History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions Volume I Part 13

CHAPTER XVI.

SYRIA.

1842-1846.

The mission was strengthened, early in 1842, by the arrival of Dr.

Henry A. DeForest and wife; and suffered a new bereavement in the death of the second Mrs. Smith, but little more than a year after her arrival. Some months later, Mr. and Mrs. Sherman retired from the field, in consequence of failing health. Messrs, Beadle, Wolcott, and Leander Thompson, and Miss Tilden, also returned home soon after. Mr. Lanneau rejoined the mission, with his wife, early in 1843.

The Foreign Secretary and Dr. Hawes, visited the mission in the early part of 1844, and a.s.sisted in a meeting of the missionaries, which continued several days. Facts and principles were freely discussed, and the results were embodied in written reports, drawn up by committees appointed for the purpose. There is s.p.a.ce for only a concise statement of a few of these results.

It was recognized as a fact of fundamental importance, that the people within the bounds of the mission were Arabs, whether called Greeks, Greek Catholics, Druzes, or Maronites, and that the divers religious sects really const.i.tuted one race. There were believed to be advantages, in the fact, that these sects were intermingled in the several villages, since the population was less inclined to oppose, and more easily accessible, than where the villages were exclusively of one sect. The most hopeful parts of Lebanon were the southern districts, inhabited by a people social in their habits, owners of the soil, shrewd, inquisitive, industrious, and capable of devising and executing with tact and efficiency.

There was much discussion as to the best manner of cultivating the field, but all agreed that wherever small companies were ready to make a credible profession of piety, they were ent.i.tled to be recognized as churches, and had a right to such a native ministry as could be given them. The reformed churches might combine persons from several, and perhaps from all, the various sects; and the method of church organization should be such as to throw the greatest responsibility on the individual members.

The question was raised, whether the marked disposition in the mountain communities to place themselves collectively under the instruction of the mission, would justify a lowering of the qualifications for church-members.h.i.+p, especially with reference to the baptism of children. It was believed that no good would result from this; especially, as the people are so bent on regarding baptism as a renewing ordinance. To form churches in this way, would only be to multiply communities of merely nominal Christians.

The brethren admitted, that their labors had been too little adapted, hitherto, to awaken religious feeling among the people. The reasons a.s.signed for this were, the absorbing demands of the press and of education; the habits of preaching and laboring formed under past unfavorable states of the field; and finally, a painful impression of the suffering that converts must endure, with no civil power to interpose between them and their persecutors.

To counteract the first of these causes, it was decided to suspend the printing for a year; and the seminary was revived, which had been suspended in 1842, to counteract the second. The remedy for the last two, was a more perfect reliance on the Holy Spirit and the divine energy of the Gospel. It was the general opinion, that education in all its parts should bear a fixed proportion to the frequency, spirituality, and power of the more formal preaching. Nor was it less clear, that the press should be kept strictly subservient to the pulpit.

The most remarkable call for preaching, at this time, was at Hasbeiya, a village of four or five thousand inhabitants, situated at the foot of Mount Hermon.1 Druzes and members of the Greek Church made up the population, with some Greek Catholics, Moslems, and Jews. The village lay about fifty miles southeast of Beirt, bordering on the country of the Bedawin, with whom was its princ.i.p.al trade. As the result of this, the people had much personal independence, with a tendency to segregation; features which Mr.

Smith noticed as specially predominant among other native Christians similarly situated, especially in the Hauran.

1 The _New York Observer_, from July 18th to August 29th, 1846, has an instructive series of articles on Hasbeiya, from the pen of Dr.

Eli Smith.

Early in the year 1844, a considerable body of the Hasbeiyans seceded from the Greek Church, declared themselves Protestants, and made a formal application to the mission for religious instruction.

About fifty men came at one time to Beirt for that purpose, and asked for ministers to teach them. Their dissatisfaction with their Church was not of recent date, but had been increasing for years. It had arisen from the selfishness and worldliness of their clergy, and their consequent neglect of the flock. These men had some acquaintance with the mission, Hasbeiya having been visited by more than one of the native book agents. It was evident, however, that concern for the salvation of the soul was not the cause of their coming. What they sought had reference solely to the present life.

Appropriate instruction was given, and they were advised to go home, pay their taxes (which they had not done), and do what they could to live in peace with their townsmen, and then to write to the mission.

A letter was received after a few days, stating that they had done as they were advised, and urging the visit of a missionary. In this request they were earnestly seconded by the two brethren from the United States, who arrived at Beirt, just before the letter came.

The mission sent two of their native helpers; but these had not left Beirt before a second delegation arrived, more urgent than the first. The native helpers were followed in May by Messrs. Smith and Whiting, who soon saw that they had been too backward to credit the sincerity of these men. The hope of political advantage had been abandoned, but their decision and their numbers had steadily increased. The men were about one hundred and fifty, and among them were some of the most respectable inhabitants, and a large proportion of enterprising men. Their love of peace, as well as their decision, had secured for them general respect. Some had made considerable progress in Christian knowledge, and the neighbors acknowledged that the profane among them had left off swearing, and the drunkard had abandoned his cups. The Sabbath, moreover, was carefully observed; the old church fasts were given up; prayers to saints and to the virgin had ceased; pictures for adoration had disappeared from their houses; and it was remarkable that in these changes the women were more zealous than the men. Still their knowledge in all cases was very imperfect, and it was uncertain how well they would endure persecution. Nearly all the members of the mission were there at different times; as also Tanns el Haddad, and Butrus el-Bistany, of the native helpers.

Meanwhile the spirit of persecution was rising. The Greek Patriarch at Damascus became alarmed, and tidings were received that a company of hors.e.m.e.n was coming from Zahleh, a large nominally Christian town at the eastern foot of Lebanon, to force a recantation from the Protestants of Hasbeiya. Mr. Smith and Butrus were there at the time. The stony-ground hearers had fallen off; yet fifty adults were present at the preaching, and gave close attention. Of women a larger number than usual were present, and seemed to be waking up to the idea, that religion was a thing for them. From twelve to fifteen women attended a daily afternoon prayermeeting. It was affecting to think how lately these were blind devotees of the virgin and the saints, and profaning the name of G.o.d a hundred times a day. "Going to the afternoon service," says Mr. Smith, "where Butrus addressed the people, I found the children of the congregation a.s.sembled in the court, and engaged in repeating the a.s.sembly's Catechism. Their order was perfect, their attention solemn, and their answers generally given with correctness, while the teacher showed his own improvement by the explanations he gave them. Their parents and friends stood around, and listened with evident gratification, while curiosity had drawn the members of a neighboring Greek family to their windows, and they too were quietly looking on. To appreciate its interest you must have been present, and heard the shouts rising at the same time from an opposite quarter, where the boys of the town were a.s.sembled in belligerent array, and making a mimic (or rather real) war, by throwing stones at each other, to see which would gain the victory. The little company before me, when I first came to the place, scarcely two months ago, were as fully carried away as any of them with these wild sports, and even parental authority could not, for a Sabbath or two, bring them to break off for an hour to learn the word of G.o.d. Now, what a change! It was as if the devil had been cast out of them, and they were sitting in their right minds. Such are missionary triumphs, and the joy that springs from them is what the world can neither give nor take away."

Some members of the community not being satisfied with the strictness of the mission in regard to baptism and the Lord's Supper, the two brethren went into a thorough explanation of the subject. This led to a long and earnest conversation. The next day, July 4, the people gave in their reply; which was, that they would yield entirely to the judgment of the missionaries, who might admit them to the rites of the church when they thought them qualified.

On Sabbath, July 14, it being certain that the people of Zahleh were coming, the Protestants a.s.sembled in the house of the missionary, to enter into a solemn covenant to stand by each other to the last.

After the service, they drew up an engagement in the following terms: "We, whose names are hereto subscribed, do covenant together before G.o.d and this a.s.sembly, and pledge ourselves upon the holy Gospel, that we will remain leagued together in one faith; that we will not forsake this faith, nor shall any separate us from each other while we are in this world; and that we will be of one hand and one heart in the wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d, according to the doctrines of the Gospel. In G.o.d is our help." The covenant was taken by them separately, each one standing by the table, and laying his hand upon the Bible as it was read to him. Sixty-eight names were subscribed on the spot; and the number was increased next day to seventy-six, all of them adult males.

"The affecting solemnity of this scene," writes Mr. Smith, "I leave you to imagine. I have been many years a missionary, and have witnessed a great variety of heart-thrilling events, but this is one of the last that I shall ever forget. Would that that chamber, as then crowded with those hardy mountaineers, in the interesting att.i.tude of that moment, could have been thrown upon the painter's canvas! At some future day, when the Gospel shall have triumphed here, it would be cherished and admired as the first declaration of independence against ecclesiastical tyranny and traditionary superst.i.tion."

About thirty hors.e.m.e.n arrived the next day from Zahleh, to quarter themselves on the Protestant families until they yielded, or were impoverished; but the people, foreseeing their intentions, had closed their houses, and a.s.sembled elsewhere. The storm seemed now ready to burst upon them. At this moment two Druzes, one the leading feudal sheik of the province, the other a man of unequaled personal bravery, made their way through the excited crowd; seated themselves by the side of the Emir; protested in the strongest language against the treatment the Protestants were receiving from their townsmen; warned all against treating them as men who had no friends to take their part; and called upon the Emir to stand forth in their defense, promising to support him if he did. This decided interference checked a little the progress of events.

The people of Zahleh had been accompanied by a number of Greek priests, and in prosecuting their object employed entreaties, threats, bribes, reproaches, and actual violence. They were countenanced by the Emir, and backed up by a "Young Men's Party,"

which had grown into an organization under the political excitement of the times. They returned home in consequence of an order obtained from the Pasha of Damascus, but not until they had drawn away perhaps twenty, old and young, some of whom soon after returned to the instructions of Mr. Thomson and Tanns, who had taken the place of Mr. Smith and Butrus. While they were absent on the mountain to recover from illness, the result of confinement, anxiety, and a suffocating sirocco, the "Young Men" rose in arms, against the Protestant brethren. They virtually took the government of the place into their own hands, and the Protestant men fled to escape their murderous violence. Returning to Hasbeiya, Mr. Thomson found only the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters of those who had fled; some of them so poor as not to know how or where they could find their daily bread, yet apparently without fear. He overtook the fugitive people the next day, who were half peris.h.i.+ng with hunger.

Abeih was their place of refuge; and there they remained till October, zealously attending upon religious instruction.

In that month, one of the two Druze skeiks [sic] arrived, who had interposed on their behalf on the fifteenth of July, bringing with him a doc.u.ment from the Pasha of Damascus, procured, it was said, by Mr. Wood, English Consul there, directing their return and guaranteeing their entire security. The guaranty proved to be illusive, though probably not intended to be so. Strong, unfriendly influences were subsequently brought to bear on the Pasha.1 They were accompanied by Butrus, and it was intended that one of the missionaries should soon follow. The party reached Hasbeiya on the fourteenth of October, and found those who had remained there in great fear. The Patriarch having arrived the same day, to inflame the pa.s.sions of their enemies, intimidate the governor, and weaken the hands of the Druze sheiks. Butrus wrote, advising that no missionary come there until the Patriarch was gone, and things had become more quiet. He was succeeded by Tanns, in October, and he, in the following month, by Elias el-Fuaz. The friendly governor was at length set aside for one more in sympathy with their persecutors.

On the two following Sabbaths, the Bible-men were stoned in the streets, and Elias el-Fuaz was seriously wounded; while the governor made only a sham resistance, that emboldened the evil-doers, as he intended it should, till the native preacher was driven from the place, and some of the Protestants fled to Lebanon. Others, wearied with persecutions to which they could see no end, complied so far with the demands of the Patriarch, as to visit the Greek church, though they took no part in the services, and openly spoke against its idolatries. This very partial compliance relieved them from persecution, but inwardly set them more firmly against an organization that resorted to such measures to retain them.

1 Not only the influence of the Patriarch of Damascus, but also of the Russian Consul-general of Syria, who wrote to the Pasha as follows, on learning that Mr. Wood had privately secured permission for the Protestants to return home:--

"However, I may desire to address your Excellency on this subject in a friendly manner, I must remind you, that I am serving the magnificent Emperor of Russia, and that _we have the right of protecting the Greek Church in the Ottoman dominions_. I should greatly regret, if I were compelled to change my language and protest against every proceeding which may lead to the humiliation of the Greek Church at Hasbeiya, and the encouragement of pretended Protestants, especially as _the Sublime Porte does not recognize among her subjects such a community_."

I give this on the authority of the Rev. J. L. Porter, English missionary at Damascus, a man every way competent to give testimony in this case.

The station at Jerusalem was suspended in this year, and Mr. Lanneau removed to Beirt. Mr. and Mrs. Keyes, in consequence of a failure of health, returned to the United States.

The seminary was now revived, not at Beirt, but at Abeih, fifteen hundred feet above the sea-level, in a temperate atmosphere, and with a magnificent prospect of land and sea. The experience gained in the former seminary was of use in reconstructing the new one. Its primary object was to train up an efficient native ministry. None were to be received to its charity foundation, except such as had promising talents and were believed to be truly pious. The education was to be essentially Arabic, the clothing, boarding, and lodging strictly in the native style, and the students were to be kept as far as possible in sympathy with their own people.

A chapel for public wors.h.i.+p was fitted up, and here, as also at Beirt, there was preaching every Sabbath in the Arabic language, with an interesting Sabbath-school between the services. Mr. Calhoun having joined the mission, coming from Smyrna, the charge of the new seminary was committed to him. The Rev. Thomas Laurie arrived from Mosul the same year.

Yakob Agha died in the year 1845. The evidence he gave of piety had never been wholly satisfactory, but for the last six years he was a communicant in the church. In this time he appeared to be a changed man, and his missionary brethren hoped that, with all his failings, he was a sincere believer and died in the Lord.

In the spring of this year war broke out afresh between the Druzes and Maronites, and Lebanon was again purged by fire. It was in no sense a religious war, but a desperate struggle for political ascendency. The Maronite clergy in the Druze part of the mountain had been rapidly recovering power, and were as rapidly rising in their opposition to the mission. The result of this war, as aforetime, was the destruction of their villages and their power; and the Patriarch sank under the disappointment and died. Moreover the party in Hasbeiya, which stoned the Protestants and their teachers, were driven out of the place by the Druzes, and great numbers of them killed, so that the "Young Men's" party seemed to be broken to pieces.1

1 There was a special enmity of the Druzes against the Christians of Hasbeiya. The most celebrated sacred place of the Druzes is on the top of a hill just above Hasbeiya, called Khlwat el Biyad. In their revolt against Ibrahim Pasha in 1838, he was aided by the Christians, and when the Druzes were defeated in a battle near this place, their sacred place was entered, and several chests of books, setting forth their tenets, were scattered through the land. The Christians paid dearly for their trespa.s.s. The leader of the Hauran rebellion became, for a time, the governor of Hasbeiya, and for this loss imposed exorbitant indemnities on every one, who had been known to take a book. The consequent enmity between the parties doubtless had much to do with the events described above.

Abeih, now a missionary station, was inhabited by both Druzes and Maronites, and the conflict began there on the 9th of May. Our brethren were all along a.s.sured by both parties, that neither they nor their property would be molested, whichever was victorious. The Druzes early had the advantage, and the Maronite part of the village was speedily in flames, and more than three hundred and fifty Maronites were obliged to take refuge in a strong palace belonging to one of the Shehab Emirs. About two hundred more, and among them several of the most obnoxious, found an asylum in the houses of the missionaries, and in the house of a native helper of the mission, which, being in the centre of the Maronite quarter, was crowded with refugees. Mr. Thomson ventured out in the midst of the tumult, and succeeded in getting a guard of Druzes and Greeks whom he could trust, placed around this house, and thus the people with their goods were secured. The palace was in danger of being taken by storm, and the people within it all ma.s.sacred; when the leaders of the Druzes, to avoid this, requested Mr. Thomson to carry a flag of truce, with offers of safety and permission to retire whenever they might choose. This was done at some risk, as the battle was still raging. After the surrender, Dr. Van Dyck dressed the wounded Maronites in the palace, and brought several of them to his own house. He also performed like services for the wounded Druzes. This he did not without peril to himself; for, returning alone from the neighboring village, where he had gone on this professional errand, a Druze warrior mistook him for a Maronite, and was so enraged that one in an Arab dress and with an Arab tongue should pretend to be an American, that, but for the providential coming up of one who knew the Doctor, he would have killed him on the spot. Meanwhile Mr.

Laurie had come safely from Beirt, attended by only two janissaries, and pa.s.sing through hordes of the victorious Druzes.

Finding, on his arrival, a half-burned corpse of the Italian padre lying in the street, he buried it under the pavement of his chapel.

The Maronites being in a starving condition, the missionaries baked for them all the flour they had on hand, and sent express by night to Beirt for more. Fearing, too, that the Maronites might be ma.s.sacred by the Druzes on their way down to Beirt, notwithstanding their Turkish escort, they sent an express to Colonel Rose, the English Consul-general, which brought him up immediately with his most efficient protection. It should be added, that on the day the Maronites left Abeih, a strong proclamation came out from the Maronite and Greek Catholic bishops at Beirt to all their people, requiring them to protect all the members of the American mission.

The reflections of Mr. Smith on the death of the persecuting Patriarch, are just and impressive. "What a lesson," he says, "does that event, in such circ.u.mstances, teach us! After having martyred that faithful witness Asaad s.h.i.+diak, caused the Bible often to be burned, had missionaries insulted and stoned, and boasted that he had at last left no spot open for them to enter the mountains, he finds himself stripped of all his power; missionaries established permanently in the midst of his flock, and his own favorite bishop constrained to give orders for their protection; his people once and again ravaged and ruined in wars, which his own measures have hastened, if they have not originated; and finally he sinks himself under his disappointment and dies. How signally has the blood of the martyred Asaad been avenged upon him even in this life."

The war broke up the schools in the mountains; but in the following year there were ten schools in charge of the station at Abeih, with four hundred and thirty-six pupils. One hundred and forty-four of these were girls, and one hundred and ninety-seven Druzes. Connected with the Beirt station, were four schools for boys and girls, and one for girls alone. In Suk el-Ghrb, a village four miles from Abeih, a Protestant secession from the Greek Church was in progress, embracing fourteen families, and religious services were held with them every Sabbath. At Bhamdn, the summer residence for the brethren of the Beirt station, there were a number of decided Protestants, who declared that they found persons to sympathize with them wherever they went. Even in Zahleh, the hot-bed of fanaticism, there were men who openly argued from the Gospel against the prevailing errors. Mr. Smith wrote of a village on Mount Hermon, that sixty men were known to be standing ready to follow the example of Hasbeiya, as soon as the Protestants in that place had made good their position. He also declared the movement in Hasbeiya the beginning of what would doubtless have been a great revolution, had persecution been delayed.

Mr. Lanneau's health constrained him to retire from the field in 1846. In the same year, Dr. Van Dyck, having acquired an extraordinary facility in the use of the Arabic language, was ordained to the work of the Gospel ministry.

CHAPTER XVII.

GREECE.

DR. JONAS KING AND THE GREEK HIERARCHY.

1845-1847.

The struggle of Dr. Jonas King with the Greek Hierarchy, deserves a permanent record. The point at issue between them was, freedom to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d and to preach the Gospel in Greece. The conflict was not waged by Dr. King as a Greek citizen, for such he never claimed to be, though he was a property-owner in Athens, and married to a Greek lady, who retained her nominal connection with the Greek Church.

These facts were helpful to him, as was also his American citizens.h.i.+p. A mere citizen of Greece could not have maintained his ground after the persecuting hierarchy had overawed the courts of justice and the officers of state. His courage resembled that of Martin Luther. He was a st.u.r.dy Puritan, which no Greek at that time could have been; and he had strong resemblances to the great Reformer, as will abundantly appear in the sequel. Yet the fact of his foreign origin made him to be no more than the forerunner of a Grecian Luther. His labors and sufferings only prepared the way for a national reformation, which it may be hoped is yet to come.