Her devoted friend and loving assistant teacher Lucîyah, was deeply affected by what she learned from Rufka of her new spiritual life, and she too turned her thoughts to divine things, and soon after the arrival of Miss Everett and Miss Carruth in 1868, to take charge of the Seminary, she came out openly on the Lord's side, and in the midst of a fire of domestic persecution, publicly professed her faith in Jesus as her only Saviour.

Miss Carruth, after staying just long enough in the Seminary to win the hearts of teachers and pupils, was obliged to return to her native land, where she is still an efficient laborer in the New England Woman's Boards of Missions.

The year following the departure of Rufka to Egypt was a critical time in the history of the Seminary. Lulu continued in charge of the domestic department, and Mr. Araman managed the business of the school, while Mrs. Salt (a sister of Melita and Salome) aided in several of the classes. But the institution owed its great success during that year, if not its very existence, to the untiring energy and efficient services of Mrs. Dr. Bliss and Miss Emilia Thomson, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Thomson. They each gave several hours every day to instruction in the English language, the Scriptures and music, and the high standard of excellence already attained in the Seminary was maintained if not surpassed.

Their perfect familiarity with the Arabic language gave them a great advantage in the management and instruction of the pupils, and their efforts on behalf of the Institution, in maintaining it in full and successful operation during the year previous to the arrival of Miss Everett and Miss Carruth, deserve grateful recognition.

In the winter of 1870 and 1871 Miss Sophia Loring, and Miss Ellen Jackson arrived from America as colleagues of Miss Everett, and under their efficient management aided by Mr. Araman, Lucîyah and other native teachers, the Seminary is enjoying a high degree of prosperity.

In March, 1864, the Mission had issued an appeal for funds to erect a permanent home for this Seminary, and in 1866 the present commodious and substantial edifice was erected, a lasting monument of the liberality of Christian men and women in America and England.

Its cost was about eleven thousand dollars, and the raising of this sum was largely due to the liberality and personal services of Mr. Wm. A. Booth, of New York, who also kindly acted as treasurer of the building fund. The lumber used in its construction was brought from the state of Maine. The doors and windows were made under the direction of Dr. Hamlin of Constantinople, in Lowell, Mass., the tiles came from Marseilles, the stone from the sandstone quarries of Ras Beirût, the stone pavement partly from Italy and partly from Mt. Lebanon, and the eighty iron bedsteads from Birmingham, England. The cistern, which holds about 20,000 gallons, was built at the expense of a Massachusetts lady, and the portico by a lady of New York. The melodeon was given by ladies in Georgetown, D. C., and the organ is the gift of a benevolent lady in Newport, R. I.

Time would fail me to recount the generous offerings of Christian men and women who have aided in the support of this school during the ten years of its history. Receiving no pecuniary aid from the American Board, the entire responsibility of its support fell upon a few members of the Syria Mission. Travellers who passed through the Holy Land, sometimes assumed the support of charity pupils, or interested their Sabbath Schools in raising scholarships, on their return home, and a few noble friends in the United States have sent on their gifts from time to time unsolicited, to defray the general expenses of the Institution. Its support has been to some of us a work of faith, as well as a labor of love. Not unfrequently has the end of the month come upon us, without one piastre in the treasury for paying the teachers' salaries or buying bread for the children, when suddenly, in some unknown and unexpected way, funds would be received, sufficient for all our wants. About two years since the funds were entirely exhausted. More than a hundred dollars would be owing to the teachers and servants on the following day. The accounts were examined, and all possible means of relief proposed, but without avail. At length one of the members of the Executive Committee asked leave to look over the accounts. He did so, and said he could not find any mention of a sum of about thirty Napoleons, which he was sure he had paid into the treasury several months before, as a donation from Mr. Booth of New York, whose son had died in Beirût. The money had not been paid into the school treasury. The vouchers were all produced, and there was left no resort but prayer. There was earnest supplication that night that the Lord would relieve us from our embarrassment, and provide for the necessities of the school. The next morning the good brother, above mentioned, recalled to mind his having given that money to Dr. Van Dyck in the Mission Library for the School. Dr. Van Dyck was consulted, and at once replied, "Certainly I received the money. It is securely locked up in the safe where it has been for months awaiting orders." The safe was opened, and the money found to be almost to a piastre the amount needed for obligations of the School.

Since the transfer of the Syria Mission to the board of Missions of the Presbyterian Church, the pecuniary status of the Seminary has been somewhat modified. The Women's Boards of Missions of New York and Philadelphia have assumed the responsibility of raising scholarships for its support among the Auxiliary Societies and Sabbath Schools; the salaries of the teachers are provided for by individuals and churches, and several of the old friends of the school retain their interest in it, while the danger of a deficit is guarded against, by the guarantees of the good Christian women who are doing so grand and noble a work in this age for the world's evangelization. The annual cost of supporting a pupil now is about sixty dollars gold. The number of paying pupils is increasing, and the prospect for the future is encouraging.

In the year 1864, a letter was received from certain Christian women in America, addressed to the girls of the School, and some of the older girls prepared a reply in Arabic, a translation of which was sent to America. It was as follows:

"From the girls of the Beirût School in Syria, to the sisters beloved in the Lord Jesus, in a land very far away. We have been honored in reading the lines which reached us from you, O sisters, distant in body but near in spirit, and we have given glory to God the Creator of all, who has caused in your hearts true love to us, and spiritual sympathies which have prompted you, dear sisters in the Lord, to write to us. Yes, it is the Lord Jesus who has brought about between us and between you (Arabic idiom) a spiritual intercourse, without the intercourse of bodily presence. For we have never in our lives seen you, nor your country, nor have we spoken to you face to face, and so you likewise have not seen us. Had neither of us the Word of God, the Holy and Only Book which is from one Father and a God unchangeable, to tell us that we have one nature, and have all fallen into one transgression, and are saved in one way, which is the Lord Jesus, we could not, as we now can, call you in one union, our sisters. The Lord Jesus calls those who love Him His brethren, and since He is the only bond and link, are we not His sisters, and thus sisters to each other? Truly, O dear sisters, we are thirsting to see you, and we all unite in offering prayers and praises to God, through His Son Immanuel, the possessor of the glorious Name, praying that we may see you; but we cannot in this world, for we are in the East, and you are in the West, far, very far. But, O dear friends, as we hope for the resurrection from the dead, so after our period in this world is ended, we shall meet by the blessing of God in those bright courts which are illumined by the light of the Saviour, which need not sun nor moon to give them light,—that holy place which is filled with throngs of angels who never cease to offer glory to God. There we may meet and unite with all the saved in praising the Saviour. There we may meet our friends who have passed on before us "as waiting they watch us approaching the shore," as we sing in the hymn. There around the throne of the glorious Saviour, there in the heavenly Jerusalem, our songs will not be mingled with tears and grief, for the Lord Jesus Himself will wipe away all tears from our eyes. There will not enter sin nor its likeness into our hearts sanctified by the Holy Spirit. There this body which shall rise incorruptible, will not return to the state in which it was in this world. In those courts we shall be happy always, and the reason is that we shall always be with the Great Shepherd, as it is said in the Book of Revelation, 'He shall shepherd them and lead them to fountains of living waters and wipe all tears from their eyes.' Our sisters, were it not for the Holy Bible which the Lord has given to His people, we should have no comfort to console us with regard to our friends whom we have lost by means of death. We beg you to help us by offering prayers to the living and true God that He will make us faithful even unto death,—that He will bless us while on the sea of this life, until we reach the shore of peace without fear or trouble, that we may be ready to stand before the seat of the Lord Jesus the Judge of all, clothed in the robes of His perfect righteousness, which he wove for us on the Cross, and is now ready to give to those who ask Him. Let us then all ask of God that this our only treasure may be placed where no thief can break in and steal, and no moth shall corrupt. And may the Lord preserve you!

We love to sing this hymn,

and we entreat you that when you sing it, you will let it be a remembrancer from us to you."

In March, 1865, a little girl was brought to the school under somewhat peculiar circumstances. Years ago, in the days of Mr. Whiting, a Maronite monk named Nejm, became enlightened, left the monastery and was married to a Maronite woman named Zarifeh, by Mr. Whiting. For years the poor man passed through the fires of persecution and trial. Even his wife, in her ignorance, though not openly opposing him, trembled with fear every time he read the Scriptures aloud. At the time mentioned above, their little daughter Resha was about five years of age. The Papal Maronite Bishop of Beirût made a visit to Nejm's village, Baabda, to dispense indulgences, in accordance with the Pope's Encyclical letter. Nejm was called upon to pay his portion of the sum assessed upon the people, but having been a Protestant fifteen years, he refused to pay it. At the instigation of the priests, his wife was then taken from him, and his little Resha, his only child, was carried off by one of the priests to Beirût, and thrust inside the gates of the convent of the French Sisters of Charity. The poor father came to me, well-nigh broken-hearted, pleading for assistance. I laid the case before His Excellency Daûd Pasha, Governor of Lebanon, who was then in Beirût, and drew up a petition to the Pasha of Beirût also, on the subject. Nejm went about weeping and wringing his hands, and my feelings became deeply enlisted in his behalf. Three weeks afterwards, after a series of petitions and visits to the Pasha of Beirût, the girl Resha was removed from the convent and taken by Nejm's enemies to a house near Nahr Beirût, about two miles distant, and just over the border line of the Mountain Pashalic. I then addressed another letter to Daûd Pasha, and he promptly ordered her to be restored to her father. The manner in which Nejm, the father, finally secured the child was not a little amusing. He had been searching for his child for several weeks, waiting and watching, until his patience was about exhausted, when he heard that Resha was again in the hands of the priests in Baabda. The mother followed the child, and the priests threatened to kill her, if she informed her husband where the girl was secreted. Daûd Pasha was then at his winter palace in Baabda, and Nejm took my letter to him. While awaiting a reply at the door, some one informed him that his daughter was at the fountain. Without waiting further for official aid, he ran to the fountain, took up his daughter, put her on his back, and ran for Beirût, a distance of about four miles, where he brought her to my house, and placed her in my room, with loud ejaculations of thanks to God. "Neshkar Allah; El mejd lismoo." Thanks to God! Glory to His name! The mother soon followed, and the girl was sent as a day scholar to the Seminary. They are now living in Baabda. The mother, Zarify, united with the Evangelical Church of Beirût, July 21, 1872, giving the best evidence of a true spiritual experience. The little girl is anxious to teach, and it was proposed to employ her as an assistant in the girls' school in Baabda, but the tyrannical oppressions of the priesthood upon the family who had offered their house for the school, and the refusal of the Pasha of Lebanon to grant protection to the persecuted, have obliged the brethren there to postpone their request for a school for the present.

Alas for the poor women of Syria! Even when they seek to obtain the consolations of the Gospel by learning to read the Word of life, they are surrounded by priests and Sheikhs who watch their chance to destroy the "Bread of Life!" In March, 1865, a Maronite woman called at the Press to buy a book of poems, to teach her boy to read. "Why not buy a Testament?" asked the bookseller. "I did buy an Engeel Mushekkel," (a voweled Testament.) "Be careful of it then," said Khalil, "for the edition is exhausted, and you cannot get another for months." "It is too late to be careful now, for the book has been burned." "Burned? by whom?" "By the Jesuits, who gathered a large pile and burned them." God grant that as Tyndale's English New Testament, first printed in 1527 was only spread the more widely for the attempts of the Papal Bishop of London to burn it, so the Arabic Bible may receive a new impulse from the similarly inspired efforts of the Bishop's successors!

CHAPTER IX.

It is an interesting sight to see the Thursday afternoon Women's meeting in the house of Mrs. Calhoun in Abeih, and to know that a large part of that company of bright, intelligent and tidily dressed young native women, who listen so intently to the Bible lesson, and join so heartily in singing the sweet songs of Zion, were trained up either in her own family, or under her own especial influence. By means of her own example in the training of her children, she has taught the women of Abeih, and through them multitudes of women in other villages, the true Christian modes of family government and discipline, and introduced to their notice and practice many of those little conveniences and habits in the training of children, whose influence will be felt for many generations.

When Mr. and Mrs. Bird removed to Deir el Komr in 1855, they not only opened a large school for the education of girls, with Sada Haleby, one of Dr. De Forest's pupils, as teacher, but received into their own family three young girls, named Lucîya, Sikkar and Zihry, all of whom entered upon spheres of usefulness. Zihry became a teacher, in Deir el Komr, and has continued to teach until the present time. She was at one time connected with the Beirût Female Seminary, and is now teaching in the Institution of Mrs. Shrimpton, under the auspices of the British Syrian Schools.

Luciya taught in Deir el Komr until the school was overwhelmed in the fires and blood of the Massacre year, 1860.

In 1862 she taught in the Sidon School, and afterwards married the Rev. Sulleba Jerwan, the first native pastor in Hums. In that great city, and amid the growing interest of the young Protestant community, she found a wide and attractive field of labor. She was a young woman of great gentleness and delicacy of nature, and of strong religious feeling, and entered upon the work of laboring among the women and girls of Hums, with exemplary zeal and discretion. She became greatly beloved, and her Godly example and gentle spirit will never be forgotten.

But at length her labors were abruptly cut short. Consumption, a disease little known in Syria, but which afterwards cut down her brother and only sister Sikkar, fastened upon her, and she was obliged, in great suffering, to leave the raw and windy climate of Hums, for the milder air of Beirût. Her two brothers being in the employ of Miss Whately in Cairo, she went, on their invitation, to Egypt, where after a painful illness, she fell asleep in Jesus. Amid all her sufferings, she maintained that same gentle and lovely temper of mind, which made her so greatly beloved by all who knew her.

She has rested from her labors, and her works do follow her. Not long after her sister Sikkar, who had also been trained in Mrs. Bird's family, died in her native village Ain Zehalteh.

Her last end also, was peace, and although no concourse of Druze Sheikhs came barefoot over the snow to her funeral, as they did on the death of the Sitt Selma, in the same village, no doubt a concourse of higher and holier beings attended her spirit to glory.

When Luciya was in Beirût before her departure to Egypt, I used to see her frequently, and I shall never forget the calm composure with which she spoke of her anticipated release from the pains and sufferings of life. Christ was her portion, and she lived in communion with him, certain that ere long she should depart and be with him forever.

The poor Moslem women in the houses adjoining her room used to come in, and with half-veiled faces look upon her calm and patient face with wonder. Would that they too might find her Saviour precious to them, in their hours of sickness, suffering and death!

Truly, there is no religion but that of Jesus Christ, that can soften the pillow of suffering, and take away the sting and dread of death.

One of the most serious difficulties in the way of the higher female education in Syria, is the early age at which girls are married. One young girl attended the Beirût Seminary for two years, from eight to ten, and the teachers were becoming interested in her progress, when suddenly her parents took her out of the school, and gave her to a man in marriage. After the festivities of the marriage week were over at her husband's house, she went home to visit her mother, taking her dolls with her to amuse herself!

The Arabic journal "the Jenneh" of Beirût, contained a letter in June, 1872, from its Damascus correspondent, praising the fecundity of Syria, and stating that a young woman who was married at nine and a half, became a grandmother at twenty! Such instances are not uncommon in Damascus and Hums, where the chief and almost the only concern of parents is to marry off their daughters as early as nature will allow, without education, experience or any other qualification for the responsible duties of married life. When the above mentioned letter from Damascus was published, Dr. Van Dyck took occasion to write an article in the "Neshra," the Missionary Weekly, of which he is the editor, exposing the folly and criminality of such early marriages, and demonstrating their disastrous effects on society at large.

Since the establishment of schools and seminaries of a high grade for girls, this tendency is being decidedly checked in the vicinity of Beirût, and girls are not given up as incorrigibly old, even if they reach the age of seventeen.

Dr. Meshakah of Damascus, who has long been distinguished for his learned and eloquent works on the Papacy, is a venerable white-bearded patriarch and his wife looks as if she were his daughter. I once asked him how old she was when married, and he said eleven. I asked him why he married her so young? He said that in his day, young girls received no training at home, and young men who wished properly trained wives, had to marry them young, so as to educate them to suit themselves!

Education is rapidly obviating that necessity, and young men are more than willing that girls to whom they are betrothed, should complete their education, lest they be eclipsed by others who remain longer at school. I once called on a wealthy native merchant in Beirût, who remarked that "the Europeans have a thing in their country which we have not. They call it ed-oo-cashion, and I am anxious to have it introduced into Syria." This "ed-oo-cashion" is already settling many a question in Syria which nothing else could settle, and the natives are also learning that something more than mere book-knowledge is needed, to elevate and refine the family. One of the most direct results of female education thus far in Syria has been the abolition from certain classes of society of some of those superstitious fears which harass and torment the ignorant masses.

CHAPTER X.

No sketch of Woman's Work for Syrian women would be complete which did not give some account of the life and labors of that pioneer in work for Syrian women, Mrs. Sarah L. H. Smith, wife of Dr. Eli Smith. She reached Beirût, January 28, 1834, full of high and holy resolves to devote her life to the benefit of her Syrian sisters. From the first to the very last of her life in Syria, this was the one great object of her toils and prayers. As soon as April 2, she writes, "Our school continues to prosper, and I love the children exceedingly. Do pray that God will bless this incipient step to enlighten the women of this country. You cannot conceive of their deplorable ignorance. I feel it more and more every day. Their energies are expended in outward adorning of plaiting the hair and gold and pearls and costly array, literally so. I close with one request, that you will pray for a revival of religion in Beirût." Again she writes, June 30, 1834, "I feel somewhat thoughtful, this afternoon, in consequence of having heard of the ready consent of the friends of a little girl, that I should take her as I proposed, and educate her. I am anxious to do it, and yet my experience and observation in reference to such a course, and my knowledge of the sinful heart of a child, lead me to think I am undertaking a great thing. I feel, too, that my example and my instruction will control her eternal destiny." This girl was Raheel Ata. Again, August 16: "It is a great favor that so many of the men and boys can read. Alas, our poor sisters! the curse rests emphatically upon them. Among the Druze princesses, some, perhaps the majority, furnish an exception and can read. Their sect is favorable to learning. Not so with the Maronites. I have one scholar from these last, but when I have asked the others who have been here if they wished to read, they have replied most absolutely in the negative, saying that it was for boys, and not for them. I have heard several women acknowledge that they knew no more than the donkeys."

August 23. A Maronite priest compelled two little girls to leave her school, but the Greek priest sent "his own daughter, a pretty, rosy-cheeked girl" to be taught by Mrs. Smith. On the 22d of September, 1834, she wrote from B'hamdûn, a village five hours from Beirût, on Lebanon, "Could the females of Syria be educated and regenerated, the whole face of the country would change; even, as I said to an Arab a few days since, to the appearance of the houses and the roads. One of our little girls, whom I taught before going to the mountains, came to see me a day or two since, and talked incessantly about her love for the school, and the errors of the people here, saying that they 'cared not for Jesus Christ, but only for the Virgin Mary.'"

October 8. She says, "A servant woman of Mrs. Whiting, who has now lived long enough with her to love her and appreciate her principles, about a year and a half since remarked to some of the Arabs, that the people with whom she lived did 'not lie, nor steal, nor quarrel, nor do any such things; but poor creatures,' said she, 'they have no religion.'"

On the 22d of October, she wrote again, "Yesterday I went up to Mr. Bird's to consult about the plan of a school-house now commenced for females. I can hardly believe that such a project is actually in progress, and I hail it as the dawn of a happy change in Syria. Two hundred dollars have been subscribed by friends in this vicinity, and I told Mr. B. that if necessary he might expend fifty more upon the building, as our Sabbath School in Norwich had pledged one hundred a year for female education in Syria."

The principal contributor to this fund was Mrs. Alexander Tod, formerly Miss Gliddon, daughter of the U. S. Consul in Alexandria.

The building stood near where the present Church in Beirût stands, and was removed, and the stones used in the extension of the old Chapel. In the year 1866 Mr. Tod revisited Beirût and contributed £100 towards the erection of the new Female Seminary, saying that as Mrs. Tod aided in the first Female Seminary building in Beirût, he wished to aid in the second. The school-house was a plain structure, and was afterwards used as a boy's school, and the artist who photographed the designs printed in this volume received his education there under the instruction of the late Shahîn Sarkis, husband of Azizy.

In the latter part of October, 1834, Mrs. Smith writes, "Yesterday I commenced the female school with four scholars, which were increased to ten to-day, and the number will probably continue to augment as before from week to week. As I walked home about sunset this evening, I thought, 'Can it be that I am a schoolmistress, and the only one in all Syria?' and I tripped along with a quick step amid Egyptians, Turks and Arabs, Moslems and Jews, to my quiet and pleasant home."

November 9. "I sometimes indulge the thought that God has sent me to the females of Syria—to the little girls, of whom I have a favorite school—for their good."

January 5, 1835. "On Friday I distributed rewards to twenty-three little girls belonging to my school, which, as they are all poor, consisted of clothing. Our Sabbath School also increases. Eighteen were present last Sabbath."

On the 11th of January Dr. Thomson wrote, "Mrs. Smith's female school prospers wonderfully, but it is the altar of her own health; and I fear that in the flame that goeth up toward heaven from off that altar, she will soon ascend as did Manoah's angel. We can hardly spare her; she is our only hope for a female school in Beirût at present."

The state of society in Syria at that time is well pictured in the following language, used by Mrs. Smith in a letter dated February 12, 1835: "Excepting the three or four native converts, we know not one pious religious teacher, one judicious parent, one family circle regulated by the fear of God; no, not even one!"

"I wish I had strength to do more, but my school and my studies draw upon my energies continually." Even at that early day Moslem girls came to be taught by Mrs. Smith. She writes June 2, "A few days since, one of my little Moslem scholars, whose father was once an extensive merchant here, came and invited me to make a call upon her mother. I took Raheel and accompanied her to their house which is in our neighborhood. I found it a charming spot and very neatly kept. Hospitality is regarded here as a religious act, I think, and a reputation for it is greatly prized."

In July she wrote of what has not ceased to be a trial to all missionaries in Beirût for the past forty years, the necessity of removing to the mountains during the hot summer months. The climate of the plain is debilitating to foreigners, and missionary families are obliged to spend three months of the hot season in the Lebanon villages. "My school interests me more and more every day, and I do not love to think of suspending it even for a few weeks during the hot season. Day before yesterday a wealthy Jewish lady came with her two daughters to the school, and begged me to take the youngest as a scholar."

July 19. "At our Sabbath School to-day were twenty-eight scholars, twenty-one girls and seven boys."

July 31. "To-day I closed my school for the month of August by the distribution of rewards to thirty little girls. The American and English Consuls and a few Arab friends were present, and expressed much pleasure at the sight of so many young natives in their clean dress. A few of the more educated scholars read a little in the New Testament."

August 8. "On Saturday I closed my school for the month of August. It was increasing every day in numbers and I would gladly have continued it. Last Sabbath we had at the Sabbath School forty-six scholars, a fourth of whom were Moslems."

September 29. "Yesterday I commenced my school again with twenty scholars; which, for the first day, was a good number. Mrs. Whiting has ten little Moslem girls in Jerusalem, and the promise of more."

December 14. "On Saturday, our native female prayer-meeting consisted of twenty, besides two children. Fourteen were Arabs, more than were ever present before. We met in the girls' school room, where we intend in future to assemble. We sung part of a psalm, as we have begun to teach music in our school. We find the children quite as capable of forming musical sounds as those in our own country; but alas, we have no psalms or hymns adapted to their capacities. The Arabic cannot be simplified like the English, without doing violence to Arab taste; at least such is the opinion now. What changes may be wrought in the language, we cannot tell. Of this obstacle in the instruction of the young here, you have not perhaps thought. It is a painful thought to us, that children's literature, if I may so term it, is incompatible with the genius of this language: of course, infant school lessons must be bereft of many of their attractions."

It may be interesting to know whether present missionary experience differs from that of Mrs. Smith and her husband in 1835, with regard to children's literature in the Arabic language.

In 1858, Mr. Ford prepared, with the aid of Mr. Bistany, (the husband of "Raheel," Mrs. Smith's adopted child,) a series of children's Scripture Tracts in simple and yet perfectly correct Arabic, so that the youngest child can understand them. In 1862, we printed the first Children's Hymn-book, partly at the expense of the girls in Rufka's school. We have now in Arabic about eighty children's hymns, and a large number of tracts and story books designed for children. We also publish an Illustrated Children's Monthly, called the "Koukab es Subah," "The Morning Star," and the children read it with the greatest eagerness.

The Koran, which is the standard of classic Arabic, cannot be changed, and hence can never be a book for children. It cannot be a family book, or a women's book. It cannot attract the minds of the young, with that charm which hangs around the exquisitely simple and beautiful narratives of the Old and New Testament. It is a gem of Arabic poetry, but like a gem, crystalline and unchanging. It has taken a mighty hold upon the Eastern world, because of its Oriental style and its eloquent assertion of the Divine Unity. It is reverenced, but not loved, and will stand where it is while the world moves on. Every reform in government, toleration and material improvement in the Turkish Empire, Persia and Egypt, is made in spite of the Koran and contrary to its spirit. The printing of the Koran is unlawful, but it is being printed. All pictures of living objects are unlawful, but the Sultan is photographed, Abd el Kader is photographed, the "Sheikh ul Islam" is photographed. European shoes are unlawful because sewed with a swine's bristle, but Moslem Muftis strut about the streets in French gaiters, and the women of their harems tottle about in the most absurd of Parisian high-heeled slippers.

The Arabic Bible translated by Drs. Eli Smith and Cornelius Van Dyck, is voweled with the grammatical accuracy and beauty of the Koran with the aid of a learned Mohammedan Mufti, and yet has all the elegant simplicity of the original and is intelligible to every Arab, old and young, who is capable of reading at all. The stories of Joseph, Moses, and David, of Esther, Daniel and Jonah are as well adapted to the comprehension of children in the Arabic as in the English.

Not a few of the hymns in the Children's Hymn book are original, written by M. Ibrahim Sarkis, husband of Miriam of Aleppo, and M. Asaad Shidoody, husband of Hada. This Hymn book was published in 1862, with Plates presented by Dr. Robinson's Sabbath School of the First Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn.

This digression seemed necessary, in order to show the great progress that has been made since 1836, in preparing a religious literature. It is no longer true as in Mrs. Smith's day, "that we have no psalms or hymns adapted to the capacities of children." Nor is it longer true that "children's literature is incompatible with the genius of the Arabic language."

In a letter addressed to the young women in the "Female Academy at Norwich," February, 1836, Mrs. Smith gives a vivid description of the "average woman" of Syria in her time, and the description holds true of nine-tenths of the women at the present day. There are now native Christian homes, not the least attractive of which is the home of her own little protegé Raheel, but the great mass continue as they were forty years ago. She says, "My dear friends, will you send your thoughts to this, which is not a heathen, but an unevangelized country. I will not invite you to look at our little female school of twenty or thirty, because these form but a drop among the thousands and thousands of youth throughout Syria; although I might draw a contrast even from this not a little in your favor. But we will speak of the young Syrian females at large, moving in one unbroken line to the land of darkness and sorrow. Among them you will find many a fine form and beautiful face; but alas! the perfect workmanship of their Creator is rendered tame and insipid, for want of that mental and moral culture which gives a peculiar charm to the human countenance. It is impossible for me to bring the females of this country before you in so vivid a manner that you can form a correct idea of them. But select from among your acquaintances a lady who is excessively weak, vain and trifling; who has no relish for any intellectual or moral improvement; whose conversation is altogether confined to dress, parties, balls, admiration, marriage; whose temper and faults have never been corrected by her parents, but who is following, unchecked, all the propensities of a fallen, corrupt nature. Perhaps you will not be able to find any such, though I have occasionally met with them in America. If you succeed, however, in bringing a person of this character to your mind, then place the thousands of girls, and the women, too, of this land, once the land of patriarchs, prophets and apostles, in her class." "These weak-minded Syrian females are not attentive to personal cleanliness; neither have they a neat and tasteful style of dress. Their apparel is precisely such as the Apostle recommended that Christian females should avoid; while the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is thrown wholly out of the account. They have no books, and no means of moral or intellectual improvement. It is considered a disgrace for a female to know how to read and write, and a serious obstacle to her marriage, which is the principal object of the parent's heart. This abhorrence of learning in females, exists most strongly in the higher classes. Nearly every pupil in our school is very indigent. Of God's word they understand nothing, for a girl is taken to church perhaps but once a year, where nothing is seen among the women but talking and trifling; of course she attaches no solemnity to the worship of God. No sweet domestic circle of father, brother, mother and sister, all capable of promoting mutual cheerfulness and improvement, greets her in her own house. I do not mean to imply that there exists no family affection among them, for this tie is often very strong; but it has no foundation in respect, and is not employed to promote elevation of character. The men sit and smoke their pipes in one apartment, while in another the women cluster upon the floor, and with loud and vociferous voices gossip with their neighbors. The very language of the females is of a lower order than that of the men, which renders it almost impossible for them to comprehend spiritual and abstract subjects, when first presented to their minds. I know not how often, when I have attempted to converse with them, they have acknowledged that they did not understand me, or have interrupted me by alluding to some mode or article of dress, or something quite as foolish." "Thus you see, my young friends, how unhappy is the condition of the females of Syria, and how many laborers are wanted to cultivate this wide field. On the great day of final account, the young females of Syria, of India, of every inhabited portion of the globe, who are upon the stage of life with you, will rise up, either to call you blessed, or to enhance your condemnation." "God is furnishing American females their high privileges, with the intention of calling them forth into the wide fields of ignorance and error, which the world exhibits. I look over my country and think of the hundreds and thousands of young ladies, intelligent, amiable and capable, who are assembled in schools and academies there; and then turn my eye to Jerusalem, Hebron, Nazareth, Sychar, Damascus, Tyre, Sidon, Jaffa, and to the numerous villages of Mount Lebanon, and think, 'Why this inequality of condition and privileges? Why can there not be stationed at every one of those morally desolate places, at least one missionary family, and one single female as a teacher? Does not Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, require it of His youthful friends in America, that from love to Him, gratitude for their own distinguished mercies, compassion for perishing souls, and the expectation of perfect rest and happiness in heaven, they should spread themselves over the wide world, and feed the sheep and the lambs scattered without a shepherd upon the mountains?' Yes, He requires it, and angels will yet behold it; but shall we not see it in our day?"

Great changes have come over Syria since the above words were written. Not less than twelve high schools for girls have been established since then in Syria and Palestine, and not far from forty common schools, exclusively for girls, under the auspices of the different Missionary Societies.

In February, 1836, Mrs. Smith also undertook the work of systematic visiting among the mothers of her pupils. She says, "Perhaps it will be a very long time before we shall see any fruit. Indeed those who enter into our labors may gather it in our stead; yet I am anxious that we should persevere until we die, though no apparent effect be produced."

In April, 1836, she wrote, "My mind is much upon a female boarding school; and if I can get the promise of ten girls, we shall, God willing, remove the press from our house, and commence one in the fall."

In May she commenced a new term of her day school with twenty-six scholars. She says, "The wife of a persecuted Druze is very anxious to learn to read, and she comes to our house every day to get instruction from Raheel." She also says, "We feel the want of books exceedingly. The little girl whom I took more than a year since, and who advances steadily in intelligence and knowledge, has no book but the Bible to read, not one." Then again, "Should our press get into successful operation, I despair in doing anything in the way of infant schools, because the Arabic language cannot be simplified, at least under existing prejudices. If every hymn and little story must be dressed up in the august habiliments of the Koran, what child of three and six years old will be wiser and better for them! How complete is the dominion of the Great Adversary over this people! All the links of the chain must be separated, one by one. And what a long, I had almost said, tedious process! But I forget that to each one will be assigned a few only of these links. We are doing a little, perhaps, in this work; if faithful, we shall rest in heaven, and others will come and take our places and our work."

On the eleventh of June, Mrs. Smith's health had become so impaired from the dampness of the floor and walls of her school building, that her physician advised a sea voyage for her. After suffering shipwreck on the coast of Asia Minor, and enduring great hardships, she reached Smyrna, where she died on the 30th of September, in the triumphs of the Gospel. Her Memoir is a book worthy of being read by every Christian woman engaged in the Master's service.

In a letter written from Smyrna, July 28, she says, "I had set my heart much upon taking Raheel with me. Parents, however, in Syria, have an especial aversion to parting with their children for foreign countries. One of my last acts therefore was to make a formal committal of her into the hands of my kind friend Miss Williams. I had become so strongly attached to the little girl, and felt myself so much rewarded for all my efforts with her, that the circumstances of this separation were perhaps more trying than any associated with our departure."

Mrs. Smith had from the first a desire to take a little Arab girl to be brought up in her family, and at length selected Raheel, one of the most promising scholars in her school, when about eight years of age, and with the consent of her parents adopted her. In her care, attentions and affections, she took almost the rank of a daughter. She was trained to habits of industry, truth and studiousness, and although Mrs. S. had been but nine months in the country when she adopted her, she commenced praying with her in Arabic from the very first.

Dr. Eli Smith says, "In a word, the expectations Mrs. Smith had formed in taking her, were fully answered; and she was often heard to say, that she had every day been amply repaid for the pains bestowed upon her. It will not be wondered at, that her affections became entwined very closely around so promising a pupil, and that the attachment assumed much of the character of parental kindness. Mrs. Smith's sharpest trial, perhaps, at her departure from Beirût, arose from leaving her behind."

After the departure of Mrs. Smith, her fellow-laborer, Miss Williams, afterwards Mrs. Hebard, took charge of Raheel, who remained with her five years. She then lived successively with Mrs. Lanneau and Mrs. Beadle, and lastly with Dr. and Mrs. De Forest.

When in the family of Dr. De Forest, she became engaged to be married to Mr. Butrus Bistany, a learned native of the Protestant Church, who was employed by the Mission as a teacher. Her mother and friends were opposed to the engagement, as they wished to marry her to a man of their own selection. On Carnival evening, February 20, in the year 1843, her mother invited her to come and spend the feast with the family. She hesitated, but finally consented to go with Dr. De Forest and call upon her family friends and return before night. After sitting several hours, the Doctor arose to go and she prepared to follow him. Her mother protested, saying that they would not allow her to return to her home with the missionary. Finding that the mother and brother-in-law were preparing to resist her departure by violence, Dr. De Forest retired, sending a native friend to stay in the house until his return. He repaired to the Pasha and laid the case before him. The Pasha declared her free to choose her own home, as she was legally of age, and sent a janizary with Dr. De Forest to examine the case and insure her liberty of action. On entering the house, the janizary called for Raheel and asked her whether she wished to go home or stay with her mother? She replied, "I wish to go home to Mrs. De Forest." The janizary then wrote down her request, and told her to go. She arose to go, but could not find her shoes. There was some delay, when her brother-in-law seized her arm and attempted to drag her to an inner room. The Pasha's officer seized the other arm and the poor girl was in danger of having her shoulders dislocated. At length the officer prevailed and she escaped. Her mother and the women who had assembled from the neighborhood, then set up a terrific shriek, like a funeral wail, "She's lost! she's dead! wo is me!" It was all pre-arranged. The brother-in-law had been around to the square to a rendezvous of soldiers, and told them that an attempt would be made to abduct his sister by force, and if they heard a shriek from the women, to hasten to his house. The rabble of soldiers wanted no better pastime than such a melée among the infidels, and promised to come. When they heard the noise they started on a run. Raheel, having suspected something of the kind, induced Dr. De Forest to take another road, and as they turned the corner to enter the mission premises, they saw the rabble running in hot haste towards her mother's house, only to find that the bird had flown.

In the following summer she was married to Mr. Bistany, who was for eight years assistant of Dr. Eli Smith in the work of Bible translation, and for twenty years Dragoman of the American Consulate. He is now Principal of a private Boarding School for boys, called the "Medriset el Wutaniyet" or "Native School," which has about 150 pupils of all sects. He and his son Selim Effendi are the editors and proprietors also of three Arabic journals; the Jenan, a Monthly Literary Magazine, illustrated by wood-cuts made by a native artist, and having a circulation of about 1500; the Jenneh, a semi-weekly newspaper published Tuesday and Friday; and the Jeneineh, published Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. There is not a more industrious man in Syria than Mr. Bistany, and he is doing a great work in the enlightenment of his countrymen.

Raheel's home is one of affection, decorum, and Christian refinement, and she has fulfilled the highest hopes and prayers of her devoted foster mother, in discharging the duties of mother, neighbor, church member, and friend. May every missionary woman be rewarded in seeing such fruits of her labors!

In January, 1866, Sarah, one of Raheel's daughters, named after Mrs. Sarah L. Smith, was attacked by typhoid pneumonia. From the first she was deeply impressed on the subject of religion, and in deep concern about her soul. She sent for me, and I found her in a very hopeful state of mind. Day after day I called and conversed and prayed with her, and her views of her need of Christ were most clear and comforting, and she wished her testimony to His love to be known among all her young companions. Her friends from the school gathered at her request to see her, and she urged them to come to Christ, and several who have since united with the Church traced their first awakening to her words on her death-bed.

One day Sarah said to me, "How thankful I am for this sickness! It has been the voice of God to my soul! I have given myself to Jesus forever! I have been a great sinner, and I have been thinking about my sins, and my need of a Saviour, and I am resolved to live for Him hereafter." On her father's coming into the room, she said in English, "Papa, I am so happy that the Lord sent this sickness upon me. You cannot tell how I thank him for it."

After a season spent in prayer, I urged her, on leaving, to cast herself entirely on the Saviour of sinners, before another hour should pass. The next day as I entered the room, she said, "I am at peace now. I did cast myself on Jesus and He received me. I know His blood has washed my sins away." She had expressed some fear that she might not be able to live a consistent Christian life should she recover, "but," said she, "I could trust in Christ to sustain me." After a few words of counsel and prayer, and reading a portion of Scripture, she exclaimed, "It is all one now, whether I die or live. I am ready to go or stay. The Lord knows best."

At the last interview between her and her father, she expressed her determination to make the Bible henceforth her study and guide, and requested him to read the 14th chapter of John, which seemed to give her great comfort. Soon after that she ceased to recognize her friends, and on Monday night, January 5, she gently fell asleep. I was summoned to the house at 2 a. m. by a young man who said, "She is much worse, hasten." On reaching the house I met Rufka, teacher of the Seminary, who exclaimed, "She is gone, she is gone." Entering the mukod room, I found all the family assembled. There were no shrieks and screams and loud wailings, as is the universal custom in this land. All were seated, and the father, Abû Selim, was reading that chapter which Sarah had asked him to read. I then led the family in prayer, and all were much comforted. She had lived a blameless life, beloved by all who knew her, and had been a faithful and exemplary daughter and sister, but her only trust at the last was in her Saviour. She saw in her past life only sin, and hoped for salvation in the blood of Christ alone. The funeral was attended by a great concourse of people of all sects, and the Protestant chapel was crowded.

CHAPTER XI.

The city of Hums, the ancient Emessa, is situated about one mile east of the river Orontes, and about half way between Aleppo and Damascus. It is in the midst of a vast and fertile plain, extending to Palmyra on the east, and to the Orontes on the west. With the exception of a few mud-built villages along the east and near the city, there is no settled population between Hums and Palmyra. The wild roving Bedawin sweep the vast plains in every direction, and only a few years ago, the great gates of Hums were frequently closed at midday to prevent the incursion of these rough robbers of the desert. On the west of the city are beautiful gardens and orchards of cherry, walnut, apricot, plum, apple, peach, olive, pomegranate, fig and pear trees, and rich vineyards cover the fields on the south. It is a clean and compact town of about 25,000 inhabitants, of whom 7000 are Greek Christians, 3000 Jacobites, and the rest Mohammedans. The houses are built of sun-dried bricks and black basaltic rock, and the streets are beautifully paved with small square blocks of the same rock, giving it a neat and clean appearance. There are few windows on the street; the houses are one story high, with diminutive doors, not more than four feet high; and the low dull walls stretching along the streets, give the city a dismal and monotonous appearance. The reason of building the doors so low, is to prevent the quartering of Turkish government horsemen on their families, as well as to prevent the Bedawin Arabs from plundering them. On the southwest corner of the city stands an ancient castle in ruins, built on an artificial mound of earth of colossal size, which was once faced with square blocks of black trap rock, but this facing has been all stripped off to build the modern city.

The people are simple and country-like in dress and manners, and the most of them have a cow-yard within the courts of their houses, thus combining the pastoral with the citizen life. The majority of the Greeks are silk-weavers and shoemakers, weaving girdles, scarfs and robes for different parts of Syria and Egypt, and supplying the Bedawin and the Nusairy villagers with coarse red-leather boots and shoes.

Hums early became the seat of a Christian Church, and in the reign of Diocletian, its bishop, Silvanus, suffered martyrdom. In 636 a. d., it was captured by the Saracens, (or "Sherakîyeen," "Easterns," as the Arab Moslems were called,) and although occupied for a time by the Crusaders, it has continued a Moslem city, under Mohammedan rule. The Greek population have been oppressed and ground to the very dust by their Moslem neighbors and rulers, and their women have been driven for protection into a seclusion and degradation similar to that of the Moslem hareems.

The Rev. D. M. Wilson, a missionary of the A. B. C. F. M., took up his residence in Hums in October 1855, and remained until obliged to leave by the civil war which raged in the country in 1860. Mr. and Mrs. Aiken went to Hums in April, 1856, but Mrs. Aiken died June 20, after having given promise of rare usefulness among the women of Syria.

After Mr. Wilson left Hums, a faithful native helper, Sulleba Jerwan, was sent to preach in Hums. His wife, Luciya Shekkoor, had been trained in the family of Rev. W. Bird in Deir el Komr, and was a devoted and excellent laborer on behalf of the women of Hums. In October, 1862, one of the more enlightened men among the Greeks was taken ill, and sent for Pastor Sulleba to come and make him a religious visit. He went, and found quite a company of relatives and friends present. The sick man asked him to read from the Word of God, and among the passages selected, was that containing the Ten Commandments. While he was reading the Second Commandment, the wife of the sick man exclaimed, "Is that the Word of God? If it is, read it again." He did so, when she arose and tore down a wooden painted picture of a saint, which had been hung at the head of the bed, declaring that henceforth there should be no idol worship in that house. Then taking a knife, she scraped the paint from the picture, and took it to the kitchen to serve as the cover to a saucepan! This was done with the approbation of all present. The case was the more remarkable, as it was one of the first cases in Syria in which a woman has taken such a decided stand against picture-worship and saint-worship, in advance of the rest of the family.

In the year 1863, before the ordination of Pastor Sulleba, there being no Protestant properly qualified to perform the marriage ceremony in Hums, I went to that city to marry two of the Protestant young men. It was the first time a Protestant marriage had ever taken place in Hums, and great interest was felt in the ceremony. It is the custom among the other sects to pronounce the bride and groom husband and wife, neither giving an opportunity to spectators to object, nor asking the girl if she is willing to marry the man. The girl is oftentimes not consulted, but simply told she is to marry such a man. If it pleases her, well and good. If not, there is no remedy. The Greek Church gives no liberty in this respect, although the priest takes it for granted that the friends have satisfied both bride and groom with regard to the desirableness of the match. If they are not satisfied, the form of the ceremony gives neither of them the right of refusal.

The two young men, Ibrahim and Yunis, called upon me soon after my arrival, to make arrangements for the marriage. I read them the form of the marriage ceremony and they expressed their approval, but said it would be necessary to give the brides very careful instructions as to how and when to answer, lest they say yes when they should say no, and no when they wished to say yes! I asked them to accompany me to the houses of the girls, that I might give them the necessary directions. They at once protested that this would not be allowed. They had never called at the brides' houses when the girls were present, and it would be a grievous breach of decorum for them to go even with me. So certain of the male relatives of the girls were sent for to accompany me, and I went to their houses. On entering the house of the first one, it was only after long and elaborate argument and diplomatic management, that we could induce the bride to come in from the other room and meet me. At length she came, with her face partially veiled, and attended by several married women, her relatives.

They soon began to ply me with questions. "Do you have the communion before the ceremony?" "No." "Do you use the "Ikleel" or crown, in the service?" "No, we sometimes use the ring." Said one, "I hear that you ask the girl if she is willing to take this man to be her husband." "Certainly we do." "Well, if that rule had been followed in my day, I know of one woman who would have said no; but they do not give us Greek women the chance."

I then explained to them that the bride must stand beside the bridegroom, and when I asked her if she knew of any lawful reason why she should not marry this man, Ibrahîm, she should say No,—and when I asked her if she took him to be her lawful and wedded husband, she must answer Yes. Some of the women were under great apprehension that she might answer No in the wrong place; so I repeated it over and over again until the girl was sure she should not make a mistake. The woman above alluded to now said, "I would have said No in the right place, if I had been allowed to do it!" I then went to the house of the other bride and gave her similar instructions. The surprise of the women who came in from the neighborhood, that the girl should have the right to say yes or no, was most amusing and suggestive. That one thing seemed to give them new ideas of the dignity and honor of woman under the Gospel. Marriage in the East is so generally a matter of bargain and sale, or of parental convenience and profit, or of absolute compulsion, that young women have little idea of exercising their own taste or judgment in the choice of a husband.

This was new doctrine for the city of Heliogabalus, and, as was to be expected, the news soon spread through the town that the next evening a marriage ceremony was to be performed by the Protestant minister, in which the bride was to have the privilege of refusing the man if she wished. And, what was even more outrageous to Hums ideas of propriety, it was rumored that the brides were to walk home from the Church in company with their husbands! This was too much, and certain of the young Humsites, who feared the effect of conferring such unheard-of rights and privileges on women, leagued together to mob the brides and grooms if such a course were attempted. We heard of the threat and made ample preparations to protect Protestant women's rights.

The evening came, and with it such a crowd of men, women and children, as had never assembled in that house before. The houses of Hums are built around a square area into which all the rooms open, and the open space or court of the mission-house was very large. Before the brides arrived, the entire court, the church and the schoolroom, were packed with a noisy and almost riotous throng. Men, women and children were laughing and talking, shouting and screaming to one another, and discussing the extraordinary innovation on Hums customs about to be enacted. Soon the brides arrived, accompanied by a veiled and sheeted crowd of women, all carrying candles and singing as they entered the house. We took them into the study of the native preacher Sulleba, and after a reasonable delay, we forced a way for them through the crowd into the large square room, then used as a church. My brother and myself finally succeeded in placing them in a proper position in front of the pulpit, and then we waited until Asaad and Michaiel and Yusef and Nasif had enforced a tolerable stillness. It should be said that silence and good order are almost unknown in the Oriental churches. Men are walking about and talking, and even laughing, while the priests are "performing" the service, and they are much impressed by the quiet and decorum of Protestant worship.

The two brides were closely veiled so that I could not distinguish the one from the other. Ibrahim was slender and tall, at least six feet three, and Yunis was short and corpulent. So likewise, one of the brides was very tall, and the other even shorter than Yunis. As we could not see the brides' faces, we arranged them according to symmetry and apparent propriety, placing the tall bride by the tall groom, and the two short ones together. After the introductory prayer, I proceeded to deliver a somewhat full and practical address on the nature of marriage, and the duties and relations of husband and wife, as is our custom in Syria, not only for the instruction of the newly married pair, but for the good of the community. No Methodist exhorter ever evoked more hearty responses, than did this address, from the Hums populace. "That is true." "That is news in this city." "Praise to God." Mashallah! A woman exclaimed on hearing of the duties of husband to wife, "Praise to God, women are something after all!" I then turned to the two pairs, and commenced asking Ibrahim the usual question, "Do you" (etc., etc.,) when a woman screamed out, "Stop, stop, Khowadji, you have got the wrong bride by that man. He is to marry the short girl!" Then followed an explosion of laughter, and during the confusion we adjusted the matter satisfactorily. A Moslem Effendi who was present remarked after listening to the service throughout, "that is the most sensible way of getting married that I ever heard of."

After the ceremony, we sent the newly married pairs to the study to await the dispersion of the multitude, before going into the street. But human curiosity was too great. None would leave until they saw the extraordinary sight of a bride and groom walking home together. So we prepared our lanterns and huge canes, and taking several of the native brethren, my brother and myself walked home first with Ibrahim and wife, and then with Yunis and his wife. We walked on either side of them, and the riotous rabble, seeing that they could not reach the bride and groom, without first demolishing two tall Khowadjis with heavy canes, contented themselves with coarse jokes and contemptuous laughter.

This was nine years ago, and on a recent visit to Hums, the two brides and their husbands met me at the door of the church on Sunday, to show me their children. Since that time numerous Protestant weddings have taken place in Hums, and a new order of things is beginning to dawn upon that people.

The present native pastor, the Rev. Yusef Bedr, was installed in June, 1872. His wife Leila, is a graduate of the Beirût Female Seminary, and has been for several years a teacher. Her father died in January, 1871, in the hospital of the Beirût College, and her widowed mother, Im Mishrik, has gone to labor in Hums as a Bible Woman. When her father was dying, I went to see him. Noticing his emaciated appearance, I said, "Are you very ill, Abû Mishrik?" "No my friend, I am not ill. My body is ill; and wasting away but I am well. I am happy. I cannot describe my joy. I have no desire to return to health again. If you would fill my hands with bags of gold, and send me back to Abeih in perfect health, to meet my family again, I would not accept the offer, in the place of what I know is before me. I am going to see Christ! I see Him now. I know He has borne my sins, and I have nothing now to fear. It would comfort me to see some of my friends again, and especially Mr. Calhoun, whom I love; but what are my friends compared with Christ, whom I am going so soon to see?" After prayer, I bade him good bye, and a few hours after, he passed peacefully away.

The teacher of the Girls' School in Hums, is Belinda, also a former pupil of the Beirût Seminary. Her brother-in-law, Ishoc, is the faithful colporteur, who has labored so earnestly for many years in the work of the Gospel in Syria. His grandfather was a highway robber, who was arrested by the Pasha, after having committed more than twenty murders. When led out to the gallows, the Pasha offered him office as district governor, if he would turn Moslem. The old murderer refused, saying that he had not much religion, but he would not give up the Greek Church! So he was hung, and the Greeks regarded him as a martyr to the faith! Ishoc's father was as bad as the grandfather, and trained Ishoc to the society of dancing girls and strolling minstrels. When Ishoc became a Protestant, the father took down his sword to cut off his head, but his mother interceded and saved his life. Afterwards his father one day asked him if it was possible that a murderer, son of a murderer, could be saved. He read the gospel to him, prayed with him, and at length the wicked father was melted to contrition and tears. He died a true Christian, and the widowed mother is now living with Ishoc in Beirût. Belinda has a good school, and the wealthiest families of the Greeks have placed their daughters under her care.