History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions Volume II Part 18

From Cana they proceeded to Alma, where they remained about a week.

The women here, being more numerous and more enlightened, and some of them members of the church, were prepared to receive greater benefit from the instruction of a Christian sister. Three additions were made to the church. The people, though poor, had here also been compelled by their governor to pay their taxes twice.

The Seminary at Abeih was now made more directly a training school for native preachers and helpers; and a female boarding-school was opened at Sk el-Ghrb, a village six miles north of Abeih, under the direction of Miss Temple. The training of female helpers was its leading object, and the removal of Mr. Bliss thither made a home for the pupils.

Ain Zehalty continued to be a marked village, and the papists made great efforts to reclaim it. A Maronite bishop at one time, and a wily Jesuit at another, repaired thither, at the urgent request of the papal party, to uproot the dangerous exotic. The coming of the bishop was with great boasting on the part of his adherents, but, much to their chagrin, he declined commencing a controversy with Khalil, the native helper there; and was afterwards so hotly plied with texts of Scripture by some of the church-members whom he ventured to attack, that he fled for refuge to the more accommodating "traditions of the elders." It was supposed that the disciple of Loyola would carry all before him; but the undaunted Bible-men were more than ready to meet him, which they did effectively; and his visit was productive of more good than harm.

The report of the mission for 1858, furnishes many striking evidences of the influence exerted, especially in the department of education. Soon after the opening of the first Protestant school at Tripoli, the Greeks opened a school for boys, which soon became large and prosperous. And when the Protestant girls' school became a success, a board of directors was organized, under the direction of the Greek bishop, to break up the other, if possible. Not finding an educated woman in Syria who was not a Protestant, the Greeks applied to two Protestant young ladies to take their school, but without success. To secure the needful pecuniary means, they constrained the Patriarch to surrender a part of the convent revenues for this purpose. The Russian government, moreover, took up the subject of education in Syria, and remitted twelve thousand piasters (four hundred and eighty dollars) to the Greek school directors in Tripoli for the city schools; but with the injunction, that the tenets of the Greek Church should be the chief subject of instruction.

Nineteen persons were added to the churches of the mission during the first half of the year 1859. This of course involved various local indications of progress, for which the limits of this history afford no s.p.a.ce. A new place, however, is brought to our notice by Mr. Eddy, named Deir Mimas, a large village on the river Litany. A few had here professed Protestantism about two years before, and had encountered a storm of persecution from members of the Greek Church, and from the Mohammedan governor of their district. Yet they had constantly increased in numbers and strength. The missionary spending several days there, was delighted to find an audience each evening of more than one hundred, after their severe labors, all eager to hear. The number of men professing Protestantism was above sixty, and counting the women and the children, the number was one hundred and fifty, the largest in Syria. Their enemies were on the alert, and it was a sad fact, that no competent native teacher could be found to reside among them. They were then dependent on a native teacher, who came to them each Sabbath from a distance, having first preached in his own village.

The annual meeting of the mission in this year was one of unusual interest. "From the beginning to the end of the meeting, it was apparent that there was much of a spirit of prayer among the native brethren. The native female prayer meeting in Beirt was more fully attended than usual; and the union meetings in Arabic and English, held in the chapel, in which the missionaries and native brethren united and large audiences a.s.sembled, were occasions of deep interest. The statements made in the meeting when the annual reports were read, at which W. A. Booth, Esq., of New York City, and Hon.

Alpheus Hardy, of Boston, a member of the Prudential Committee, were providentially present, filled the minds of all with the conviction, that never before in the history of the Syria mission have we had so much encouragement, or such strong proofs that G.o.d is with us, and that the work is going forward in this land."

Before this meeting, the mission had been favored with a visit from the Hon. James Williams, United States Amba.s.sador at Constantinople, whose friendly and most useful agency was duly acknowledged by the mission. His reply to them may be found in the "Missionary Herald."[1]

[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1860, p. 163.

The translation of the New Testament was now completed and published under the care of Dr. Van Dyck. The pocket edition was admitted to be one of the most beautiful books, in its typographical execution, in the Arabic language. It had this advantage, that it could be carried and read without attracting notice; which was something in a land where Bible readers met with so much determined opposition.

CHAPTER x.x.xIX.

SYRIA.

1860-1863.

The year 1860 was noted for a civil war in Syria, and for savage ma.s.sacres on Lebanon, at Hasbeiya, Damascus, and elsewhere, which awakened the indignation of the Christian world. The Druzes were prominent in these ma.s.sacres, and so suffered greatly in character; yet the Turks were believed to have been the instigators. The war commenced in June; but the government for months had foreborne to check private a.s.sa.s.sinations and angry collisions, until the condition became unbearable.

All the Greek and Papal Christians united against the Druzes, with the declared purpose of not leaving one of them on Lebanon, but they had miscalculated their power. The Protestants decided to take the side of neither party. It was believed at Beirt, that the main object of the foreign Jesuits and native Catholic clergy was to exterminate the Protestants, who had their homes chiefly among the Druzes. The Druzes were aroused to desperation, and thirty or forty Maronite and Greek villages were burned early in June. The inhabitants who escaped ma.s.sacre fled to Beirt. Not one of these fugitives was a Protestant.

The missionaries at Abeih, Deir el-Komr, and Sk el-Ghrb were not molested, and Messrs. Calhoun and Bird and their families remained at their several stations. It was thought best for those at the Sk to descend to Beirt. Disturbance having arisen at Sidon, an English war steamer was sent thither to look after the foreigners. The steamer brought Mrs. Eddy and her children to Beirt, but Mr. Eddy and Mr. and Mrs. Ford decided to remain at Sidon.

In the country and gardens near that city, hundreds of unarmed men and defenseless women and children, many of whom had fled thither for their lives, were afterwards savagely butchered by Moslems and Druzes. The missionaries then asked for a guard from the city governor, which he refused until the American Consul in Beirt demanded it.

Mr. Bird, at Deir el-Komr, supposing that all was quiet around the city, left home to look after the little company of Protestants in Ain Zehalty. In his absence, the Druzes attacked Deir el-Komr on every side, and when Mr. Bird returned towards evening, he saw the town in flames, but could not enter. One of the more than one hundred houses burned, was a school-house belonging to the mission.

The Druze Begs declared it was a mistake, and promised to rebuild it. The Christians had fought until their ammunition was exhausted, and then surrendered. Mr. Bird found his family unharmed, though the fighting and burning had been very near them. The Pasha coming up from Beirt made such arrangements that Mr. Bird and family decided to remain.

The Druzes were now masters of Mount Lebanon south of the Damascus road, and there was no power left in that district to oppose them, save in the town of Zahleh. It was from this town that a company of hors.e.m.e.n went to Hasbeiya, sixteen years before, to compel the Protestants there to recant; and from this same town, not many months before, Mr. Benton and his family had been expelled with great violence by a mob. Its time had now come. Mr. Lyons pa.s.sing that way in October, with relief for the survivors of the ma.s.sacre, thus speaks of Zahleh: "It presents one of the saddest spectacles in all the wide field of desolation. Only a few months before, I had seen this then flouris.h.i.+ng town in all its beauty and pride. Now, nothing remained but a vast collection of roofless houses, with blackened, shattered walls, and shapeless heaps of stones and rubbish. Shops, magazines, costly dwellings, and elegant churches, all had shared in the common ruin."

The Protestants in Hasbeiya began to be troubled, early in the year, by premonitions of a coming storm. Mr. Eddy was there in May, accompanied by Mrs. Eddy and Miss Temple, who devoted themselves to labor for the spiritual good of the women in that community. Hardly had they returned to Sidon, when Hasbeiya was surrounded by hostile Druzes. They were driven off at first, but on the 3d of June the commander of the Turkish soldiers told the Christians to retire within the palace, and he would protect them. On the 11th the Druzes surrounded the palace, and the Turkish commander opened the gates, and allowed the Druzes to cut them in pieces. Some saved their lives by crawling under the dead bodies, and others by escaping over the walls. The Protestant church was partially destroyed, but not burned; its walls and roof remaining uninjured. At Rasheiya the Druzes told the Christians to give up their guns, and they would be safe. In the night, they set fire to the houses, and killed nearly all of one hundred and thirty men. More than one thousand persons were murdered in Hasbeiya and the surrounding region. Of these only nine were Protestants.

At Damascus, on the 9th of July, the wild Moslems, from one of the suburbs of the city, with Koords, Druzes, and Arabs, burst upon the Christian quarter, plundering, butchering, and burning; not opposed, but aided, by the Turkish soldiers, who could have suppressed the insurrection at any time. The slaughter continued several days, and the killed were estimated at five thousand. The whole Christian quarter of the city was plundered of its great wealth, and the houses and churches were laid in ruins.

Those who escaped these ma.s.sacres fled towards Beirt and Sidon, dest.i.tute of everything. Appeals were at once made to the Christians of England and America, and the missionaries, acting for the "Anglo-American Relief Committee," were the chief almoners. The expenditure in August for food, clothing, bedding, shelter, hospital, and soup, was at the rate of about sixty thousand piasters a week, or two thousand four hundred dollars, and yet it seemed to make little impression on the mighty ma.s.s of misery. Dr. Thomson had the especial care of the clothing, bedding, shelter, and soup-kitchen, Dr. Van Dyck of the hospital and the sick in general, Mr. Jessup of the distribution of bread to about six thousand persons daily, and Butrus Bistany and Michael Aramon, two of the native brethren, had the daily distribution among about two thousand five hundred poor. The funds up to this time had come chiefly from the people of England, and English merchants at Beirt gave much time to managing the large financial business connected with so vast a charity. Dr. Thomson declares that the male children were generally murdered, and that the killed were largely mere boys; and who, he asks, were to support the thousands of widows, with their fatherless daughters? The country had no factories, and scarcely any kind of business by which such widows could gain a support. The silk, grape, and wheat harvests had been destroyed, the olive was likely to perish from neglect, there were no animals for the plough, no implements for husbandry, nor was life safe in the fields. He adds: "There was never, perhaps, a darker hour for missions in Syria; yet we are becoming acquainted with the people more rapidly than ever, and should we be permitted to visit them months hence, we shall have a most friendly welcome."

Rasheiya and Deir Mimas were burned. Cana and Alma, being far from the Druze district, were not invaded. Tripoli was undisturbed. The destroyers in the neighborhood of Baalbec were not Druzes, but Moslems and Metawales. It is a remarkable fact that, excepting perhaps in Damascus, no injury was offered to a missionary; and Protestants, when recognized as such, were generally safe. The arrival of s.h.i.+ps of war and a detachment of the French army at Beirt, with apprehensions of an alliance of Christian powers for the protection of the Christian population, had, at first, a restraining, and finally, a controlling influence, on the Turkish government. The Prime Minister was sent to Damascus, and inflicted terrible justice on one or two hundred of the guilty there.

The direct effects of the war upon the missionary work were doubtless injurious. Immorality increased, the baser pa.s.sions were aroused, and the hearts of many were hardened through suffering. But priestly and feudal power, the two greatest obstacles to the Gospel, were weakened, and new civil rights were secured to the Protestants.

The respect for Protestant Christianity was increased, and prejudices were dissipated by witnessing its beneficent fruits; while mult.i.tudes were brought within the reach of the Gospel, who, but for these troubles, would never have heard its messages.

The connection of Mr. and Mrs. Benton with the Board and the mission terminated in June, 1861, though they remained in Syria some time longer.

The Arabic New Testament having been completed and published, the mission resolved to proceed, as soon as possible, with the translation and publication of the Old Testament, under the direction of Dr. Van Dyck. The British and Foreign Bible Society requested permission to adopt this version; instead of the one formerly issued by them. The result of a friendly negotiation was, that the American and the British and Foreign Bible Societies agreed to publish the version conjointly, from electrotype plates furnished by the former. The price of the reference edition was fixed at ten piasters, and of the pocket edition at five, or about forty and twenty cents, which placed them within reach of nearly all who could read.

The importance of this work cannot easily be overestimated.

Imperfect translations, and type which seemed to caricature their alphabet, had done much to prejudice Arabic scholars against the Christian Scriptures. By the labors of the mission, these objections were now removed. The educated Arab finds a book printed in characters modeled after the most approved specimens of Arab caligraphy. He soon perceives the style to be that of a man who is master of this wonderful language in all its grammatical and idiomatic niceties and rich resources. As a literary work it secures his respect, and thus invites a candid perusal. If he reads it, he finds the truths of Christianity clearly and correctly stated. Its beneficial influence will yet be felt, it is hoped, not only by the Christian sects of Mount Lebanon and Syria, but by the many millions who speak that language in other parts of the world. This work alone, worth many times what the mission had cost, could not have been accomplished, except by Christian scholars residing permanently among Arabs, and for substantially missionary purposes.

The sale of the Scriptures, notwithstanding the poverty of the people, was unprecedented. In 1859, it amounted to four hundred and forty-eight copies; in 1860, to four thousand two hundred and ninety-three,--a nearly ten fold increase.

Dr. Van Dyck was preparing a voweled edition of the New Testament, suitable for Mohammedans, written in the style of the Koran, which required much care and labor. This was completed in 1863.

The field manifestly brightened in the two or three years after the war. There was an interesting development of the missionary spirit.

Not less than six different missionary societies were formed, embracing nearly all the Protestants of the various towns and villages, and a commendable degree of liberality was shown by the natives in collecting and contributing. A hundred dollars thus raised will not appear a small amount to any one, who knows the extreme poverty of most of the congregations. There had been a great influx of population at Beirt, and preaching services, during some months, were held daily. The Sabbath-school numbered two hundred, and the children sang the same songs in Arabic, which American children love to sing in their own language. The mountain stations reported unusually large and attentive audiences. Ain Zehalty was wholly under Protestant influences. Its civil ruler was a member of the Protestant church, and its church edifice, purged of its altar and pictures, was no longer used for the idolatrous Greek service.

The Gospel was preached in nine places in connection with the Sidon station, the congregations had doubled their number, and schools of both s.e.xes were demanded. There were cases of unusual interest among the young men. Hasbeiya and Rasheiya were not yet safe for the return of their people, but their Protestants retained an ardor in the cause which was very encouraging. Ibl and Deir Mimas were still centres of evangelical light, and the people of Boaida, numbering one hundred, were all professed Protestants, and placed themselves under Biblical instruction. Mr. Ford and his family spent the summer in the district of which Deir Mimas is the centre, and more than thirty women were taught to read by Mrs. Ford. The field was open for schools, for preaching, and for influencing individuals, families, and communities. The only drawback was the want of laborers.

Brief extracts from a letter of Mr. H. H. Jessup, written in March, 1863, portray the work at that time.

"Delegation after delegation, of men from various villages and different sects, call upon and write to us, entreating us not to neglect them. They ask for preachers, and we have none to send. They ask for schools, and we have not the means to support them. We are in _great straits_, and lay the case before our Christian brethren at home, throwing the responsibility upon those to whom G.o.d has given the means, and especially upon the young men in a course of preparation for the ministry."

"The people of the village of Ain Kunyeh, near the Lake of Merom, on the upper waters of the Jordan, have with one consent turned away their priest, shut up their place of wors.h.i.+p, and are entreating one of our Protestant helpers to come and teach them the way of life."

"A few Sabbaths since, while we were a.s.sembled for divine service in the Beirt chapel, a crowd of thirty men came in, and with difficulty found seats, so full was the chapel already. Upon inquiry, after service, we learned that they are from the village of Rasheiya-el-Wady, north of Mount Hermon, and are a part of the residue of the people who escaped the ma.s.sacre in that place in 1860. They ask for a teacher, or native preacher, but we can give them only the most indefinite promises."

"Twenty men from the village of Koryet-el-Hosson, near the famous castle Kolat-el-Hosson, halfway between Tripoli and Hums, write that they too have seen the light, and wish some one to come and instruct them; but what can we do for them, when the twenty-five men of Sheikh Mohammed, who pet.i.tioned us some time since, have been sent away empty?"

"This morning a white-bearded priest called, with his aged brother, and several younger men. They declared their wish to become Protestants, and beg most earnestly for a school. They belong to a large and powerful family, and the Lord may use them as the entering wedge, to open that strong Greek district to the gospel. What shall we answer them?"

Daoud Pasha, the new papal Governor, secured in 1862 by foreign intervention for Mount Lebanon, was at first supposed to be a bigot, and a tool of the Jesuits, but he soon proved himself an impartial and excellent ruler. He had several Protestants in office about him, in very important situations. Instead of objecting to missionaries establis.h.i.+ng schools, he encouraged all efforts to educate the people.

Among other evidences of an advance it may be stated, that in Hums two hundred and fifty persons avowed themselves Protestants, and sought earnestly for a Christian instructor. It was immediately decided to send them Suleeba Jerwan, who had lived two years in that place with Mr. Wilson, and was well acquainted with the people; and the native missionary society at Beirt decided to support him as their first missionary. This was done with a cordiality and earnestness that was most promising. Hasbeiya women and girls pledged weekly contributions for the spread of the Gospel, some promised two cents a week, and some half a cent; but even these small sums were large for them, and they gave with a hearty gladness that was most cheering. Two hundred and thirty Maronites in Bteddin had for months adhered steadfastly to the Protestant faith, and a flouris.h.i.+ng school existed among them. In Cana the Protestant community had been augmented threefold, and the same was true of Deir Mimas. There had never been a time when so many were inquiring on the subject of religion; and a greater number avowed themselves Protestants within twelve months, than in the whole previous forty years. A new church edifice was built in Merj-Aiyun, costing about five hundred dollars, without drawing from the resources of the Board, and a new church had been formed in that district of seventeen members, most of them from the Hasbeiya church. In the Sidon field six persons had been admitted to the church, and there were twenty-two hopeful candidates. In Beirt and Abeih, there were seventeen such candidates, besides nine admitted to the communion.

Bible cla.s.ses were largely increased, and an unusual number of adults were learning to read, that they might study the Scriptures.

Thirty of the best Sabbath-school songs published in America, had been translated into Arabic, and published at the expense of a sewing society at Beirt, and thus gospel truths, in an attractive form, were reaching the children all over the land.

The president of the missionary society at Beirt stated in May, 1862, that in the two previous months, they had not only sent a missionary to Hums, but had sent also a colporter to Jezzin, maintained religious meetings every Sabbath at Kefr s.h.i.+ma, and employed a city missionary in Beirt.

But with these signs of prosperity, there seems to have been a need of chastening. The clergy of the Greek church at Hums, excited, as was supposed, by foreign influence, set their people so against the Protestants, that it was feared few would be able to stand. The native brethren were stoned and beaten in the streets, and abused by all cla.s.ses. Quite a large number returned, nominally, to the Greek church; but many of these commenced a Bible cla.s.s in the Greek church itself, thus bringing the truth to many, who would not otherwise have heard it. About fifteen men stood firm, and met nightly with Suleeba, for reading the Scriptures, prayer, and conference. The priests had expected the utter overthrow of Protestantism, and were enraged at the firmness of these brethren, and forbade all dealings with them. Letters to Suleeba from the missionaries were taken from the mail, read, and destroyed, and the Protestant places of meeting were a.s.sailed with stones. In the midst of these trials, Suleeba wrote expressing his grat.i.tude to G.o.d for sustaining grace. Some alleviation was experienced through the efforts of Colonel Fraser, Her Britannic Majesty's Commissioner, so that the Protestant community became regularly organized, with a representative in the Mejlis, and a tax roll distinct from other sects.

The Protestants in Ain Zehalty were also called to suffer. An order having come from Constantinople, requiring the restoration of all church edifices to their original sects, Daoud Pasha issued an order for giving up the edifice at Ain Zehalty. He must have acted under a misapprehension, since the building had never been the property of the bishop, but was built and still owned by the family of Khalil, the Protestant preacher. The Catholics were a very small minority in the village, yet the edifice appears not to have been recovered.

Another convenient house of wors.h.i.+p was soon after provided by Protestant friends.

Mr. H. H. Jessup wrote respecting Hums:--"Quite recently, one of the more enlightened among the Greeks was taken ill, and sent for Suleeba, the native helper. He went, and found quite a company of relatives and friends. The sick man asked him to read a portion of Scripture. The pa.s.sage selected contained the ten commandments, and while he was reading the _second_, the wife of the sick man exclaimed,--'Is that the Word of G.o.d? If it is, read it again.' He did so, when she arose and tore down a wooden picture of a saint at the head of the bed, declaring that henceforth there should be no idol wors.h.i.+p in that house; and then, taking a knife, she sc.r.a.ped the paint from the picture, and took it for use in the kitchen. This was done with the approbation of all present. The case is the more remarkable, as it was the first instance in Syria, in which a woman had taken so decided a stand in advance of the rest of the family."

The manifest agency of the Holy Spirit is the highest encouragement in the missionary work. "One of the members of the Beirt church,"

Mr. Jessup writes, "has pa.s.sed through an interesting religious experience this summer. He was for a time troubled with blasphemous thoughts, till he gave himself up as lost. His language was not unlike that of Bunyan in his "Grace Abounding;" and only after protracted struggles in prayer, the study of G.o.d's word, and finally resolving to go forward and do his duty in both light and darkness, did he find relief. The case was interesting as indicating the presence of G.o.d's Spirit, in leading him through a most severe struggle into ultimate peace in believing. Several young Protestants of Hasbeiya, resident in Beirt, are now pa.s.sing through very deep conviction of sin. I have rarely seen persons so completely broken down by a sense of their lost condition. On Monday I spent several hours with two young people, who were pa.s.sing through deep waters.