is patient instruc-
tion. I have had more real enjoyment in hearing the children
sing in Syria than in ahnost any other thing in the missionary
life. They sing in school, in the street, at home, in the Sabbath-
school, in public worship, and at the missionary society meetings.
There is a tide and a power in children's singing which carries
onward the older people and not only drowns out the discords
and harshness of older voices, but actually sweeps away prejudice
and discordant feeling from older hearts." Sacred music has
achieved great triumphs in Syria since those days. Thousands
of copies of our hymn and tune books have been sold ; the teach-
ers of boarding-schools for boys and girls have trained their
pupils to sing; pianos have become quite common; and the
Oriental taste is becoming gradually inclined to European mu-
sical standards.
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252 Further Growth
In Mohammedan mosques and Oriental Churches, a woman's
voice is never heard, and when the voices of women and girls
were first heard in the Protestant Churches, many of the old
conservatives declared they would not allow it But that day
has passed, and the women and girls now sing with both the
spirit and the understanding also. I have often asked whether
the idea of harmony in music is natural to the European or a
matter of cultivation. It was not known in the early centuries
but since its introduction it has become universal. In Asia it is
still a stranger. The Arab scale, founded on an ancient Greek
scale, gives nothing but melody, and that with intervals im-
possible 'to all European instruments but the violin. But educa-
tion and cultivation are developing a genuine musical taste in
the rising generation in Syria which is already bearing remark-
able fruit. A Syrian teacher in Beirut and his wife had both
been trained to sing Western tunes. Their second son in early
years developed a passion for music, taught himself to play the
piano, borrowed of Mrs. Jessup bound volumes of music of
Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, and Mendelssohn and played them
at sight. He then composed an oratorio with an orchestral ac-
companiment which was performed by the Anglo-American
chorus in Beirut. With the aid of friends, he went to Paris,
studied, supported himself by playing at evening meetings of
the McCall Mission and the Y. M. C. A., entered the Con-
servatoire, achieved great success, and is now organist of the
largest French Evangelical Church in Paris. His sister is
organist of the Syrian Evangelical Church in Beirut. He is a
modest young man of exemplary character. .
Another Syrian boy, who was blind, went to London with
letters of introduction to the director of the Upper Norwood
Musical Institute for the Blind, made good progress, and is now
piano tuner to a large music house in London. He excelled
both in vocal and in instrumental music.
In September, 1862, Colonel Frazier, British high commissioner
to Syria, resigned and left the country, universally esteemed.
He had saved the country more than one outbreak of violence^
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A Change of Enlistment 253
and was a man of stern and sterling integrity. His health was
impaired by his incessant labour.
On the 23d of September word came that brother Samuel
had resigned his office as army chaplain after the battle of
Malvern Hills, and would at once prepare for sailing to Syria.
We were overjoyed and thanked God that the Board had the
courage, in the midst of the dreadful war for the Union, to send
out new labourers into the great harvest field. The apprehension
of privateers on the high seas led us to write him to come on
an English steamer to Liverpool and thence by steam via
Gibraltar and Alexandria to Beirut.
The Board hesitated long before indulging in the expense of
sending out a missionary by steam, and actually engaged his
passage on a clipper bark, but rumours of danger on the sea
compelled him to come by steamer. He was the first Mediter-
ranean missionary to sail from America by steamer.
In October a Maronite student, Selim Toweel, in Abeih
Seminary, passed through a remarkable experience. He entered
the school a devout Maronite^ full of suspicion of Protestantism,
and had never had a Bible in his hands. In a few weeks he
began to think and inquire, and for several successive nights had
trances, which excited greatly all the teachers and pupils. He
was heard talking aloud after midnight. There was a dim light
in his room and the students sprang up and came to his bed. He
was sitting upright, his eyes wide open, but he did not notice
them. Mr. Calhoun was called, and Selim went on with his
preaching. He seemed to be addressing Maronite priests and
monks and preaching free salvation in Christ After waiting for
their reply, he said, << You have now found Christ, pass on, the
next." Then he preached to another and another imaginary
convert, telling of his own spiritual change and experience and
joy in his Saviour, the great change he had met, to the amaze-
ment of his fellow students, who stood listening and who tried
in vain to rouse him from his trance. His language was eloquent
and profoundly spiritual, but the next morning he had not the
slightest recollection of what had occurred. After that day he
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254 Further Growth
was a consistent praying Christian, surprising all by the pro-
foundness and clearness of his spiritual views, and was full of
zeal for the salvation of his fellow countrymen.
In the latter part of 1862, the policy of Daud Pasha of
Lebanon became more liberal. He appointed an Englishman
chief of police and a Syrian Protestant, Mr. Naameh Tabet, to a
secretaryship. From this time onward, Protestantism in Lebanon
was at rest from the open assault of the ecclesiastics. Mr. Hanna
Shekkoor was made kadi of the Protestant sect in Lebanon.
The pasha issued peremptory orders for the construction of
cemeteries in all the towns of Lebanon. Up to that time burials
had taken place in plots adjoining the churches in the villages
and, on each new interment, the bones, of those previously buried
were thrown out upon the surface to be exposed and trodden
upon, and in every village skulls and bones were visible in the
little burial places. The pasha forbade burying twice in the same
grave.
On December 26th I addressed one hundred and twenty
children at the Christmas festival of Mrs. Bowen Thompson's
schools, and the same day over a hundred Arab orphan girls at
the Prussian Deaconesses' Orphan House. As Mr. Hurter was
absent, I had all the secular work ; press accounts^ post-office,
purchasing, customs house, shipping and receiving goods, besides
Arabic preaching. Mr. Bliss had gone to America but Mr. Bird
had returned to Lebanon and we had the cheering news that
brother Samuel Jessup was on his way to Syria and Mr. W. W.
Eddy would return in the spring, and thus our ranks be full
again. At the close of 1862, the mission had six stations:
Beirut, Abeih, Suk el Gharb, Sidon and Hasbeiya, Hums, Tripoli,
and two outstations. There were nine missionaries. Dr. Thomson*
Dr. Van Dyck, Mr. H. H. Jessup, Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Bird, Mr.
Ford, Mr. Lyons (Mr. Bliss and Mr. Eddy in the United States),
and Mr. Hurter, printer; five native preachers and sixteen
teachers. Petitions for schools poured in from all parts of the
land. The Sunday-school and Bible classes were full of interest.
The pocket edition of the New Testament of five thousand copies
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The Nusairiyeh 255
was speedily exhausted and one thousand two hundred and thirty
four copies of the other edition sold. A number of copies of the
uncompleted Old Testament translation were subscribed for, the
sheets being taken as they issued from the press. There were
new zeal and interest in the native churches and the outlook was
more encouraging than ever before.
SOLEYMAN EfFENDI THE AdANITE, AND THE NuSAIRIYEH
In November, 1862, a rough and repulsive-looking man came
to my house in Beit el Jebaili in Beirut, bringing an Arabic letter
of introduction from the famous Dr. Meshaka of Damascus. He
was short of stature, had a low forehead, projecting chin and
negroid lips, ruddy countenance, and altogether as repulsive a
man as I have ever met in the East. I opened and read the let-
ter. Dr. Meshaka stated that the bearer was a convert to Chris-
tianity from the mystic Nusairi faith ; that he was a man of learn-
ing and wide reading, and that Dr. Meshaka had obtained his re-
lease from the military conscription on the ground of his being a
Christian, — that he had been arrested in Adana as a renegade
from the draft, and was now coming to Beirut to enjoy liberty of
conscience and of worship.
I bade him welcome and .found him a room to lodge in, and
was not long in discovering that my guest was truly an extraordi-
nary character. I had travelled among the semi-pagan Nusairiyeh
of Northern Syria and met some of them, and heard much of
their secret rites, initiations and passwords, but this was the first
time I had met at close range an authorized expounder of that
weird system of truly diabolical mysteries. Day by day he told
me his life's story. He was born in Antioch, a Nusairi, about
1834, and when a child seven years old, removed to Adana near
Tarsus. He was taught by a sheikh to read and write, and on
reaching the age of 8eveflteeii» was initiated into the mysteries.
Thk initiation extended over nine months. An assembly of
notables of the Nusairis of Adana was convened and he was sum-
moned before them, and a cup of wine was given him. Then
the leader stood by him and said to him, " Say thou, by the mys-
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tery of thy beneficence, O my uncle and lord, thou crown of my
head, I am thy pupil, and let thy sandal lie upon my head." The
servant then placed the sandal of the leader on his head, and the
leader began to pray over him that he might receive the mystery.
He was then enjoined secrecy and all dispersed. After forty
days another assembly was convened, another cup of wine drunk,
and he was directed to say : ** In the faith of the mysteiy of
Ain Mim Sin {Ain stands for Ali, or the archetypal Deity, the
Maana ; Mim for Mohammed, or the expressed Deity, the Ism ;
and Sin for Salman al Farsi, or the communicator, the Bab) and
he was charged by the imam to repeat the cabalistic word
A. M. S. five hundred times a day. As before, secrecy was now
enjoined, and the so-called '' King's Adoption " was accomplished.
After seven months more, he was called to another assembly,
where, after numerous questions and imprecations he was asked,
" Wilt thou suffer the cutting off of thy head and hands and feet,
and not disclose this august mystery ? " He answered, ** Yes."
Twelve sponsors then rose, and the imam then asked them, ** In
case he discloses this mystery, will ye bring him to me that we
may cut him to pieces and drink his blood ? " They answered,
"Yes."
Then he swore three times that he would not disclose the mys-
tery of A. M. S. and the imam said, " Know, O my child, that
the earth will not sufTer thee to be buried in it, shouldst thou dis-
close this mystery, and thy return to earth will not be in a human
form (in the transmigration), but to a degrading form of beast,
from which there will be no deliverance for thee forever."
They then put a veil over his head, the sponsors placed their
hands on his head and offered three long prayers, then gave him
a cup of wine. The dignitary then took him to his house and
taught him sixteen formulas of prayer in which divine honours
are paid to Ali.
Being naturally of a shrewd and inquisitive mind, he devoted
himself to the study of that faith (which none but the initiated
can understand), learned the worship of the sun and moon and
adopted the horrible and gross superstitions of the sect They
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Transmigration 157
hold to the transmigration of souls, that the souls of all men at
death pass into new bodies, and that unbelievers are at death
transformed into some one of the lower animals. They believe
that the spirits of Moslem sheikhs at death take the bodily form
of asses ; that Christian doctors enter swine bodies ; that Jewish
rabbis take the form of male apes ; that wicked Nusairis enter
into domestic animals; great sceptics among them into apes,
while persons of mixed character enter bodies of men of other
sects.
They simulate all sects, as do the Druses, and on meeting Mos-
lems swear to them that they likewise fast and pray. But on en-
tering a mosque they mutter curses against Abu Bekr, Omar,
and Othman and others. They say, ** We are the body, all other
sects are clothing : but whatever clothing a man may put on, it
does not injure him, and one who does not simulate is a fool, for
no reasonable man will go naked in the market-place." So they
are Christians with the Christians, Jews with the Jews, and all
things, literally, to all men.
They have secret signs, questions and answers by which they
recognize each other. For example, one says on meeting a
stranger, " Four, two fours, three and two, and as many more
twice over in thy religion, what place have they ? " Answer :
*' In the Journeying Chapter," etc. They use signs, and they
use the interlacing triangle. In their secret worship they partake
of bread and wine. They have borrowed from the Bible, the
Koran, and from Persian and Sabian mysticism. They teach
that out of man's sins God created devils and Satans, and out of
the sins of those devils He made women, and hence no woman is
taught their reh'gion. When the initiated meet for prayer to
Ali, guards are placed to keep the women at a distance. Their
most binding oath is to swear by the faith of the covenant of
Ali, prince of believers, and by the covenant of '* Ain Mim Sin."
Soleyman bribed one of the chiefs of the *• Northerner " sect of
Nusairis to tell him the ** hidden mystery," which proved to be
that the heavens are the impersonation of Ali Ibn Abu Talib :
the wine-coloured river in heaven is Mohammed; and the milk*
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white river is Salman al Farsi ; that when we are purified from
earthly grossness, our spirits will be elevated to become stars in
the Milky Way, etc.
But the more he read and thought of his religion, the more he
doubted its divine authority. One of the tenets of the faith is
that on the death of a Nusairi a planet descends and takes up the
soul of the departed which becomes a new star in " derub et tib-
ban," i.e., the Milky Way. Several times when holy sheikhs
were dying, he stationed himself outside the door and watched
the hole over the door which is left in every house as an exit to
departing souls, and saw no planet descend and no star ascend.
This shook his faith, and on going about Adana, he b^an to ex-
amine the other religions. He decided that there must be a bet-
ter religion than the pagan Nusairi absurdities, and went to a
Moslem sheikh as a seeker after Islam. They read together the
Koran and the sheikh explained. He was a Mohammedan
about a month, when, as he said, he found in the Koran " three
hundred lies and seventy great lies," so that he was unwilling to
remain longer a Moslem. He then studied the books of the
Greek Orthodox Church, turned Greek and was baptized by a
merchant of Adana. Entering on this new faith, he frequented
the church and was horrified to find that though professing to
worship the true God, the Greeks actually worshipped pictures,
the holy " ikons." Attending the mass, it was explained to him
that the priest blessed the wafer or bread, whereupon it was
transformed into the perfect humanity and divinity of Christ.
«What," said he, "does it become God?" "Yes, certainly."
" And then what do you do with it ? " " We eat it." " Does the
priest eat it?" "Yes." "What I Make a god and then eat
their god?" This was too much. He said he had read in an
old Arabic version of Robinson Crusoe about men eating one
another, but here were people eating their god I
Finding Christianity to be of such a nature as this, and know-
ing of no better form of it, he decided to become a Jew, as the
Jews read the Old Testament in the original Hebrew, and all
sects acknowledge the Old Testament (the " Tourah ") as true.
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Sampling Religions 259
For four years he continued a professed Jew, and learned to read
the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Talmud. He was at
first greatly troubled lest God could not admit a heathen among
His chosen people; but says he was quite relieved when he read
that Ruth and Rahab, both heathen women, were among the
progenitors of David. Two things led him at length to leave the
Jewish faith, viz., the absurdities and blasphemies of the Talmud,
in which he read that God Himself studies in the Talmud three
hours every day; and also the prophecies regarding the coming
of Christ He then decided to become a Christian again, hoping
to do so without adopting picture worship and transubstantia-
tion. As he was baptized before by a layman, he now applied
to a priest, but found no special difference, as he was obliged to
worship pictures again, and, as he said, to eat his God. He
could not remain a Greek; he had tried Paganis^i, Judaism and
Islamism in vain, and now began to look for something else.
The Greeks had told him of the "religion of the Angliz''
(Protestants) and that they were an heretical sect, who denied the
Resurrection ; and he wrote a tract against their heresy, bringing
proofs from Scripture for the doctrine of the Resurrection. A
Greek from Beirut, living in Adana, told him that there were
learned Greeks in Beirut who could convince him of the truth of
transubstantiation, and the propriety of picture worship. While
visiting this man he saw a book lying on the table, which he
took up and began to read. It was a copy of the famous work
on the papacy, in Arabic, by Dr. Michaiel Meshaka of Damas-
cus. He was so absorbed in the book that the Greek, who had
bought it for his own use against the Catholics and not to make
Protestants, became alarmed and took it from him. He then
went out determined to get it for himself, and finally found Rev.
Mr. Coffing, American missionary, and Adadoor, the native
helper, whom he had regarded before as Sadducees, and obtained
the book. He was delighted. Here was Christianity which
neither enjoined picture worship nor taught transubstantiation.
He became a Protestant at once and wrote a letter to Dr. Me-
shaka in Damascus, thanking him for having written such a
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work. The Mohammedans and Nusairiyeh were now leagued
against him» took away his wife and child and property. He was
thrown /into prison and two Moslem sheikhs came and tried to
induce him to become again a Moslem or Nusairi. They
pictured before him the sensual delights of Paradise^ but he re*
plied that they were welcome to his share of their Paradise; he
was rooted in the religion of Christ and would not leave it
While in prison a Nusairi sheikh said to hi , '* You have laid
up a great store of merit by your devotion and learning and now
it will all be lost, unless you will sell it to me." " Done/' said
Soleyman, " I will sell it." He finally sold out all his religious
merit for four piastres, or sixteen cents I
He remained in prison twenty-one days, and then was sent as a
conscript to enter the Turkish army in Damascus. While in
prison he wrote several prayers, which he read to me, in which he
pleads that God who rescued Joseph and David and Daniel and
the three Hebrew youths, would rescue him from prison a.nd from
the hands of his enemies. Though illegally arrested, being a
Christian and not liable to conscription, his hands were put in
wooden stocks and he was marched by land all the way to
Damascus, some 600 miles.
On the way to Damascus he stopped at Nebk, where he found
Protestants, and requested them to write to Dr. Meshaka in
Damascus, to use his efforts for his release, after he reached that
city. After a month's search. Dr. Meshaka found him in a loath-
some prison. Though his fellow conscripts declared that he was
a Christian, the Turkish military authorities refused to release him,
until, providentially. Colonel Frazier, the British commissioner
to Syria, visiting Damascus, heard of the case and procured his
release. He remained a month with Dr. Meshaka, and came to
Beirut in November, 1862, bringing a note of introduction from
Dr. Meshaka. He said he was anxious to labour for the conver-
sion of the Nusairiyeh people who are in gross darkness and
ignorance. I gave him a room near my house and had frequent
interviews with him. He soon made the acquaintance of Dr.
Van Dyck and of the Syrian Protestants, and we encouraged
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A Queer Pledge 261
him to write a book, describing the tenets and mysteries of the
Nusairi religion. His memory was remarkable. He could re-
peat whole chapters of the Koran, and from the Arabic and
Hebrew Scriptures, and he had at ready command the poetry,
history and strange mystic teachings of the Nusairiyeh. In a
few weeks he had finished his book. He then went, on invita-
tion of the Rev. R. J. D6dds of the Reformed Presbyterian Mis-
sion, to Latakia, Northern Syria, where he remained six months,
and then returned to Beirut and printed the tract at his own ex-
pense. While staying with me, he came in one day with flushed
face and breath redolent of strong drink. I asked him if he had
been drinking. He said yes, he was used to it. (In the Incense
Mass described in his book, wine is spoken of as " Abd-en-Noor,''
or *« servant of light," and wine is an image of Ali, who is revered
as God. No wonder that the Nusairis are noted for drunkenness,
which places them on a far lower plane than the Moslems.) I
then said to him, '' My friend, we Protestants do not drink
liquor, and if you drink again, I cannot allow you to enter my
house." He said, <' Give me a paper." I gave him a sheet and
he wrote on it and handed it back to me. I read it ** I, Soley-
man of Adana, do hereby pledge myself never to drink a drop of
liquor again, and if I do, my blood is forfeited, and I hereby
authorize Rev. H. Jessup to cut off my head, and drink my
blood." I told him that was rather strong language, but I hoped
he would keep his pledge. Alas, he did not, and as I never had
any other sword but the ** sword of the Spirit," his head remained
on his shoulders, even after his often relapses.
His book attracted wide attention. The Syrians bought and
read it eagerly and copies were sent into the Nusairi districts
where it made a sensation. A council was called. The young
sheikhs were clamorous for sending a man at once to Beirut to
kill him. The old foxy sheikhs, however, were wiser. Thej
said, <' We have a right to kill him, but if we do, the world will
say he was killed for revealing our secrets, and all will know his
book is true. But let us deny the truth of the book, declare it a
false invention, and let him alone and men will soon cease to
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talk of it" So they let him alone, at least for the time
being.
We sent a copy of the printed work to Prof. E. Salisbury,
Professor of Arabic in Yale College. There could be no better
proof of Professor Salisbury's fine Arabic scholarship than his lucid
and accurate translation of this mass of Oriental mystical twaddle.
Professor Salisbury read his translation of it with notes before the
American Oriental Society, May i8th and October 27, 1864, and
it was published in their Journal, Vol. VIII, No. 2, 1865. I can-
not give even a resume of the peculiar features of this strange
faith. It was founded by Mohammed Bin Nusair, whose third
successor was Al Husain al Khusaibi, their greatest author and
teacher. He taught that the Messiah was Adam, Enos and all
the patriarchs; also Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon,
Job, St George, Alexander and Mohammed ; also Plato, Galen,
Socrates, Nero ; also Ardeshir and Sapor. He calls Abu Bekr,
Omar and Othman (the three first successors or caliphs of
Mohammed) incarnations of Satan. In this he adopts the Shiah
or Persian hatred of Orthodox Islam and deification of Ali.
The feasts of the Nusairi include the Udhiyah or Moslem
Feast of Sacrifice and other Moslem feasts ; Christmas, New
Year, Palm Sunday, Pentecost and the Feast of John Chrysostom.
In the mass of Al Ashara, Ali is adored as God, and the
Nusairis seem to know no other God.
« Praise be to Ali, the light of men, to Ali the lord of glory,
to Ali the seed burster, to Ali the creator of the breath of life,
to Ali the fountain of wisdom, the key of mercy, the lamp in
darkness, — ^the worker of miracles, whose love is unfailing, lord
of the last and first of time, the render of rocks, the cause of
causes, the elevator of the heavens, the originator of time, the
veiled mystery, the knower of secret thoughts, the omnipotent
sovereign, who was Abel and Seth, Joshua and Simon Peter.
To this archetypal Deity we give glory, reverence, landings,
magnifyings, extoUings and ascriptions of greatness. This is the
adoration of our inmost souls, in simple confidence in Ali, the
mysterious, the iincompounded, the indivisible, whom no number
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Action and Reaction 263
comprises, who is neither conditioned nor finite, to whom periods
and ages bring no change ; to whom, to the magnificence of the
glory of whose awfulness, and the greatness of the splendour of
the lightning of whose divinity^ — ^to whom all necks bow, and all
obstacles and difficulties give way."
It seems almost incredible that Soleyman could have known by
heart all these extraordinary disjointed writings which combine
the ridiculous with the sublime, and the aesthetic and beautiful
with the horrible and revolting — for some of the passages are too
indecent for translation. Yet he wrote from memory and his
quotations tally exactly with other reports of their secret teachings.
After remaining some months in Beirut, he returned to
Latakia. In March, 1863, Rev. R. J. Dodds wrote to me:
*' Soleyman is setting the mountains on fire. He assails with his
arguments every fellah who enters the schoolhouse, and is send-
ing out letters in all directions. It is with difficulty that we re-
strain him from going out among the villages. He often attacks
the fellahin whom he meets on the street, but we restrain him as
much as possible from this open-air preaching. There is a screw
loose in his head somewhere, but I think that he is doing much
good"
As he could neither teach nor preach and knew no handicraft,
the matter of his livelihood became a problem. At length he
married the daughter of a Greek priest, and not long after returned
to his drinking habits. Years after, he revisited Adana, his birth-
place. The Nusairi sheikhs now used the greatest finesse in
gaining his confidence in order to destroy him. They called upon
him, complimented him as the sun of learning, the crown of
wisdom, the boast and glory of their sect. They consulted him
and lauded him in Adana and all the villages of the plain. Then
the leaders invited him to feasts, and sent gaily caparisoned
horses to bear him from village to village, until he was completely
off his guard and in their power. Then one day he was invited
to a village feast Mounted on a spirited horse and escorted by
young men who sang and fired their guns as a token of honour
and joy, he was just entering the village, on a path among the
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immense manure heaps which are allowed to accumulate around
many of the Oriental villages^ when suddenly he was dragged
from the horse and thrown into a deep grave» dug in a dunghill,
and buried alive ! Some days after, the body was exhumed, the
tongue cut out and preserved in a jar of spirits. In May, 1888,
when I was in Adana, a Syrian teacher told me the Nusairi vil-
lagers informed him that at their evening gatherings the sheikhs
would place this ghastly and gruesome relic on the table, and
pour upon it their weird imprecations, cursing it and him and
consigning him to the torments of the danmed I
1863 — My brother Samuel and his wife arrived January 24th, on
the steamer Atlantic^ in a rough sea, after lying off the coast for
twenty-four hours through stress of weather, as shore boats could
not venture out to the offing. When they anchored, the ship was
rolling fearfully, and I went out through the breakers, and after
many perilous approaches to the ladder, got them all aboard the
boat and safely to land and to my house. Our cup of joy seemed
full. It is not often that a foreign missionary can welcome a be-
loved brother as a fellow labourer. I wrote to my father on his
arrival, ** I cannot express the joy and gratitude I feel this morn-
ing in welcoming dear Samuel and Annie to our Syrian home.
We can only give praise and glory to God/' He was stationed
in Sidon, as Mr. Lyons' failing health required a return to the
United States.
Said Pasha of Egypt died, aged forty-one years, and he was
succeeded by Ismail Pasha (second son of the famous Ibrahim
Pasha) who was in his thirty-first year. He was superior in many
respects to Said. The Emir Abd el Kadir of Damascus, on his
way to Mecca, was entertained by M. de Lesseps that he might
influence the new pasha in favour of the completion of the Suez
Canal. Said, as one of his last acts, prepared to send 1,000
Sudanese black troops to aid the French in Mexico, but through
the protest of the European consuls, the project was abandoned.
Port Said received its name from him, as Ismailiyeh did from
Ismail Pasha. The three murderers of Rev. Mr. Merriam of
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The Bloody Well 265
Adrianople were executed in that city January 5th, and a salutary
impression has been made on the surrounding population.
Three earthen jars, containing 3,000 gold coins of Philip and
Alexander^ have just been dug up in Sidon. The government
seized the bulk of them, but many found their way into private
hands. I saw at a Beirut jeweler's a necklace being made for the
pasha's wife, with twenty-five of these antiques, each weighing as
much as two English sovereigns.
In Damascus a Christian was rebuilding his house in the ruined
district, when he found his well filled with the dead bodies of
seventy-two men who were killed in July, i860. They were in a
remarkable state of preservation and the sight must have been
similar to that at the Bloody Well of Cawnpore. When the pro-
cession went out to bury them, the Christians were insulted by
Moslem hoodlums.
The first telegraphic despatch went through from Beirut to
Constantinople February i, 1863. The Moslems were filled with
wonder and say it is a pity that Mohammed did not know it, as,
had he known of it, all the world would have gone after him.
Nor was Beirut unworthy of being ushered into the society of
Europe. In 1823 it had 6,000 population ; in 1840, 10,000; in
1856, 22,000, and in 1863, 70,000. Seven lines of European
steamers touched at Beirut and the streets of Beirut were being
widened and macadamized to allow the carriages of the French
Damascus Road Company to pass.
A terrific storm raged along the Syrian coast February 20th,
and the range of Lebanon from the summit, 9,000 feet high, to
the very seashore, was one white mass of snow. In Tripoli and
Sidon a little snow pyramid crowned every orange and lemon in
the gardens. The French sXtdxa^t Jourdan was driven on shore
in Beirut and broken in two, but the passengers were all safely
landed by a line thrown from the shore.
I made a tour to Tripoli with my brother, and we received
several earnest petitions from villages for schools and teachers.
In Beino, a good brother, Weheby Aatiyeh, was seized by the
people and taken out with hammer, nails and ropes to crucify him.
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He made no resistance but said, " Oh» happy day ! Oh, blessed
hour I for the Lord has given me grace not to deny His name in
the midst of severe temptation and in the face of death. I am
not worthy to die. for Christ Thus they did to Stephen and thus
they did to my Lord. I am not afraid to die.*' Just then an
influential Protestant from Halbe rode up and persuaded the ex-
cited people to desist, and Weheby was set free. Many of his
relatives have embraced the Gospel and one of them has become
distinguished as a preacher and author.
On Sunday, February 15th, in the midst of the Arabic service,
a deputation of thirty men from Rasheiyat el Wady entered the
Beirut chapel. They were of the Jacobite Catholic Church. They
had come to beg for a school and a teacher. Their priests had
rotfeed them of a great part of the indemnity paid by die govern-
ment, and they were so incensed against the priests that they re-
solved to abandon them and embrace a purer faith. They went
away with Arabic Scriptures, and thp missionaries of the Irish
Presbyterian Mission in Damascus sent them a teacher. It was
recorded as a remarkable fact at this time that the people had be-
gun to buy the Arabic Scriptures. Heretofore they had refused
to purchase, insisting on receiving them gratis. But since that
time, excepting in rare instances, the Arabic Scriptures have t)een
paid for by the people.
In March, the native missionary society held its anniversary
and reported receipts of 10,000 piastres, or IL^OO. Many of the
members were poor widows and orphans, who gave cheerfully out
of their deep poverty. The mission was greatly embarrassed by
the flood of petitions for schools which poured in from every
quarter. Mr. Bliss reported from America good progress in rais-
ing an endowment fund of ^100,000 for the college.
On Easter, 1863, Daud Pasha held a reception for the notables
of Lebanon and made them an address. In it he used the follow-
ing illustration : " A doctor fell sick, and called in a fellow physi-
cian and said to him, * We are three, you, I, and the disease.
If you will help me, we will conquer the disease. If you help the
disease you will conquer me.' So we in Lebanon are three ; you^
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Religious Liberty? 267
the people, I, the ruler, and the traditional animosity of races in
Lebanon. Help me and we shall conquer it Help it, and you
will ruin me and yourselves together." This was a pithy and just
way of stating the case. And nothing but popular education
will do away with these racial hatreds. The Druse High School
in Abeih, taught by Mr. Shidoody, a scholarly Protestant, and
supported by the sacred " wukf " funds of the sect, will go far
towards levelling down the feudal begs and sheikhs, and
levelling up the Druse peasants. And the fact that the two
sons of the late Said Beg Jumblatt, the wealthiest nobles in
Lebanon, are being trained by Rev. S. Robson, an Irish Presby-
terian missionary, at the expense of the British government, is a
guarantee that the future of the Druses will be under a pacific
regime.
The Sultan Abdul Aziz visited Egypt in April and conferred
decorations on the head men of the Christian and Jewish com-
munities. He was attended by Fuad Pasha and his brother's son.
Notice had been sent that he would visit Beirut and the house of
Moohyeh ed din Effendi Beihum was prepared to receive him, but
changed his plans and failed to come. After the Sultan's de-
parture, a young Mohammedan professor, a graduate of the Kosr
el Ain Medical School in Cairo and in government employ, be-
came convinced of the truth of Christianity and wrote an article
for a French journal attacking the Koran and the religion of
Islam. The article was reprinted in the French journal of Alex-
andria and the young man was arrested, tried in haste, and con-
demned to banishment to the Sudan, which in those days meant
that he would be taken up the river, tied up in a bag, and thrown
in the Nile. The matter was brought before the foreign consuls
and his release secured. The article may have been needlessly
acrimonious, and all writers on Islam in the empire need great
wisdom in treating so perilous a subject. England demands re-
ligious liberty in the empire. The Sultan agrees to it, but the
local authorities do not admit that this means the right of a Mos-
lem to apostatize. They say it means the right of every man to
remain unmolested in his original sect, and yet they not only
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allow Christians and Jews to become Moslems without let or
hindrance, but reward them with honours and office and freedom
from military service. The Turks have learned intolerance
largely from Russia, which insists that all Russia must conform
to the Greek Church. So, they say, we demand that Islam shall
be the favoured sect in the empire.
In April I made a seventeen days' tour to Tripoli and Hums^
finding open doors and loud calls for missionary instruction
everywhere. The people were overjoyed at the expected arrival
of Dr. Post for that field. One merchant in Hums had bought
one hundred Testaments in Beirut and had them on sale in his
shop. One hour south of Tripoli, at Kolamoon, I found splendid
specimens of fossil Pectens and Echini of large size, which I put
into my mule load for Beirut.
In May Dr. Van Dyck, having finished the translation of the
Psalms, took a much-needed sea voyage on an English steamer
to Liverpool and was gone two months. Dr. Riggs, of Con-
stantinople, visited Beirut on his return from a health trip to
Egypt, for the sake of his daughter. In those days there were
no first-class hotels in Cairo, and in none of them a stove or a
fireplace, and Dr. Riggs said that they had suffered more from
cold than they would have done in New York, that it was a poor
place for invalids.
June 1 2th — Rev. J. L. Lyons and family left for America.
For six years he had struggled bravely with racking headaches
and weak eyes and finally consented reluctantly to take a fur-
lough. He went to his wife's home in South Berwick, Maine,
where he lay helpless in bed for several years. The doctors
could find no organic disease. The connection between will and
muscle seemed severed. He could not raise his hand nor stand
alone. At length his brother, Theodore, in Montrose, Pa., some
four hundred miles distant, resolved to make a heroic efTort to
rally him. He went to South Berwick, arranged with Mrs. Lyons
at evening to pack his brother's trunk and get his clothing ready
for a journey. He did not see his brother till morning. In due
time a carriage was at the door, the trunk put aboard, and Theo-
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An Awakened Will 269
dore went to his brother's room. '* LorenzOi what are you doing
here ? Get right up, we are going to Montrose."
He replied faintly, '* I cannot I cannot stand or walk."
** No matter, get right up."
Then he took him out of bed and stood him on his feet
** Dress yourself at once, no time to be lost, we must catch the
train."
He obeyed. The dormant will was wakened. He dressed,
walked with his brother down the stone steps to the carriage and
on they went to Boston and New York. Every hour he grew
stronger, until he reached his mother's home, to the astonishment
of the whole community. He recovered fully and laboured as
agent of the American Bible Society in Florida, Georgia, and
Tennessee for many years, his home being in Jacksonville,
Florida, where he lived until his death, March 14, 1888. He
wrote me that he travelled over the mountains and often preached
five times a week. We were boys together although he was
eight years my senior. His daughter, Mary, returned to Syria in
1877 ^^d taught in the Sidon Seminary three years when ill health
obliged her to return to America.
June 25th — Rev. W. W. Eddy and family returned to Syria
and were stationed in Sidon« This enabled the mission to trans-
fer Rev. Samuel Jessup to Tripoli where he was joined by
Rev. George E. Post, M. D., in November. In October, Rev. and
Mrs. Philip Berry reached S)rria, located in Sidon, and returned
to America in exactly two years, owing to a breakdown in
health.
July 9th — ^A Metawileh Moslem was hung in Sidon for the
murder of an Austrian Jew near Tiberias, the first time, it is said,
that a Moslem has been executed for killing a Jew. The Sultan,
Abdul Aziz, contrary to precedent and prejudice, has had his
photograph taken in Constantinople. The dervishes and fanatics
will protest but they are impotent to prevent it
News came of an earthquake in Rhodes destroying thirty vil-
lages, killing five hundred and maiming thousands. The seaport
city was nearly destroyed The shock was felt slightly in Beirut
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270 Further Growth
The Okkals, or religious initiated class of the Druses, have
tried to break up the new Druse high school in Abeih on the
ground of misappropriation of "wukf" property, but as the
school is named for Daiid Pasha *' El Madriset ed Daudiyet/' he
will not allow it to be interfered with. A fire recently destroyed
the ancient palace of the Sultan Selim in Constantinople, one of
the finest structures in the empire. The grand vizier, Fuad Pasha,
nearly lost his life in trying to rescue the fair inmates of the
hareem. He made his escape through a window just before the
roof fell in. The Pasha of Adana, in trying to arrest the second
murderer of Mr. Coflling, attacked his village, when the Moslem
villagers fired and killed several troops and the murderer escaped.
September 8th — The American bark Fredonia, Captain Birk,
arrived in Beirut from Boston flying the British flag, through
fear of rebel privateers.
At this time Mrs. Watson, an English lady, used the fund given
her by the London committee in opening a boys' school in the
house of Mr. Bistany of Beirut She had thirty boys. Mr.
Bistany took charge and the school soon developed into the
"Wataniyet" which continued for several years with two
hundred pupils, and was subsidized for a time by the college
local committee to prepare boys for the college. Mr. Bistany was
a man of remarkable ability and industry. He aided Dr. Eli
Smith in the Bible translation, conducted the school, published
an Arabic grammar, two large Arabic dictionaries, and nine
volumes of an Arabic encyclopedia, besides editing a weekly
paper, the Jenneh and a monthly magazine, the Jenan. He
was an elder in the Beirut church for thirty years and taught a
Bible class for twenty years, and was the most influential
Protestant in Syria. He was also dragoman of the American
consulate in Beirut for many years. He died in May, 1893,
greatly lamented, aged sixty-four years.
One hundred and fifty of the exiled Druses returned to
Lebanon, and some of them signalized their return by attacking
two French Jesuit padres en route from Zahleh to Deir el Komr.
They robbed and stripped them naked and cut ofT one ear from
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The Roving Englishman 271
each of them. Daud Pasha at once arrested the culprits and
they were condemned to long imprisonment.
Daud Pasha had a difficult role. He had not only to reckon
with the animosities of the old feudal sheikhs and peasantry, but
to circumvent the intrigues and secret schemes of the Philo-
Russian Greeks, the Philo-French Maronites, the Philo-English
Druses, and the Philo-Turk Moslems. Lebanon is easy to
govern if left to itself. The great peril after the initial trial of
the new order of government by Daud Pasha was not from
Zahleh or Deir el Komr, but from Paris and St. Petersburg.
The Pasha of Damascus recently tried to enforce the military
conscription among the Druses and Bedawin of Hauran. The
result was the decimation of the troops sent to enforce it. Some
one asked a veteran missionary how he thought missions would
succeed among the Bedawin Arabs. He replied, " That would
depend to a great extent upon how fast a horse he rode," mean-
ing that the Bedawin live in the saddle and any one to reach and
teach them must turn Bedawy and follow them into the desert.
"The Roving Englishman" has just roved through Syria
en route for Bagdad and Bussorah to aid in the laying of the
India telegraph. He is a character of some note and was known
as " Percival the Detective" or, the " Secret Service Man." He
has been in the East for years, disguised now as a Bedawy
sheikh, now as a black Moslem slave, and now wearing the uni-
form of a British officer, and mingling with all classes of society,
speaking Arabic, English, or French, as suits the occasion, play-
ing the ''hail fellow well met" with Moslem kavasses of the
various consuls in the khans and coffee-houses, ferreting out the
secrets of consular gossip, ascertaining how consuls are liked, and
whether they are faithful and honest and pay their debts, and
learning everything in general and particular about. everybody
and then writing it home to some mysterious persons in some
mysterious way, having confidential access to the Palmerstonian
or Lord Russellian ear. He met me, called me by name, and
said, " How are you ? "
I replied, " I beg your pardon, you have the advantage of me."
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272 Further Growth
" Yes/' said he, " don't you remember once having a call from
a black Moslem slave m\h white turban and flowing robes, and
that he addressed you in English, and you complimented him on
having acquired the language so thoroughly? I am the man. I
am now a British officer and understand pretty well all that is
going on in the empire." He was felt to be a dangerous man, a
very chameleon, and especially feared by consuls, to whom it
was not the most comforting reflection that « a chiel's amang ye
taking notes, and faith he'll print them.*'
Two Syrian brethren of the Hums Church made an eight days'
missionary tour among the pagan Nusairiyeh and the entire ex-
pense of the trip was two dollars. They walked and had a lame
donkey to carry their books. That church has been noted for
forty years since that time, for just such voluntary labours for
their countrymen and the fruit is seen in the little churches
growing up in all simplicity and faith throughout that region.
They wanted a foreign missionary, but have always had native
pastors with occasional visits from missionaries.
At the close of the year 1863, there were in the mission ten
missionaries and nine native preachers, three churches, and one
hundred and twenty-eight members. At the press, 6,869,000
pages were printed. There were twenty-four common schoob
with nine hundred and twenty-five pupils. In Abeih Seminary
there were twenty-two pupils and four theological students.
Within eight years, thirteen missionaries, male and female, have
entered the Syrian field, and twenty-five have left it
Rev. Geo. E. Post and Mrs. Post arrived November 28th, and
proceeded immediately to Tripoli where they remained four years.
He made remarkable progress in the Arabic language. In 1867
he visited America on account of health and was called to the
professorship of surgery in the Syrian Protestant College. He
has been distinguished as the greatest surgeon and botanist in
the East, and as an Arabic preacher. He is the author of books
on surgery, zoology, an Arabic concordance and Bible diction-
ary, and an English Flora of Syria and Palestine. **MAil
Uti^et quod non omavit**
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Canon Tristram 273
It was at this time that I first made the acquaintance of Rev.
H. B. Tristram (Canon of Durham Cathedral). He came to
Palestine on a scientific tour, bringing with him a body of young
men, a geologist, a botanist, an ornithologist, zoologist, photog-
rapher, and taxidermist He was himself familiar with all these
sciences and after about five months of work east of the Jordan
and in Anti-Lebanon and Lebanon, came to Beirut. I was able to
give him valuable specimens, and as he had discovered at the
Dog River bluff on the floor of an ancient cavern a fine deposit
of bone breccia, I undertook to excavate it. I did so, and
shipped to him half a ton of fine specimens of breccia, bones,
flint, and teeth, some of which I afterwards saw in the British
Museum. The acquaintance then begun continued until his
death in 1905.
Xenophon, in his account of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand,
says that when in Colchis, within two days of Trebizond, a strange
accident happened. The soldiers, finding an abundance of bee-
hives and honey and eating the same, were seized with violent
vomiting and fluxes attended with delirious fits. ''The earth
was strewn with their bodies as after a defeat ; however none of
them died and the distemper ceased the next day." Last week,
a small sailing vessel reached Beirut from Asia Minor bringing a
large quantity of honey in skin bottles. It was sold so cheaply
that multitudes of people bought it and took it home. That
night there was a running after doctors such as has not often been
seen. All who ate the honey were seized with vomiting blood,
and bloody discharges from the bowels. At first the cause was
not known, but by daylight the next day it was traced to the
honey, and the pasha seized and destroyed all the Cilician honey
in the market. All who ate of it recovered, though greatly weak-
ened. The origin of the poison in the honey is the flowers of
the poppy and wild oleander on which the bees feed. Why it
does not poison the bees is a question for the naturalists.
Aghil Agha of the Ghor below Beisan, on whom Dr. Thomson
and I called in February, 1857, visited Beirut at this time with a
vast retinue of mounted Bedawin warriors, armed with spears and
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274 Further Growth
swords, muskets and pistols. He came to pay his respects to the
pasha but had the air of a sultan. He is now at peace with the
Turks and the Jordan valley is quiet
On December 30, 1863, a meeting was held at the house of
Dr. Van Dyck in Beirut, attended by Dr. Van Dyck and Messrs.
Ford, H. H. Jessup and Hurter of the American Mission, Rev. S.
Robson of Damascus, James Black, Esq., British merchant of
Beirut, and J. A. Johnson, Esq., United States consul The by-
laws forwarded by Rev. D. Stuart Dodge for the Syrian Protestant
College were discussed and approved. In our reply, we insisted
on the evangelical character of the college and that every pro-
fessor must be an evangelical Christian. The creed, or doc-
trinal basis of the Evangelical Alliance was adopted as the stand-
ard to which every professor should subscribe, and continued as
such Until the year 1902, when, although it continued as the
basis of belief, no one was obliged thereafter to subscribe to it.
Towards the end of the year, several of the oldest and most
prominent members of the Beirut church were in an unfortunate
quarrel, not even speaking to one another. Argument and per-
suasion seemed of no avail. At length we appointed a day of
fasting and prayer. A meeting was held which was very solemn.
I then made personal visits to all parties concerned, and at nine
o'clock at night, in a pouring rain, went with my lantern to the
house of two of them to go with me to the third, the oldest of
all, and after prayer there was a melting and a falling on each
others' necks, and asking pardon, and our hearts were filled with
praise and gratitude. It was a fitting close to the year and a
preparation for new joys and trials, both of which soon followed
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XII
Obstacles to Success
1864-1866 — CoDversions slow — ^Mrs. Jessup's death— A sonowfiil
furlough— Cholera epidemic — ^A new church building.
AT the opening of 1864, Dr. Thomson was in Egypt en
route to Sinaii engaged in Biblical researches, accom-
panied by Dr. E. R. Beadle (of Hartford and Philadel-
phia and formerly a missionary in Syria), and Rev. Arthur
Mitchell.
January 3d six adults were received to the Beirut church, one
of them a daughter of Shaheen Barakat, the elder of the church
in Hasbeiya who was killed in the massacre while praying for
his enemies. The Sunday-school and Bible classes were well
attended and there were seven hundred and fifty children in
Protestant schools in Beirut and about two thousand in all SyrisLt
not including Palestine.
January ilth I wrote to Rev. Dr. Joel Parker, who had just
removed to Newark, N. J. In the letter I said, " I feel more and
more that whatever else we may do as ministers of the everlasting
Gospel, our work is vain, if we never hear the inquiry, ' What
shall I do to be saved ? ' and although the missionary work in
Syria is by no means a failure, yet I often long for a few weeks
or months in some church at home where God is pouring out
His Spirit in great power. Thus far in Syria, conversions have
occurred in isolated cases, here and there an individual coming
out on the Lord's side, but we have not yet seen a general re-
vival, enkindling all hearts and giving such a foretaste of heaven
on earth as j^ou have often witnessed during your long ministry,
and such as, I pray, you may often witness again. We have
just received six persons in our church. Some of the casey were
deeply interesting, evincing a deep spiritual experience such as is
275
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276 Obstacles to Success
not often met with in this land Dr. Van Dyck has proceeded
with the Old Testament translation to Isaiah 30th, and 6,369,000
pages have been printed during the year; 12419 books were
issued from the press, of which 6,142 were Testaments and parts
of Scripture. A great impulse has been given to education.
Mr. Bistany, a Protestant Syrian, has a boarding-school of 117
paying pupils. A few years since, the people could hardly be
hired to send their children to school. Now they are willing to
pay eighty dollars a year for their boys and forty for girls, in
Protestant schools."
In my diary of this year I noted : '' An intelligent French
gentleman, who was present at the marriage of the Nile and the
Red Sea at Suez, has just told us of that historical event, when
the sweet waters of the Nile were let loose on the briny waves
at a point where fresh running water was never known before in
the history of man. If M. de Lesseps has achieved no other
success than supplying Suez with fresh water, he would be
worthy of lasting honour." Up to that time all the fresh water
used at Suez had been transported by rail from the Nile, a most
difficult and expensive undertaking. The ceremony of joining
the sweet and bitter waters in wedlock was one of not a little
excitement. A crowd of invited guests, European gentlemen
and ladies from Cairo and Alexandria, had assembled to witness
the memorable event The water was to be let through from the
canal to the sea by the hands of fair ladies, and to trickle down
in a gentle rivulet for the entertainment of the spectators, while
eloquence and music were to commemorate the august event
But no sooner had the decorated spade removed the first little
barrier of earth, than the crumbling sand of the embankment
melted away and the turbid tide swept through with such violence,
that the distinguished guests only escaped sharing the fate of
Pharaoh's army by a general stampede. The reddish, muddy
water of the Nile then flowed forth unchecked, staining the
greenish water of the sea for several miles and giving it reason
for once, if never before, for having the title of the " Red Sea."
On the 20th of January my son Henry Wynans was bom ; and
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A Jewish Mission 277
with one daughter and two sons, my cup of joy seemed full.
Months passed on. On April 3d brother Samuel baptized little
Harry at a Sunday evening meeting at our house, at which Drs.
Thomson and Van Dyck. were present, also Dr. Norman
McLeod, Rev. Donald McLeod, Mr. Alexander Strahan, the
publisher, and a large company of friends. These eminent men
proposed to us the establishment of a Jewish mission and Eng-
lish chaplaincy in Beirut, under the auspices of the Church of
Scotland, their missionary to occupy the pulpit of the American
Church at 1 1 A. u. The first missionary was Rev. J. Robert-
son, D. D., afterwards Professor of Semitic languages in Glasgow
University, who laboured for thirteen years until 1877. He
opened schools for Jewish boys and girls, and preached most ac-
ceptably during this period. At first he confined his labours to
Jewish children, but on our suspension of the day-school for boys,
he opened his school to all sects, and this school has continued to
this day. In 1880 Rev. George M. Mackie, D.D., took up the
work and still continues the beloved pastor of the Anglo-American
Congregation and active in every good work. He has instructed
hundreds of Jewish children and has a hold upon their confidence
and affection which shows the advantage of continuity in the
missionary work. Dr. McLeod's remarks on Numbers 14:21,
** As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of
the Lord," made a profound impression upon my mind. The
divine voice of bright promise speaking out in that darkest hour
of Israel's history gave me a new vision of the glory of Christ's
kingdom.
During those spring months we had visits from many Christian
tourists, among whom were Dr. Arthur Mitchell, Dr. Beadle and
a second visit from Canon Tristram, also Dr. Geo. W. Wood and
Mr. Gross, a remarkably promising young missionary from Adana,
who after only a few months was cut down by a malignant fever.
My time was taken up with Arabic preaching, visiting, and the
custom-house business of the mission. Messrs. Calhoun and
Hurter left for England and America on May 31st. On the 13th
of June I went to Suk el Gharb and engaged a house for the
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278 Obstacles to Success
summer. Mrs. Jessup was now attacked with a severe nervous
afTection which did not yield to medical treatment, and on the
2ist Dr. Van Dyck decided that a sea voyage was necessary for
her recovery. Brother Samuel and his wife came on from
Tripoli and aided in the needed preparations, and on the 30th we
sailed for Liverpool on the English merchant steamer Isis, ta^
king only Anna and William, as Harry's nurse refused to go, and
he was left an infant in the loving care of his Aunt Annie.
That night of embarkation was one of peril. The weather was
intensely hot The steamer had gone to Juneh Bay, twelve
miles up the coast, to take on fifteen hundred sheep, and as it
would not return to Beirut roadstead until ten o'clock p. m., Cap-
tain Horsefall agreed to signal with rockets on leaving Junelu
We saw the rockets and walked down half a mile to the landing,
porters carrying the sick one on an iron travelling bedstead. In
those days there were no carriages available. We reached the
landing in pitch darkness, having one small lantern, brother
Samuel and Dr. Thomson being with us. I was nearly exhausted
from want of sleep and the great heat. We wound sheets over
the bedstead, securing it to the boat, Dr. Thomson being with me;
Samuel was in another boat with the two children. The steamer
was far oUt and had not anchored. We went up alongside the
stairs, and Samuel with the boatman carried the little ones up to
the cabin, walking over the backs of a dense mass of sheep
which covered the deck from stem to stern. The captain's boat
lay alongside and he gave orders to transfer the bedstead to his
boat and then it would be drawn up to the davits and we could
easily lift it on the deck. We had just removed it from the shore
boat when the screw began to back water, and as we were close
to the stern, the boiling, foaming waves around us rocking the
boat, nearly threw us all into the awful roaring waters. We
shouted ourselves hoarse in calling to the sailors on deck to haul
away on the davit pulleys and just then they hauled on the ropes
attached to the bow of the boat, and it began to rise until it was
almost on end. Dr. Thomson and I grasped the sides of the boat
and the bedstead, and it seemed as if we should all be pitched
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Death of Mrs. Jessup 279
down into the water, when providentially, some one saw the mis-
take, and the other end was raised and we finally reached the
deck. How the bed reached the saloon over the crouching,
bleating mass of sheep I do not know. I fell back and fainted
from sheer exhaustion. The sick one was placed in a hammock
in the ladies' cabin, and soon the steamer started on its way.
Seasickness, the horrible filth of the decks occasioned by the
sheep, and a very rough head wind made the run to Alexandria
most trying. In forty-four hours we reached the port of
Alexandria, Friday evening. On Saturday, July 2d, Drs. McKay
and Ogilvie came on board and declared the case of the patient
very serious, and at 2 p. m. she fell asleep in Christ. The funeral
service was conducted the next morning, Sunday, at 7 o'clock by
Rev. Andrew Watson, of the American United Presbyterian
Mission. The burial was in the English cemetery. Dr. Watson
kindly invited us to his house. After full consideration, I decided
to reembark on the Isis^ with the two children, for Liverpool and
Samuel returned, July 6th, to Beirut. I sailed on the /th, and
after eighteen days reached Liverpool July 25th, where I was
welcomed by that dear brother, Mr. Hurter, who had preceded me.
While in Alexandria, I met the Maharajah Duleep Singh with
his Christian wife. He was rejoicing in his honeymoon. The
son of one of the richest princes of India, he was living in honour-
able exile in England on a princely stipend, and had long since
embraced the Christian faith. He told me that he could not
marry an Indian princess, as she would be a heathen, nor an
English princess, as her tastes would be so different from his own,
but he had found in the mission school in Cairo a maiden who
was of mixed English and Abyssinian blood, a cultivated Chris-
tian girl, having both the Eastern and Western characteristics.
Out of gratitude for this wife of his choice, he for years sent an
annual gift of ;f 1,000 to the American Mission in Egypt.
On July 27th I sailed from Liverpool with the two children and
Mr. Hurter on the City of London for New York. The voyage
was cold and rough. On the 3d of August we saw nine icebergs
and the sea was full of floating ice. In the distress of seasickness
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28o Obstacles to Success
and tlie chilling air, I kept my room the most of the way, and
Mr. Hurter, in the kindness of his heart, cared for the two chil-
dren. We reached New York August 8th.
The past months looked like a dream. The sudden break-
ing up of my home and the scattering of my children had come
upon me as a fearful shock. What did the Lord mean by send-
ing me home ? I was not long in discerning His hand and His
providential guidance. The Beirut School for Girls was as the
apple of my eye. I felt that the future of Syria depended on
the education of its girls and women. Our school had started,
but it had no building and already had to turn away applicants
for want of room. Yet the Board of Missions declined to erect a
building and we saw no way to raise the needed funds. When it
was decided that I go to America, the mission gave me a vote
approving the raising in America of a sum of ten tiiousand
dollars for a building. Could it be done ? In September and
October I visited New York and Philadelphia and laid the
subject before a few friends of missions. The American Board
gave me their sanction on condition that it should not interfere
with their regular income. Mr. William A. Booth and Mr.
William E. Dodge of New York were my advisers and they both
subscribed liberally. Matthias W. Baldwin, John A. Brown, and
Jay Cooke of Philadelphia did the same. I went from city
to city and from one man to another until in the middle of
November the greater part of the sum was raised, and I went
back to my Syrian home with a thankful heart, leaving the dear
daughter and son with loving friends, William with his grand-
parents and Anna with her Aunt Mary Chandler. Few children
separated from parental care have been more wisely and tenderly
trained than were these three little ones, and they have all proved
to be faithful followers of their Lord and Master. During that
visit of thirteen weeks the Lord used me in not only insuring
the erection of the Beirut Girls' Boarding-School but in awaken-
ing wide interest in missions and in the support of the school.
Early in October I attended the meeting of the American Board
in Worcester and had to speak five times. Mr. A. Yanni, our
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Yanni's Gift for United States Soldiers 281
zealous brother ia Tripoli, Syria, had sent by me two boxes of
cones of the cedars of Lebanon, sea-shells, and other Syrian
curios, to be sold for the benefit of the wounded Union soldiers
in the hospitals. A number of young men and women in the
church in Worcester took charge of the sale, and handed me
at its dose one hundred and eighty dollars. My old college
friend and my brother's classmate, E. P. Smith, was then active
in the Christian Commission and for this sum bought seven
hundred and twenty Testaments for the boys in blue. It was a
very gratifying incident, and filled Mr. Yanni's heart with joy.
On the 26th of November I sailed on the City of London for
Liverpool, reaching London December 8th, where I took lodg-
ings in the same house with Dr. Bliss and family. He was en-
gaged in raising funds for the Beirut College, the endowment of
;^ 100,000 having been already raised in America. While waiting
in London to make connection with the Marseilles steamer, I
visited Canon Tristram at Greatham, Stockton on Tees, and
spent a week with his delightful family. He had a wonderful
collection of shells, birds, and birds' nests. He was an authority
on botany and ornithology and we had many tastes in common.
He took me to Hartlepool where we saw fast steamers being
built to run the blockade to Charleston to bring out cotton. Dr.
Tristram was, like most Englishmen, in sympathy with the
Souths but before I left he admitted that he had modified his
views. His ten children, all under thirteen years of age, were
a delight to me and they showed me through the two almshouses,
** for twelve old fathers and twelve old mothers," all over sixty
years of age, describing the peculiar characteristics of each.
Father William was pointed out as " greedy " and always want-
ing the biggest piece of everything.
On Sunday Dr. Tristram drove me six miles to Norton where
he preached a charity sermon for Rev. Clements. After service
we went into the rectory and the sisters of Mr. Clements brought
in a tray with decanters and glasses with two kinds of wine.
They were amazed at my declining wine, and said they had
never before seen a person who drank only water. Returning
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282 Obstacles to Success
to London, I had a brief visit with Dr. and Mrs. Btiss. Dr. Bliss
had many opportunities to address public meetings in London.
He once addressed the anniversary of the British and Foreign
Bible Society in Exeter Hall. Lord Shaftesbury presided. A
Church of England clergyman, with that spirit of fawning to the
aristocracy which is so common in English public meetings,
said, ** I congratulate the Bible Society in being honoured by
your Lordship's presence as chairman," etc., etc. Dr. Bliss followed
and said, '* Your' Lordship, I do not congratulate the Bible
Society in having your Lordship as chairman but I do congrat-
ulate you on being allowed to preside at a meeting held to
promote the distribution of the Word of God." At the dose
Lord Shaftesbury took Dr. Bliss by the hand and said, ** It was
refreshing to hear from you such a sensible remark. I am sick
of this constant flattery."
1865 — I landed at Beirut January nth. I was welcomed
to the hospitable home of Dr. Van Dyck where I remained a
month. I then set up housekeeping with my cook Assaf
Haddad and his wife Margarita in the house of Amaturi near
the Damascus Road. Assaf continued to be my cook ever since
until October, 1908, and is a grandfather.
January 17th the annual meeting of the mission was held.
Nine missionaries were present, among them Rev. J. E. Ford.
Rev. Mr. Williams of Mardin had requested us to send Mr. and
Mrs. Ford to reinforce that station, but in view of the needs of
the mission and the health of Mrs. Ford, it was decided that
Mr. Ford and family visit the United States, and they sailed
June 30th with Miss Mason, whose school in Sidon had given
such excellent satisfaction.
The translation and printing of the Old Testament having
been completed March loth, it was voted that Dr. Van Dyck
be authorized to go to New York and superintend the electro-
typing of the Arabic Scriptures. The celebration on March loth
is noticed in the chapter on Bible Translation. On March 12th
we had a public service in commemoration of the completion
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Arrival of Samuel Hallock 283
of the translation of the Bible, and addresses were made by
Rev. J. Robertson, Mr. B. Bistany, and Rev. D. Stuart Dodge.
Dr. Van Dyck and family sailed June 3d, and he remained in
New York until October 20, 1867, when he returned, having
accomplished successfully his great work. He brought with
him Mr. Samuel Hallock, electrotyper, who was a son of Mr.
Roman Hallock, the ingenious American who made the first
punches and matrices for the Beirut font of Arabic type. In
June, 1865, we broke ground for the new girls' school building in
Beirut, the new edifice including the old press building, so long
known as " Buij Bird."
In July cholera appeared in Egypt and there were five hundred
deaths a day in Cairo. It was brought to Beirut by the refugees
and the city fell into a frightful panic. Not less than twenty
thousand people left the city in a week. I saw them surging by
my house, the " Im Beshara " house on Assur, old and young,
mounted and walking, faces pale with fright, and all this before
there had been a single case in Beirut ; but after a few days the
disease broke out I removed to this house June 2d and had
Mr. Calhoun as my first guest. In March we had a visit from
Rev. Frank F. Ellinwood and Mr. Ailing, of Rochester, and on
the 20th I went to Damascus with them and Rev. D. Stuart
Dodge. Four days later, at 4 a. m., Mr. Dodge and I walked the
whole length of Damascus from Mr. Crawford's house to the
Diligence Station, fighting our way against almost innumerable
colonies of dogs. Mr. Dodge and the servant carried the bag-
gage and the lantern, and I was armed with stones with which I
kept at bay the ferocious barking ** curs of low degree " as we
went through the little doors in the numerous gates which divided
one quarter of the city from another.
The old chapel in the " Buij Bird " in Beirut was at this time
enlarged, owing to the growing congregation.
Early in April, Sir Henry Bulwer, H. B. M. Ambassador to
Constantinople, visited Beirut. It was understood that he was
on his way to Egypt to interfere in some way with the com-
pletion of the Suez Canal, or at least to prevent its becoming a
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284 Obstacles to Success
French affair. Several months before, two Moslems in Damascus
who had professed Christianity had been imprisoned in the Great
Mosque, and another was imprisoned in Beirut in February with
chains about his neck. The case was laid before the British
consuls in Damascus and Beirut and they said they could do
nothing as they would not be supported by the British embassy
in Constantinople.
On February 13th I wrote a private letter to Dr. Daniel Bliss
in London as follows: <<Two Mohammedans have become
Christians in Damascus and one of them has been brought to
Beirut in chains, and is now confined in the barracks here, ex-
posed to insult and suffering. Chains are on his neck and he will
probably be speedily put out of the way. We shall do what we
can, but the Turks have all read in the Arabic newspapers an ac-
count of the conduct of Sir Henry Bulwer in Constantinople, and
they care absolutely nothing for European protest against such
baibarous persecution. We can pray for this poor persecuted
man but no one is allowed to see him. It reminds one of the old
days of pagan Rome in her persecuting hatred of the Christians.
These cases of converted Moslems are multiplying in every part
of the East. There are forty in one part of the empire inquiring
in earnest and I trust that their place will be kept secret, for there
is nothing so fatal to inquiry in this part of the world, as to have
the names of the secret inquirers published. The case of the
man now in bonds in Beirut is so public that I do not add to his
danger by speaking of him. If we can do nothing for him, we
can at least call public attention to this new and glaring violation
of the principles of religious liberty. Will the time not come,
when the voice of Protestant England will again be regarded in
the East?"
Dr. Bliss was then in daily communication with the secretary
of the Turkish Mission's Aid Society, Rev. H. Jones, and widi
Dr. Schmettau and the leading men of the Evangelical Alliance.
He naturally informed them of this letter. Mr. Jones asked the
loan of it, and without consulting Dr. Bliss, sent a copy of it to
Earl Russell, Minister of Foreign Af&irs. Earl Russell at once
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Who is this American Jessup? 285
sent a copy of it with a letter to Sir Henry Bulwer and the mail
reached him on his arrival in Beirut. He was, to speak mildly,
furious. The next day he called on the American consul, J. A.
Johnson, and at once began to use violent language. " Who is
this American named Jessup ? I demand that he be expelled
from Syria." He then used expletives about the American mis-
sionaries generally and myself in particular which could hardly
be repeated in polite society. The consul replied that American
citizens were not easily expelled from Syria and added, " Sir, I
demand an apology for this insulting language in my house."
He then turned and left Sir Henry alone in the room.
The next day, Sir Henry having had time for reflection and
probably having made some inquiries as to the facts of the case,
returned and humbly begged Mr. Johnson's pardon for his lan-
guage on his previous visit. My letter having been a private
letter, and made public without Dr. Bliss's knowledge, I did not
feel responsible for the wounding of Sir Henry's sensibilities.
But it was the testimony of all Englishmen in Syria and Con-
stantinople with whom I came in contact, that Christian England
was grossly misrepresented in the character of Her Majesty's
ambassador at that time. His visit to Egypt did not stop the
digging of the Suez Canal, and the Prince of Wales was glad to
attend its historical opening in October, 1868, and later on
Disraeli made a master stroke in securing for England a con-
trolling interest in this magnificent work.
The months of April and May were full of exciting events.
We heard of Lee's surrender, the end of the war, and the assas-
sination of President Lincoln.
Dr. Thomson returned from his journey to Egypt, Sinai, and
Palestine with a rich treasure of photographs. On this trip he
discovered the site of Ai near Bethel.
The Church of Hums, which had written us an insulting letter
because we would not send them an American missionary to be
their pastor, now wrote a letter full of regret and penitence at
their language, begging us to ordain over them a native pastor,
and on the 28th of May, Rev. Mr. Calhoun and Dr. George E.
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286 Obstacles to Success
Post ordained and installed Rev. SuUeeba Jerawan as their pastor.
Previous to this. Dr. and Mrs. Post had buried their first-bora
son, Arthur, aged six months, who died during his father's ab-
sence in Beirut.
In May, 1865, the demand for the Arabic Scriptures was so
great that it became absolutely necessary to hasten the electro-
typing of the Arabic Bible. Before Dr. Van Dyck sailed, he
made an estimate of the working capacity of the press in Beirut,
and of the probable time required to supply every person of the
one hundred and twenty millions of the Arabic-speaking race
with a copy of the Scriptures. The sixteen workmen in the
Beirut Press can print an edition of 10,000 Bibles in six months
or 20,000 a year. At that rate it would require 6,000 years to
supply the Arab race with the Bible. Giving one to every
&mily of five persons, it would require 1,200 years. With the
electrotype plates, the Bible Society in New York may be able
to print in a year two hundred thousand Bibles and even then
would not be able to supply the Arab race in less than six hun-
dred years. Surely there is room for all the presses of all the
Bible societies in this great field.
The departure of four missionaries this year threw heavy bur-
dens upon those remaining. Dr. Van Dyck sailed June 3d, with
his family, to electrotype the Arabic Bible in New York. On
June 30th, Mr. J. Ford and family left by medical advice. In
October, Mr. and Mrs. Berry were ordered to leave on account
of feeble health, and on December i6th. Dr. W. M. Thomson left
for England. I was thus left alone in Beirut, and was called upon
to do extra work. Preaching twice on Sunday, with Sunday-
school, Bible classes, the care of the press, proof-reading and edit-
ing, a large correspondence, the custom-house and post-office
work, pastoral visitation, and the planning and erection of the
female seminary edifice and new building for the press, I had few
idle hours. But my health was perfect, and nothing is better for
a healthy man than hard work.
The outbreak of cholera in July and the stampede of 20,000
people to the mountains broke up our congregation, the press
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Murderous Attack on Missionaries 287
work, and the building, as the workmen had all left the city. It
was a time of great solemnity. The sight of such a city as this
almost deserted through a mere panic, when no case of cholera
had occurred, impressed one with the mighty power of God.
The press men deserted in a body and went off to Lebanon. The
new building was left without a workman. Leaving our faithful
deacon, Elias Fuwaz, in charge, July 12th, I made a visit to my
brother Samuel and Dr. Geo. E. Post in Duma and six hours
further to the Cedars of Lebanon. My companion was Mr. Pye-
Smith of Alexandria, a nephew of Dr. Pye-Smith, the English
geologist On our return south through the upper range of
Lebanon, we found ourselves blocked by quarantines at every
village smd had to prove that we had been away from Beirut at
least ten days. On reaching Abeih, July 28th, I found that all
communication with Beirut was cut off by a quarantine, in the
open field, of fifteen days. Letters brought up by muleteers were
fumigated in the field in the quarantine tent. The loads were
dumped on the ground and left to sun for a day or two and then
brought into the village.
August 1st came a telegram from Tripoli of a murderous
attack on Dr. Post and Mr. Samuel Jessup in Duma, by a drunken
Maronite named Nasif Bu Kemal of Bekfeia. One man snapped
a gun at Dr. Post's head which missed him. Another struck him
on the shoulder with a huge club, but it only inflicted a slight
bruise. I wrote at once to Bhamdoun to consult the American
consul, and he telegraphed to the acting governor of Lebanon,
and to Mr. Yanni in Tripoli. Daud Pasha, governor of Lebanon,
had gone to G>nstantinople to get troops to suppress the rebellion
of Yusef Keram of Ehden, near the Cedars. The whole moun-
tain was in disorder and roads unsafe, as Yusef Keram's peasant
soldiers and the horsemen of Silman Harfoosh, a Metawileh out-
law, were plundering at their will. In view of the complication
which might arise, were two American families left in that dis-
turbed region, Mr. Bird and I were instructed by the mission to
go to Duma with mules, and bring the two missionaries to Abeih.
On our arrival we found that Yusef Keram, the Ehden rebel, and
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288 Obstacles to Success
sent and offered to come and burn Duma and punish Nasif, the
Kesrawan criminal. His object was to show his authority in
Northern Lebanon. The offer was declined, as the attack was
not made by the people of Duma, and further, we would not al-
low the burning of the village on our account Samuel and
fomily went first with me, and Dr. Post and family a week later
with Mr. Bird. The culprit was punished and obliged to pay the
entire expenses of the trip to remove the missionaries. This the
consul insisted upon and for years after that time the American
missionaries in Tripoli summered there with a hearty welcome
from the people.
On my return to Abeih with Mr. Pye-Smith, I found a letter
from President McLean, announcing that Princeton had conferred
on me the degree of D. D. As I had never been in Princeton,
and belonged to the New School Presbytery of Montrose, I was
much surprised. I could not say ** an enemy hath done this," nor
was I sure that a friend had done it, and it remained a mystery,
until a letter from my friend and my father's friend, Rev. S. H.
Cox, D. D., explained his intervention in the matter. In acknowl-
edging this honour to President McLean, I wrote, ** I trust that
this act of your institution is but an omen of that coming day,
when the Presbyterian Church shall be one in outward union
again, as it is one in doctrine and traditions and sacred associa-
tions, for we are ' one body in Christ/ I am confident that if the
question of reunion were left to the missionaries of the^Old and
New School in foreign lands, it would be speedily consummated.*'
Just before the cholera outbreak in Beirut, a Mohammedan
sheikh, Abdul Khalily, who had read a vowelled Testament
brought to him by one of his pupils, became a Christian. His
wife raised an alarm and he was hurried ofT to prison. This in-
formation was brought to me by Moslem friends. It is not likely
that he will ever be heard from. Cholera epidemics prove con-
venient times for disposing of obnoxious persons. Sheikh Yusef
el Asir told me that he had been sent to Damascus.
During the cholera epidemic in Beirut, every village in Lebanon
put a quarantine of fifteen days against Beirut. The MoslemSf
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Fatalism vs. Cholera 289
being fatalists, will not flee nor take medicines. But the New
School Moslems believe in running away, and they hired a learned
sheikh to preach in the mosque on the doctrine of fate as affected
by cholera. He said the doctrine was no doubt applicable and
well enough in the days of the prophet, and did apply to the
plague. But as there was no cholera in his da)rs, it was not a
violation of the Koran to flee from cholera. The result of this
''fetwa" or legal decision was a great exodus of Moslems from
Beirut to Lebanon. This cholera visitation swept ofl* 46,000 in
ten days in Mecca and 1,000 a day for some days in Cairo and
moved northward. Not less than 3,000 died in Beirut, chiefly
Mohammedans. Whole families were swept away. All business
ceased. The labouring classes were on the verge of starvation.
In Damascus the ravages of the pestilence were frightful At the
same time locusts appeared in Syria and devastated whole dis-
tricts, adding to the dismay of the afflicted people. The cattle
murrain also ravaged Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, in some places
destroying all the cattle. There has hardly been a year since I
came to Syria when some one or more of these plagues have not
visited the land.
In Safita, Northern Syria, a cruel and barbarous persecution
was carried on against the Protestants by Beit Bashoor and the
Greek priests and bishops. The people were turned out-of-doors,
their houses plundered, their grain burned on the threshing-floors,
their women and girls turned over to Turkish soldiers, and women
with children beaten with clubs, until the whole little community
were driven into the wilderness. They appealed to Rashid Pasha,
the new Waly of Syria, in Damascus, and he arrested the chief
persecutors.
Truly that summer of 1865 was one of trial, affliction and
sorrow, and out of the depths we cried unto the Lord. But there
was one relief. Sir Henry Bulwer resigned and left Constanti-
nople to the great joy of all British subjects in Ssoia, and was
succeeded by Lord Lyons.
Among my correspondents was Rev. W. F. Williams of
Mardin and Mosul. He agonized over the Arabic gutturals,
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290 Obstacles to Success
and once, in a letter, asked me, « Do you really think that a man
who speaks easily these awful guttural sounds can enter the
kingdom of God ? " At another time, speaking of the desperate
poverty of some of the villagers, he said, ** The children are
so wretchedly ragged that there is not cloth enough in their gar-
ments to make borders for the holes." During this summer, in
spite of cholera, I sent off supplies through our Beirut agent to
the missionaries in Northern Syria and Asia Minor.
Early in October the cholera ceased, and the refugee population
came back to Beirut Many found that their houses had been
robbed during the months of cholera, and the business losses had
been immense. But they had saved their lives and that was
enough to make up for all money loss. Then the Abu Rikab or
dengue fever broke out and hardly a man, woman, or child
escaped, though it was not fatal.
The press workmen returned, and the stone masons and car-
penters resumed work on the girls' school edifice, but in a few
days they too were down with the fever, which lasted a few
hours, but left the body exhausted and enfeebled for weeks.
Then came, on October i6th, a burning sirocco east wind with
stagnant stifling heat by day and night. And how we longed
for rain, the " early rains " I May, June, July, August, and
September had passed without a drop of rain, and the ground, as
usual at this season, was parched, the grass dry, and the leaves
of the trees white with dust. The siroccos generally come in
April and May, but this year the fierce east wind seemed to roll
waves and billows of furnace-like hot air down over Lebanon
into the sea, for at such a time it is as hot on Mount Leb-
anon (Sunneen 8,600 feet above the sea level), as it is on the
plain.
About November ist Daud Pasha returned from Constanti-
nople with plenary authority to suppress Yusef Keram's rebellion.
After various engagements in which Keram's motley army of
peasants, priests, and monks were defeated by the pasha's troops,
he surrendered in March, 1866, at the request of the French
consul-general, and went into exile. Yusef Keram was a devout
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A Very Willing Inquirer 291
Maronite, fond of the clergy, but fatally ambitious, and his fall
was a blessing to distracted Lebanon.
After the first battle between Keram's and the pasha's troops, a
stalwart Maronite peasant came to my house. He was a tall
robust fellow bristling with arms, a gun, pistols, and sword. He
said at once, " Beddi akloob Angliz " (I want to turn Protestant).
«« Why ? " said I. " Oh, because yours is the only true religion,
and I love you very much." I said, " Do you know what we be-
lieve ? " " No," said he, " but I can learn." " Well, supposing
we worship the devil ? " " All right," said he, " whatever you
worship m worship." " Nonsense," said I, " what is the use of
your talking about religion ? What did you come here for ?
Tell me the whole case." " Ah," said he, " I'll tell you. I be-
long to Yusef Beg Keram's army and Was captured by the pasha
and have escaped, and if he catches me a second time he will
shoot me, so I want to turn Angliz and get the protection of
your flag." I gave the poor fellow some instruction in gospel
truth, and then said, '< Yusef Beg has surrendered, and the pasha
has granted an amnesty to all his army." '* Thank you," said
he, " then I'll go ; good-day, sir," and bolted out of the house.
In December the learned Mohammedan of Beirut, Abd el
Kadir el Khalily, came to visit me again, night after night, like
Nicodemus, and seemed deeply interested in the Gospel of Christ.
He has narrowly escaped death for his course and been in prison
and bonds, but still continues to inquire. One of our school-
girls was taken from school to be married, being twelve years
old. Another one, aged ten, was married, and when she came to
visit her teachers brought her dolls with her. A young Copt
from Abyssinia named Selim called on me and wished to learn
about Christianity. He said he had been brought up as a slave
by a Moslem who taught him nothing ; then he was taken by
Armenian monks in Jerusalem who did not teach him, " and now
I am eighteen years old and have no religion. Can you tell me
what to do ? I cry every night when I go to sleep because I
have no religion and do not know how to pray and am afraid of
God. Do you think God would send me to hell if I should die
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292 Obstacles to Success
without knowing how to pray?" I told him of Christ the
Saviour and explained the way of salvation by faith, read to him
from the New Testament, and showed him how to pray. The
tears came to his eyes and he thanked me, and often came to get
instruction and seemed to have found peace in believing.
The year of 1865 was one of bitter persecution in Safita, where
the little flock was sifted like wheat, crops burned, cattle stolen,
houses attacked, women insulted, and all by a feudal family of
Orthodox Greeks who had enough influence with Turkish local
oflicials to commit every outrage without fear of punishment.
Years after three boys from Safita were in the Syrian Protestant
College, one from among those persecuted, and two were the
sons of the chief persecutors. They were staunch friends and the
poor boy placed his bed between theirs.
The number of Scriptures issued from the press in 1865 was
4,333, of which 2,120 were sent to Egypt. Not the least of my
personal burdens during 1865, when my colleagues were absent,
was the voluminous correspondence required to carry on the
girls' boarding-school in Beirut and complete its building. I
wrote not less than five hundred pages of letters to pastors and
Sunday-school superintendents, and raised about thirty annual
scholarships of eighty dollars each to support charity pupils.
Nothing was received from the American Board, and we had to
carry the load as individuals. As I look over those letters in my
copy-book now I am amazed at the amount of work laid out and
the eyesight expended.
To my great relief Mr. Henry E. Thomson took charge of the
business department of the mission and the press. But I was
not able for many years after this to shake off* the custom-house
business of the mission, and I have spent many precious hours
and suffered from many bruises in my body and rents in my
garments, from climbing over boxes, barrels, and bales in the
custom-house amid the yelling, crowding and cursing of a score
of rough porters and the jostling of merchants and traders pro-
testing against the ruthless smashing of their goods. These
porters designedly tear open sacks of rice and sugar and boxes
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The Beirut Church 293
of valuables in order to steal the contents in the confusion. A
Turkish custom-house is the best earthly type of pandemoniunL
The last of September, 1865, we received a copy of the
Sultan's order giving us the same privileges as the French, in
allowing all missionary goods to enter the custom-houses free of
duty. We never asked this privilege, but as it was given now to
all clergy, rabbis, moolahs, priests, nuns, monks, teachers, and
doctors of the hospitals native and foreign, we accepted the offer.
But some years after, when the Turks found that some of the
foreign monks and nuns were importing European goods and
handing them over to native merchants for sale, then the rule
was modified and gradually greater and greater restrictions have
been put on the missionaries, and we had (in 1907) the anomalous
condition that while the American Missions in Constantinople
and Smyrna had no duty to pay on imported goods, we in Syria
were subject to full duty on all importations. But through our
ambassador, Mr. Leishmann, the custom-house immunities have
been partially restored to us (in 1908) thus placing us on the
same footing as other foreigners in the empire.
1866 — In January of this year the Syria Mission, having decided
to build a church edifice in Beirut which should at the same time
be a home for the Syrian Evangelical Church, and also for the
Anglo-American Congregation, began to raise the needed funds
at home and abroad. After forty years of conducting the Eng-
lish preaching service at Beirut the mission had invited Rev.
James Robertson, missionary of the Jewish Committee of the
Church of Scotland, to assume this service, and this committee,
with a desire to make the work permanent, agreed to give ;£'450
sterling, on condition that they have control of the pulpit at
II o'clock A. M. every Sunday. After ten years, if either party
terminated the agreement by giving one year's notice, then jf 300
must be refunded to the Scotch Committee. Dr. Robertson
afterwards accepted a professorship in the divinity school of
Glasgow University, and was succeeded by Rev. George M.
Mackie in 1880, who has continued to the present time.
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294 Obstacles to Success
During this month I again engaged a Maronite from Kesrawan
to blast the bed of bone breccia discovered in 1864 by Canon
H. B. Tristram on the Dog River promontory. After the rock
had been thoroughly broken up, I went out and selected several 1
camel loads and shipped two boxes to Canon Tristram, to the \
British Museum, and five blocks also to the cabinet I was collect- i
ing for the college.
I also sent specimens to my old professor, James D. Dana of
Yale College, and said in a letter to him, " You will find in the
masses sent sharp elongated chips or fragments of flint, some of
which are not unlike the American Indian arrow-heads. I also
send a package of these flints broken out of the rock. From
the small fragments of bones and teeth sent to Dr. Tristram last
year, scientific men in England have inferred that they belonged
to a species of gigantic bison. I should be interested to know the . ,
opinion of yourself and Professor Silliman. The central deposit
is sixty feet in length, thirty feet in width, and ten feet in thick-
ness. The fossil geology of the Lebanon range has hardly be-
gun to be explored. Dr. Anderson's report in Lynch's
** Dead Sea " was necessarily meagre. It does not touch the
fossil fish or the fine pectens and echinoderms of the Northern
Lebanon. In every missionary journey we continually stumble
upon new specimens, and the collection whick I am now making
for the Syrian Protestant College will contain numerous interest-
ing fossils which have never been described. The rock sur-
rounding the bone breccia is a compact tertiary limestone con-
taining fossil corals and sponges."
In March, 1869, I received from General Cesnola, American
consul in Cyprus, a box of minerals, supposed to be cupreous
ores, which I sent to Professor Dana of Yale College for analysis.
As the ancient supplies of copper came chiefly from Cyprus
there must be extensive deposits of the ore in that classic island
During that winter the mission kindly brought brother Samuel
and his wife from Tripoli to Beirut. Samuel had been trained to
bookkeeping when a merchant, and he soon reduced my press
and mission accounts to order. Being the only trained business
1
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A Moral Chameleon I95
man in the mission up to that time, his business knowledge was
invaluable and has been so for the forty-six years of his mission-
ary life. He and his wife had charge of my youngest child
Harry, and this visit gave the little boy, two years and a half old,
his first opportunity to get acquainted with his father.
The ex-Jesuit William Gifford Palgrave was in Beirut January
loth. His moral and religious history is a curious study in
ethics. Before his journey through Arabia he was a zealous
Jesuit missionary, disputing with the Syrian Protestants and was
known as << Kus Mikhaiel." ^ After his journey and when he no
longer needed French Catholic aid, and when he did need the
good-will of his kindred in England in order to get his share of
the inheritance, he went to Berlin, openly renounced the Pope
and papacy, and became a good Protestant again. He was a
moral chameleon.
The death of Sarah Bistany in January made a deep religious
impression on all the young people in the schools and the
church.
During this year we began to raise funds for building a new
church in Beirut It was the policy of the American Board to
leave the erection of new buildings to the natives, but in view of
the fact that this building was to be used not only for the Arabic
but also for the Anglo-American Congregation in which scores
of tourists worship every year, they consented to give the land
and one thousand dollars towards the building. This edifice was
completed, the tower finished and the bell and clock set up,
early in 1870, as will appear later in this volume.
This month of January, 1866, was full of financial anxiety. I
was engaged in building the girls' school edifice and had finished
the lower story, when the funds began to give out and I wrote to
the New York friends a new appeal As we were very properly
obliged to accompany our appeal with a request that the dona-
tions should not interfere with the regular gifts to the Board, we
made slow progress. For econom/s sake I had postponed
building the lateral partition walls on the upper story, but a
'Kus=Reverend.
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296 Obstacles to Success
hurricane on March ist, which blew off the upper tier of stones*
compelled us, funds or no funds, to strengthen the walls and
build the partitions. God in His providence interposed, and
funds were given to finish the building ; Mrs. M. B. Young, of
Fall River, gave ^800 to dig a rain-water cistern to hold 10,000
jars of water which has been an untold blessing to the school.
At that time we had no water-works in Beirut All water for
drinking and washing came from wells and was expensive. This
cistern saved the school ^200 a year. Carlyle once proposed
that instead of a monument to a man they sink a coal shaft to
him. Mrs. Young's cistern has been a noble monument to her
liberality.
The sheikh of the village of Mahardee, northeast of Hamaih,
came to Hums to get a Bible. Not having the ready cash he
gave his sword for a Bible. My brother Samuel secured the
sword and it was sent on to New York and hung in the room of
the American Bible Society where it remains. That Bible
wrought wonders. An evangelical church was established,
schools opened, and it is (in 1908) one of the brightest spots in
Ssoia. No better exchange could a man make than to give a
sword of steel for the Sword of the Spirit.
February 13th — A touching incident occurred in the girls'
school. One of the little girls, aged seven, came to her teacher
and said, <' I am Jesus' girl now. Last night I gave my heart to
Jesus and He took it" Truly out of the mouths of babes has
the Lord perfected praise.
Dr. Post and family moved from Tripoli to Abeih this week,
to aid Mr. Calhoun in the seminary. They brought word that
Mr. Samuel Mitchell, brother of our dear friend Dr. Arthur
Mitchell, will join our mission this fall. He was in my Sunday-
school class in the Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church in 1854-55.
As I had agreed, in taking possession of the old mission house
(the Burj Bird) for the girls' school and thus turning the press
out-of-doors, to erect a new press building above the cemetery, I
did so, and thus expended 34,000 piastres (about $i,20Cl' of the
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Daniel Bliss Returns 297
seminary building fund, but we gained the old building which we
could not have erected for twice that money.
On the 2d of March we welcomed back from America and
England Rev. Dr. Daniel Bliss, Mrs. Bliss and four children.
They occupied the Kamad house in the eastern part of the city
and summered in Aitath» Mount Lebanon. Dr. Bliss began at
once his teaching work in the houses leased from Mr. B. Bistany.
A selected class of boys was put in training for the first college
class. During his eighteen months' stay in England he had se-
cured about twenty thousand dollars for current expenses of the
coil^e and made many friends for the institution.
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XIII
The Sjrrian Protestant College
THE Syrian Protestant College is the child of the SyrisL
Mission, and but for the mission work done in Syria
from 1820 to i860, it could not have existed. The
American preachers and teachers who had founded the native
evangelical church and trained a native ministry, planned and
proposed a literary institution which should control the higher
education of the future in the Orient in the interests of religion
and the Bible.
r ' The exclusion of the English language from the Abeih Seminary
\ in Lebanon, and the girls' boarding-school of Beirut, and con-
I fining all instruction to the vernacular Arabic, had begun as early
I as 1858 to lead prominent families to withdraw their children
1 from American schools and send them to the French Laza-
rists and Jesuits. And thus the edict of Dr. Anderson excluding
English from all mission schools of the American Board was
largely the occasion of the founding of the Syrian Protestant
College. The Abeih Seminary which had stood at the head of
Syrian high schools now shrank to a third or fourth place. It
was training men solidly in Arabic, in the Bible and the sciences,
and could fit men to be native preachers in the villages, but its
instruction was largely gratuitous.
' But the country demanded something more than this. Steam
had brought Europe face to face with Syria, and the Syrians de-
_ manded French and English. They also needed medical science
and educated physicians. The land was sufTering and groaning
under a dynasty of ignorant and conceited quacks. Who would
come to the rescue ? Who would initiate, adjust, guide and con-
trol such a system of education ? Was it to be left to the Jesuits,
those enemies of a pure Gospel, those masters of intrigue and
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Conflicting Plans 299
duplicity and perverters of the human conscience? This must
not be. The men were ready. Those who had started the first
steam printing-press in Syria and the first boys' and girls'
boarding-schools, were the first to initiate what took final form
as the Syrian Protestant College.
The massacres of i860 had brought Syria anew to the attention
of England and America. Many intelligent men from both
countries had visited Beirut, and expressed a desire that more
should be done for the future education of the Arab race. The
missionaries concurred in the desire and had frequent consulta-
tions on the subject. Various plans were proposed. The Malta
Protestant College, founded years before, had gathered students
from Greece, European Turkey, Asia Minor, and Egypt, but had
jiot been a success. They had not proved to be a benefit to their
native lands. The experiment of .educating the youth of a coun-
try in a foreign land is a dangerous one, especially if it be gra-
tuitous. Dr. William M. Thomson's favourite theory was to found
a school, with native Arab teachers and principal, as soon as
practicable, but to assist it by endowments from abroad. This
was also his plan in the Native Protestant Female Seminary,
founded in 1861, as a successor to Dr. Henry De Forest's high
school for girls. October 17, 1861, 1 wrote Rev. D. Stuart Dodge
in New York as follows: " We have now in contemplation a
plan for establishing a Protestant college in Beirut, to be under
native professors and teachers, to relieve the Board of the expense
of higher education in Beirut and Syria. We have the men for the
teachers, and Europeans and Americans will constitute the board
of trustees to control the funds which we hope to raise in England
and America, if it can be done without necessitating a Church of
England control of its aflairs. We should have made the appeal
in America as did Dr. Hamlin of Constantinople, but the Civil
War forbids."
On December 20th Rev. J. A. Ford left for England at the in-
vitation of the Turkish Mission's Aid Society with the under-
standing that Mr. Butrus Bistany, a learned Syrian Protestant,
would follow him ere long to aid in raising funds for a higher
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300 The Syrian Protestant College
literary institution where the president and professors should be
native Syrians.
Even as late as January 4, 1862, 1 wrote to Rev. John Worta-
bet as follows : '' If war does not break out between England
and America, immediate steps will be taken to establish a large
Protestant native institution of a high order in Beirut, with the
cooperation of all the missions in Syria, Palestine and Egypt."
But after extended correspondence and mature deliberation it
was found that none of the educated Syrians had had experience
with modern college methods and training ; and it became ap-
parent that the liberal donors in Europe and America would not
give money unless the institution were under Anglo-Saxon con-
trol.
The Beirut Girls' School was carried on for six years with
Syrian teachers, when the principal broke down under the load,
and as no available Syrian woman was qualified to take her place
at that time, it became necessary to secure American teachers.
' After repeated conferences and thorough discussion of the
question in all its bearings, it was decided by the Syria Mission,
January 23, 1862, that Dr. Thomson and Mr. Daniel Bliss be a
committee " to prepare a minute in relation to a contemplated
literary institution to be located in Beirut" Mr. Bliss was also
proposed as principal.
The minute was presented January 27th and adopted, and Mr.
Bliss was elected principal. One of the clauses of the minute
was as follows : "It is deemed essential for the success of the
undertaking that the contemplated institution should be guided
and guarded by the combined wisdom and experience of the
mission and have for its principal a person who shall be able,
with the divine blessing, to infuse into it that elevated moral and
religious influence without which scientific and literary educa-
tion may prove a curse and not a blessing." The plan was then
. referred to the Prudential Committee of the A. B. C. F. M. for
their consideration and sanction, and they were asked to author-
ize the appointment of Mr. Bliss.
In reply the Prudential Committee gave their approval of the
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Views of Prudential Committee 301
plan, but with evident misgiving, and consented to the appoint-
ment of Rev. D. Bliss as principal^ his salary as missionary to
continue for the present.*
Their letter was a masterly statement of the objections to a
high grade English teaching institution on the mission field, and
their approval of the ground taken by the mission, that such a
school should not be supported by ordinary mission funds, but
have its own independent endowment and board of trustees.
They also insisted that the vernacular institution at Abeih could
not be modified to meet the wants here contemplated ; but that
the college could in time relieve Abeih Academy of its literary
department, leaving it thereafter to pursue only theological studies.
They quoted from the Liverpool Conference of Missions, that " it
is difficult to educate, without, to a certain extent, denational-
izing, and that the denationalizing tendency is to be corrected by
emphasizing . the vernacular part of the educational course, and
that it is difficult to get those acquiring an English education to
pay attention to their own language/' It was also urged that
Asiatics acquiring civilized habits will be unfitted to live at home
in their native region, and do good to their own people. Dr.
Anderson, who was the writer of the Board's reply, summed up
his views by saying in substance that the education given should
not ie gratuitous ; that it should involve no necessary change of
habits and tastes ; and that ** we confess to an apprehension that
Beirut will not be found the place for the young men^ preparing
for the ministry." He quotes Dr. Alexander DufTas saying that
** the missions want men with a simple but sufficient education,
especially adapted to the condition and wants of the rural pop-
ulation, who will be cheerfully willing to labour for moderate
salaries ; but that a smattering of English fills men with conceit,
makes them unwilling to labour in the villages, and that they
will be dissatisfied and heartless grumblers, were we to offer them
less than double or treble the sum cheerfully accepted by those
educated in a vernacular course." He quotes Dr. Kingsbury of
the Choctaw Mission as saying that " with a few interesting ex-
^ Anderson's '' Missions to the Oriental Churches," VoL II, p. 388.
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302 The Syrian Protestant College
ceptions^ those that have acquired the most English seem to be
r .the furthest from embracing the Gospel" Dr. Anderson insists
\^ / I that the education be evangelical as opposed to the Jesuit
\ 1 I scheme. Their education is showy but deceptive. They fear to
\ \ \ cultivate the reasoning powers ; we fear nothing in the region of
^ logic, nothing from the light of truth. '« But do not attempt to
j 'educate the masses. That must be done by the people them-
t selves and they must support their own native pastorate and their
*" -^wn village schools."
This letter was read by the mission and carefully considered^
but there was nothing suggested that made us hesitate to go for-
ward with the enterprise. Reasons of health requiring that the
family of Mr. Bliss visit the United States, he was authorized to
go, and reached New York September 17th, in time to attend the
meeting of the A. B. C. F. M. in Springfield, Mass. There he
met Mr. and Mrs. William E. Dodge and their son. Rev. D.
Stuart Dodge. The interest of the latter in foreign missions, and
the fact that he had hoped to become a missionary to Syria,
made him a hearty advocate of the new college scheme, not only
in his own family, but in the pulpit and the press. It was de-
cided, after mature deliberation, to form a board of trustees, and
Mr. William A. Booth and Hon. William E. Dodge consented to
act, and through their influence Messrs. David Hoadley, Simeon
B. Chittenden, Abner Kingman and Joseph S. Ropes were in-
duced to serve. A local board of managers in Syria was then
appointed, composed of American and British missionaries,
American and British consuls and British merchants, eighteen in
all.
An appeal was issued for an endowment — we had asked Mr.
Bliss to raise, if possible, $20,000. But the sagacious and far*"
seeing trustees insisted that the sum be ^100,000. Hon. W. E,
Dodge headed the subscription with 1 15,000, and Mrs. Dodge
with |io,ooo.
In February, 1863, a circular appeal was issued by the trustees,
and Mr. Bliss and Mr. D. Stuart Dodge set about the work. It
was in the midst of the war for the Union, and a dark time, but
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The Board of Managers 303
money was plenty and " greenbacks " were being multiplied. In
1857 I gave President Woolsey, of Yale, several antique bronze
coins of the Emperor Probus. He observed with a smile, " We
have 700 coins of Probus in the Yale library. Probus was the
S. P. Chase of antiquity ; he seems to have done little but manu-
facture coins."
The local government of the college was vested from 1864 to
1902 in the board of managers and the faculty. The board of
managers met annually and often held special meetings. In the
outset, it was responsible for the financial management of the
college, and received every year the official report of the presi-
dent and faculty, which it ratified and transmitted to the trustees.
But after thirty-six years, in view of the increase in the number
of the members of the faculty and their large experience and ad-
mitted ability to manage the internal af&irs of the college, and
the fact that, owing to the rapid growth of the college and the
multiplication of its departments it was impossible for the man-
agers to give the needed time and study to the needs and inter-
ests of the college to enable them to vote intelligently on ques-
tions of policy and administration, the managers decided, after
long and prayerful consideration, to withdraw and leave their
functions and responsibilities to the faculty. They at the same
time expressed their unfailing interest in the college and their
willingness to aid by counsel and cooperation whenever the faculty
or trustees should ask their aid.
When Dr. John Wortabet was nominated by the managers in
Beirut as professor in the medical department in September, 1866,
objection was made on the ground that he was not an American
but a native of Syria. Dr. W. M. Thomson was a strong advo-
cate of his appointment and said emphatically, " If the appoint-
ment of native professors is to be impossible simply because they
are native, I must decline to have anything more to do with the
college." But this ground was never taken. The objection
which came from beyond the sea was based on the experience of
certain institutions where there was evident incompatibility be-
tween men of different nationalities trying to work together.
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304 Tbe Syrian Protestant College
Germans and Englishmen had not worked well together in certain
well-known cases. Dr. Wortabetwas elected and did excellent
work as a teacher. He is the author of " The Religions of Syria,"
a standard book, which in its line has no peer.
After the completion of the endowment in America, Mr. and
Mrs. Bliss spent about a year in England where they were cor-
dially received by public men, clergymen, statesmen and civilians,
prominent among whom were Lord Shaftesbury, Sir Culling Eard-
ley, the Duke of Argyle and others, and the sum of ^20,000
{£4,000) was received for purchasing needed furniture and appa-
ratus, and paying current expenses.
In March, 1866, Mr. and Mrs. Bliss returned to Beirut, and in
the autunm the college was opened with sixteen pupils, all re-
ceived gratuitously. A preparatory class had been formed the
previous year in connection with the national school or <' Wa*
taniyeh" of Mr. Butrus Bistany, an eminent, industrious and
learned Syrian Protestant scholar. The faculty of the college ia
the outset consisted of Rev. D. Bliss, President ; Rev. C. V. A.
Van Dyck, M. D., D. D., Professor of the Theory and Practice of
Medicine, Astronomy, and Chemistry; Rev. George E. Post,
M. D., D. D. S., Professor of Surgery and Botany, and afterwards
Mr. Harvey Porter, Professor of History, with Mr. Asaad Shidoody
as tutor in Arabic. The first class graduated in 1870. The med-
ical department was organized and opened in 1867, the first class
graduating in 1871. The preparatory department was begun in
1 87 1, but was not fully organized until 1880. The school of
. commerce was opened in October, 1900.
During the early years of the college, Arabifc was the language
of instruction in all departments. This was later changed to
English. The classes of 1880 in the collegiate department, and
of 1887 in the medical department, were the first to be instructed
trough the medium of that language.
The reasons for this change were various. There was, first, a
•' strong and insistent desire " on the part of the young men of
the East to know thoroughly some foreign language, either Eng-
lish or French ; secondly, the absence of Arabic text-books in tiie
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English the Medium of Instruction 305
various branches taught Dr. Van Dyck and others had pub-
lished in Arabic works on geography, arithmetic^ pathology and
the higher mathematics, but before a scientific text-book could be
translated, printed and bound, it might be quite out of date, and
the enormous expense of publishing Arabic books with their slow
and limited sale made it impossible to keep lip with the progress
of science, and so English was chosen as the language of the in-
Vstitution. Again, students other than Syrians were debarred by
the Arabic language from entering the college. Armenians,
Greeks, Bulgarians, and Persians desired to come, and by making
English the common language, the door was thrown open to alL
llie British occupation of Egypt moreover created a demand for
the English language and for medical and scientific and business
men trained in English. Since 1880 the students have had direct
access to the wealth of literary, scientific and philosophical works
found in the English language ; the latest medical and scientific
text-books are readily obtained, and highly qualified tutors,
graduates of American colleges and universities are annually
secured for a three years' term of service. Yet this adoption of
English has not been at the expense of the Arabic, for ** the
Arabic instruction is so efficient that the graduates average higher
ability to use the tongue acceptably than those of any other mis-
sionary institution in the Arabic-speaking world. The thorough
Arabic instruction supplies the channel through which our
graduates can communicate to their peoples the thought of
modern learning; the English equipment supplies thought worthy
to be communicated."
The rumour of the opening of a Protestant college stirred up all
the various sects of the land to action. The Papal Greek
patriarch built a large edifice in the Museitebeh quarter and
brought out a Parisian to teach French and an Irishman to teach ,
English. The patriarch did not know that his school was just
what we all rejoiced in. For we felt sure that the Syrian Protestant
College would yet compel all Syria to be educated, and this hope
has been realized. The Jesuit Fathers removed their college from
Ghazeer, Mount Lebanon, to Beirut and constituted it a university.
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3o6 The Syrian Protestant College
The Maronite archbishop also opened a college in the east-
em quarter in Beirut.
The Turkish government has opened several high institutions
for Mohammedan youth, and the Israelitish Alliance an academy
for Jewish boys.
The details of the college property, equipment, faculty and
student body are well shown in President Bliss' report for
1901-02 and in the annual catalogue of 1908-09 in which is
announced the new training course for teachers. Table II in
the catalogue shows the annual growth in student enrollment
from sixteen in 1866 to 876 in 1908.
The model of the campus and its buildings made by me in
1902 for the college I reproduced at the request of Morris K.
Jesup, using one of the rooms in the American Museum of
Natural History, where Mr. Bumpus courteously gave me every
facility and assistance required. It was enclosed in a mahogany
and plate glass case and sent to the St Louis Exposition, being
awarded a gold medal.
I had the pleasure of explaining the complete model with exact
reproductions of each building carved out of " Malta " stone to a
gathering on February 13, 1903, invited by Mr. Jesup and his
fellow trustees.
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XIV
Progress and Revival
Ishoc es Shemmaa— Locusts— A native pastor— The meteoric shower
of 1866— Elias Saadeh.
RETURNING to 1866 it must be noted that in March the
Yusef Keram rebellion was still raging in the northern
part of Lebanon, and we were straining every energy to
complete the new girls' school building and to raise funds for the
new church edifice. The French government had joined the
other European Powers (England, Germany, Russia, Austria, and
Italy) in aiding the Turkish government to suppress the Keram
rebellion of priests and monks, Metawileh highwaymen and un-
couth peasants. On April 29th, Rev. Khalil Maghubghub was
ordained native pastor in Ain Zehalteh, Mount Lebanon. He
was converted in 1846 by reading a Bible stolen in a Druse raid
on a Christian village in the civil war of 1845.
Just at that time we heard the sad and stunning news of the
sudden death of our colleague. Rev. J. Edwards Ford, in Geneseo,
111., U. S. A. He rode out on horseback Sunday morning,
March 25th, six miles across the prairie, to preach. It was
a bright, mild morning and he wore no overcoat. On his return
a fierce northwest blizzard began and before he reached home it
had literally congealed his blood ; double pneumonia set in, and
in nine days, April 3d, he passed away.
The mission was thus deprived of one who was one of its
strongest, ablest, and most efficient men. Mr. Ford was a master
of the Arabic, a clear and cogent preacher, of commanding per-
sonality, sagacious in counsel, calm and patient and greatly be-
loved by the people. He was eminently a man of prayer. No
one could be in his society or communicate with him in any way
without being impressed with this fact. He was a wise counsellor.
307
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3o8 Progress and Revival
His judgment was sober, calm and clear, and his opinions, though
modestly expressed, were well weighed and of great value.
In missionary labour he was indefatigable, of an iron frame,
and with great physical vigour he endured what few other mis-
sionaries could. He seemed capable of doing anything without
fatigue. He was thought to be the strongest man in the Syria
Mission.^
On May i, 1866, Rev. S. H. Calhoun took his elder children to
America for education, and returned January, 1867.
In March a young silk dealer from Hums, a member of the
church, named Ishoc es Shemmaa, gave up his business and an-
nounced his purpose to give up his life to preaching the Gospel
Preparatory to entering a course of training under Mr. Calhoun
in Abeih, he went on a preaching tour in the mountains west of
Hamath. His life history is full of thrilling incidents. His
grandfather, also named Ishoc, a Greek of the Orthodox Church,
was a wild, fearless youth in league with the robbers and murder-
ers of Hums. His weapon was a sharp sickle and night was his
day. He was a famous swordsman and once put to flight a body
of men with a walnut pipe stick. Being arrested for crime, he
was taken out of the city by the governor and troops, to be
hung. The governor said, " Ishoc, turn Moslem, and we will
save your life and make you a governor, for you are a worthy
man." He replied, ** Impossible. I have been a man of blood
and it will go hard with me. I cannot deny what religion I have.
Whatever you wish to do, do it." Then he sprang and attacked
the commander of the guard but was seized and hung to a tree.
The Greeks canonized him and said that a star appeared over his
grave. Ishoc's father was even worse than the grandfather, and
added to the sharp sickle swords, pistols, daggers, and guns, and
became a notorious highway robber. He once dispersed fifty
armed men. He was famous in the use of the sword, the club,
* Rev. Joshua Edward Ford, bom in 1825, graduated at Williams
College 1844, graduated Union Seminary 1847, reached Syria March 8,
1848, reached Aleppo April 19, 1848, removed to Beirut November 11,
1855, removed to Sidon August i, 1859.
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Ishoc es Shemmaa 309
and the spear, and an expert player on the harp, lute, and
cymbals. A large number of enemies attacked him one night
by the river Orontes. Some of them he cast into the river,
others he killed and others he wounded. He too was a man of
blood. Ishoc's account is now given in his own words : <' As I
grew up he used to beat me and threaten to butcher me so as to
teach me to be bold and fight. He also taught me to sing vile
songs and to play the stringed instruments. He took me to
every haunt of immorality and crime and the people applauded
my singing.
** In i860 I began to think about religion. I had persecuted
the Protestants and mobbed them. I bought a Testament to
read about the miracles of Christ, and see how great a man He
was. A man asked me, * Have you heard this new Gospel ? ' I
read the Testament, was troubled, saw my error and sin. My
father said, < What is this book ? Are you becoming Angliz ? '
He took a sword and rushed to kill me. Neighbours crowded
in. I said, * Blessed are ye when men persecute you.' Father
said, * That is the talk of the Angliz.' I said it is the Word of
Christ. Again he tried to kill me and watched his chance. At
night he would say to my mother, * Let me rise and butcher
Ishoc while he sleeps, and be rid of such an iniquitous son.'
Mother told him to wait a little and I would return to the Greek
Church. So he waited and watched me. When I read the
Gospel I seemed to be in the very days of Christ and the years
of the apostles. Then all the family and town arose upon me
and took my book. I fled, fearing that fother would kill me.
When I returned he asked me to read from the book. God
opened his heart, he believed and rejoiced, went out to preach
and was mobbed. People said, < We thought that he would con-
vince his son, but his son convinced him.' Yet all feared him.
He testified for Christ And when the people saw that he would
not sing vile songs for money, nor drink arak, nor lie, they said,
« Truly they are Protestants.' He died trusting and rejoicing in
Jesus and was persecuted even after his death, for his grave was
insulted and dishonoured, but he was with Jesus.'' Ishoc after-
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310 Progress and Revival
wards laboured for thirty years as a faithful colporteur and
evangelist in Beirut, Lebanon, and Latakia, where he is still at
work.
In March, 1866, the locusts again appeared and the entire male
population of Beirut was ordered out to the pines to gathier them-
When full grown the body of each female locust is a sac of eggs.
Each man is required to gather six pounds of the eggs, 1. ^., the
bodies of the locusts. Poor Syria I The land seems to be the
victim of successive plagues : cholera, cattle murrain, civil war,
locusts come one after the other or all together, so the people
hardly recover from one before they are smitten with another.
These, with the exactions and cruel extortions of the merciless
tax-gatherers almost drive the people to desperation.
Dr. Thomson returned in March from England, having com-
pleted arrangements for publishing <' The Land and the Book,"
and having helped Dr. Bliss in securing substantial aid for the
college. By April our sorrow and anxiety about the failure of
funds to complete the girls' school building were turned into joy.
In one week came a draft for jf 100 from Mr. Henry Farnum then
in Paris; ;f240 from Mr. William A. Booth; and £so from
Robert Arthington, ;£'390 in all. Dr. Thomson, Mr. Calhoun,
Mr. Eddy, and Mr. Bird were all in Beirut when the news came
and we had a service of thanksgiving and praise to God. On
that very day Mr. Tod of Alexandria was in Beirut. His wife
gave money for the first girls' school building for Mrs. Eli Smith
in 1834, and he said he wished to contribute jf 100 towards this
second edifice.
April 3d — I wrote to Dr. H. B. Tristram, *• As soon as the col-
lege gets settled in a permanent building, we hope to establish a
Biblical museum of all the plants, birds, animals, minerals, and
implements, etc., mentioned in the Bible, for the use of the pupils
and the conservation of many things now rapidly going out of
use. It is astonishing to see how rapidly the West is encroaching
on the East."
At this time one hundred and ten new families came out as
Protestants in Hums. The Emir Soleyman Harfoosh was
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Problem of a Native Pastorate 311
poisoned in Damascus by a dose of " soleymany " (corrosive sub-
limate), given to him in coffee in the Damascus prison. The
people exclaimed at the correspondence between his name and
his bane.
In May the son of an American millionaire came to Lebanon
for the summer. He held a nominal political office in Egypt and
brought with him a Moslem Nubian servant, who was dressed in
Parisian style with a gold-headed cane and high boots. The
American did not have any religion to boast of but had evidently
a vein of humour in his nature. One day he asked the American
consul to inform Mr. Calhoun that his valet Ali was ready to be
baptized, as he had become a Christian. The consul said, '' What
proof have you that he is a Christian ? " The millionaire re-
plied, «' Tell Mr. Calhoun that he eats pork and gets drunk, and
that proves that he is not Moslem, so he must be Christian."
Alas, his master also used to get drunk, but neither of them were
considered fit subjects for baptism.
June 9th — There are rumours of cholera at Tiberias. No won-
der ! Many of the Jews of Tiberias have made a vow that they
will not change their clothes until the kingdom is restored to
Israel ; a convenient vow for such a lazy, unwashed rabble, but
bad for their neighbours in cholera times.
The ever-recurring question of a Syrian pastor for the Beirut
church was most pressing at this time when the foreign mission-
ary force was so depleted and feeble. We were constantly crit-
icized by neighbouring missions at the north and by Board of-
ficials at home for not having a native pastor in Beirut No one
regretted our failure more than I did. As acting pastor I urged
upon them their duty to have a native pastor. We tried every
educated native preacher but none would accept the place. We
trained men for the ministry but they were tempted away by the
higher salaries paid by other missions. In a letter to Dr. Clark
of the American Board, I poured out my soul as follows : " The
prospect of securing a native pastor for the Beirut church is as
remote as ever. I cannot see a man among the young Protes-
tants in Syria who seems to promise anything like what is needed
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312 Progress and Revival
in a pastor for this church. The central position of Beirut will
require the presence of an American missionary for some time
to come, and it is not easy to satisfy the people with a native
pastor while a foreign missionary is within reach. For this reason
we steadily refused to send an American missionary to Hums.
At length they were brought to the necessity of calling Sulleeba,
their present pastor. While Hums was in this transition state we
had to do our best to prevent any other foreign missionary going
there, a point which we could not forcibly carry in Beirut, should
we abandon the native church in order to oblige them to get a
native pastor. I would like to see the experiment made, were it
not that the English or Scotch would be only too glad of an
excuse for introducing an Episcopal or other foreign missionary.
This is the great bane in this holy land. It is the carcase for all
the missionary eagles, and it seems doubtful whether any foreign
mission could settle native pastors over native churches and then
pull up stakes and leave entirely, without simply opening the
way for the entrance of another foreign mission. Yet our duty
is not modified by this state of things. We have two native
pastors and hope for more. We will preach and pray and print
books as long as the Lord allows us to labour here. I believe
Syria will yet be evangelized and in the simple gospel way, and
true churches be formed on every side.
We feel the pressure as perhaps few missions do. Alas, how
many bright hopes have been blasted on this arid S}rrian soil*
How many young men of whom we had hopes that they would
preach the Gospel have been tempted away by commerce or by
higher pay in other missions, or become dragomen to travellers,
or entered purely secular business. All missionaries feel that
commercial centres and European communities in foreign lands
are not favourable sites for the development of native inde-
pendence in any sphere. The inland stations seem to assume
more readily the principle of self-support and to demand a native
ministry. I served the Beirut church nearly thirty years as
acting pastor.
In June, 1867, 1 endeavoured to persuade Rev. John Wortabet,
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Turning the Tables on Dr. Crosby 313
M. D., recently called to a medical professorship in the Beirut
college, to accept the pastorship of the Beirut church, but he ab-
solutely refused. Mr. Williams of Mardia assailed me by almost
every post insisting that I leave the church to itself until it found
a native pastor.^ The church consented to raise a sum annually
equivalent to a pastor's salary and continued on this basis until
1890, when, after a very plain talk by Dr. Arthur Mitchell they
called Rev. Yusef Bedr to be their pastor. During that twenty
years we were training native preachers but the mere mention of
the Beirut church terrified them. ** There was Mr. So and So/'
and so many high and lofty characters, each one of whom claimed
to be the greatest, that young preachers refused to preach to
them lest they be repressed and humiliated.
A few months ago an elderly English lady, very deaf and de-
crepit, took lodgings at the Bellevue Hotel in Beirut. She had
come on to the Holy Land to witness the winding-up of the
present dispensation. She prophesied a great earthquake in
March which should destroy both London and Paris, and then
Louis Napoleon would come to Beirut on a white horse leading
the Jews back to the Holy Land. She laboured with some of us
in the kindness of her heart and tried to persuade us to be ready
*Whcn in New York, January ao, 1879, I was invited by Dr. H.
Crosby to attend the New York ministers' Monday meeting at the Fourth
Avenue Church, as the subject was to be, ** How can foreign missions
best honour the Holy Spirit by promoting the independence of the native
churches and ministry?" I went and Dr. Clark called on me to
explain why the Beirut church had not a native pastor. I explained,
and gave a history of my agonizing efforts in this direction and how the
church was contributing almost enough for the pastor's salary, and that
we should throw the burden on them as soon as the right man should
be found. Dr. Clark replied that there was altogether too much sup-
pression of the native element in foreign lands. Then one of the
brethren, I think Dr. W. Phraner, called out, << And I would like to ask
Dr. Crosby why it is that this Fourth Avenue Church has been for years
suppressing the independence of its mission chapel in Street, and
reporting its members as of the 1,300 members of the Fourth Avenue
Church and ignoring the mission chapel which ought now to be inde-
pendent and self-supporting." There was loud applause at Dr. Clark's
having found himself in the same box as myself.
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314 Progress and Revival
for the coining of the Lord. We did all we could to answer her
in Qiristian gentleness and printed some Arabic one-page tracts
for her, containing Scripture texts about the certainty of death
and similar themes. March came, but the earthquake did not^
nor did Napoleon, nor the white horse, nor the Jews, and she
paid her passage back to England in bitter disappointment
In November, Dr. Post came to Beirut and was the guest of
Dr. and Mrs. Bliss in Beit Kamad in the eastern quarter of Beirut.
Here he had a severe attack of brain fever and his life was de-
spaired of. On the night of November i ith I watched with him,
and the delirium of fever was very alarming.
Dr. Post recovered, and took a trip up the Nile, where, owing
to the bitterly cold desert winds at night, he had an attack of
pneumonia, but was mercifully restored. His physicians and
brethren now said to him, " Doctor, no man can carry two water-
melons in one hand. You are carrying two professions, that of
preacher and itinerant missionary, and that of surgeon and phy-
sician. You must drop the one or the other."
The claims of the college were then so pressing that he with-
drew the following year from the mission and entered the service
of the Syrian Protestant College. He then had one watermelon
in his hand, but, none the less, he could not relinquish the other,
and has done what the Arabic proverb declares impossible. He
has been not only the most skillful surgeon of the Orient, but a
preacher, teacher and the author of an Arabic zoology, con-
cordance of the Bible, surgery, Bible dictionary, and the Flora of
Syria and Palestine.
Drs. Van Dyck and Wortabet were also elected professors in
the medical college by the trustees in New York, and it began
under the most favourable auspices.
In the fall of 1866, our former mission printer, Mr. G. C. Hiuler,
brought out for Boston merchants a cargo of kerosene oil and
pine lumber. He introduced kerosene oil into Syria and thus
conferred an untold blessing on the people. Before that time
olive oil was the only oil used in lamps and it was becoming very
expensive*
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Miss Jessie Taylor 315
The sale of the American Press to private parties was seriously
urged by some members of the mission, but, providentially, it
was never effected. As long as matters continue as they are in
the East, it would not be wise to subject the whole matter of
printing the Bible to the whims of local censors and policemen.
It remains American property and will remain so for many years
to come ; the very stronghold of truth and the fountain for send-
ing out tens of millions of pages of God's Word every year in
the future.
In October I had correspondence with Rev. Benjamin Davies,
of Regents' Park College, London, about obtaining a manuscript
copy of the ** Kerm Sedde Kamus," a famous Arabic lexicon. A
priest was engaged to copy it and another priest to copy the
marginal notes, and the work required infinite pains in sending
messengers, receiving the sheets and mailing them as they were
received.
Just as I had finished the girls' school building and installed
the teachers in it I began to purchase stone and lime for the new
church. Mr. William A. Booth, of New York, always our staunch
and wise friend, sent out an architect's plan which was adopted,
and we made preparations to carry on the work. Dr. Thomson
and his son-in-law, Mr. James Black, took much of the burden,
and Mr. Black's labours have been commemorated in a memorial
baptismal font of white marble which adorns the church.
Professor Morse, inventor of the telegraph, Mr. Geo. D. Phelps,
of New York, and Mr. Henry Farnum, all residing in Paris, each
sent $Soo towards the building of the Beirut church.
This year (1866) a Scotch lady, Miss Jessie Taylor, came to
Beirut and began work among the Moslem girls and women in
the Bashura quarter of the city. By loving words and acts, caring
for the sick and hungry and orphaned, she gained the confidence
of the public Then she took a few needy girls into her own
house as boarders and the work extended for forty years during
which time she trained hundreds of girls in her home boarding-
school. She was a woman of strong faith and courage and her
pure, holy life exerted a powerful influence upon the community
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3i6 Progress and Revival
at large. In March, 1869, she had seventy-five Mohammedan
girls.
The ilUiess of Dr. Post, the removal of Rev. Samuel Jessup
from Tripoli to Sidon, and the absence of Mr. Sulleeba Jerawan,
left the whole northern part of the mission field without super-
vision, but the good seed grew and the church in Hums continued
to prosper.
The meteoric showers of November nth and 14th were
notable events in Syrian history. My old college friend,
Professor Newton, of Yale, had predicted a return of the periodic
meteors or Leonids of 1833 in November nth to 14th, 1866.
In order to draw the attention of the people to the subject, we
published in the weekly Arabic journal a request to the public to
watch during the nights of the 13th and 14th of November for a
grand display of falling stars. The notice was read with wonder
by some and ridicule by others. The venerable Sheikh Nasif el
Yazigy, the greatest modern Arabic poet, and the assistant of
Dr. Eli Smith in the translation of the Bible, declared that he
would not believe it until he saw it, and that it was a piece of
Western assumption to claim to know the future. On the morn-
ing of Sunday, November 1 1 th, a little after midnight, some young
men saw what they described as a rain of fire, the stars seeming
to have got loose, and to be running about the sky in disorder.
A few minutes after a terrific thunder-storm set in ; there was
almost continuous thunder and lightning. On the two succeeding
nights nothing was seen, as it was cloudy and rainy. I was watch-
ing in the sick-room of Dr. Post, and although I looked out every
hour in the night, I could see nothing in the shape of meteors.
On the morning of the 14th, at three o'clock, I was roused from a
deep sleep by the voice of one of our young men calling : " The
stars are all coming down." I arose immediately, called our
guests, Dr. Budington and Mr. E. P. Hammond, and we spent
the rest of the night on the flat roof of the house watching the
wonderful display. The meteors poured down like a rain of fire.
Many of them were large and vari-coloured and left behind them
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The Meteoric Shower 317
a long train of fire. One immense green meteor came down over
Lebanon seeming as large as the moon, and exploded with a loud
noise, leaving a green pillar of light in its train. It was vain to
attempt to count them and the display continued until the dawn
when their light was obscured by the King of Day. The alarm
was first given by a native watchman of the preparatory depart-
ment of the Syrian Protestant College, who had heard of the ex-
pected display and was on the lookout. The Mohammedans
gave the call to prayer from the minarets, and the common people
were in terror.*
1867 — On Monday, January 7th, the Johanniter Hospital of
the Knights of St John of Berlin was inaugurated at 2 p. 11.
The German addresses were made by Count Wurtens Leben and
Pastor Ebel, and the Arabic address by H. H. Jessup. Thus
was begun a noble charity, which has continued for these forty-one
years, a blessing to thousands of natives and hundreds of foreign-
ers. In 1 87 1 the medical management was entrusted to the
American medical professors of the Syrian Protestant College*
January 26th I wrote to Dr. Holdich of the American Bible
Society, asking permission to reprint the minim edition of the
Arabic New Testament, as Dr. Van Dyck was then in New York
and it would be long before that stnall edition could be electro-
typed. I also stated that Ishoc, the colporteur, had visited 200
villages and been severely beaten by a robber hired for the
purpose by a Greek priest. The Protestants of Safita were
persecuted almost to death by the Greek priests and feudal
chiefs. A Moslem sheikh, owning two lots at each extremity of
the village, sold out his land and all the land lying between to a
Greek scribe in the village. Owing to bribery he got a deed
of nearly every house in the village, and proceeded to eject the
Protestants from the houses for which they had legal titles.
For two years the persecution went on. One day the entire
'On November 27, 1872, there was a similar fall of Leonids which
continued from sunset till past midnight The display was brilliant in
the extreme.
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3i8 Progress and Revival
body, men, women, and children, were seized by armed soldiers,
and shut up in a small room where damp straw was set on fire,
filling the room with dense smoke so that they were almost
suffocated. Then, at midnight, they were driven out in a driving
storm to sleep among the volcanic rocks on the mountainside.
Through the interposition of the British Consul-General Eldridge,
Kamil Pasha of Beirut sent stringent orders which gave the
brethren peace for the time being. The Syrian ecclesiastics,
with rare exceptions, have been bitter enemies of the Gospel ;
using stripes, imprisonment, torture, and cruel oppression with-
out compunction. But the Gospel has moved steadily on, and
now in diat district between Tripoli and Hums are prosperous
churches, among the largest in Sjnria.
Revival iNaoENTS
My first Arabic teacher in Tripoli in 1856 was YusefDiab,
who had sixteen years before been Mr. Gdhoun's teacher in
Bhamdoun. He knew no grammar, but was a voluble talker
and story-teller, and helped me greatly in enlarging my vocabu-
lary. But I soon had need of a grammatical teacher and found
one, Elias Saadeh, among the crowd of young men who used to
throng our houses on feast days and Sundays. He had studied
Arabic . grammar and logic with the learned Moslem sheikh,
Owad, and regarded himself as a champion among the Greeks.
He was a special favourite with the Greek bishop who saw in
him a hopeful candidate for the priesthood. He respected our
civilization and could not conceal his wonder at our libraries,
but regarded our religion as little better than Islam. He often
said to the Greeks, " Far better turn Moslem than Protestant ;
these Protestants have no priests, nor sacrifice, nor saints, nor
Virgin Mary. They are heretics."
He consented to teach for the sake of the money. Month by
month he taught us. We read the Arabic Testament with him
from beginning to end. He attended our family prayers and
listened with respect, yet with no more apparent feeling than a
stone. He was a fine penman and when I commenced writing
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Elias Saadeh 319
Arabic sennons he copied them all out in a clear, legible hand
and I read them in the pulpit ; but after writing a dozen sermons,
I began to preach untrammelled by manuscript, using only brief
notes in Arabic and English.
Elias continued to teach Mr. Lyons and myself until i860, the
dreadful massacre year, when I removed to Beirut. Up to that
time he seemed unimpressed and unimpressible on the subject
of personal religion. He had given up saint worship and picture
worship as beneath the dignity of an enlightened man, and ^see-
ing diat they were essential parts of the Greek Orthodo^qr, he
gave up all religion and became an open scoffing infidel Among
the young men of Tripoli he taught that Christ was an impostor,
and the Bible a lie. He had stifled the promptings of conscience
and seemed given over to hardness of heart He then taught
a grammar school for the Greeks in a village near Tripoli, and
when Rev. Samuel Jessup and Dr. George E. Post began work
in Tripoli in 1863-^4, ^^ taught them Arabic and continued
through the cholera season of 1865. Previous to this he had
spent some time in Hums where he became acquainted with
Asaad, and Miriam, his sister, who were apparently the only
fruit thus far of the faithful labours of Rev. D. M. Wilson and
wife for five years. Asaad and Miriam were persecuted, and she
was dragged through the streets by the hair of her head because
she would not worship the pictures (the ikons) of the Greek
Church. Elias married her and in 1866 removed to Beirut and
taught a boys' day-school for us. He was still proud and con-
ceited, quoting Arabic poetry, and displaying his knowledge of
grammar and logic among the young men, but utterly without
feeling on the subject of religion. We had prayed with him and
for him and all seemingly to no effect. The missionaries in
Tripoli regarded him as intellectually a Protestant, but in fact
an infidel. Miriam taught their little son Hanna to pray, but
Eliat would not allow it to be done in his presence. He used
the New Testament in the school, but had no appreciation of its
spirit and its saving truths. He was always at church on Sunday
and sat with the collq;e students because he thought it respect-
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320 Progress and Revival
able to be among students, but he seemed hardened in heart and
I began to doubt whether we had done right in bringing him to
Beirut to teach. But I continued to pray for him without
ceasing.
On Monday p. ic., November 12, 1866, Elias Saadeh called
at my house, knocked at the door, came into my room and sat
down on the divan (mukod) by the door in silence, his face
buried in his hands. At length I said to him, ** What is the
matter, Elias ? '' He looked up and said, ** I know that you are
my friend. I am in trouble, great trouble, and I don't know
what to do. I have never felt so before in my life. What is the
matter I cannot tell. I went to church yesterday afternoon and
when I came out my hair stood on end and I trembled from
head to foot As I passed through the gate it seemed as if the
ground were opening beneath my feet and I could feel the fires
of hdl. Just then a voice came from above saying, ' You are a
lost man ! you are a lost man T And then, as I went on towards
my house I could see those Arabic sermons which I copied for
you and Mr. Lyons ten years ago, written as with a pen of fire
on the sky. I shut my eyes but there they were. When I
reached home I could hear nothing else, see nothing else. I
could eat no supper. Miriam said to me, * What is the matter,
Elias ? ' I replied, ' Nothing, only I do not feel very well.' At
bedtime I took little Hanna to put him to bed and he looked up
in my face and said, ' Ya abi laish ma b'tsully mithel Imme kobl
en noum ? ' ' Father, why don't you pray with me as mother
does before sleeping ? ' It seemed as if God had raised up my
little child to rebuke me and remind me of my sin. And so it
was all night long. I could not sleep ; that voice was ringing in
my ears, ' You are a lost man.' This morning I went to school,
but I could near nothing and see nothing, and so it has been all
day and if it keeps on much longer I shall lose my reason. Sir,
what shall I do ? I have never felt so before in my life. What
does it mean ? " All this time he sat trembling and spoke with
a faltering voice. I said to him, " Elias, you do not know how
glad I am to hear these words from you. You do not know
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"All" Sins Means Mine Too 321
how many prayers have been offered for you during the last ten
years, and now you ought to fall down and thank God that He
has sent His Holy Spirit to show you your sins. You will never
see the sweetness of Christ until you first feel the bitterness of
sin. I hope you will feel your sins even more than you have
and cast yourself upon Christ for mercy. Ellas, have you prayed ? "
" Prayed ? " said he. " A man like me pray to Christ when I
have so grossly insulted Him ? When I have called Him an
impostor and His word a lie? Never." I then said, << Would
you like to have me pray ? " " Yes/' said he, ** if you think it
will do any good." We knelt in prayer, but I could hardly
control my feelings so as to speak audibly. When we arose he
bade me " good-evening " and left the room.
I saw him no more until the next afternoon at four o'clock,
when he came in again, his face beaming with a light almost un-
natural. I never saw a human countenance so changed. Every
feature seemed softened and luminous. He almost sprang to-
wards me and seizing my hand with a grasp which I can never
forget, he exclaimed, '< Oh, Mr. Jessup, is it not wonderful ? Was
there ever such love? Last night I took up the Testament to
see if I could find anything to relieve my despair when the first
passage I saw was this in the first epistle of John, < The blood of
Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.' Why, sir, if that
word * all ' had not been there I should have had no hope. But
there it was, ' all sin.' That meant mine too. The words seemed
to glow with light. They stood out on the page. I looked and
wept. ' Can it be,' I said, ' can it be that Jesus whom I have re-
viled will cleanse my sin ? Is He so merciful as that ? ' And
then I looked up and said, ^ Oh, Thou blessed Jesus Christ, if Thou
wilt accept of me. Thy blood can cleanse my sin. Then I am
Thine forever.' Oh, sir, it seems to me as if heaven had begun
on earth. I called Miriam and told her, and we wept and prayed
together. It seemed so natural to pray then. I could not help
it. Mr. Jessup, is it not wonderful ? Is it not wonderful that
He has spared me until now? Why did He not cut me ofTten.
years ago in my sins ? Why did He not smite me when I was
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322 Progress and Revival
reviling His name ? What shall I do ? What can I do? There
are young men in Tripoli whom I taught that the Bible is a lie
and some of them are dead now. Oh» that I could call them
back and tell them of the Saviour's love. Do you not think that
I had better go at once to Tripoli by the first steamer and speak
to those young men ? Oh, if I could but be the means of saving
one soul I should be perfectly happy." I said to him, '' Elias,
would you like to pray now ? " ** Yes, indeed/' said he, and he
prayed such a prayer as I had not heard for many months. We
spent that hour in prayer and praise. Now and then he would
burst out in some new expression of wondering love. Said he,
^ When I read the Bible now the name of Jesus seems so new
and so sweet that I can hardly contain myself." I asked him if
he had never seen that verse in i John i : 7 before, *' The blood
of Jesus Christ His Son deanseth us from all sin." He said, '* I
copied a sermon on that text, but I did not know its meaning
then, but now I do."
I saw that he needed something to do now for Christ, and as
he could not well leave for Tripoli I urged him to labour for some
of the young men in Beirut whom he knew. Said he, ** I know
a few and I will try to do them good."
On Wednesday afternoon he came in again bringing with him
another young man» Beshara Haddad. I had known him for
years. He was the first Protestant child baptized in Syria, and
his aged father, a saintly man, was one of the first who came out
on the Lord's side long years ago and went through the fires of
persecution which raged so violently in the days of Jonas King,
Isaac Bird, and the martyr Asaad es Shidiak from 1826 to 1830.
The good old man died a few years previous, mourning that his
first-bom Beshara had not yet found the Saviour. Beshara had
been trained under Mr. Calhoun in Abeih Seminary and was
now teaching in the preparatory department of the S}rrian Prot-
estant College.
After a few words of salutation I turned and said, " Beshara,
what brought you here to-day ? " He said, " I think God brought
me here. I had long known the truth, but I had hardened my
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Beshara Haddad 323
heart and at length came to the conclusion that I had committed
the unpardonable sin. But a few Sabbaths ago I heard you
preach on that subject, and you said that if any one had a desire
to be free from sin it was a proof that he had not committed the
impardonable sin. Well, I thought I did desire to be free from
sin, and I thought it over more and more, and last Sabbath I de-
termined that diis week I would begin to think of my soul's sal-
vation. Yesterday I decided to give up the hour after eight in
the evening to this subject, as my school duties would be over
and I could be alone. So I went to my room at eight o'clock
and shut the door. Very soon there was a knock. I hesitated,
then opened the door. In came Mr. Elias Saadeh. My heart
sank within me. I thought, 'Why has he come to take my
time ? He is the last man in Beirut I would wish just now to
see. He has come to jest about religious things and all my good
resolutions will be lost' But to my surprise Elias stepped up
to me and seized my hand and said with a trembling voice,
* Beshara, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from
all sin.' I could not guess what he meant, and thought he was
quoting Scripture to ridicule it ; but he held my hand tight in his
and said again, * Beshara, it is so, and it has cleansed me and I
have come to tell you about it.' If the very stones in the floor
had cried out I could not have been more astonished. I fell on
his neck and wept We wept together ; we prayed together. I
believe that God sent him there at that very hour to bring me to
Christ The Saviour Himself seemed to be present Oh, sir,
such an hour I have never known! Well, after we had
prayed a while I told Elias, * There is Ibrahim Nasif Aatiyeh
in the next room ; let us call him in and see if he too does not
want a Saviour.' So we called him and prayed with him and to-
day he thinks he has found the Saviour, and he will be here very
soon."
I listened to Beshara's words with the most intense interest, the
tears flowing unbidden and unrestrained. Soon Ibrahim came in
and we spent an hour such as I had never spent before in Syria.
The Saviour Himself seemed to be with us.
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324 Progress and Revival
The young brethren wanted something to do and they found
it. The city was divided into districts, and they went around
two and two holding evening meetings, praying and singing, and
reading the Scriptures in families where the voice of prayer and
praise had not been heard before. The prayer-meetings of the
brethren of the church were more numerously attended and ere
long eleven young persons stood up in the great congregation
and professed their faith in Christ
When the church session were assembled to examine candi-
dates for admission to the church, there came among them a
rough, rustic youth about sixteen years of age, an entire stranger
to us all. Deacon Fuaz proposed that he be informed of the nature
of the meeting and be asked to retire, but we decided at length to
allow him to stay and listen, hoping that he might receive some
benefit. Late in the evening, when the examination was concluded
and we were about to close with prayer, I turned to the young man
and said to him, " What is your name ? " " Hanna Bedr." " Where
are you from?" "From Shweir, Mount Lebanon." "What
are you doing in Beirut ? " " Working in the stone quarries."
" Why did you come here to- night ? " "I came because you gave
notice in the church that all who wished to confess Christ before
men should come here to-night and I wish to confess Christ, so I
came." " Well, Hanna, when did you first learn about Christ?"
" Not long ago. You see my brother Yusef is in the Abeih Semi-
nary and when I was in the mountains last summer he came home
for a vacation, and said to me, ' Hanna, it will never do for you to
live on in this way. You must trust in Christ and follow Him or
you will be lost forever. You must read the Gospel and there
you will find it all plain.' I told him I could not read. Then he
said he would teach me, and he taught me the alphabet and I be-
gan, and when I returned to the quarries I began to read at noon
and at night and I found it all just as Yusef said. Then I came
to the mission church and heard the preaching and it was all
the same, all about Christ, and I knew it was true. One day as
I was reading I found these words, * Come unto Me all ye that
labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest' That, I
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Hanna Bedr 325
thought, is the Saviour for me. So I said to Him, ' Jesus, if you
will give me rest, then I will be yours/ "
Said I to him, " Do not the quarrymen persecute you ? "
" Yes," said he, " they stone me and curse me." •< Do you then
curse them again ? " ** How can I ? I only wish they knew
what I know ; they know no better."
«< Well, Hanna, do you ever pray ? "
** Yes, sometimes I say, ' Our Father,' and then I pray a little
prayer of my own. I say, * Oh, Lord Jesus, I'm poor Hanna
Bedr. I don't know much. I am a sinner. You said, " Come
unto Me," and so I come to you. Amen.' Is that right ? "
*' Yes," said I, *' Hanna, that is right But what do you mean
by confessing Christ ? "
'* Why, I mean that if the Lord has done so much for me, I am
not ashamed to tell the world of it."
The old deacon turned to me and said, " This poor, rough boy
whom we were going to turn away has passed as satisfactory an
examination as any one to-night."
Elias soon after left for Tripoli and laboured in the villages and
city, teaching the missionaries, proclaiming the Saviour whom he
once despised and preaching the faith which he once destroyed.
He became the Arabic teacher of nine successive missionaries in
Tripoli. His son Najib, after receiving his theological diploma in
June, 1 888, preached with great acceptance until his untimely death
in February, 1893. Several years later, Elias with his wife joined
his children, who were in business in New York and he was chosen
pastor of the Syrian Evangelical Congregation there, and won all
hearts, not only by his polished Arabic sermons, but by his godly
exemplary life. One Sunday in November, 1902, when on his
way from Brooklyn to New York to preach, he dropped dead in
the street, and went to see his glorified Redeemer. He had the
sermon he was to preach in his pocket, from the text Job 4:5:
** But it is come upon thee and thou faintest ; it toucheth thee
and thou art troubled." It was a remarkable providence that
Rev. Geo. E. Post landed in New York the very day of the
funeral and made the funeral address in Arabic to a large
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326 Progress and Revival
assembly of SyHans in the Old First Presbyterian Church on
Fifth Avenue.
Beshara soon after went to Latakia to labour with the Re-
formed Presbyterian Mission for the pagan Nusairiyeh and
laboured faithfully for many years. He died December 21, 1873.
Mr. Beshara el Haddad, eldest son of Tannoos el Haddad, a
name memorable in the early annals of the Syrian Mission, died
recently a triumphant Christian death» glorying in the Cross of
Christ. He was educated in the Abeih Seminary, and when a bay,
although not of brilliant intellectual abilities, was of an amiable and
upright disposition. In 1866 he was engaged in teaching in Mr«
Bistany's high school, which was then the preparatory school for
the Syrian Protestant College, in Beirut. In November the
Spirit of God visited us and a number of young men were con-
verted, among them Moallim Beshara. His conviction of sin was
deep and thorough and he was driven to the very verge of de-
spair, almost believing that he had committed the unpardonable
sin. At length light dawned upon his mind and he took a de-
cided stand as a Christian, and has now for five years been teach-
ing in the mission high school in Latakia, having for his pupils
youth from the pagan Nusairiyeh. Two months since he came
to Beirut sufTering from a cancerous affection, and on Sunday,
December 21st, entered into his rest. He said, a few hours be-
fore his death, " Jesus is my Friend. I know He is my Saviour."
He called his widowed mother, his wife, and his two sons, Rashid
and Tannoos, and his sister Sara, and laying his hands on die
heads of the little boys, bade them all a loving farewell, rejoicing
that he would so soon be with Christ his Saviour. He was pe-
culiarly grateful to those who had been the means of his conver-
sion, and one day he exclaimed, " Welcome; dear brother, you led
me to Christ, you led me to Christ"
Ibrahim Aatiyeh is still living, having been a successful
teacher and faithful evangelist under the charge of the British
Syrian Mission among the pastoral Arabs of the coast, and
among the soldiers and gendarmes of the Lebanon government
Hanna Bedr, after serving as a volunteer in the Lebanon in*
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A Barrel of Snakes 327
&otry, resigned and went to Abeih to study to fit himself to
preach to the Bedawin Arabs; but in the summer of 1871 was
prostrated with quick consumption and after a religious experi-
ence which made his sick-room luminous and attractive, he
passed away in triumph to meet his Lord and Saviour.
Prof. K D. Cope of Philadelphia wrote asking me to send him
a barrel of snakes and fish in alcohol. I hired a deaf and dumb
Druse named Hassan, a snake charmer, to bring me snakes.
One day on returning home I saw him standing in the court
with a leather bag fuU of snakes. In order to exhibit his goods
he loosened the string and let the whole squirming mass out
upon the floor. I made good my escape up-stairs, shutting the
door behind me, and motioning to him to gather them up.
Looking down from the flat roof I saw him seize the last one,
and when I went down he emptied them into the cask of spirits.
His sign language and mimicry in describing how he caught
these snakes were extremely amusing. I was relieved when the
cask was full, headed up and shipped to Professor Cope. The
entire cost of snakes, alcohol, small animals, and barrel was
twenty dollars.
On the 2i8t of March we had a visit from what seemed an
apparition. I had read when a boy of General Jackson's admin-
istration and of his postmaster-general, as though characters of
ancient history. When Amos Kendall was announced, I
thought it must be his grandson, but it was the veritable vener-
able Amos with his son-in-law, Mr. Stickney, his wife, and son.
It seemed as if Andrew Jackson had risen from the dead and
was visiting this ancient land of shadows. It was interesting to
see a man of seventy-eight years, General Jackson's old postmaster-
general, riding on a Syrian horse through the Holy Land with
no more fatigue than his grandson. He has climbed Vesuvius,
the dome of St. Peter's, and in Beirut declined the ofler of a cane
as it was an incumbrance. He was a devout man, a Baptist.
He showed the greatest interest in the girls' school and the
college with its sixteen freshmen and eighty preparatory
students.
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Another of what seemed to be periodical panics among the
Christians of Damascus broke out early in March. The pasha»
in order to raise funds to help the suffering Moslems of Crete,
whose villages had been plundered by the Greeks and many of
them killed, issued an inflammatory placard asking for help;
calling on the Moslems «<to remember the blood of their
martyred brethren who had been killed by those beasts, the
Greeks/' etc. The Damascus Moslems were greatly excited and
began to threaten the Christians who fled by hundreds to the
mountains and Beirut, fearing a repetition of the massacre of
i860. The consuls remonstrated with the pasha, who saw his
error, and ordered all the placards to be removed and soldiers to
be stationed in the Christian quarter, but it was a long time be-
fore confidence could be restored. We say, '^A burnt child
dreads the fire." The Arab proverb has it, " One bitten by a
snake is frightened by the shaking of a rope."
There is something about the fanaticism of a Moslem rabble
which is akin to frenzy. The elderly and graver Moslem
sheikhs dread an uprising as it will bring disaster upon them,
selves and their property, but they are equally intolerant with
the lowest class and to all of them, all non-Moslems are infidels
and enemies.
A beautiful incident occurred recently in Northern Syria. A
few weeks since, the colporteur, Ishoc, of the American Bible
Society, visited a dark Maronite village where he had heard
there was a man who had a Testament On knocking at the
door he was met by a man over sixty years of age, with only
one eye and wearing glasses. He had a Testament in his hand,
and when Ishoc told him he was a brother in the Gospel, who
was going about to preach and sell Scriptures, he burst into
tears, embraced him, and wept aloud. He had never before seen
a missionary, nor had he seen the Old Testament, and his joy was
intense. He called in his friends and neighbours to rejoice with
him, and an old man of ninety blessed God he had seen the
whole Bible before he died. Some twelve men in that village
have become enlightened through that one Testament, without
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Beha Allah— The Babite 329
ever seeing a missionary. They are now undergoing severe
persecution, and some of them have been driven from their
homes by the violence of the papal priests.
An extraordinary document reached Beirut April 3d,
addressed to the United States consul, from fifty-three Persians in
Bagdad, petitioning the United States Congress for the release
of their leader, Beha Allah, the Babite Persian reformer, who
appeared in 1843, and was followed by thousands, 30,000 of whom
were killed by the Shah of Persia. He was arrested in Bagdad
by the Turkish government, and is now (1867) in prison in
Adrianople, European Turkey. His particular doctrine is " the
universal brotherhood of man." The petitioners claim that they
number 40,000. A German traveller writes from Bagdad en-
closing the petition and speaks admiringly of the reformer, and
asks for his release on the ground of religious liberty which is
now granted by the Sultan to all his subjects. One of the
documents appended to the petition is signed with a Free
Masonic Seal.
Ishoc Shemmaa, the colporteur of the American Bible Society,
was reading the Bible in the public square of Beirut when a
great crowd of some 200 people assembled to listen. Some
street boys began to shout and make a disturbance and Ishoc
rose to leave, the crowd following. Kamil Pasha, governor of
the city, was standing near by in a shop door and called to Ishoc,
and asked him what he was doing to create such a crowd.
Ishoc, holding up a Bible, said, " Your Excellency, I am selling
God's Word and the people wished to hear it read ; this is the
cause of the crowd, and some have made a disturbance." The
pasha said, '' It is a good book," and sent his guard to disperse
the disturbers of the peace.*
This pasha afterwards became grand vizier, and held the office
* This was our first knowledge of the " Bab." In June, 1901, I pub-
lished in the Outlook an account of these Babites, and my interview at
Haifa, with Abbas Efiendi, son of Beha Allah, and present head of the
Babites. His doctrines are a mixture of Sufisra, Islam, and Chris-
tianity. His followers believe him to be a divine incarnation.
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33Q Progress and Revival
for twelve years, and is now in his old age Waly of Smyrna.
He was a level-headed, liberal man, and loved to see fair play,
and hated the persecuting spirit of the Oriental church ecclesias-
tics. He once said to me when I renuurked that all hoped he
would one day become grand vizier (prime minister), " I have no
ambition that way. That is the summit, and beyond that there
is only descent" (1909 — He was made grand vizier under the
new constitutional government)
In May I received a visit from one of the most saintly women
I have ever known, Mrs. Walter Baker, of Dorchester, Mass., and
with her were two young men, choice spirits, Edward G. Porter,
and Isaac N. Cochran. Mrs. Baker was my guest together with
Dr. and Mrs. Post, and the young men were at the hotel. Mrs.
Baker insisted upon my going as her guest to Damascus, Baal*
bee, and the Baruk Cedars, and I was afterwards her guest in
Paris and Dorchester. She became the steadfast friend of our
girls' boarding-school and the mission. She paid the whole sup-
port of Miss Eliza D. Everett, the first American teacher in the
Beirut school, for two years, until the school was taken up by the
Woman's Board of the Presbyterian Church.
What made her friendship especially charming to me was the
fact that she was the warm friend of my two very dear college
classmates, Dr. Theodore T. Munger and Dr. James G. Vose.
Dr. Munger in his early ministry was called to the Dorchester
church, and Mrs. Baker invited him to spend Sunday with her.
He accepted and remained with her for seven years, reminding
one of Dr. Watts who lived with Sir Thomas Abney for thirty-
six years.
On my way to America in November, 1867, she introduced
me to Dr. Jonas King of Athens, and the French Protestant
pastors, as I have elsewhere narrated.
On June 5th the corner-stone of the new Beirut church was
laid, with religious services. Mrs. W. M. Thomson laid the
corner-stone. The northeast corner had been left open to re-
ceive it as more than half the walls were built. In the comer-
stone were placed an Arabic Bible, the constitution of the native
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Dedicating the New Church 331
churchy list of American missionaries from the beginnings list of
the Anglo-American Congregation, Arabic journals of Beirut*
Constantinople, Damascus, and B'teddin, list of publications of the
American Press, and a list of Protestant institutions in Beirut in
1867. The church was dedicated March 28, 1869, after my re-
turn from America. Before sailing from America for Syria in
October, 1868, with my family, I had shipped a fine bell, the
gift of the Scranton people, and a ^1,200 tower clock, given by
the Madison Square Church in New York. But the building
funds were exhausted when the tower was but half finished, and
neither clock nor bell could be set up. The citizens of Beirut,
Moslems, Christians, and Jews, were so anxious to see and hear a
clock whose striking could be heard throughout the city, that a
local subscription was raised, through the influence of James
Black, Esq., and the tower was completed. Thus the Mohammed-
ans who abominate bells, and the Jews who dislike Christian
churches, contributed to the erection of a Christian bell-tower.
And when the clock was finally in place and began to strike the
hours, crowds of people gathered in the streets to hear the mar-
vellous sound.
Since then, five different tower clocks have been set up in
Beirut, one of them near our church at the Turkish barracks, and
others at the Syrian Protestant College, the railroad station, the
Jesuit College, and the French Hospital. Thus in this, as in
many other matters, the Americans set the pace and others fol-
lowed their example.
The funds have been contributed thus far by the American
Board of Missions, the Kirk of Scotland, friends in England and
America, the Native Evangelical Church, and the Anglo-Ameri-
can Congregation, representing at least seven different denomi-
nations, thus presenting a united and harmonious front to the
many enemies of the gospel faith in S}rria and proving that
Christian union in worship and service is possible. Upon the
advent of the ritualistic Bishop Blyth of Jerusalem, however,
most of the Church of England people withdrew, and set up a
schismatic chapel of their own. I use the word " schismatic," as
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332 Progress and Revival
it is a word the <' Anglicans " love to apply to all outside their
own sect.^
At this time, Mr. Calhoun, in addition to his school duties in
Abeih, was teaching a theological class of five young men, four
of whom were M. Yusef Bedr, M. Yusef Aatiyeh, M. Yusef
Shaheen, and M. Abdullah Rasi.
H. K Daud Pasha, at the last Easter, was called upon by the
magistrates of the town of Deir el Komr including the Catholic
bishops and priests. In reply to their congratulations he said
that he had one criticism to make upon them as the spiritual
guides of the people. '* And what is that ? " they exclaimed.
*' It is that all the shops of your parishioners are kept open on
Sunday and business goes on as usual, greatly to the detriment
of the people." The priests replied, " Your Excellency, this
greatly grieves us, but really we have not the power to stop this
evil. The people will not obey us." *• Then," said the pasha,
** I will help you, and next Sunday any man who opens his shop
will be imprisoned." The order was issued, and, after a few ar-
rests, the nuisance was abated, and this notorious stronghold of
papal intolerance had externally a well-kept Sunday every week.
At this time, the Sultan Abdul Aziz went to the Paris Expo-
sition taking gifts to the Empress Eugenie to the value of
^300,000. As an of&et, new taxes, grievous to be borne, are
being levied on the people of the empire.
Rev. Samuel S. Mitchell and wife arrived in Beirut in June,
as recruits for our missionary force. His wife (Lucy Wright)
was born in Persia, daughter of a missionary, and they both gave
promise of a life of usefulness, but feeble health soon compelled their
withdrawal. Mrs. Mitchell afterwards studied the " History of
Art," lectured in Florence and Berlin, and published a book (Dodd
* When 1 was visiting Canon Tristram in December, 1864, he
preached in Hartlepool one evening and took me with him. Passing
along the street, he pointed to a plain building, sa3ring, " That is
Sc)iism comer," referring to the Methodist chapel. Years afterwards
we were walking together in Beirut, and as we neared the Church of
England chapel, I said to him, " That is Schism comer t " He saw the
point and enjoyed having the tables tumed upon him.
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Blood Will Tell 333
& Meadi New York) which has become a standard work on art
Mr. Mitchell attained some celebrity as a landscape painter.
On June 22d the annual examination of the girls' school was
held. Seventy-five girk were examined in three languages for four
days, and no such examination had ever before been held in
Syria. Khuri Jebara, a Greek priest who was present, delivered
a very excellent Arabic address highly eulogistic of the American
missionaries and their work in Syria. Such an address had never
before been heard in Syria. He publicly thanked the missionaries
for the Arabic Bible and other good books and for their schools
and seminaries. This same priest purchased sixty copies of Ed-
wards' " History of Redemption " in Arabic and gave them to his
people.
In August I bought a snow-white mare of a native friend by
recommendation from my reliable friend, Dr. Daniel Bliss. It
was a beautiful creature with a pedigree, and I bought it '« un-
sight unseen," as it was in Lebanon in Abeih, and I was in
Beirut The owner, hearing that I was in Aleih, at Dr. Post's
house, sent the mare over there. Mrs. Post was at a loss what
to do with such a fiery creature. A young missionary who
vras her guest finally consented to ride her to Beirut, although he
had no experience in riding. She went quietly enough the
mile to the Damascus carriage road, but there, alas, she saw a
white canvas-topped cart for the first time in her life, and then
another, and the noisy train came rattling and thundering along,
until she was beside herself, and she sprang forward over the
broad macadamized road Beirut-wards. Her rider, paralyzed
with fright, dropped the reins and seized the saddle pommel
with both hands. The mare flew ahead on a dead run, past the
sixteenth kilometer stone, then the fifteenth and on to the fifth
and fourth, but just at the second near the Beirut pine grove, a
blockade of camels stopped her. The rider slipped oflf and let
her go, and she went on arching her neck and snuffing at her
first glimpse of a Syrian city.
He walked on, lame, bruised, and demoralized. About 3 p. m.
I heard a knock at my door. There stood Mr. . He
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334 Progress and Revival
called out in a faint voice, << Has the mare got here?" *« What
mare ? " I replied. " Why, your new white mare." He then
told the story, and I found that if he had not broken his neck he
had broken all records of Syrian horse-racing. I then told him
I had never seen the mare and that she had never been in Beirut
and how should she know my house ? I called Assaf, my trusty
servant, and sent him at once to the public •' Place de Canon **
or << Bufj " where the Damascus Road enters the city. In half an
hour he broi^ht her drenched and heated to her new home. But
she was too aristocratic for me. She danced and pranced, with
curved neck and flying mane and wanted to gallop through die
streets. It exhausted my strength to hold her in, and at length
I sold her to Consul Lorenzo Johnson whom she threw over her
head three times on the sand-dunes and as this did not comport
with consular dignity he sold her to a Lebanon sheikh.
In a letter to the eccentric but sensible Mr. Williams, of Mardin,
I alluded to interference with our schools by other societies, who
virtually bribed the children to go to their schools, — and said, ^* I
am not willing to surrender to the fruits of the American
Mission's thirty years' toil. My rule is never to fight but if you
aire forced to fight, fight it out on a straight line. The Arabs
say, ' The camel never faUs down but when he does fall he never
gets up again.' The Syrians are an independent race, but they
have been demoralized by having too much done for them and
some of them see it and feel it We must now try to remoralize
them. They cannot manage to support first-class institutions
as yet, but everything ebe they ought to support."
In August, 1867, Dr. Thomson returned from England much
improved in health. On September 30th, Dr. Post and family
sailed for America, and on his arrival he resigned his connection
with the American Board, having been appointed Professor of
Surgery in the Syrian Protestant College.
On October 20th Dr. Van Dyck and family arrived from the
United States. He brought with him duplicate electrotype plates
of the vowelled Bible. Mr. Samuel Hallock came with him as
electrotyper and mechanical superintendent of the press.
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Miss Evcritt — Found on Furlough 335
In November, Rev. Isaac N. Lowry and wife arrived from
America and were stationed with Mr. and Mrs. S. Mitchell in
Tripoli. As Mr. Mitchell left the mission in the summer of 1868,
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Jessup were again transferred from Sidon
to Tripoli.
The excursion steamship Quaker City, Giptain Duncan, arrived
with Mr. Moses S. Beach and << Mark Twain " on board, on Sep-
tember loth. I had engaged for a party of them a dragoman
for Baalbec and Damascus, and went on board. By order of the
mission I presented to each one a gilt copy of the Arabic
New Testament. Thirty of them visited the girls' school and
Dr. Beach gave two hundred dollars for the school and the new
church.
Owing to the return of Drs. Thomson and Van Dyck, and
the fact that Dr. Wortabet was also to be in Beirut, the brethren
of the mission and the secretaries of the American Board in
Boston insisted on my going this fall to America, as I was
nervously broken down, and a sufierer from acute insomnia. I
was the more willing to go as my absence would facilitate the
securing of a native pastor for the Beirut church. Yet the ties
which bound me to the Syrian people old and young were not
easily broken and I dreaded the parting scenes. I handed over
all the lines and threads of work to Dr. Thomson.
Miss Ruf ka Gregory, the Syrian lady who taught in the Beirut
Syrian Girls' School for five years, and who was the ablest Syrian
teacher of modern times, was quite broken in health in July, 1867,
and we gave her a six months' furlough to visit friends in Egypt.
While there she made the acquaintance of Rev. Mr. Muir, of
Melbourne, Australia, married him and went to Melbourne to
live, where, after his early death, she conducted a successful
school for girls for many years.
With her departure it became necessary to secure an Ameri-
can teacher. I count it one of the providential reasons of my
being sent to America in October, 1867, that I was able to find
Miss Eliza D. Everett, the accomplished and consecrated lady
who came to Beirut with me in October, 1868, and laboured in
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336 Progress and Revival
Syria for twenty-five years in the Beirut Female Seminary with
remarkable acceptance and success.
I sailed from Beirut October 22d, and arrived in Paris November
5th. In Paris I found my friends, Mr. Frederic Marquand and Mrs.
Baker. Mrs. Baker insisted on my being her guest in the Rue St.
Arnaud, and Rev. Edward Porter obtained a permit and took
me to see the Paris Exposition which had been closed to the
public for six days. We spent five hours there and I saw
the missionary exhibit and a set of the Arabic books of our
Beirut Press. Returning we called on Dr. Jonas King and Mrs.
King of Athens. He returned the call and brought me an invi-
tation from Count Laborde to speak at the missionary reception
to be given the next day by the Paris Evangelical Society to Dr.
King whom they sent as their missionary to Syria in October,
1822. That night I was very ill but recovered so as to attend the
meeting at the Salle Evangdique at 4 p. m. M. Grandpierre pre-
sided. Dr. King spoke in French of his life in Syria and Greece
I spoke of the present state of the work in Syria and Pastor
Fische interpreted. Among those present were Pressense, De
Casalis and Monod.
Taking the midnight train to Brest, I embarked November 9th
on the 5/. Laurent, The ship was crowded. We had two hun-
dred and sixty in the second class in the bows of the ship. The
voyage was terrific and the ship rolled violently, but I was per-
fectly well and clear headed every hour of the passage.
I found congenial company in Rev. Dr. Washburn of Calvary
Church and the Hon. David Dudley Field.
Mr. Stuart Dodge met me on landing November 20th, and I
spent the night at his father's house, and the next day with joy-
ful anticipation took the train for Montrose. Mr. Dodge and
Stuart took me to the ferry. At Scranton two sisters and others
met me. At 8 p. m. I entered the dear old home. Fathen
mother, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and my dear child
Anna greeted me and we sat around the open fireplace
until a late hour, recounting the mercies of the past, and
dosed with family prayers. On November 25th brother Hunt-
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Taking a Complete Rest 337
ting brought my son William, then five years old, from Branch-
port
We had a happy Thanksgiving November 28th, and twenty-
six of the family sat at one long table at the dinner. We wrote
a union family letter to brother Samuel in Syria, and after dinner
we spent an hour in family singing.
On my arrival Mr. Treat of the American Board wrote me en-
joining my taking complete rest.
What Mr. Treat meant by " rest " appears from his telegram
six days later, instructing me to go to Yale College for Decem-
ber 8th. I went, and was the guest of that beloved man of God,
President Woolsey. The weather was severe, mercury ten de-
grees below zero with a cutting northwest wind.
On Sunday I spoke in Yale Chapel and in Dr. Eustis' Church.
On Monday I spoke to the theological students and met Charles
Smith, son of Dr. Eli Smith, whom I brought from Syria to
America in 1857. That evening I spoke to the Hartford theo-
logical students. The next day I went to Boston in a beautiful
snow-storm and was the guest of Mr. Charles Stoddard and the
next day visited the missionary house. I also visited my class-
mate Munger at Haverhill and my sick colleague Mr. J. L. Lyons
at South Berwick. On December 17th I met the Prudential
Committee of the American Board and after full consideration
they agreed to appoint a teacher for the Beirut Girls' School in
case her support could be secured. This was pledged by Mrs.
Baker and resulted months later in the selection of Miss Everett
I also met President Mark Hopkins of Williams College, presi-
dent of the Board, a man of giant intellect and heart aflame with
love for Christ and His kingdom.
The next day I visited South Hadley to inquire about a possi-
ble candidate for the Beirut school, but failed to find one with
the requisite qualifications who was willing to go.
December 20th I went with Dr. Clark to Andover Theological
Seminary and thence to Cambridgeport as the guest of my col-
lege friend, the brilliant Rev. Kinsley Twining. Sunday was a
most impropitious day, a foot of snow and water making the
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338 Progress and Revival
streets well-nigh impassable, but at the Shepherd Church in the
evening the Harvard students came out in crowds. Dr. Pea-
body of Harvard presided, prayer was offered by Dr. Mackenzie*
and Mr. Treat and I both spoke. Dr. Peabody offered the clo-
sing prayer full of evangelical missionary aspiration and inspira-
tion and closed '' in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ" I thanked God for such a missionary meeting in old
Harvard. It was one of the surprises of my life to find
Dr. Peabody so cordially interested in the foreign missionary
work.
On Monday, December 33d, I went to New York and in cross-
ing the Connecticut River the ferry-boat stuck in the mud at low
tide for three hours. In New York I was the guest of Prof.
Alfred C. Post and found there our Dr. Post and his brother-in-
law, Rev. Arthur Mitchell Mr. Mitchell went with me to the
ferry next morning and told me that there was a Mr. Dennis in
Newark who ought to go to Syria.
1868 — In January I went to Newark and had full conversation
with Mr. James S. Dennis and he virtually decided to go to
Syria. I met old friends and spoke twice in the Sunday-school
of the First Church and in Dr. Poor's church. In New York I
addressed the Union Seminary students and had private conver-
sation with individuals in Gardner's room.
After various visits I accepted the invitation of my seminary
friend. Rev. J. B. Bonar of the American Presb}rterian Church
and went to Montreal January 22d, where I was the guest of Mr.
P. D. Browne. I remained five days, spoke six times, once to a
union children's meeting, then to die French Canadian Mission-
ary Society and in the church.
Returning to New York via Springfield I found on the train at
Springfield President Woolsey and a New England pastor and
we had two hours of delightful conversation. At length the
pastor, a well-known person, said to me, " Jessup, you must come
to my church. We have there, a former missionary and
he has done much harm to the cause by his folly. If you or
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1. Rev. George E. Post. 2. Rev. J. S. Dennis, 1868. 3. Rev. Samuel
Jessup, 1862. 4. Rev. William M. Thomson. 5. Rev. and Mrs. George C.
Hurter, 1862. 6. Mrs. Samuel Jessup, 1862.
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Houghton and Hamilton 339
some other decent man does not come to us soon it is all up with
foreign missions in ."
Then followed visits to Branchport and Penn Yan, Prattsburg
and Susquehanna and then to Rochester on invitation of District
Secretary Rev. Chas. P. Bush, who was the means of my hearing
of Miss Everett. I spoke in Rochester nine times to old and
young, and on Tuesday, March 3d, went to Clinton as the guest
of Mrs. Dr. Gallup of Houghton Seminary. The snow was
drifted over the fences, and the driver of the sleigh from New
Hartford to Clinton dumped me at eight o'clock on a dark night
in a snow-drift before a girls' seminary, and drove off. I waded
through the drifts to the door and was told that this was the
'' Liberal Institute " and the '< Houghton" was some distance up
the street. So I trudged through the deep drifts dragging my
heavy satchel behind me and finally reached the door of the
*' Houghton." Mrs. Gallup *gave me a cordial welcome and after
hearing the object of my visit, brought in Miss Everett and I ex-
plained at length the situation in the Beirut Girls' School, giving
them all the facts and documents in my possession. Miss
Everett received the proposition favourably, but could not give a
definite answer until after consulting her parents in Painesville,
Ohio. Her acceptance of the position put new life into the
school, and her long connection with it was a blessing to the
daughters of Syria.
The next day I called on the pastor, Rev. Albert Erdman, and
saw Mrs. Erdman and the children, little thinking that one day
his son Paul would marry my daughter Amy. I addressed the
Hamilton College students and the church in the evening, al*
though the day was bitterly cold and blustering. In Utica I
called on Ellis H. Roberts, a Yale friend, a prominent editor and
afterwards controller of the United States Treasury. We re-
called the day when he a junior in 1849 stood up in the college
chapel and professed his faith in Christ.
In New York I met the Beirut College trustees, Messrs Booth,
W. E. Dodge, Hoadley, Kingman, and A. C. Post. Dr. Geo. Post
and I were present and plans were made for a public meeting in
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34^ Progress and Revival
behalf of the college. News had just come of the falling of a
stone arch in the new Beirut church, and the trip of Mr. Stuart
Dodge and Frederic A. Church, the artist, to Petra.^
In New York the mission rooms were in the Bible House and
in charge of Dr. Geo. W. Wood and Mr. Merwin. Here I met
returned missionaries and theological students and was always
welcomed by the genial Dr. Wood.
In Scranton I spoke several times and was the guest of my
dear sister, Harriet A. Post, visited the ironworks and the coal
mines and gathered specimens to take to Syria. Next to Mont-
rose Scranton contained the largest number of my family rela-
tives. Here also were noble men who had founded the town
and the church, — Col. Geo. Scranton and Selden Scranton, Messrs.
Piatt, Archbald, Blair, Hand, Boies, Fuller and Post and others.
These good men gave me the money to buy the bell for the
Beirut church which has been ringing and striking the hours for
thirty-nine years.
In March I spent a Sunday in Williamstown and was the
guest of Prof. Mark Hopkins and met his brother, Prof. Albert
Hopkins, '' par nobile fratrum." One of our Syrian boys, C
William Calhoun, took me to the Mission Ha}rstack, the birth-
place ]of the American Board. We had a rousing union meeting
Sunday evening. Dr. Clark and Mr. Treat, secretaries, were
^ Mr. Dodge afterwards told me in Beirut of how their dragoman, M.
Hani, overawed the Bedawin cameleers. The party left Hebron and
camped six miles further south. In the rooming after the loads had
been roped and ready for loading, the Arabs refused to load sajring that
the loads were too heavy, etc. Argument proved unavailing. Threats
did no good. Then Hani yelled at the top of his voice to the Arabs,
'< Unbind that box." They sprang forward and took off the ropes.
He then unlocked the canteen, took out a dinner plate and raising it
over his head dashed it to fragments on a rock. Then he took anotiber
and smashed that, to the amazement of the Arabs. Then said he,
'' Thus shall I smash all these hundreds of plates and then the Queen
of England will come here with an army and make you pay a pound for
every plate and put you all in prison." The Arabs rushed forward
and stopped him saying, ''Dukhalak (we bq; you), don't break
another. We'll put on the loads." And they did, and the travelleis
had no more trouble. The genius of Hani was equal to the occasion.
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Chi Alpha's Hospitality 341
present. The sight of that company of college students in that
historic spot with such a leader as Mark Hopkins was most in-
spiring and enough to make any man eloquent.
I then visited New Haven and called on President Woolsey
and Professors Dana and Marsh, with whom I had a talk about
the geology of Syria. I also met Daniel C. Gilman and my be-
loved tutor, Rev. Wm. H. Goodrich, who was brutally attacked
by a Southern student in our freshman year and never fully re-
covered from the effects of the blow on his head.
In New York I was the guest of Hon. Wm. E. Dodge. Dr.
Greo. E. Post was then in New York and we had frequent inter-
views with Messrs. Dodge and W. A. Booth with regard to funds
for the Beirut College. Dr. Hallock of the American Tract
Society gave me a selection of electro cuts for our Arabic journal.
On April 4th I was invited to attend the Chi Alpha Society-
There were present a noble body of men : Drs. S. H. Cox, W.
Adams, Burchard, H. B. Smith, Prentiss, Bidwell, Cuyler, Schaff,
John Hall, Eastman, Hallock, Hastings, Ganse, Hatfield, Bonar,
Kittredge, Hutton, Skinner, Murray, Wood, Crosby, Shedd, and
others. Only four are living now (1906). In all my subsequent
visits to the United States this society has bidden me welcome,
and I owe its members a great debt of gratitude.
April 9th we had a public meeting in behalf of the Syrian
Protestant College with addresses by the Rev. Willard Parker,
Dr. Wm. H. Thomson, Dr. Post, Prof. R. D. Hitchcock, and my-
self. The object was to raise an endowment for the medical de-
partment.
I also visited Auburn, speaking in the First and Second
Churches and to the students ; and then visited Painesville, Qeve-
land, Elmira, Providence, R. I., and Stonington.
On the 6th of May I became engaged to Miss Harriet Eliza-
beth Dodge, daughter of Dr. David Stuart Dodge of Hartford
and niece of Hon. Wm. E. Dodge. We were married October
1st by Dr. Wm. Adams, and sailed for Syria October 17th, ta-
king with us my daughter Anna, and Misses Everett and Carruth
for the Beirut Fenude Seminary.
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342 Progress and Revival
May 23d I spoke in the General Assembly in Harrisburg, P^
During that assembly at a morning devotional meeting the son
of an eminent deceased pastor, who had been a warm friend of
my father, made a fervent appeal for foreign missions. A little
later his widowed mother came to me and said, " Do urge my
son J to enter the foreign mission service. It would be my
highest joy to have a ' missionary son.' " I went at once to him
and said, " Your remarks this morning show that you have the
missionary spirit and ought to be a missionary." «« Yes," said
he, '' that is true ; but I have a widowed mother to care for and I
cannot leave her." I then told him what his mother had said
and how earnestly she desired that he become a missionary. He
was much affected and said at length, " I would go gladly, but I
cannot leave my mother in her dependent circumstances." He
has been useful at home.
A week later I spoke at the Boston anniversaries, and May
30th addressed the yearly missionary meeting of the Orthodox
Friends in New York.
June 7th I met Dr. N. G. Clark of the American Board at
Clinton and we held meetings in Dr. Erdman's church, in Hamil-
ton College, and in Houghton Seminary. Miss Everett decided
definitely to go to Syria.
In Boston, July ist, I called on Father Cleveland aged ninety-
six. The Sunday before as city missionary he had preached
twice I
Reaching home July 3d I found father much more feeble,
being unable to speak.
In Pittsburg, July 13th, Mr. Wm. Thaw gave me $$00 for the
Beirut church building.
In July I attended Yale commencement In New York
Mr. J. S. Dennis announced his decision to go to Syria, and
Mr. Frank Wood of the Astor Library called to consult with
reference to going to Syria.
August 20th — In Montrose father's mind became clear and he
spoke with animation of the missionary work and the Church
and was delighted to hear of the progress towards the reunion of
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My Father's Death 343
the two Presbyterian churches, but he could not remember secular
aflfairs. On September nth I was on the Erie railroad train
returning from Branchport when the conductor handed me a
telegram of the death of dear father. He died with his staff in
his hand, like a pilgrim ready for the long journey before him,
falling asleep in Christ We laid the palm branches brought
from Syria upon his coffin, a token of triumph through Christ.
On the 14th I wrote to brother Samuel in Syria:
" The long-expected and sad event has at length transpired.
Our beloved and honoured father fell quietly asleep on Friday
last at ten o'clock. His death was as serene and peaceful as his
life had been, and he has attained the victory through the blood
of the Lamb. For him we have no tears to shed. He has long
waited for his Lord to come and now his triumph is complete.
Such a life as his few men have lived. ' The memory of the just
is blessed.' What a legacy of piety and virtue and Christian
beneficence he has left behind to his family and country I May
his mantle fall on us his children who owe so much to his ex-
ample, his counsel, and his prayers."
September 23d I gave the charge at the ordination of Rev. Jas. S.
Dennis as missionary to Syria and his mother then told me of
his boyhood resolution to be a missionary.
October ist I was married to Harriet Elizabeth Dodge, and
we went on to the meeting of the American Board at Norwich.
At that meeting I met seven former Syria missionaries, Mrs.
Whiting, Mrs. Eli Smith, Mrs. De Forest, Dr. Laurie, Mr. Sher-
man, Dr. Beadle, and Dr. Wolcott.
October 17th we sailed for Syria via Liverpool, Paris, and
Marseilles, myself, wife, daughter Anna and Misses Everett and
Carruth. At Messina, Sicily, we were joined by my old friend
Dr. David Torrey and his two nieces Ada and Carrie. Dr. Tor-
rey had arranged by correspondence to board our ship at Mes-
sina. On our arriving there, November 12th, his courier came
on board with a note from Dr. Torrey stating that his party had
been so exhausted by crossing from Naples in a small steamer
that they had abandoned the trip to the Holy Land As our
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344 Progress and Revival
steamer was to stay only a few hours I saw that vigorous action
must be taken. I hastened ashore with the courier, went up to
Dr. Torrey's room, knocked at the door and shouted to him to
get up at once and rouse his nieces and come on board Hot
coffee was ordered and in spite of some feeble protests from the
next room, I soon had them ready and they came with me on
board and added greatly to our pleasure on the voyage to Beirut.
Thence they went through Palestine and Egypt where one of the
accomplished nieces married Dr. Grant, the eminent physician
and Egyptologist of Giiro. Neither Dr. Torrey nor Mrs. Grant ever
regretted my boisterous knock on his door at the Messina Hotel !
We reached Beirut November 22d and received a hearty wel-
come from our friends native and foreign.
On my return I found that my brother Samuel had again been
transferred from Sidon to Tripoli, being his third removal to Tripoli.
Rev. S. Mitchell had returned invalided to America, Rev. I. N.
Lowry and wife, both in infirm health, had been located in
Tripoli, but after two years they both returned to America where
both died of consumption within two years. This and similar
cases in other fields led the Board of Missions to require all mis-
sionary candidates to pass a strict medical examination before ap-
pointment. It used to be allowable to send candidates with weak
lungs to warm climates in the hope of their recovery, but that
plan has wisely been abandoned. It was hoped that Mr. S. Jes-
sup's removal to Tripoli would be permanent, as the Tripoli peo-
ple had reason to think that the chief end of the American mis-
sionary^is to move in, rent houses in advance and then move out
again. In thirteen years they had seen this done by eight mis-
sionaries.
My home was reconstructed, two of my children, Anna and
Henry, being with me, the third, William, remaining with his
grandparents in western New York, where he grew up with a
robust vigorous frame and became fitted to join me afterwards as
a missionary colleague in Syria.
The American Board had decided that I was in no case to re-
turn to the acting pastorate of the Beirut church. The only
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Arrival of James S. Dennis 345
native-born Syrian preacher qualified for the Beirut pastorate
was Rev. John Wortabet, son of an Armenian convert and or-
dained in 1853 as pastor of the Hasbeiya church, and later mis-
sionary of a Scotch society in Aleppo, now instructor in the
Syrian Protestant College. But he absolutely declined the post
He was receiving a salary equal to, if not greater, than that of
Dr. Thomson, Dr. Post, or myself, and could not expect as much
from the native church, yet this was probably not the chief reason
for declining the office. So the work of preaching was thrown
back again upon the missionaries resident in Beirut. I was to
leave Beirut and teach in the theological seminary in Abeih,
Mount Lebanon, in connection with Mr. Calhoun.
I wrote to Dr. N. G. Clark : " I shall enter upon the work of
theological teaching with all fervour. It will be necessary in the
first place to find out what my own theology is, for I have not
had time to decide thus far, but I suppose that if I follow Hodge,
Henry B. Smith, Park and Taylor and stick to the Bible and
catechism, I shall be considered orthodox all around. You must
come out and see me ere long and set my theology right."
The mission agreed with me that the Beirut church must have
a native pastor but were not clear as to the best location for a
theological seminary. ^
On the loth of February, Rev. Jas. S. Dennis arrived from
America and was stationed in Sidon to aid Dr. Eddy who was
appointed teacher in the Abeih theological class. The literary
labours of Dr. Dennis in preparing in Arabic a treatise on The-
ology based largely on Dr. Hodge's volumes, a work on Scripture
Interpretation and another on the Evidences of Christianity were
a noble contribution to Arabic Christian literature. For years he
was at the head of the theological seminary after its removal to
Beirut in 1873 until his resignation in 1891.
On his arrival in Syria, owing to the fact that his name had an
unpleasant significance in Arabic, he received and accepted the
name of Ennis which means affable or polite and endured the
self-denial of ignoring his own name among native friends for
twenty-two years of bis residence in Syria.
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346 Progress :md Revival
It was finally decided to b^in a theological daas in Abeih on
the 3d of May, 1869, with Messrs. Calhoun, W. W. Eddy, and
H. H. Jessup as teachers. We had a class of eight men, all of
whom had already had experience as teachers and helpers, and
four of whom became ordained pastors, Messrs. S. Jerawan,
Y. Bedr, S. Hakim, and K. Zarub. We carried on the class until
November ist and resumed it the following May.
The question of a native ministry was so urgent in 1868 and
1869 that we called a meeting of the Beirut church to give them
notice that they must have a pastor and support him. They met
and voted, ist, that it was their duty to have a pastor ; 2d, to
support him ; 3d, that as there is no pastor in view that they will
raise annually a sum equal to a pastor's salary and when he is
secured devote it to his support; 4th, that 20,000 piastres be
raised this year. One said, '« I am ashamed to sit in tiie chapd
and hear preaching from the American missionaries for which I
pay nothing." Others used strong language and all seemed to
feel that self-respect compelled them to pay their own ministry.
In opening a theological class in Abeih, Mount Lebanon, as a
summer school from May ist to November ist the mission gave
the best proof of its determination to train a native ministry.
And since that time the class has had varied experiences, being
transferred to Beirut in 1873 as a winter school from October to
June until 1891, then, from 1894 to 1901 as a summer school in
Suk el Gharb, Lebanon ; and lastly reopened in Beirut, October,
1905, as a winter school.
The teachers have been Rev. Messrs. Calhoun, W. W. Eddy,
H. H. Jessup, J. S. Dennis, C. V. A. Van Dyck, G. A. Ford, Mr.
Ibrahim Haurany, Mr. Rezzuk Berbari, Rev. Beshara Barudi,
O. J. Hardin, S. Jessup, F. W. March, F. R Hoskins, and A.
Abdullah.
But it was not until 1890 that we finally succeeded in ordain-
ing a native pastor, Rev. Yusef Bedr, over tiie Beirut church.
Since that time the native pastorate has continued.
March 28, 1869, the new church edifice in Beirut was formaUy
dedicated. I preached the Arabic dedication sermon at 9 A. ic,.
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The Church Curtain and Bell 347
and Dr. Lindsay Alexander of Edinburgh the English sermon at
eleven o'clock. In the afternoon Mr. Calhoun preached in
Arabic. The congregations were large and there was great re-
joicing at entering such a spacious edifice after worshipping in the
low crowded arched rooms of the old mission house.
Thb Church Curtain
When the new church was finished the question arose, Shall
the old red broadcloth curtain of time-honoured use in the old
chapel for thirty years be hung in the new church to separate
the women from the men ? We missionaries declined to settle
the question and left it to the native brethren. After long and
serious discussion they decided that if the curtain were not hung
in the new church no Moslem woman would ever enter it and
many Christian women would not, and parents of the schoolgirls
might object to their being stared at by men and boys. So the
curtain was hung with hooks on an iron rod extending from the
front pew back to the organ. It hung there for several years and
was finally removed by the Syrians themselves without our
knowledge and presented to a church in the interior which is still
under the sway of old Oriental customs.
The church bell and clock had arrived from New York, but the
tower was not finished and so eager were the people of Beirut to see
and hear the striking of the clock that with one accord Moslems,
Jews, Greeks, and Maronites contributed liberally and the work
was completed. By an agreement with the Jewish Mission's
Committee of the Church of Scotland the missionaries of that
church have maintained the English preaching at 11 a. m. on
Sunday from that time until the present, thirty-nine years. Rev.
Dr. Jas. Robertson and Rev. Dr. G. M. Mackie have been the
incumbents with other temporary supplies and their Catholic
spirit and faithful labours have been and are a blessing to the
entire Anglo-American community.
On the 2d of April Theodore Booth, son of Wm. A. Booth
of New York, died at Hotel Bellevue in Beirut. Owing to the
warm friendship of Mr. Booth and family for many members of
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348 Progress and Revival
the mission we all felt deeply the death of this lovely young man
cut off in the spring time of his life.
His remains were embalmed and taken to America. His
brother Frederick, who was summoned from Jerusalem, was de-
tained by a storm in Jaffa and unable to come to the funeral.
Mr. Booth founded, as a memorial of his son, the " Theodore
Fund " of the Syrian Protestant College, the income of which was
to be used for the publication of works needed in the course of
instruction, and Mrs. Booth gave the chandeliers for the new
church also as a memorial of her son.
On August 17th Dr. and Mrs. Post were greatly afflicted in the
death of their infant son Robert, in the Saracenic building in
Baalbec. Dr. Bliss and Mr. Stuart Dodge hastened thither,
riding all night and returned with the sorrowing parents to Beirut
and Mr. Calhoun went down by night to Beirut to conduct the
funeral.
In October with the aid of Dr. Eddy's son William I made a
collection of the specimens of the f ocks in all the strata from the
summit of the Metaiyyar Mountain above Abeih to the bottom of
the valley below, measuring each stratum and recording its thick-
ness and wrapping the specimens in cloth bags made for the pur-
pose. These were presented to the cabinet of the Beirut College.
The theological class closed in Abeih October 30th and the
students went to their fields of labour for the winter. Mr. Cal-
houn had the chair of Theology ; Mr. Eddy Bible Exegesis, and
I had Church History, Homiletics, and Evidences of Christianity.
It became necessary to prepare lectures at once in Arabic in the
two former and for the latter we used Alexander's Evidences.
As my preference has always been for preaching, this settling
down and preparing lectures was a new and difficult task, but I
have kept it up to this day (1907) and have had the satisfaction
of aiding in the training of about ninety young men for the
ministry.
We decided to teach the theological students English. It was
felt that Syria cannot be kept to the standard of Eastern Turkey.
The land is full of European Jesuits and European infidel litera-
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Mrs. J. Bowen Thompson 349
tare. Our young brethren will be derided unless they are able
to cope with the arguments of Voltaire and defend even the text
of the Holy Scriptures. Even in Hums books are in circulation
which few men in a Christian land could satisfactorily answer.
And the young men of that church and community have spent
weeks trying to answer the old objections of Celsus, Arius,
Voltaire, Hume, and Renan, revamped and eloquently stated in
the recent Arabic Mohammedan book entitled *' Izhar el Hoc."
But recently (1904) this book has been triumphantly answered
in an Arabic work (the " Hedaiyet ") written and printed in
Cairo. But none the less the Arabic pastors of this generation
need a good knowledge of English.
We returned to Beirut where I once more took my turn with
Dr. Thomson in the Arabic preaching. The Scotch preaching
service was conducted by Rev. Mr. Fenwick.
On November 14th Mrs. J. Bowen Thompson died in London and
on Sunday, November 28th, I preached funeral sermons in Eng-
lish and Arabic commemorative of her nearly nine years of faithful
service for the women and girls of Syria.
She was a woman of earnest piety, great courage and resolu-
tion, undaunted by obstacles, a good organizer, and in the few
years of her life in Syria had founded a S}^tem of day-schools for
girls in about ten towns in Syria, and a Central Training Institu-
tion in Beirut. With her sisters Mrs. Mott, and Mrs. Smith and
Miss Lloyd, who succeeded her, she worked in entire harmony
with the American missionaries, and her teachers and pupils were
received to the communion in our native churchies. In this she
had to resist repeated overtures from the high church party in
England, but although a member of the Church of England she
would not consent to bring about a schism in the native Evan-
gelical Church. We of the American Mission acted as pastors
for her Christian teachers and pupils, and from the day of her ar-
rival in October, i860, 1 extended to her a warm welcome and
stood by her when not an English resident in Beirut would rec-
ognizc her. Their conduct was, to my mind, based on misrepre-
sentations, and I saw in her a strong and consecrated character,
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350 Progress and Revival
capable of great usefulness and in the end she won the confidence
and cooperation of all.
In February a deputation from the village of Mezraat Yeshua
near the Dog River came to Beirut stating that sixty families of
Maronites had " turned " Protestants, or, as they say, wished to
" nuklub Protestant " and wanted a preacher. After long ques-
tioning and sifting their stories we learned that there was a
deadly feud between two families in the village, that one man
had been killed but that the government had settled the quarrel
Nukhly, one of my two guests, wanted to be made priest and the
other party opposed it. We had little confidence in the sincerity
of the men but it seemed a call of God to enter in while the door
was open and preach the Gospel. The result, however, was the
same as in another case I have instanced at length.
Near this village on the mountainside there was formerly a
stone statue of Diana or Artemis. The Arabic name is Arta*
meesh. The monks ages ago built a monastery and called it the
Monastery of St. Tameesh, so they are praying to Diana. Higher up
is the convent of Bellona, sister of Mars, the goddess of war. She
is reputed a saint by the people and ofTerings are made at her
shrine in the convent There are nearly fifty convents within
fifty miles along the coast of Lebanon and some 2,000 monks
live on the fat of the land. By terrors of purgatory the priests
and monks have for ages extorted from the dying their houses
and lands until nearly all the fine fountains, rich arable land, forest
groves, and fruit trees belong to the monks and the poor fellahin
or farmers are mere tenants at will. And those not tenants have
generally borrowed money from the monks and priests so that
they are held by a grip of iron. This state of things has made
the Kesrawan district of Lebanon a byword and a hissing
throughout Syria. The people are in a state of physical and
ecclesiastical bondage.
I mention this incident as one characteristic of the Maronites
of Lebanon and of some other sects. I have known of about a
dozen villages in which from fifty to 500 people have declared
themselves Protestants and continued so for weeks and months
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Threatening to Turn Protestant 351
and then suddenly all gone back except perhaps two or three,
and that without a blush or sense of shame. Such movements
took place in Aindara, Ain er Rummaneh, Deraun, and many
other places. They had expected foreign consular protection and
when that failed they slipped back in their socket like dislocated
bones. The threat to turn Protestants or Jews or Moslems is a
common weapon with which the people threaten their priests
without any thought of a sincere change of faith. An honest
movement to evangelical Christianity in masses is unknown in
Syria. It is different among the Armenians. The popular move-
ment in Aintab and Marash in 1851 arose from a sincere desire
to know God's Word and to follow its teachings, and as a result
stable evangelical churches of true, honest men and women were
speedily organized and have continued to this day. In Syria the
popular conscience has been so warped and corrupted by the
confessional and the easy condoning of sin, that men can profess
to change their religion with no idea of a real change and with
only a sinister object As a consequence, the Protestant move-
ment in Syria has been chiefly that of individuals, one here and
another there, so that the organization of churches has been a
slow work and the want of a large membership rendered self-sup-
port impossible in the early decades of the mission.
In Safita, Northern Syria, 300 Greeks and Nusairiyeh declared
themselves Protestants in 1866, and only a dozen held out to the
end. In Wadi Shahroor 250 came out as Protestants in 1876 and
not one proved to be sincere. In B'teddin-el-Luksh 150 declared
themselves Protestants in 1861 and had a preacher for a year, and
all then turned back again. If all the people who have " turned"
Protestants in Syria had remained steadfast, the land would soon
be Protestant. In the most of these cases, the so-called Protes-
tants present a petition, signed with their seals, declaring that
they will live and die Protestants, calling God to witness their
sincerity. And yet in a few weeks they violate the pledge
without the least compunction, assured that their priests will con-
done their perjury.
Every man in Syria has a seal with his name and title engraved
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35^ Progress and Revival
cm brass or agate or carnelian, and evei;i his signature is of little
account without his seaL Placing one's seal on a document is
equivalent to an oath and is r^purded as ^iacred.
Mezraat Yeshua was a specimen of the wsqt in which popular
movements in Syria towards Protestantism collapse. Such a
thing as a village asking for the truth in the love of it has not
been heard of in modem times. They generally ask for a preacher
to spite somebody or get even with the tyrannical priesthood.
It often happens that when a man is at law, and the priests and
bishops take sides with his adversary, he will turn Protestant as a
menace, and thus bring over the clergy to his own side, and then
drop his Protestantism. So many suspicious characters come to
us offering themselves as pillars to the cause of the Gospel, that I
not unfrequently ask a man, as the first question after the usual
salutations, " Have you committed robbery or murder, or are you
in a quarrel with your family or priests, or do you wish to marry
a person forbidden by your religion, or what is the reason of your
coming to me? Did you ever hear of a man's leaving his re-
ligion without a cause ? Now tell me plainly, what have you
done?" Sometimes it turns out that a man really wants in-
struction, but the case is generally otherwise. If fifty men turned
Protestants in a village, one ordinarily counts upon about ten as
likely to stand, but every movement of the kind loosens the grasp
of the priesthood and prepares the way for a more thorough work
in the future.
In 1835-1836 members of all the Druse feudal families of sheikhs
in Lebanon declared themselves Protestant Christians and asked
for preachers and teachers. For a time they were steadfast, some
of them even going to prison, but the missionaries felt that they
were not sincere and when the hope of political protection was
cut off" they politely bowed the missionaries and teachers out of
their villages. On the other hand, the Protestant churches in
Syria have grown up gradually from individuals or small bodies
of men who have endured persecution from priests and sheikhs,
suffering social ostracism and political disabilities, yet standing
firm in their faith.
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The Bible is Doing the Work 353
One of the first Protestants, Asaad es Shidiak, suffered martyr-
dom rather than yield to the patriarch and return to Mariolatry
and creature worship, and every little church throughout the land
has originated with men who have suffered for Christ's sake. A
full account of some of these men would make a valuable chapter
in modern church history.
Up to the present time about ninety-five young men have been
taught in the theological class, of whom fourteen have been or-
dained (1908). The poverty of the churches has greatly hindered
the ordination of native preachers as the mission first, and after-
wards the presbytery, decided to ordain no one unless at least
half his salary was paid by his church.
I am almost amazed at the extent to which evangelical light
pervades the nominally Christian communities here. The Greek
Church in Beirut will go over some day to Protestantism en
masse, if the light continues to spread in the future as it has in
the past ten years. A prominent Greek said a few days ago,
" You Protestants need not trouble yourselves about converting
Syria. Our children are all going to be Protestants whether you
will or not. The Bible is doing the work."
Another Greek was visited recently by a priest who came to
receive the confession of the family, previous to the sacrament.
The priest said, " My son, I have come to hear you confess."
" All right, your reverence, I have a big score to confess to-day."
— *' Go on, my son." " Well, I do not believe in the worship of
pictures." (This is a cardinal point in the Greek Church.) '< No
matter about that, as long as you are an Orthodox Greek." —
" But I do not believe in the invocation of the Virgin and the
saints." — '* Ah ! you do not ? Well, that is a small matter. Go
on." — ^''Nor do I believe in transubstantiation." — ^"No matter
about that, it is a question for the theologians."—" Nor do I
believe in priestly absolution." — " Very well, between you and
me there is room for objection to that, so no matter as long as
you confess." — " But I do not believe in confession to a priest."
— Here the priest became somewhat confused, but finally smoothed
the matter over, and said, " No matter about that" The man
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354 Progress and Revival
then replied, ** What business have I then in a Greek church ?
Good-morning, your reverence. I have done with the traditions
of men."
The growing enlightenment of the people is greatly alarming
the priesthood of all sects, and they are setting themselves and
taking counsel together how to check the growth of Protestant-
ism. Every species of annoyance and petty private persecution
is resorted to, but where the truth has taken root nothing will
avail to check it. Were there entire liberty of conscience here
and were the power of persecution and oppression taken out of
the hands of the clergy, there would be an astonishing move-
ment towards Protestant Christianity.
Two young men, of good families in Beirut, and both of the
Greek sect, have been turned out of their houses within a fort-
night by their own parents for attending our church and prayer-
meetings but they both stand firm and have now been asked to
return home again. One of them brought his father to church
last Sunday and his sister to the Sabbath-school.
At a recent meeting of our church session, a letter was sent in,
written by a young man who was suspected a year ago of a gross
sin and had persistently denied it, but in this letter he acknowl-
edged his sin in bitter anguish of repentance, and begged the
church to watch over him and help him in his efforts to live a
new life for Christ.
But not all who call upon us as inquirers can be implicitly
trusted. A Grerman Jew turned up recently who wished aid,
stating that he was inquiring and was therefore entitled to pe-
cuniary aid. He is still here, having been baptized in another
part of the country, and says he will be content with six piastres
for working half a day as he wishes to study the other half.
An old Maronite papal priest called, about sixty-five years old,
and expressed great interest in the truth. Suspecting that some-
thing was wrong, I asked him to tell me the whole story in the
outset, and then we could get on better together. So he said his
wife had died and that he had two grown up daughters who were
about to be married and the patriarch was about to divide the
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Protestants for Revenue Only 355
large bmily property between the daughters. " Now/' said he,
" I wish to marry again and raise up sons, who will be my heirs
and preserve my name, but the patriarch forbids my remarrying,
so I threatened to turn Protestant. He imprisoned me in Deir
Meifuk but I escaped and fled to Beirut. I want protection from
your government to enable me to marry again."
I gave him some books, explained the Gospel to him and ad-
vised him to go home and live in peace with his daughters and
let the marriage question alone.
Five men called one day from 4 distant Maronite village, deeply
interested in the truth, profoundly impressed, as they said, and
they wanted a preacher and a school. After an hour's cross-
questioning and probing, I learned that they were deeply in debt^
and wished us to buy their heavily mortgaged property and build
a boarding-school so that they could pay their debts or use us as
a shield in repudiating their debts.
Another aged priest came and offered to become Protestant, if
I would guarantee him a salary of twelve dollars a month with or
without work.
Then a monk came and said that he loved me very much and
loved the Gospel, and wanted to know if I would advance to him
the sum of 6,000 piastres (;$240) on a note he held which had no
date nor witnesses. He said that in case he could get the money,
he and his abbot could buy the control of a better monastery
than their present one and have a good opportunity to preach
the Gospel ! The man had some light and had read many of our
books, but lacked the simplicity of the Gospel. I told him that
we never dealt in mercantile affairs and he had better sell his note
to the brokers.
Such cases as these are constantly occurring, but never discour-
age us, for we always anticipate a certain percentage of similar
cases, and take it for granted that every professed inquirer has
some sinister design unless we have previous knowledge of the
person, or he gives proof of honest intentions.
Two of my missionary correspondents at this time were prod-
ding the Syria Mission for not having native pastors, and several
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356 Progress and Revival
in America were insisting on our forming at once a presb}rter7.
Mr. Williams of Mardin declared that we were putting education
in the place of evangelization. Dr. Lansing of Egypt urged that
we go ahead and form a presbytery. The New School Presby-
terian Foreign Mission Committee in New York, which was then
connected with the American Board, insisted that the Presby-
terian missionaries in Syria under the American Board '* have
something to show in the shape of presbyteries on mission ground
after all these years of labour."
Now I would yield to no one as to the importance of a living
native church with its own native pastors, and this has been the
aim of the Syria Mission, amid difficulties innumerable, for sixty
years. But although I am a Presbyterian by birth and convic-
tion, I cannot put Presbyterian polity above the interests of the
native churches in the mission. A presbytery consists of tlie
pastors and elders of churches in a given district. Foreign mis-
sionaries are not pastors and should not be. A presbytery in
Syria composed of foreign missionaries only, would not be a
legal presbytery. Nor is it desirable that a presbytery in Syria
should be composed of mixed American and Syrian pastors and
Syrian elders. We therefore postponed the organization of a
presbytery in Syria until 1883 when Sidon Presbytery was
formed and afterwards the Presbyteries of Mount Lebanon and
Tripoli. The missionaries here all retain their connection with
their home presbyteries in America, and sit as corresponding
members of the three presbyteries in Syria ; that of Sidon, Beirut
and Mount Lebanon, and Tripoli. We decline to vote, but the
Syrian brethren entreat us to sit with them and at times even to
accept the office of moderator. The twelve ordained mission-
aries in Syria would, if legal members of the native presbyteries,
be able to override and outvote their Syrian brethren.
In the three Syrian presbyteries, where the churches have no
pastors, the licensed preacher, if acting as supply, has a seat in
presbytery with his elder. This enables the presbytery to cover
the field and these young preachers are trained to transact busi-
ness and to enter into spiritual sympathy with their fellow work-
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Comity in Spite of Hjrmns 357
ers throughout the land. After long discussion and full study
and consideration, all the presbyteries have adopted the form of
government of the Presbyterian Church.
There has thus far been no attempt to unite in one body the
American Presbyterian Mission, the Irish Presbyterian Mission
of Damascus, the Scotch United Free Mission in Tiberias, and
the Reformed Presbyterian or Covenanter Mission of Latakia,
Cyprus, and Mersine. When these three branches of the Pres-
byterian Church at home unite, the missionaries on the foreign
field will no doubt respond with enthusiasm. At present I un-
derstand that there is not material enough in the way of ordained
pastors and organized churches to warrant the formation of a
presbytery in either of these three missions. The close com-
munion principles of some of these churches make it difficult to
have even a union evangelistic service. One rather exceptionally
radical devotee of psalm singing in Northern Syria requested the
Brummana Conference of some 120 Christian workers from all
parts of Syria, Palestine, and Asia Minor, to forego hymn sing-
ing and to sing only psalms in order to enable him to come.
The secretary. Dr. Mackie, replied kindly to this assumption by
suggesting that he could refrain from singing altogether and yet
enjoy the benefit of a conference led by the saintly Rev. F. B.
Meyer. But he refused to come. The non possumtis of a pope
could not be more unfraternal.
In November, 1869, Dr. Norman McLeod of Scotland passed
through Cairo on his return from India. Meeting Rev. Dr. Bar-
nett, a stiff United Presbyterian of the American Mission, Dr.
McLeod asked him what he thought of all Christians uniting in
foreign fields to form an evangelical church on the basis of the
New Testament.
"Not at all," he replied, "as long as so many of these
churches will follow * will worship ' in singing human produc-
tions" (meaning hymns). " What," said Dr. McLeod, " do you
mean to say that you would make a schism in the Church of Christ
for such a reason ? " " Yes," said Dr. Bamett. " Then," said Dr.
McLeod, " I wish your whole church was in the bottomless pit."
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3^8 Progress and Revival
That was severe language and too strong and too much like
bringing fire from heaven as James and John wished to do, but
Dr. McLeod was a man of broad sympathies and strong convic-
tions and could not bear intolerance. We were at that time cor-
responding with all the missions in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine,
and Egypt with regard to holding a Union Missionary Confer-
ence in March, 1870, and we had strong hopes of a delegation of
the United Presbyterian brethren in Egypt, but none came, and
the Covenanter brethren of the North did not even answer the
circular invitation. Since that time a much broader and more
fraternal spirit has prevailed and we exchange pulpits with our
saintly brethren in Egypt and our '' mutual love is fervent."
We can explain to the people the diflference between presby-
tery and prelacy, but I have not been able to make an Arab un-
derstand why missionaries labouring to lead pagans and Mos'
lems to Christ should refuse to commune with other missionaries
because in their church service they sing " Jesus, Lover of my
Soul " and other inspiring Christian hymns of prayer and praise.
In writing on this subject to dear Dr. Lansing in December,
1868, I said, ** Really, should our two branches of the church at
home unite to-morrow on a basis allowing the singing of both
psalms and hymns at pleasure, I don't believe that your mission
would refuse to enter into the union."
In those days I found great comfort and inspiration in reading,
every night before retiring, from George Bowen's ** Meditations."
It is the most pithy, terse, and sententious book of devotional
reading I have ever read. The author was once a New York
infidel lawyer, was converted, studied in Union Seminary, went
to Western India as a missionary, where he supported himself by
teaching and conducting a journal. He was a remarkable man
and has written a remarkable book.
In January, 1869, the mission thanked God and took courage.
The Bible had been printed in various attractive editions ; thou-
sands of people have heard the Gospel message ; numerous depu-
tations had come from diflferent villages asking for teachers;
towns and villages long sealed against us are now open and ask-
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Children of Adam 359
ing for missionary labour ; baptisms have begun to take place
among the Druses; even the Mohammedans are sending their
children to our schools; several Christian churches have been
organized ; and the mission has now set apart three of its mem-
bers to the work of training a native ministry, while in the de-
partment of higher education, the college and girls' boarding-
school in Beirut will accomplish all that Syria will need for many
years to come.
Yet we had not a single self-supporting church or school.
This money question is the bane of all missions. The whole
system of paying native Christian teachers and preachers out of
foreign funds is an unmixed evil. The '' Native Element/' as it
is called in educational institutions, is important, but only most
efTective when paid by natives. Every cent of foreign money
paid to natives is misunderstood by the native population, puts
the employees thus paid in the attitude of hirelings, injures their
character for sincerity (and most of them are truly sincere), and
weakens the self-respect of the people. It tends to demoralize
them.
The Emir Mohammed Smair Ibn ed Dukhy of the Anazeh
Arabs said once to me while on a visit to Beirut, " Yes, we would
like to have a teacher come to our tribe, but he must be willing to
live as we do, travel as we travel, and eat as we eat" Once a
Bedawy sheikh, after hearing the Sermon on the Mount, ex-
claimed, " That, command to turn the * other cheek ' may do for
you dwellers in towns, but it will never do for us Arabs. We
must punish offenders and retaliate for outrages, or we could not
live." The fact is that the old Ishmaelitic spirit is wrought into
the very fibre of their being, << his hand shall be against every
man and every man's hand shall be against him." Though pro-
fessedly Moslems they waylay and plunder and kill the Moslem
pilgrims en route from Jeddah to Mecca. While in one sense
they are simple-minded, hospitable, true children of nature, they
show that they are also the children of Adam, superstitious, sus-
picious, and revengeful to the last degree. The system of
^ ghazu," or midnight raids upon hostile camps, is a part of their
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360 Progress and Revival
very being, and is as cowardly as it is cruel When Kamil and
Jedaan spent a summer among the Anazeh in 1890, they read
and preached to them for two months, and since then Jedaan has
induced a body of young sheikhs to agree to give up the ** ghazu.''
Some day, when the present political and military barrier is re-
moved, the Gospel will again reach the Arabs as it did in the eaxfy
Christian centuries.
In 1864 the Arab Orthodox Greeks of Deir Mimas, west of
Mount Hermon, quarrelled about their ecclesiastical revenues.
The income from the Church estates was vastly in excess of former
years, and the whole village was rent with violent struggles on
the part of the people to secure their share of the prize after
giving the Greek priest a meagre portion. They cast about them
for an agent to whom they could entrust the care of the funds.
They could not trust the priest nor the sheikh nor any one of the
old men, and at length by unanimous consent they requested the
Rev. J. A. Ford (father of Dr. George A. Ford), the American
missionary, to take charge of the revenues of the Greek Church.
This confidence of the Syrian people in the American mission-
aries has appeared strikingly since the emigration to North
America and Brazil began. Prosperous Syrian emigrants in
those lands have sent thousands of pounds in drafts and postal
orders to the missionaries in Sidon, Beirut, Tripoli, and Zahleh,
to be cashed by them and the money to be given to the
friends of the senders in various parts of Syria. Men of various
sects, many of whom the missionaries have never known, send
drafts of large sums payable to the order of the missionaty, with
perfect confidence that the money will be honestly delivered.
One of the missionaries had at one time thousands of dollars in
his care, which the owners preferred that he retain and invest for
them.
With regard to the material gains to Syria through the mis-
sionaries, it is worthy of note that Rev. Isaac Bird introduced the
potato in 1827 to Ehden, Northern Lebanon, and it has now be-
come a universal article of food throughout Syria.
Mr. Hurter, our printer, introduced kerosene oil and lamps in
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Missionaries Aiding Material Progress 361
1861; into Syria so that by 1870 it had quite supplanted olive
oil for illuminating purposes. Previous to that time olive oil was
the only illuminating oil in use in the East. Americans also
introduced the first steam printing-press in 1867, photographic
camera in 1856, iron building beams in 1871, wire nails, sewing-
machines, parlour organs in 1854, mimeographs, typewriters,
dentistry in 1854, and agricultural machinery; Dr. Hamlin, of
Robert College, Constantinople, introduced the Morse telegraph
apparatus, and now the empire is netted over with telegraph
wires. Telephones have not yet been allowed, owing to some
peculiar fear that they might be used to concoct " treasons, strata-
gems, and spoils," but as electric railways are now constructed in
Damascus and Beirut we may hope that the telephone restric-
tion may ere long be removed.
In September, 1869, 1 wrote to a missionary in Mardin who
seemed disposed to denounce the Arabic language as if it were a
great sinner in having such rough gutturals and difficult idioms :
•' I judge from Brother W 's letter that none of you are very
fond of the Arabic language. It is a burden at first, but the
Master, while He does not require us to love the burden, does
tell us to love to bear it Every missionary ought to, try most
earnestly to love the language through which he is to preach the
Gospel of Christ to his fellow men, and that, in order that he may
learn it well and be able to use it as not abusing it. The perfec-
tion of art is to conceal art, and the perfection of preaching in a
language is to preach so that the people will not think how you
say it but what you say. Correct pronunciation of Arabic is the
prime necessity."
By mispronunciation a Greek bishop prayed that the Lord
would create a clean dog (kelb, instead of kolb, heart) in each of
His people. A missionary lady told her servant to put more don-
keys in the bread (using " hameer " instead of" khameer," leaven).
A missionary calling on the local governor and wishing to thank
him for some act of his, said, " I am crazy to Your Excellency "
(using " mejnoon " instead of " memnoon," obliged). Similar
instances might be multiplied indefinitely — notably Dr. Dennis'
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362 Progress and Revival
funeral sermon in which by a mispronunciation of K, he confused
*• trials " with *' roosters " to the mystification of the mourners.
In October brother Samuel made a horseback forty days' tour
of 400 miles in Northern Syria, preaching, encouraging all, and
rejoicing in signs of progress. He went through historic regions*
the land mentioned in Genesis as tbe land of the ** Arkites, the
Arvadites, the Sinites, the Hamathites/' and when last heard
from, he seemed to think that the Nusairi people of that region
were very largely " Sinitcs."
The type of the Beirut Press is becoming more and more
widely regarded as the best Arabic type in the world. The dis-
tinguished Arabic scholars in Germany, who have hitherto printed
the Koran and many other Arabic books in the type made in
Germany, have recently written to Dr. Van Dyck asking for
specifications as to the price of the various fonts of type, as they
have decided to use only the Beirut type hereafter. The Domin-
ican monks of Mosul have purchased ^600 worth of type from
our press for their Arabic printing work in that city.
Mr. Poole of the British Museum recently visited our press and
remarked that this press is the only one in the world which does
good Arabic printing. Such testimony confirms the wisdom of
Dr. Eli Smith and his coadjutors in basing the Beirut types on the
best specimens of Arabic calligraphy.
Since that time the Jesuit Press of Beirut has done admirable
work.
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DR. DICKSON, DR. JESSUP, DR. HATFIELD
Moderator and Clerks of the General Assemblj', Saratoga, 1878.
"THREE OF US"
Dr. Bliss, Rev. Mr. Bird, and a giant pine tree, Brummana, 1901.
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XV
Furloughs
A FURLOUGH is a temporary release from service. To
the soldier it is a release from bearing arms. To the
foreign missionary it is a change of place and generally
a change of work, but no relief from work. If the returned mis-
sionary be an invalid, he may obtain absolute repose. But if he
is in good health, he will probably have as strenuous a period of
work as at any time in his life. I have visited America seven
times in the past fifty years, — four times on regular furlough, and
three times through circumstances beyond my control This has
involved travelling 105,000 miles by sea and 50,000 miles by land
The shortest furlough was thirteen weeks, and the longest two
years and three months. While in America, I delivered 901 ad-
dresses and sermons besides numerous talks to Sunday-schools.
This was an average of 128 addresses each year, or more than
two a week. I spoke to the students of nine theological
seminaries, fifteen colleges, seven female colleges and seminaries,
attended four meetings, of the American Board of Foreign Mis-
sions, and six General Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church.
At the annual meeting of the A. B. C. F. M. in Milv^ukee,
September, 1878, owing to the illness of Dr. Manning of Boston,
who Mras expected to preach the opening sermon, I consented,
on three hours' notice, to deliver the annual address.
In May, 1879, when attending the Saratoga General Assembly
as a commissioner from Lackawanna Presbjrtery, I found myself
nominated to the high office of moderator. It was an embarrass-
ing situation. The other nominees were Rev. Dr. E. F. Hatfield,
the venerable stated clerk, and Dr. Darling of Albany, both
friends of my sainted father. I was seated in the rear of the
church when my dear friends, Hon. Wm. E. Dodge and Dr.
363
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364 Furloughs
Chas. S. Robinson, were putting me in nomination. Just ahead
of me sat several substantial-looking elders, one of whom said to
the other in an anxious tone, '< Do you hear ? They are
nominating for moderator a foreign missionary who, they say, has
never been even moderator of a presbytery, and knows little or
nothing about conducting a great assembly. If he is elected we
shall not get away from here for three weeks ! " Just then we
three candidates were ordered to retire, and as we walked to-
gether under the elms in front of the church, I resolved that, if
called to that chair, I would let no grass grow under the feet of
that body of grave and reverend brethren. Then came the tug of
war. I was confronted with the necessity of appointing, before
nine o'clock the next morning, seventeen standing committees,
each comprising from ten to twenty men, to be selected accord-
ing to certain fixed rules of priority and propriety from among a
body of some 500 men, with not more than sixty-eight of whom
I was personally acquainted. I at once sought die advice of that
sagacious and experienced man, Dr. Hatfield, and he agreed to
help me. I went to his room in the evening and we worked un-
til 2 A. M., arranging and rearranging. He justly declined to take
any responsibility, and I assumed it all. It was the hardest
night's work I ever undertook, and I expected that many mistakes
had been made, but it was a relief to find when the list was read
the next morning, that there was no .outburst of dissatisfaction.
The next week a minister called at my boarding-place and re-
quested a private interview. He asked, " Did you appoint the
standing committees ? " " Yes," said I, " I only am responsible.
But why do you ask such a question ? " He said, ** Because our
large presbytery was entirely overlooked." I said to him, '* I am
glad to hear that only one was overlooked. I did my best, and
if you are ever made moderator you will know how to appreciate
the task."
It was no easy matter to decide points of order when a
Philadelphia lawyer took one side and a Washington judge the
opposite view. But I had Dr. Hatfield at my left hand and Dr.
Patton of Princeton near by, and so I piloted the ship through
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Moderating a General Assembly 36^
the breakers. The assembly adjourned at the usual day and
hour, and the pessimistic elder did not have to stay out his three
weeks. The strain upon mind and body, through that ten days'
assembly of three sessions each day, was severe, and it was with
great joy and gratitude that I left Saratoga immediately after ad-
journment for an outing among old friends in Pittsfield, Stock-
bridge and Boston.
I owe it to the many friends who have opened their homes to
me and treated me as a son and brother, to acknowledge their
loving hospitality, when I have come among them as a stranger
from a strange land. Dr. Goodell used to say that he had already
the '* hundredfold more in this present life, houses and lands and
brethren,"* etc., for all the houses in Christian America were his.
The Arabs say, in welcoming a guest, " beitna beitkum " — our
house is your house, and this has been my glad experience in
hundreds of houses and homes. And what a blessing it is, after
years in a foreign land, to come for a season, and see the Ameri-
can Christian family life, the family altars, the lovely children and
breathe the sweet air of liberty.
I believe in missionary furloughs. Some one has written of a
traveller who found a missionary in Eastern Turkey, who had been
there twenty years and this traveller had never heard of him.
Whereupon he was filled with admiration. *' Here is the true
missionary, who has buried himself in Mesopotamia, done good
work and yet never been heard of — so engrossed was he in his
great work." I knew that missionary Rev. A. W. and he Aad
been heard from. His brethren heard from him, his Board heard
from him and published his letters; the churches of the A. B. C. F. M.
had heard from him and prayed for him. His college classmates,
one of whom was my brother William of the dass of '49, Yale,
had heard from him. Only this traveller had not heard of him.
Ife had not read the Missionary Herald^ and probably had not
attended the missionary meetings. And when he unearthed this
good man at his work in a far country he thought he had made a
discovery and is loud in his praise of the man who goes abroad
and never shows his head in America. But there are two sides to
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366 Furloughs
this question. Dr. Cornelius Van Dyck, co-translator of the Bible
with Dr. Eli Smith, came to Syria in 1840. He visited America
in 1853* again in 1865 to electrotype the Arabic Bible, remaining
two years, but never took another furlough. Before his death in
December, 1895, he said to me," It is twenty-eight years since my
last furlough. I have made a great mistake. I should have im-
proved my regular vacations. I have lost touch with the Ameri-
can Church and American life." Dr. Thomson, author of" The
Land and the Book," once made a similar remark to me, and so
did my dear friend Rev. Wm. Bird, who, when he died, in 1902,
had not been in America for fourteen years.
Paul and Barnabas returned to Jerusalem after a missionaiy
tour, and " rehearsed how God had opened the door of faith unto
the Gentiles." The Church has a right to know what its army is
doing at the front, and will feel a deeper interest in men and
women whom they have seen and heard. And the missionary is
benefited by a change from what are often the depressing sur-
roundings of life in barbarous or semi-civilized lands, to the light
and peace and stimulating influences of the home land. He needs
it to restore impaired energies and prolong life. It is a Christian
labourer's duty to live as long as he can, and it is true as a rule
that a year at home adds years to a foreign missionary's life.
All the foreign boards believe in this, and provide stated fur-
loughs for all their labourers in distant lands, and their officers
are generally considerate of the health of their missionaries while
at home.
The variety of labour thrown upon them by the churches is a
benefit to both parties. It is an education to the people and a
recreation to the missionary.
As it is not probable that I shall live to take another regular
furlough in America (in 191 1), a word of counsel may be in place
for young missionaries visiting home. When speaking to the
churches and assemblies of the church, do not waste breath and
time in scolding the people for their indifference and want of lib-
erality. Tell them of your work — give them facts, descriptions,
incidents. You can find out what they want to know by listening
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Don't Curse Meroz 367
to their questions as you visit them in their homes. Do not take
for granted that they know anything about your field or work.
What you regard as commonplace or stale will come to them
with all the charm of novelty. Above all, do not '^ curse Meroz."
I was once in a General Assembly. It was Foreign Missions Day.
Five missionaries were to speak, preceded by two secretaries.
We each had eight minutes allotted us, and Dr. EUinwood en-
joined us to condense and be brief. The programme was handed
to the moderator. A missionary from China spoke after the
secretaries. He began deliberately an exposition of the text
*' Curse ye Meroz," etc., and he made it hot for the pastors and
elders, as he rebuked their shortcomings. And then he reached
his subject, — ^' China is the greatest empire in the world. It has
eighteen provinces." Down went tiie moderator's gavel I
" Your time is up I " The speaker turned and said, " Why, sir, I
have come 10,000 miles and I have just begun to speak I " Down
went the gavel again. '^ I have no option, the time is limited."
The speaker descended, confused and probably very indignant,
and sat down by us in the front seat. At the close of the service
I said to him, <' My dear brother, your mistake was in cursing
Meroz in such an assembly as this. These good men curse
Meroz all the year around. They wanted to hear about China
and you used up your time in your exordium. The next time
leave off the exordium, and begin where you ended to-day."
Entertainment by Christian friends is one of the most delightful
and at the same time exhausting features of a missionary's home-
coming. In February, 1863, Dr. Daniel Bliss, who had been in
America six months, raising funds for the new college, found
great difficulty in securing board with his wife and three chil-
dren. Time after time he would answer an advertisement and
apply for rooms and board, and be met with the question,
"Any children?" "Yes, three." "Then I cannot take you."
In writing to me he said, " I once thought that Jeff Davis ought
to be hung. Now I think hanging is too good for him. He
ought to be obliged to board around and visit around for three
)rear8 with a wife and three children I ''
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368 Furloughs
Rev. George Muller, of Bristol, England, visited Beirut in 1882,
but he persistently declined to accept the hospitality of any of
our missionary families. He said he could make a few public
addresses, but he must then retire to his hotel and have absolute
rest, as he could not bear the strain of visiting. You will some-
times be aske4 to speak to a Sunday-school at 9 a. m ., preach at
eleven, address a Y. P. S. C. E. at 5 p. m., and a union meeting
at 7 : 30 P. M., and during the intervals a houseful of lovely chil-
dren and youth will ply you with questions for '' that bear story,"
or " that tiger story," or, if from Africa, about the biggest python
you ever saw, and by eleven o'clock at night you will be ex-
hausted if not an " insomniac." A man once said that ** it was
not the regular drinks that hurt him, but the drinking between
drinks." It is not so much the talking at regular meetings that
exhausts one, as the talking between talks.
A returned missionary is often exposed to another temptation.
Some church which you visit is without a pastor. It may offer
you, as some have done, five times the salary you receive abroad,
and good opportunities for the education of your children. Some
will even dare to say, " Why should you go abroad ? Such
men as you are, are needed at home. Anybody will do for Chinese
coolies, Africans and Hindus. Why throw yourself away on
such people? Men of culture and learning are needed here in
our city churches." You will need much g^ce, patience and
self-control to reply courteously to such low views of the great
work of the world's evangelization. Your only way is to keep
your hand on the plow and refuse to look back. Resist every
such temptation. I can speak from experience. On my first
visit to America, in July, 1857, when I went home to be married,
I was met on landing with a package of documents, being the
correspondence between the faculty and directors of Union Theo-
logical Seminary, N. Y., and the secretaries of the A. B. C. F. M.
in Boston, in which I was invited to accept the professorship of
Biblical literature in Union Seminary, after spending two years
in Germany (at the expense of the seminary), studying the
Semitic languages and other needed branches. I took Ae doco*
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Don't Look Back from the Plow 369
ments to my room at my sister's house that night, read them
carefvilly and prayerfully, and my decision was made in the nega-
tive. However, not to seem wanting in respect to my old
teachers, I agreed to meet a committee of the faculty in August,
in New York, Drs. Robinson, Smith, Hitchcock and Prentiss. It
was a privilege to meet th,ose revered and noble men, and not
easy to decline to defer to their judgment Dear Dr. Robin-
son, who, under a somewhat rough exterior, had a very tender
heart, plead with me to accept, using arguments which in other
circumstances would have been overwhelmingly convincing.
Said he, ** Union Seminary was founded to train missionaries for
home and foreign missions. We need a man in the faculty full of
the missionary spirit, to train our students for the foreign field,
and your knowledge of Arabic will be invaluable in teaching the
Old Testament language and literature." The others spoke in a
similar strain. I thanked him from the bottom of my heart, but
told them that as all family obstacles to my returning to Syria
were now removed, I could never consent to leave a work to
which I had consecrated my life. I said, " You can find men
better qualified than I am to take this professorship, but it is hard
to find men to go abroad. How could I plead with young
men to go, when I had voluntarily withdrawn from the work ? I
might say to them, * You ought to go,' and they would reply,
* Why did ^ou not go ? ' * I did go.' « Why did you return ? '
« I came to take this professorship.' ' Very well, we will remain
and take pastorates and professorships without putting the
churches to the expense of sending us out and bringing us back I ' "
I said, " Brethren, if I should now give up my work, my lips
would be sealed on the subject of foreign missions."
These honoured and revered men then agreed that, in view of
my strong convictions, they would not urge the matter further,
and they always invited me to address the students, during my
subsequent visits to America.
Years after a member of the American Board said to me that
when Judge Wm. J. Hubbard, chairman of the Prudential Com-
mittee, heard of the invitation of Union Seminary to me, he
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37^ Furloughs
declared that " if Henry Jessup withdraws now from the foreign
missionary work, I will never trust another man/' He probably
had heard of some of my enthusiastic utterances when in Boston,
at the time when I declined the St Petersburg chaplaincy, and
thought that I was bound to stand by my word. I am thankful
that I did It would have grieved me beyond measure to have
done anything to discredit the sincerity of missionary consecra-
tion. It has always been my conviction that the foreign mis-
sionary service is a life enlistment The twelve years or more of
study in preparation, and the formal enlistment in the great army
of Christ, make it, at the lowest estimate, one's duty to keep at it as
long as health and life continue. I well remember the shock I
received on learning that a foreign missionary had resigned in
order to write a guide-book for travellers, and another to take a
professorship at home, and another because he became discour-
aged and did not see fruit to his labours.
On my second furlough I was offered the pastorate of a metro*
politan church, with most liberal salary, far beyond anything I
had dreamed of. Yet this made no impression on my mind
During the furloughs of 1868 and 1883 the Lord permitted me
to take part in the last filial offices to both of my parents. How
can I express my gratitude for this blessed privilege I
During my visit home in 1 882-1 884, the trustees of the coll^;e
asked me to raise $20fi00 as a scholarship fund The lamented
Rev. Gerald F. Dale, Jr., of Zahleh, had received a legacy of
^10,000 which he offered to the college on condition that they
raise $20fiOO in addition, and, as I left Beirut in June, 1882, he
asked me to undertake the work while in America. I accepted
the service, and in a year had raised about ^22,000, through the
kind cooperation of the heirs and executors of the late Frederick
Marquand, Mr. and Mrs. Elbert B. Monroe, and Mr. and Mrs.
D. W. McWilliams, James Lenox, and many otheis.
The various services of money raising for diflerent objects in
Syria have brought me into contact with some of the purest
noblest spirits the world has ever known, and I learned how
sacredly wealthy Christian men and women regard the property
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Stewards of God 371
entrusted to them as God's stewards, and how solemn is the re-
sponsibility of those who receive pecuniary aid from their hands.
Among these honoured servants of God I might mention Mr.
and Mrs. W. E. Dodge, Dr. D. Stuart Dodge, William A, Booth,
Egbert Starr, Frederick Marquand, Levi P. Stone ; Matthias W.
Baldwin, John A. Brown and Jay Cook of Philadelphia ; Wm.
Thaw of Pittsburg ; Dr. Willard and daughters of Auburn ; Dr.
Frederick Hyde, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Dsde ; Henry Farnum of
New Haven ; Mr. and Mrs. Elbert B. Monroe and Mr. and Mrs.
D. W. McWilliams, James Lenox, Morris K. Jesup, John S.
Kennedy, Elliott F. Shepard and many others.
But the most touching experience of all was when I applied to
an elderly widow lady in Philadelphia for aid in building the
girls' school edifice in Beirut It was in November, 1864, just
before the reelection day of Abraham Lincoln. I had been ad-
vised to call on this lady although she had but little property. I
found her in a beautiful neat residence with the typical white
marble steps at the entrance. I sent in my card and she greeted
me cordially and with beautiful grace and courtesy. At her
request I explained our need of a building for the girls' boarding-
school in Beirut. She listened attentively and then said, " My
dear friend, I would gladly help you, but I have nothing to give
but what I earn. This house is not mine. I am allowed to remain
in it while I live. I have just sufficient income to pay my daily
expenses. But it is such a privilege to give to the dear Lord
that I work every day and earn money and whatever I earn goes
into the Lord's bag and is ready at His call. If there is anything
in the Lord's bag now, you shall have it." She then went and
brought a little bag and emptied seven dollars into my hands,
and said, " I give this cheerfully because it belongs to the Lord
and you are His servant." I was deeply touched, thanked her
heartrly, and asked her how she earned money, when she was
nearly eighty years old. She replied that she bought up ragged
pieces of haircloth, removed from sofas and chairs by the up-
holsterers, and from the horsehair she made clothes-brushes,
binding them with coloured ribbon, and selling them for a half
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372 Furloughs
dollar apiece I In this way she made several hundred dollars in
a year, and was able to answer every call for aid. ^ She hath
done what she could." That seven dollars put at least thirty
stones in the girls' school building, and this gift will never be
forgotten I
<
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XVI
A Critical Year
1870— The reunion in the Presbyterian Church — Our transfer from the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
THE year 1870 was a crisis in the history of the Syria
Mission. It was also a crisis in my missionary life and
cost me a severe struggle, especially on account of two
events. The first was the transfer of our mission, in toto^ with
all its personnel and property from the American Board to the
new Presbyterian Board, and the second was my election to the
secretaryship of the new Board. For fifty years the mission had
been under the American Board. From 18 10 to 1837 the entire
Presbyterian Church and the Dutch Reformed Church supported
the American Board. At the disruption in 1837, the Old School
formed a separate Presbjrterian Board, and the New School and
the Reformed Churches continued to support the American
Board. The New School Presbjrterian Churches had cordially
cooperated with the Congregational and Reformed Dutch
Churches in carrying on their foreign missions through the
American Board, and in the Syria Mission, Fisk and Parsonsi
Eli Smith, Calhoun, I. Bird, De Forest, and later, Wm. Bird and
D. Bliss were Congregationalists ; while Whiting, Thomson,
Ford, Eddy, Wilson, H. H. Jessup, S. Jessup, Dr. G. E. Post and
J. S. Dennis were Presb}rterians, and Dr. Van Dyck was of the
Dutch Reformed Church.
On the reunion of the two branches of the Presbyterian Church
a new Board of Missions was formed, and as the New School
Pre8b}rterians were about to withdraw their contributions from the
American Board, it was agreed that they should assume the
charge of a fair proportion of the missions.
Various questions of a practical character had to be decided,
373
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374 A Critical Year
on the completion of this transfer. The title of all the Board's
property had to be transferred to the new Board. The mission
unanimously adopted the form of government and confession of
faith of the Pretb)^erian Church. Yet we reserved the right to
continue our connection with our home presbyteries, and to make
the future presb)^erie8 of Syria independent ecclesiastically of the
General Assembly in the United States. This policy has con-
tinued to this day, and we believe that it tends to promote a feel-
ing of loyalty and patriotic devotion to their Church on the part
of the Syrian Christians. The missionaries sit with them as cor-
responding members and only vote when such action is approved
by the Syrian members.
The Franco-German War was then raging, and we feared lest
our letters home be interrupted in transit. It was a year of
great political excitement throughout the East. On the 25th of
October the people of Syria were thrown into consternation by a
display of the northern lights or aurora borealis. '' This evening
we have had a phenomenon such as the oldest inhabitant of
Syria has never witnessed, a magnificent red aurora borealis ; a
perfect glare of red light arching the horizon to the height of
about twenty degrees, and shooting out streamers of light to the
zenith. No Syrian had ever seen the like, and the people were
greatly alarmed. The great aurora of 1837 ^^ seen in Georgia
just about our latitude, but was not visible here. Sheikh Has-
sein, the old Druse who owns our house, trembled with fear when
I called him out to see it, and he asked whether it was not the
flames of Paris being burned by the Germans. It was certainly
startling to see that blood-red arch in the North." The oldest
inhabitant had never seen it before and now thirty-eight years
have passed and there has not been another display. I was in
Abeih, Mount Lebanon, at the time. The Druse begs came to
Mr. Calhoun and myself for an explanation of this awful noc-
turnal glare. They, too, thought it was Paris burning ! We ex-
plained it, and told them it was a common occurrence in Amer-
ica and all Northern countries, and was the '' Shefuk Shemali *'
known to astronomers and meteorologists.
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Secretaryship of the New Board 375
Another event happened in 1870 which cost me a struggle.
*On the 18th of July I received letters from Rev, Dr. Robert
Booth, Rev. Dr. Lowrie and others, stating that the Board of
Foreign Missions of the Reunited Presbjrterian Church had unan-
imously elected me corresponding secretary, with the request
that I accept and come on to New York as soon as possible. I
read the letter with astonishment- <<In matteis of conscience,
first thoughts are best." It was an attractive offer, — a permanent
residence in the home land with facilities for the education of the
children, and a position bringing one into contact with the most
consecrated of God's people at home, and the devoted mission-
aries abroad ; the confidence of such a body of men as the new
Board and the assurance of their sympathy ; their taking it for
granted that I would come and their conviction that I would be
more useful there than here ; all these things pressed upon me
but did not move me. After prayer and consultation with my
wife, my decision was made. I said to her, <' I cannot leave my
work in Syrisi, after all these years of preparation. My heart is
here. I shall decline." She replied, " I knew you would, and I
am with you."
On July 24th I wrote my formal reply to Dr. Booth. After
an introduction thanking him and the Board for their kind and
flattering letters and expressing my joy in the reunion of the
Church, I stated that '<I am giving expression to no hastily
formed judgment, but to deliberate convictions formed after years
of thought and prayer and calm examination."
Among my reasons for declining were the following ones:
Any missionary who has been engaged fifteen years in the for-
eign field, especially in the Arabic language, is of more value to
the field in which he is labouring than he can be at home to the
general cause of missions. The acquisition of a foreign language
is no easy task and it is not a mantle which can be transferred
from the aged Elijahs to the youthful Elishas of the service.
When a missionary dies, his Arabic dies with him, and when he
leaves the country he cannot transmit his facility in using for-
eign gutturals and idioms to the new recruits.
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376 A Critical Year
The same may be said of acquaintance with the mental, moral
and religious peculiarities of the people, familiarity with their
manners and customs, and readiness of adaptation to their social
prejudices. The capital stock laid up by a missionary in fifteen
years, in these respects, yields a large and rapidly accumulating
interest, whereas a sudden transfer to another land and sphere
of labour would render this peculiar knowledge almost value-
less.
Should a missionary be obliged in the providence of God to
leave his field and return to his native land, he would naturally
seek a position in which he could best promote the cause nearest
to his heart. And his experience in the foreign field would be
of the highest value to the cause of missions both at home and
abroad, as has been proved in several notable instances familiar
to all, tK>th in Great Britain and the United States.
The voluntary abandonment of his field and work by a foreign
missionary for any post at home, must have a demoralizing effect
on the churches at home and would tend to unsettle the stability
of the whole s}rstem and theory of foreign missions. An enlist-
ment in this sacred cause should be ever r^arded as for life.
Young men at home should so regard it, and it will not do to
lower this standard. No foreign missionary can labour as effect-
ively as he ought, who leaves the matter of his continuance in
it an open question. On reaching his field of labour, he should,
like Cortez, bum his ships behind him. Then only will die
churches and seminaries and institutions at home feel that foreign
missionaries are a kind of property which is inalienable. Then
only will the missionary boards feel sure that the men who
ofTer themselves for the foreign field have given up all for
Christ.
To speak somewhat more personally and very frankly, I can-
not conscientiously give up my work in S)rria. However feeble
and unworthy my labours, my heart is here. I came for life, and
I pray that I may be permitted to end my days among this
people. Your churches can far better spare their best pastors for
this work than can an overworked and feebly-manned mission.
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Moving to the Mountains 377
struggling with the hosts of heathenism, Islamism and false Chris-
tianity, spare one labourer.^
If a man is needed in this office, fresh from the foreign field,
*' to arouse the enthusiasm of the churches to a new degree of
fervour/' could not certain of the foreign missionaries connected
with the missions about to be transferred to the Presbyterian
Church, as wdl as from other missions in Asia and Africa, visit
the United States from time to time, make the acquaintance of
the churches East and West, and aid in stirring up the people ?
This would be a very different matter from calling any man per-
manently away from his field. A series of missionary conven-
tions, distinct from the business meetings of the presbyteries (if
thought best) and attended by the secretaries and returned mis-
sionaries would attain the end we all have in view in the most
effective manner.'
On October 25th I wrote to my brother George from Abeih :
" This moving to Lebanon and back to Beirut every year is one
of the wearing trials of missionary life. I often think of the old
home at Montrose as a model home, where things remain in place
for a generation. But we have to tear up and pack up almost
everything twice a year. We stay six months in Abeih, and
hence have to bring everything with us that is perishable, leaving
only crockery, books, furniture and one bed with its bedding, to
be used when I go down from time to time. A camel carries our
large melodeon organ in a huge box balanced on the middle of
his back and the rest of the furniture is carried on mules. A
mule will carry two large boxes with a couple of chairs in the
middle, and frequently tiie chair legs catch in the trees and are
torn off. Once a mule ran down a long flight of stone steps with
one of our chests half-fastened to his pack-saddle and it fell and
' It 18 worthy of note that the God of missions has provided for the
new Presbyterian Board a succession of secretaries, eminent men, almost
without peers in the church : Dr. F. F. EUinwood, the saintly scholar.
Dr. Gillespie, Dr. Arthur Mitchell, Dr. A. J. Brown, Dr. Halsey,
Robert Speer and Dr. Stanley White.
'Such meetings are now (1908) a part of the policy of the Church*
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378 A Critical Year
was dragged down the steps, the cover being split and torn oft
It contained bedding and our pictures and small mirrors, but none
of them were broken ! Were I able, I should have a complete
duplicate set of furniture and put a stop to this endless pack."
The year 1870 was a time of drought and almost a famine.
Flour reached ^12.50 a barrel, and near Mount Carmel men
starved to death. A war panic arose through rumours of war with
Russia, and the Christians of Damascus began to prepare to flee
to Beirut, as the proverb has it : " One bitten by a snake fears
the twirling of a rope." But no war ensued and Syria was soon
quiet again.
When we were transferred to the Presbyterian Board, we felt
great anxiety about the time and attention to be given to foreign
missions in our General Assembly. I wrote to my brother
Judge Wm. H. Jessup, and my brother-in-law Judge Alfred Hand
of Scranton, as follows :
<' December 5, 1870 — I hope you and Alfred will push the
matter of an annual missionary convention, either in connec-
tion with the General Assembly or in the synods in the fall,
which shall have all the vigour and enthusiasm of the annual
meeting of the American Board. The custom of assigning to
the missionary secretaries an hour in the morning and a part of
an evening to this all-important work in such a Church as ours
is like trifling with the most momentous interests. The working
out of this plan and the reviving of missionary enthusiasm must
be done largely by the young elders and Sunday-school superin-
tendents : you could not do a better or more efficient work for
foreign missions." *
On the same date I wrote to Rev. D. Stuart Dodge : '< Let
us pray for a baptism of the Spirit upon the young men of die
colleges. We hear of two or three candidates for the next
theological class, but all plain non-classically educated men."
This was our burden in 1870, and it is the same in 1909.
^ 1908— This has become an established part of the General Assembly
meetings largely through the efforts of the late Rev. Thoi. Marshall, of
blessed memory.
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Dodds* Snake Story 379
M edicine, commerce, and other lucrative professions over-tempt
our Christian college students, and they pass by the theological
seminary <' on the other side."
A sad event of this year was the death (about December 12th)
of Rev. R. J. Dodds, D. D., of the Reformed Presbyterian Mis-
sion in Aleppo. He was a man of earnest piety and fine lin-
guistic attainments. He was at home among the wild fellahin
of the Nusairiyeh Mountains, and would go alone on a donkey
from village to village, and was welcomed everywhere, while
Kamil Pasha, Governor of Hamath, declared that he could not go
through the mountains unless attended by 100 soldiers. When
the pasha heard of Dr. Dodds' popularity among the tribes as
a friend and a man of peace, he wrote to Constantinople asking
permission to try a new system of government over the wild
Nusairiyeh and win them instead of alienating them. In reply
he got new orders to oppress and tax them as of old.
In November, 1876, my brother Samuel and I embarked on
the Russian steamer for Tripoli, en route for Hums and the in-
terior. We expected to land in Tripoli at sunrise, but a north-
east gale frightened the captain, and he ran by Tripoli, carrying
us on to Latakia, then the home of Dr. Dodds. He welcomed
us, and we had a delightful visit of a week. ' One day he said,
** Why don't you brethren come oftener to see us ? It seems
that nothing but a storm will bring you. This reminds me of
the old godless mountaineer in Kentucky who had four sons,
and all equally profane, godless, and Sabbath-breaking with him-
self. No persuasion would induce them to go to church, or re-
ceive a visit from a minister. But one day Jim, the elder boy,
was bitten by a rattlesnake, and the old man sent off post-haste
for the minister. He came, and, on entering the room, took off
his hat and began to pray: * O Lord, we thank Thee for rattle-
snakes and we pray Thee to send one to bite Tom, and one to
bite Ike, and another to bite Jerry, and a tremendous big fellow
to bite the old man ! For, Lord, Thou knowest that nothing but
rattlesnakes will ever bring them to their senses 1 ' And so," said
Dr. Dodds, ** I will have to pray for another storm to bring Dr.
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380 A Critical Year
Van Dycky and one to bring Dr. Thomson, and a tremendous big
storm to bring Father Calhoun, for it seems that nothing but
storms will bring any of you brethren to see us I "
I told Dr. Dodds that I was engaged in collecting a barrel full
of snakes for Professor Cope of Philadelphia. He said, '< You
could have got twenty barrels here last winter. The river here
changed its course in a heavy freshet, and the banks in which
hundreds of snakes were hibernating caved in, and the snakes
were washed down to the sea. There the waves dashed them
up on the shore in heaps, and the dogs and vultures feasted on
them for many days."
In the spring of 1870 an educated Moslem effendi, named
M , of Aleppo, came to Beirut and professed Christianity.
His cousin Ahmed, on hearing of it, set out for Beirut to kill
him. When the Waly of Aleppo knew of this, he recalled
Ahmed, and told him to desist, as the Sultan had given liberty to
his subjects. In the fall Ahmed was made pasha» and came to
Beirut, where his cousin received him cordially and took him to
see the college, and to witness Dr. Van Dyck's chemical experi-
ments in the evening, in which he was intensely interested. The
days of killing cousins on account of apostasy are evidently over.
M afterwards removed to Egypt
Dr. Richard Newton, rector of the Church of the Epiphany,
Philadelphia, visited Beirut in April, 1870. He was snowed in
for two days near Baalbec. He was a broad-minded evangelical
clergyman and was known as the Children's Preacher. He be-
came interested in our work and promised to pay the expense
of translating and printing his volumes of children's sermons in
Arabic. He kept his word and we have nine volumes of his, be-
sides his large octavo illustrated '' Life of Christ for the Young,'*
published at our press and widely circulated. When in Phila-
delphia in 1879 he invited me to address a crowded audience of
children in his church on Chestnut Street, Philaddphia. The
total cost of publishing all these tK>oks was not less than four
thousand dollars.
Early in March Syria was threatened with famine. Less than
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Famine and Drought 381
one-third the usual amount of rain had fallen. " Streams that
usually run with full banks are dry. Fountains (springs) and
wells are running low. A Druse sheikh told me that cattle are
dying in Hauran for want of water. The cisterns are being ex-
hausted and no rain falls. How this reminds one of the words
of Amos 4:7: <I have withholden the rain from you when
there were yet tAree months to the harvest and I caused it to rain
upon one dty and caused it not to rain upon another. So two
or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water but they
were not satisfied.' The great rock-hewn cistern of our female
seminary, which holds nearly thirty thousand gallons of water
and which is generally full at this season, has scarcely a foot of
water in it The barley and wheat are turning yellow. The
price of wheat and flour has risen fifty per cent within a fort-
night. All the sects of the city have been ordered out twice to
the public square to pray for rain. The locusts also came over
the land in swarms darkening the sky, and a fierce burning
sirocco wind blew from the south, parching the earth and with-
ering vegetation. A strange shower of red particles fell near
Gaza which the superstitious people thought to be a shower of
blood, and the eclipse of the moon in January had alarmed the
masses."
But relief came. In the latter part of March and in April the
storm came on with thunder, lightning and pouring rain, just in
time to save the crops. I was stormed-stayed in Damascus, April
7th, with my dear friend and classmate in Union Seminary, Dr.
Charles S. Robinson, then pastor of the American chapel in
Paris, by a heavy snow-storm which blocked the passes of
Lebanon. Rev. Newman Hall's party were snow-bound two
days in a village in Anti-Lebanon.
In May we were favoured with a visit from three men dis-
tinguished in the Church at home and abroad : Professors Henry B.
Smith, Roswell D. Hitchcock and Edwards A. Park who had
toured through Egypt, Sinai and Palestine, and came up from
Beirut to visit us in Abeih. Professor Smith was my guest,
Professor Park was at Mr. Calhoun's and Professor Hitchcock at
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382 A Critical Year
Mr. Bird's. The boys of the seminary and theological dass went
out a mile to Ain Kesur to meet them with Arabic hymns and
salutations. Their stay was a feast of fat things to us dl, and we
received many suggestions as to our teaching of theology,
church history, and Scripture exegesis.
One afternoon we all walked to the mountain peak, the
'< Metaiyyer/' the site of an old Baal temple, to get the wonder-
ful view of the Lebanon gorges and ranges, and the coast from
Sarepta to Sidon, Beirut, and nearly to Tripoli. Professor Park,
who had been kicked by a mule on his journey, rode a donkey.
As we walked up through the vineyards in scattered groups.
Professor Hitchcock said to me aside, " Have you not noticed how
feeble Professor Smith is ? Do urge him to stay abroad another
year. He needs rest, but he insists that he must go back to his
classes in Union next fall. We must not allow it I can go back
and take on some extra work, but he must rest still longer."
When we reached the summit and sat enjoying the view,
Professor Smith said to me, " I want to ask you as a friend to join
with Mr. Calhoun in urging Professor Park to remain abroad at
least another year. He is very much broken, and if he goes
back in September, as he declares he must, he will be sure to be
permanently laid aside." On our return Professor Park said to me
in a low tone, so as not to be heard by the rest of the party,
'' You may have noticed how changed Professor Hitchcock is.
He is not like his former self. Another year in Europe and Eng-
land, with entire rest, would make a new man of him, and yet I am
sorry to say he talks of going directly home this fall" Each one
felt that he was strong and the other weak. Two at least of them
went home that fall They were a blessed trio, such as one does
not often meet in this world. Mr. Calhoun, who was a profound
student of the Bible and of divine things, had long conversations
with Professor Park, the giant of Andover, and before going
away, Professor Park remarked that there was more theology in
Mr. Calhoun's finger than in his own thigh, and that he was a
man who lived near to God That afternoon at the high place of
Baal was to us one of the " heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
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A Cannie Scot 383
On the 3d of June we met in conference, by previous arrange-
menty with the Rev. Dr. Alexander Duff and Rev. Principal J.
Lumsden of Aberdeen, of the Free Church of Scotland's Mis*
sion's Committee to consider their proposition to send out Scotch
ministers to oversee what were known as the Lebanon Schook or
the '* SuUeeba Schools." There were present all the members of
our mission, the professors of the college, Rev. James Robertson,
Scotch chaplain in Beirut, and Rev. John Hogg of Assioot, Egypt
Drs. DufT and Lumsden had visited all our mission stations and
schools, and the village schools of the '^ Lebanon Committee."
These ^* Lebanon Schools " had been for years under the manage-
ment of a native Syrian and had been visited by numerous Scotch
tourists who differed in opinion as to their management, and as k
result had formed opposing factions in Scotland pro and con.
These two eminent men came out determined to make full in-
vestigation. We had two sessions of three hours each in Dr.
Kiss's house, and the conference was full, free and fraternal.
We of the S}rria Mission approved of dieir sending out such a man
to superintend die schools, but not to organize churches. We
declined to say anything about Mr. whom Dr. DufT de-
clared to be a second Apostle Paul. Mr. had purchased
land in Suk d Gharb, Mount Lebanon, and erected solid stone
buildings for the day and boarding-schools and had the names
Alexander DufT and John Lumsden inscribed in large characters
in the stone wall. Dr. DufT understood Mr. to say that all
these buildings belonged to the Scotch committee. In 1872 the
Scotch committee sent out an able and godly missionary, Rev.
John Rae, to take over the property and manage the Lebanon
Schools. He went to Suk el Gharb, took a house, and asked
Mr. for the keys of the mission buildings. He refused to
deliver them, saying that as the land belonged to him all the
buildings, according to the Turkish law, go with the land. Mr.
Rae repeated the request with the same restilt Meantime Drs.
DufT and Lumsden had published enconiums upon Mr.
which would have been appropriate to die Aposties Paul and
Peter. What then was dieir astonishment to find that he now
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384 A Critical Year
went back on his pledge to them that the buildings belonged to
the committee. Correspondence ensued. Mr. Rae was instructed
to repeat the demand, but all was in vain. Drs. Duff and Lumsden
then published a card in the Scotch journals exposing the whole
matter and denouncing Mr. in language which I will not
repeat, declaring that they had been shamefully deceived and im-
posed upon, and warning the Scotch churches against him. In
1874 Mr. Rae, finding himself uncomfortable at Suk, removed the
mission headquarters to Shweir, and in 1875 Wm. Carslaw, M. D.,
joined the mission and laboured with Mr. Rae until the resignation
of the latter in 1 879 owing to ill health. In 1 887 the law case against
Mr. was decided, and the Suk property handed over to
Dr. Carslaw with all the title deeds and the furniture of the schools.
The whole difficulty arose from the fact that the Scotch com-
mittee, ignorant of Turkish law, had allowed their buildings to be
erected on land belonging to an employee, and that this individual,
knowing the law, had concealed the facts from them. After Dr.
Carslaw had secured the title deeds, he sold the entire premises in
Suk to the American Presbyterian Mission in 1888 ; and in 1900
the Scotch committee donated in fee simple the entire property
in Shweir, consisting of church, manse, boys' boarding-school and
girls' boarding-school to the American Presbyterian Mission, on
condition : ist, That these buildings be used only for Christian
missionary purposes, and 2d, That the Missionary Committee of
the Free Church of Scotland will continue the salary of Rev.
William Carslaw so long as he is able and willing to do mission-
ary work. Dr. Carslaw was licensed and ordained to the gospel
ministry by the Lebanon Presbytery, December 16, 1883, and has
continued until the present time as acting pastor of the Shweir
church. Dr. Carslaw always preaches in English, his translator
standing by his side and interpreting his sermons in Arabic.
This is probably the only case of tiie kind in the Turkish
Empire. The doctor was forced into it by having entered the
work in mature years when the acquisition of a new language was
difficult, and from the fact that from the outset he was over-
whelmed with medical practice, and given no time to study the
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Needed Endowments 38^
Arabic His great success as a teacher in the school and pastor
of the church is greatly to his credit. Few men in similar cir-
cumstances could have succeeded so well.
In view of the raiding of a ^5,000,000 reunion memorial fund
to aid churches and institutions at home and abroad, I wrote on
behalf of Syria, asking for a building fund for the S)rrian Protes-
tant College which had just purchased its incomparable site on the
Beirut promontory ; an endowment of ^50,000 for the theological
seminary ; and an endowment of ^25,000 for the female seminary.
The former was realized. The two latter schools were soon after-
wards assumed by the Presbyterian Board of Missions and kept
up liberally to this day, 1909.
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XVII
Antonius Yanni — ^A Sketch
ABOUT the year 1770 a Greek 8ea<aptain named Mikfaadi
Yanni left the island of Mykonos in the Archipelago for
a trading cruise on die Syrian^coast He was wrecked
near Tripoli, losing everything. In Tripoli he found a country-
man named Catzeflis, a secretary to the British consulate, and
soon after he married a Syrian girl, but died at Damietta while on '
a voyage to Egypt, leaving three sons and one daughter. Catze-
flis, who succeeded Mr. Cary as British consul, married the
daughter. Giurgius,the son of Yanni, became British dragoman,
and was allowed to wear a white turban while other Christians
wore only black. The Moslems admired him and styled him
<' Nusf ed Dinya, one-half of the world/' a name which they ap-
plied to his family for many years.
Giurgius died in 1832, after building his large house (now the
American Girls' School), leaving a widow, three sons, Antonius,
Ishoc (Isaac), Nicolas (who died in his youth), and a daughter,
Katrina.
At that time, Ibrahim Pasha, son of Mohammed Ali of Egypt,
was establishing his government in Syria, and attempted to seize
the Yanni house. But in the night the Catzeflis consuls raised a
flagstaff over the building and in the morning the stars and
stripes floated in the breeze and gave protection to that mansion
for fifty-four years.
The two sons grew up models of filial obedience. Antonius,
the elder, an impulsive, generous youth of a noble countenance
and a warm nature, even surpassed his parents in the intensity of
his devotion to the Greek Church. He would travel miles on
foot to make tours to the monasteries of Keftin and Belmont, and
in fastings and vigils was more rigid than even the priests and
386
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The Tenible Tract 387
monks. Ishoc (Isaac), the younger, was phlegmatic, cold, and
haughty, yet no less strict in the formal observances of the rites
of the Greek Church. Both received instruction in the Italian
language, then the commercial language of the Eastern Mediter-
ranean, and as the French came more into use, Ishoc learned this
language also. Their sister, Katrina, was the most beautiful
woman in Tripoli and was called the flower of Syria. All the
family were attached to one another with a degree of affection not
often seen in the East.
The father died of cholera about the year 1845, and Antonius
received the appointment of consular agent in Tripoli for the
United States, an office held by his father. There was but little
business connected with the office, as American ships rarely visit
Tripoli, but it required the erection of a flagstaff above the
house, on which the stars and stripes floated on every official fete
day. Antonius had seen Americans from time to time, but knew
little of them, and regarded their religion as worse than atheism
or Islamism. It was not a Uttle trying to him to hold office for
a nation who refused to worship the Virgin.
One day word was brought to him that one of the American
Bible men, or missionaries, was at the Meena, the port city of
Tripoli. He went at once in his official capacity to pay his
salaams to Dr. Thomson. He listened half trembling to his
words, but treated him with the greatest courtesy, and invited
him to come to his mother's house as their guest, before leaving
Tripoli, but what was his horror to find himself obliged by the
rules of politeness to accept an Arabic tract from the doctor's
hand before going home. On leaving the house of the blind
school-teacher, with whom Dr. Thomson was staying, he seized
one corner of the tract with his thumb and finger, and ran across
the plain through the orange gardens, a full mile to Tripoli, then
in at the city gate, up the stairs and across the marble court of
his mother's house, and into the kitchen, where he put the heret-
ical paper in the fire and watched it bum to ashes. Then away
he ran to the family priest, and told him he had a dreadful sin to
confess. The priest listened and promised to forgive him for fiv^
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388 Antonius Yanni
piastres (twenty cents), but when he found that Antonius had
burned the tract without even looking at it, rebuked him, saying
that it may have been a part of the Word of God or had in it the
name of God in which case he must pay another five piastres for
his twofold sin. He went away in great distress, and hastened
back to the old blind teacher, Abu Yusef, to find out what the
tract contained. He told him it consisted of a selection of the
Psalms of David. The poor young man was filled with terror.
The Orientals have a high reverence for holy books, even for
those of their enemies, and this reverence is in many a superstition.
He had burned up the words of David the prophet ! From this
time his conscience was not at rest, and when the missionaries
Foot and Wilson removed to Tripoli a few years later, he was
their constant guest Day after day he read the Bible with them,
until the truth took lodgment in his heart. Mother, brother,
sister, and uncles protested, entreated, threatened, but all to no
effect. The whole city was in commotion. Young Yanni, the
pride of his family, the hope of the church, the joy of the priests,
the friend of the poor, had become a " Biblischy," a Bible man.
The old Greek bishop, a foreign Greek from Athens, who
had lived twenty-five years in Tripoli without learning the Arabic
language, came to the house with a retinue of priests to reform
and save the heretic youth. But all to no effect Yanni (An-
tonius) stood his ground. '< Is not this the Gospel ? Are not
these the ten commandments ? How can I worship the Virgin
and the saints and kneel down and pray to pictures and kiss them
when the Bible forbids it ? " They flattered and threatened al-
ternately. His mother and sister fell on his neck and wept, en-
treating him to return from his terrible sin and heresy. His
brother stormed with fury and denounced him as having ruined
the name and fame of the family in Tripoli.
Then the priests tried the old device of a compromise telling
him to believe what he pleased, only come to the Greek Church
on Sundays and feast days and save the honour of the family.
His wife Kareemy, of another " akabir " family, was goaded
almost to desperation by the prospect of losing all the ancient
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Making a Good Profession 389
honour of her family by her husband's defection to the Protes-
tants. Still he had not yet communed in the Protestant Churchy
and they were determined he should not. Under the patient in-
structions of the missionaries, his Christian conviction deepened
and his character shone brighter. His former zeal for saints and
vows and monastic shrines was now turned into zeal for the
Grospel and doing good, and he determined to profess Christ
before men. It was mid-winter, the Syrian rainy season, and
Beirut was fifty miles south, down the rocky coast. But the
church was there, then the only organized evangelical church in
Syria, and he determined to go. The sky was black, the west
wind blowing a tempestuous gale from the stormy sea, and the rain
pouring in torrents when he decided on this step. The next
Sabbath was the communion season, and he felt he could delay no
longer. The family were now determined to retain him by force,
and the storm outside was as nothing compared with the domestic
storm within. Wife, mother, brother, sister, uncles, cousins,
priests, and friends poured in and all united in protesting against
his course, and finally cursed him in bitterness of soul for his
apostasy. None of these things moved him. Taking with him
a faithful Moslem servant, he set out in the dark storm on horse-
back. Brought up in the most delicate manner, and unused to
exposure he felt that he was running a great risk, and his family
called after him with imprecations hoping that he would be
drowned in fording the swollen streams, or cast away by the
violence of the storm.
But on he went, along the sandy beach, or through the rocky
defiles of the Meseilaha, down by Gebail, where Hiram launched
the cedar floats for the temple of Solomon ; and by the Dog
River, where the Ass3rrian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman had
hewn their roads and written their inscriptions centuries ago, and
finally reached Beirut, rejoicing in the God of his salvation.
He returned to Tripoli to find his dearest friends alienated.
Taunts, reproaches, neglect, bitter words, and unconcealed hate
made his life a burden.
The greatest anathema of the Greek Church was hurled against
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39<^ Antonius Yanni
him. A curse was pronounced against every one who should buy
of him, sell to him, or even speak to him. His head and body,
eyes and ears, hands and feet, skin, teeth, and bones were de-
clared accursed for time and eternity. His home was changed to
a scene of strife and bitterness. The native politeness of the
family prevented their showing their hostility in the presence of
the missionaries, but years after when the writer of this sketch
lived in Tripoli, Yanni often came to our houses as the only
places in the city where he was cordially welcome. Yet not the
only place. Sheikh AH, the keeper of the Great Mosque, with his
family of brothers, all zealous Moslems and yet kind-hearted men,
seemed really to love Yanni, and he visited them and other Mos-
lems, always meeting with warm sympathy in his rejection of the
idolatrous practice of the Greeks. It is remarkable to observe
the sympathy of the more intelligent Mohammedans throughout
the East with Protestant Christianity. They abhor the Greek
and Roman creature worship, and regard all Christians as idol-
ators, until they see Christianity in all its original simplicity as
preached and exemplified by Protestant missionaries and thm
converts. They thus respect Protestant Christianity while un-
willing to admit that Christ is the divine Saviour.
Yanni's brother Ishoc was at length appointed consular i^ent
for Belgium, and named his little son I^opold from the Belgium
king. His hostility to his brother's religious views grew more
and more intense. He joined with the rest of the family in the
growing persecution against Yanni, and as Yanni's Christian
character was more and more developed, and he showed more of
the graces of forgiveness and love and patience, Ishoc looked
down upon him with cold contempt.
But the maternal uncle, Michael Habeeb, was the most unre-
lenting and bitter of all. Ishoc was always outwardly polite to
the missionaries, but Michael would not even return a salutation
in the street He seemed overwhelmed with a morbid indigna-
tion that his most promising nephew should have apostatized
from the Greek Church. Im Antonius, his sister, the mother of
Yanni^ one of the finest specimens I ever saw of the Oriental
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Perseverance in the Faith 391
inatroiif ceased not to weep and grieve over her idolized son's
defection from the faith. The sight of his Arabic Bible would
always drive her from the room. Pride of family and pride of
sect combined to stifle maternal love. On the great fast and feast
days, when she took the whole family to the Greek Church and
Yanni remained at borne^ he had at times great difficulty to get
bis daily bread.
Meantime he was instant in season and out of season in doing
good. His unswerving integrity and £Euthfulness, and his sunny
disposition won him friends on every side. His official position
shielded him from public personal insult and injury, but his char-
acter impressed all of every sect with his great sincerity. Every
morning before day, he took his Bible and went to an upper
chamber alone and communed with his God. At times when the
family attempted to disturb him, he went up to the housetop and
on the flat roof, sat or walked and meditated on divine things.
He wrestled in prayer for the unconverted members of the family.
He taught his son Giurgius to pray and read the Bible and his
daughter Theodora soon learned to refuse to kiss the pictures
and pray to the Virgin and the saints. By degrees the opposi-
tion of his wife Kareemy was softened, and Yanni used to say
that if he could only remove to another town, his wife would
take an open stand as a Protestant.
He loved America passionately, and his sympathies were so
thoroughly enlisted during the Civil War, that he sent contribu-
tions of Syrian curiosities, such as cedar cones and wood and sea-
shells, etc, which were sold at Worcester in September, 1864,
during the meeting of the American Board for several hundred
dollars for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission. Just before
this a great sorrow, mingled with what to him was a great joy,
visited the family circle. Ishoc, the proud, hard-hearted brother,
was attacked by a mortal disease. The skill of physicians was
baffled. Yanni was assiduous in his attentions to the loved sufler-
ing brother. He spent nearly the whole of one night conversing
with Dr. Van Dyck of Beirut by telegraph about the case ; but
all without avail. The disease moved on unchecked. From the
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392 Antonius Yanni
very outset the proud persecuting Ishoc seemed softened. He
seemed to know that his end was near. Every day he called his
brother Antonius and begged him to read to him from the Bible.
He listened with all the eagerness of a dying man, and his brother
explained the meaning to his opening understanding. Yanni
talked to him and prayed with him and at length he said, *' Now
read to me about some ^eaf sinner who was saved.'' Yanni
read to him of the publican and of Zaccheus. *' No, a greater
sinner than any of them/' said he. Then Yanni read to him of
the thief on the cross. ** That comes nearer to my case — ^read
that again." Again and again he read it over, and Ishoc seemed
to lay hold of Christ, and at length declared that Christ was the
only Saviour of lost sinners. From that time he told his mother
to take away the sacred ** eikonat " or pictures, which had been
hung all around the head of his bed through the zeal of his
mother and his wife Adelaide. " Take them away," he said. ** It
is trifling to trust in pictures. Such a religion will never do to
die by." He begged and entreated his wife and mother to trust
in Christ alone. Towards the last, a company of priests, with
their black flowing robes and swinging censers, came to bum
incense and ofler their prayers to the Virgin Mary on his behalf.
He saw them entering the room, and beckoned them to stop,
telling them and all the family that he had done forever with such
things, and could not allow anything now to come between him
and his Saviour. They were astonished at the change wrought
in him, but he called to his brother and said, ** Bring the Bible
now and read to the priests also that they too may be profited."
Just before he died, he called his whole family around his bed,
and spoke in a clear voice of his trust in Jesus as his Saviour, and
raising both hands, he called in a loud voice, ^' None but Christ,"
and died.
Such a death produced a profound impression. Family perse-
cution ceased. His mother, instead of leaving the room when the
Bible was brought, began to go up to his upper room every
morning and carry the Bible to Yanni to read and listened in-
tently while he prayed. Even the Unde Michael was less bitter
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Winning His Relatives to Christ 393
in his opposition. The missionaries were welcomed more and
more at the house, and Yanni's son Giurgius, with Ishoc's son
Leopold, was placed in the mission school with the full approba-
tion of all the family.
One day word came that his Uncle Michael was very ill, and
wished to see Yanni. He hastened to the house and found a
large company of the people and priests crowded in the sick-
room. The old man called to him as he entered, saying, " Bring
your Bible and read to me and pray to me as you did with Ishoc/'
The Bible was brought. Michael told the priests, '* I have done
with you. Christ alone can save the soul and the rest of my
hours must be given to Him." He would hardly allow Yanni to
leave the room, and grasped every word of consolation contained
in the Gospel, and every promise to the sinner with the greatest
joy. One day he called out to his son saying, *' Gibraeel, go to
such a street and call Mustafa the Moslem merchant to come
here." All the family wondered what he wanted of the Moslem
in that solemn hour.
The man came almost trembling, not knowing what the dying
man wanted. As he entered, Michael said to him, '' Mustafa, do
you remember my buying of you such and such goods at such
and such a time ? " " Yes," he replied. *' Well, I defrauded you
of a thousand piastres at that time, and now in the presence of
God and these witnesses, I wish my son to open my box and to
pay you that sum with interest to this date ! " The Moslem was
quite overcome, and in silence the son opened the box, counted
out the money, and payed the man to the last para. The effect
produced in Tripoli was most profound, and some began to ask
what this religion could be.
Michael died calling upon Christ, and to the last refusing the
ofRces of the priests though he had been one of their most stead-
fast and uncompromising supporters for many years. Yanni
wrote to me after this event, full of joy at the apparent hopeful
conversion of both his brother and uncle before their death,
" Now," said he, " I know that God hears and answers prayer,
and I believe that all our family will yet come to Christ" Not-
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394 Antonius Yanni
withstanding the fonner opposition of the family to the mission-
aries, they are now all most cordial and religious services are often
held at the house. Once, when Yanni's wife gave birth to a
daughter, the friends and neighbours came in to condole with the
family, according to Oriental custom, upon the dire calamity
which had befallen them in the birth of a girl I This was too
much for Yanni and he at once had the American flag run up to
topmast on the consular flagstaff*, as a sign of his joy. The
Turkish pasha, hearing that the flag was up, sent around a kavass
to inquire what festival he was celebrating, that he might make
him an official visit When informed of the reason, be was filled
with unbounded astonishment
The youngest son of the family was named Samuel from the
missionary then living in Tripoli. When the name was an-
nounced, the whole circle of relatives was confounded This was
a new name indeed. Not one of all the thousands of Tripoli had
borne it. They knew the names Selim, Butrus, I'heodore,
Giurgius, Yusef, Daud, Khalil, Ibrahim, Ishoc, and many others,
but although many had heard of the prophet Samweel, it had
never been used, any more than Methusaleh is with us. It was
at length understood that the name was given as a matk of affec*
tion for the missionary in Tripoli.
Yanni's benevolence knew no bounds. The poor of every
sect, Moslem, Maronite, Catholic, and Greek, always found in him
a friend. He gave systematically the tenth of all his income to
the Lord, and sometimes more. His faith in God was simple and
unquestioning. He purchased a small farm in the village of Aba,
near Tripoli, and the simple-minded people tell various stories of
divine intervention in his behalf. One day he was looking over
his olive orchard, and the gardener called his attention to one
tree, a full-grown olive, which for years had produced nothing,
and recommended that it be cut down and some fruitful tree be
planted in its place. '' No," said Yanni, " let us dig about it
and dung it, as in the Scripture parable, and if it produces fruit,
it shall be given to the Lord, for the use of the missionaries for-
ever. If not, cut it down." The next year the limbs of that tree
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His Childlike Faith in God 395
bent down under the weight of the luscious olives, and the huge
earthen olive jars of the missionaries in Tripoli were filled to over-
flowingy and when the persecution in Safita drove down a great
company of poor Christians to Tripoli, they feasted on bread and
olives from this supply for nearly a month.
At another time, the farmer asked leave to wash the trunks of the
fig trees in reddish clay, as an offering to Saint John, protector of
figs. He refused, saying that his trust was in the God of Saint John,
who could care for all His creatures. That summer, the fig crop
in that vicinity was a failure, although the trees had been faithfully
smeared with the reddish clay, but Yanni's trees bore plentifully.
When he was engaged in building, he burned his own lime in
a large lime kiln near the village. It was late in the fall of the
year, and the early rains were expected. The burning was fin-
ished and the kiln opened on Saturday, and in the afternoon
preparations were made for carrying the lime under cover in one
of the houses. Before night the wind blew up from the sea and
thick black clouds began to roll up from the southwest, threaten-
ing a heavy rain. The lime was exposed, and if rained upon
would be ruined, and thousands of piastres lost. The people
crowded around, and offered to join hands in the morning, as
they would all be free on Sunday, and take the lime into the
house. " No indeed," said Yanni. " * They that wait for the
Lord shall not be ashamed ' and I will not break the Sabbath if I
lose all my lime." The next day the sky thickened and the
storm came on. In all the villages on the plain, the rain came
down in torrents and the dry beds of the streams overflowed.
On the west, south, east, and the north, the country was almost
deluged, but in the village of Aba, hardly a drop fell to the
ground, and on Monday morning the lime kiln was as dry as
Gideon's fleece. The people all gazed in wonder, and began to
believe that Yanni's prayers to Oirist were more availing than all
their prayers to saints and angels. In not a few other instances,
his faithful observance of the Lord's day has been signally re-
warded, and he accepts it all as not for his own profit, but for the
honour of God's name among the people.
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XVIII
Sundry Notes and Incidents
igj2 — The American Palestine Exploration fiasco— Rustum Pasha-
Prayer — Ramadan.
LIEUTENANT STEEVER, Professor Paine, formerly of
Robert College, Rev. Mr. Ballantine, Rev. A. A. Haines,
C. E., and others left Beirut in March, 1873, to explore
and map trans-Jordanic Syria. They had many and valuable
instruments worth ^15,000 loaned by the American government
and did substantial service, but the '' Map " has never realized the
hopes of the society although they mapped 600 square miles. A
want of harmony among the staff well-nigh wrecked the expe-
dition.
Lieutenant Steever, the head of the expedition, laboured under
the strange delusion that he was commander of a military expe-
dition in an enemy's country. He laid down martial rules for
the camp, and gave orders to Mr. Haines and Professor Paine as
if they were privates under his military control. Without con-
sulting them he would announce his plan for the day just before
starting and subject them to humiliating rules and conditions.
The New York Society had appointed Drs. Thomson, Van
Dyck, Bliss, Post, and H. H. Jessup a local advisory committee
to whom the expedition were primarily to report. May 20th we
received a letter from Lieutenant Steever complaining of the in-
efficiency of his assistants. On the 26th of August we were sur-
prised by the arrival in Beirut of Rev. A. A. Haines and Rev.
Ballantine who had fled post-haste from the camp, having been
threatened by Lieutenant Steever with a court martial. We had
a committee meeting and seeing no possibility of their being able
to work longer with the lieutenant, we approved iheir taking the
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Rustum Pasha 397
first steamer for home. And thus the first exploration expedi-
tion collapsed.
Arrival of H. E. Rustum Pasha, May, 1873
As stated in the account of the reorganization of the Lebanon
District in 1860-61, the pashas of the Lebanon were to be there-
after Latin Catholics owing to the great predominance of the
Maronite and Papal Greek sects in Lebanon.
The first pasha was Daud, an Armenian Catholic, a scholarly
man who had published in French a history of the laws of the
Anglo-Saxon nations and was a man of liberal views, firm and
just in administration.
The second was Franco, a Papal Greek, a well-meaning but
not an energetic man, who died in office.
Rustum Pasha, the third in the line, was an Italian by birth,
long in the Turkish service, recently the Turkish ambassador to
St Petersburg, and the ablest and most just and efficient gov-
ernor ever known in or out of Lebanon. He kept the ambi-
tious and domineering Romish hierarchy within bounds and
procured the exile of the Maronite Bishop B— , who had in-
trigued against the government At first he viewed the Ameri-
can schools with suspicion, as he regarded us on a par with the
^* clergy " who were always engaged in political intrigues, but on
a careful study of them, became their warm friend and supporter.
He had planned a system of government schools in Lebanon and
appointed as superintendent a man who, unbeknown to the
pasha, was a mere tool of the ecclesiastics. He was told to open
schools in the most needy districts, and proceeded to open them
only in the towns and villi^es where American schools had been
in operation for twenty years. He threatened all who should
send their children to other than government schools, and yet left
the entire Maronite district of Northern Lebanon with its 150,000
people without a school. When finally the true inwardness of
the man's character became known to the pasha he ordered every
government school in towns occupied by the Americans to be
closed. The superintendent was cashiered and the pasha was
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398 Sundry Notes and Incidents
indignant that he had been hoodwinked by a tool of the priests
and monks. Rustum Pasha put a stop to bribery, punished
crime, built roads and encouraged reform. Up to that time the
sanitary condition of Lebanon was vile beyond description and
he compelled every householder to conform to sanitary rules.
A priest in Zahleh knocked down a Protestant and smote him with
his shoe. The pasha banished the priest to a village outside of
Lebanon and forbade his return to Zahleh. He generally spent
his winters in Beirut and was fond of showing to diildren his fine
collection of stuffed bears which he had shot when living in
Russia.
One day an eccentric foreigner, who spoke English and was
more zealous than wise, called on the pasha. When ushered
into his private room, the man marched up to the pasha and ex-
claimed, '' Are you prepared to die ? " The pasha sprang back,
opened a drawer, took out his revolver and said to the man,
** What do you mean ? Leave this room at once, or " and
the man backed out in great terror. Some friends warned him
against trying that kind of evangelistic labour again.
The pasha was a warm friend of Rev. Gerald F. Dale, Jr., of
Zahleh, and gave him every facility in the prosecution of his
work. He admired Mr. Dale's courtesy and open-hearted
manliness.
At one time he had his administrative headquarters at Ghuzir, in
the Maronite Mountain, in full view of Beirut and about fifteen
miles up the coast to the northeast One day his clerk was filling
cartridges for the pasha's fowling-piece, but did it so clumsily
that the pasha said, " Give me the cartridge case and hammer
and I will teach you how to do it." Taking the copper case in
his left hand he struck the charge with the hammer, when the
cartridge exploded tearing his left hand to tatters. The pasha's
doctor was called but said he could do nothing but stop the
bleeding and said to the pasha, " There is no man in Syria can
help you but Dr. Post of the American G>llege in Beirut"
Dr. Post was telegraphed for, and a special Turkish revenue
cutter ordered to take him from Beirut to the seashore bdow
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A Grateful Patient 399
Ghuzir. He went at once and by frequent visits and that skill
which has made Dr. Post famous throughout the East, he suc-
ceeded in saving all but two fingers of the hand.
The pasha's gratitude knew no bounds. On his recovery he
visited the college, studied all its departments and by official cor-
respondence with his old friends, the Turkish ministers in Con-
stantinople, did all in his power to further the interests of the college
and all American schools. After completing his term of office
he left Syria, to the regret of all true friends of law and justice,
and became Turkish ambassador to London where he died
greatly respected.
Incidents
A clergyman of the Church of England, a free lance, came to
Syria desiring to baptize men. Not knowing the Arabic he was
easily imposed upon and baptized a Bedawy renegade who went
to Alexandria and I wrote to Mr. Strang, American missionary,
there as follows :
" As to the gentle Bedawy, yes, Dr. did baptize him
and soon after he was baptized he told the natives in Suk el
Gharb that ' When you tar a camel, it covers the skin but does
not reach the bones,' i, e., that he is outwardly a Christian but in-
wardly what he always was — a Bedawy. He eloped with a girl
of his tribe in the Bookaa,'and the tribe pursued and killed her and
tried to kill him and so he ran and turned Christian. Be careful
not to leave him around where there are elopable women and
girls. His weakness runs (one part of it) in that direction."
At the close of the communion service one Sabbath, a young
man met me at the door and said, " Fereedy and I are in great
trouble. Our little girl of nine months is dead, and now our lit-
tle boy of three years is dangerously ill, and we want you to pray
for him. We are Greeks but we feel that you know how to pray
better than we do, and ' the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much.' Fereedy is your pupil and says she knows
that you will pray for our little Habeeb." I found that he was
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400 Sundry Notes and Incidents
the husband of that beautiful girl Fereedy» once in our school, and
that Dr. Post performed an operation on the little boy last week
removing a large stone from his bladder, from which he had been
suflering untold agony for months. All went well after the
operation until Thursday night when the little fellow got up in
the night while all were asleep and went to the bottle of nitrate
of potash which Dr. Post had prepared with a sweet syrup and
drank the entire contents at once, enough for sixteen doses, one
every three hours. On Friday he was very ill and on Sunday
the case became critical. Ameen came to ask our prayers. I told
him I would do as he requested, and also asked the young ladies
in the seminary to pray for the child. On Monday noon I went
to the house, and found the child decidedly better, and the
father's heart burst out, *' We knew you were praying, for the
child grew better from the time we left you." I remained some
time and prayed with them urging upon them the duty of pray-
ing for the child themselves.
Another incident in Beirut shows how the people of other sects
look upon Protestant prayers. A young Moslem of the aristo-
cratic family of Beit Berbeer, who had been some time in Mr.
Bistany's school, came in greatanxiety to a Protestant young man
who keeps a shop near Mr. Bistany's school and said, *' I beg you
to pray for me that I may escape die draft and draw a white paper.
I went to the Moslem sheikh and asked him to pray for me and
he would not and laughed at me. I know that you Protestants
ask what you need from God, and He grants it, and there are no
prayers like yours." So Khalil, who is a converted Druse, went
around to Sit Khozma, who was one of Dr. De Forest's pupils,
and she promised to pray for the Moslem. Hearing this he went
with a light heart to the seraia, and awaited the drawing. He
drew a white paper and came back to Khalil in perfect delight,
declaring that there is no prayer like that of the Christians. Said
Khalil, " Be careful how you say that before your father." He
answered, " I will say it before the world, for it is true."
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Ramadan — Fast vs. Feast 401
It is Ramadan, the thirty days' fast of the Mohammedan
world. It is a sacred fast, rigidly kept. A true Moslem will eat
nothing from sunrise to sunset, drink nothing and smoke noth-
ing, and not even smell sweet odours. But when the sunset gun
fires, which is the dinner bell of two hundred millions, the fast is
suddenly transformed into a feast The whole family of Islam
rush to the dinner table as if famine stricken. The evening is
spent in social visiting and then a nap is indulged in until mid-
night, when the whole city is aroused to eat by the patrol who
beat huge drums with a deafening clamour. Then another nap
and another gormandizing before day dawns and then the faith-
ful are ready for the abnegations of the day. This year
Ramadan falls in a month of short days and long nights, so that
it is comparatively easy. The price of provisions is higher than
usual. Shopkeepers say that the Moslems buy up all the best
provisions at any price. This is a comment on Moslem self-
denial. They eat more, and buy more expensive food in
Ramadan than in any other month of the year.
It is much the same with the Papists and Greeks. They fast
on Wednesday and Friday of every week. That is they eat no
meat But they can eat fish in every style, and fruits, vegetables,
and sweetmeats, of the most exquisite varieties.
Ramadan is a grand nocturnal festival, and the Greek weekly
lasts are a compulsory variation of the bill of fare.
A young Bedawy youth i^ed fifteen came to me one Saturday
desiring to become a Christian. I asked who Christ is. He
said,*' He is the Exalted God and came down here and slew Him-
self to save us." I have taken steps to get him into a school on
trial, to see whether he is in earnest or not
In November, 1873, 1 wrote to Dr. Ellinwood as follows:
*' A notable week has just passed, as the Arabic has it, ' Yo-
beel ' or jubilee week in Beirut, it being just fifty years since the
American missionaries settled in Beirut. On Wednesday, No-
vember 19th, services were held in the English language in the
church at 3 p. m. and addresses were made by Dr. Thomson, Dr.
Post and myself, and the devotional exercises conducted by Dr.
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402 Sundry Notes and Incidents
Van Dyck, Mr. Calhoun, and Rev. Mr. Robertson, our ex-
cellent Scotch pastor. In the evening a social reunion was held
in the house of Mr. Robertson at which informal addresses were
made by Dr. Bliss, Dr. Wortabet, and Professor Porter of the
Syrian Protestant College and Dr. Brigstocke, the resident British
physician.
''These exercises had special reference to the long-continued
cordial cooperation of the British and American residents in Syria
in a joint religious service for half a century in the English lan-
guage. And it is a fact worthy of mention that in this land of
the Bible, so much of the Bible spirit has prevailed, as to induce
Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and
Baptists from America, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales to
worship together and commune together for fifty years with
hardly ever a jar or discord. It was worthy of a jubilee of grati-
tude and praise to God. Last Sabbath, November 23d, the
jubilee was made the subject of remark in the Arabic service, and
on Monday evening about 200 of the Syrian people assembled at
my house to celebrate the occasion in the Arabic language. We
had music and simple refreshments, and then addresses by Messrs.
B. Bistany, Elias Fuaz, and Ibrahim Sarkis, who reviewed the
history of the past fifty years in Syria. Mr. Sarkis read in the
first place the bull of the Maronite partriarch in 1825 cursing the
Protestant Bible and forbidding its distribution and sale in Syria,
and then a statement of the number of Bibles and reUgious books
published since that time. The whole number of Scriptures is
about 70,000 and of religious books about 90,000 in the Arabic
language, making a total of 160,000 volumes which at an average
of 500 pages would make 80,000,000. This is hardly what the
Maronite patriarch anticipated.
*' 1 have just returned from a house of mourning, not a house
where death has entered, but where a sad calamity has befallen
the family. Ishoc, a faithful preacher, has an invalid wife named
Laiya, and lately sent to Hums, his native city, for his sister
Fetny to come and aid in the domestic affairs. Last week Fetny,
who has one blind eye, was attacked with ophthaUnia which is
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Strong Reinforcement — The Drought Ends 403
now an epidemic in a virulent form and highly contagious, and in
forty*eight hours lost the other eye, becoming stone blind^
Then Laiya was attacked and has lost both eyes ! I went in the
evening to see them. They sat silent on their low beds, one on
the floor and the other on a divan. Not one word of complaint
escaped them. They seemed rejoiced to hear a word of comfort
and said that they had great peace of mind in the faith that it was
the hand of the Lord, who does all things well. Ishoc said, as I
entered the door, * My dear brother, how I bless God for the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ I How could I bear such a stroke without
His aid?' The poor women also said that they had not one
word of complaint to utter, and could only bless God for Hii
mercies. It would do our friends in America good to enter this
room of physical blindness and witness the blessed effects of the
faith of Jesus which is truly like a light shining in a dark place."
November i8th was a glad day for us in Beirut. That mis-
sionary company which then reached us was probably as gladly
greeted as any company that has ever arrived here. All were in
perfect health and cheerful spirits, and we are thankful for such a
reinforcement to our missionary band.
The party consisted of Rev. and Mrs. Samuel Jessup and two
children. Rev. F. W. March, a new recruit. Miss Emily Bird of
Abeih, Miss Fisher, and a teacher for Constantinople.
Mr. March has gone to Zahleh for the winter ; Miss Fisher is
established with the female seminary to the great joy of her fet
low teachers, and is laying siege to the Arabic gutturals.
The arrival of my brother. Rev. Samuel Jessup, fresh from re-
viving intercourse with the American churches and especially
from the great meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, added new
interest to all these jubilee meetings, and he has given us ac-
counts of the meeting both in Arabic and English. We have
great reason for gratitude for the safe arrival of his large party
after that long trip of 7,000 miles, and there was peculiar occasion
for thanksgiving that they arrived no later. They had hardly
reached their resting places in our various homes when the gath-
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404 Sundry Notes and Incidents
ering tempest burst upon us. The sea was lashed into fury and
the rain poured in a literal deluge. Five inches of rain fell in
Beirut in that one night between sunset and sunrise. The cus-
tom-house was submerged by a flood of muddy water and ^50,000
worth of goods were destroyed. The thunder and lightning were
almost continuous for twenty-four hours. In the midst of it
all Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun rode down from Abeih, five hours on
horseback, to attend the jubilee, and during our meetings, which
were well attended, the crash of the thunder was so violent as
almost to drown the voices of the speakers. But we all rejoiced
in the abundant rain and although several boxes of missionary
goods were in that ill-fated custom-house, and were saturated
with muddy water, our friends took joyfully the spoiling of their
goods, in view of the universal gladness of the Syrian people that
the eight months' drought had come to an end. Men looked
complacently on the falling walls, the washing away of terraces,
the gullying of highwa}rs, the inundation of shops and store-
houses, for the prices of wheat and flour had fallen, the poor
were freed from the famine prices of the past few months and
Moslems and Greeks, Maronites and Protestants, Druses and
Jews, forgetting their diflerences, congratulated one another on
the •* rahmet Allah " the mercy of God to the suffering land.
The Tripoli Girls' School was opened by Mrs. Shrimpton, for-
merly of the British Syrian Schools, and Miss Kip, in the Yanni
house, the domestic department being conducted by Dr. and Mrs.
G. B. Danforth. Dr. Dennis was called to the theological semi-
nary on account of his ripe scholarship and love of literary pur-
suits. The judgment of the mission was fully justified. While in
connection with the seminary he prepared, with the aid of Mr.
R. Berbari and Mr. Ibrahim Haurani, three works which have
become standards in theological instruction wherever the Arabic
language is used : a treatise on theology in two volumes, based
largely upon Hodge, but abridged, with judicious additions and
adaptations to suit the Oriental environment, Evidences of
Christianity, and Biblical Interpretation.
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