Annual Report, Miss Whittlesey was in good health, was rapidly acquiring
the Arabic, and was zealously pressing on in her chosen work, with
well-trained intellect, steady purpose and lively hope. But God soon
called her away, and she departed in "hope of eternal life which God
that cannot lie promised before the world began." The Female Boarding
School has suffered much from the loss of its Principal, but the same
course of study has been pursued as before, though necessarily with less
efficiency. One of the assistant pupils, (Lulu,) who has been relied
upon for much of the teaching, and superintendence of the scholars, was
married last autumn to the senior tutor of the Abeih Seminary. The
number of pupils now in the school is fifteen. The communication of
Biblical and religious knowledge has been a main object of this school.
All the pupils, as a daily lesson, study the Assembly's Shorter
Catechism, first in Arabic with proof-texts, and afterwards in English
with Baker's Explanatory Questions and Scripture proofs, and they are
taught a brief Historical Catechism of the Old and New Testaments. The
first of proper school hours every day is occupied with the Scriptures
by all the school. The Epistles to the Hebrews and the Romans formed
the subject of these lessons until the autumn, when Mr. Calhoun's
revised edition of the "Companion to the Bible" was adopted as a
text-book, and the Old Testament has been studied in connection with
that work. The pupils all attend the service at the Mission Chapel, and
have lessons appropriate to the Sabbath in the intervals of worship.
"The evening family worship is in Arabic, and is a familiar Bible Class.
All the pupils are present, and not unfrequently some of their relatives
and other strangers. In addition to this religious instruction, the
several classes have studied the Arabic and English languages, some of
them writing in both, geography and history, arithmetic mental and
higher, astronomy, and some of the simple works on natural philosophy
and physiology. Compositions have been required in Arabic and English.
The lessons in drawing, commenced by Miss Whittlesey, have been
continued under the instruction of Mrs. Smith, and plain and fancy
needle-work have been taught as heretofore.
"To those who have watched the growth of intellect, and in some
instances, we hope, the growth of grace in these few pupils, and in the
other female boarding scholars in some of the mission families, who have
seen the pleasing contrast afforded by Syrian females when adorned after
the Apostolic recommendation by good works and a "meek and quiet
spirit," with those who cover empty heads with pearls and enrobe untidy
persons in costly array,--who have rejoiced to see one and another
family altar set up, where both heads of the family and the hearts of
both unite in acknowledging God,--this branch of our labors need offer
no further arguments to justify its efficient prosecution.
"The library of the Seminary consists of 220 school books, and 148
volumes of miscellaneous books, chiefly for the young. The school has 6
large fine maps, and 5 of Mr. Bidwell's Missionary maps, and 16 of
Mattison's astronomical maps. These maps were the gifts of Mrs. Dr.
Burgess and of Fisher Howe, Esq. The school has a pair of globes, one
Season's machine, one orrery, a pair of gasometers, a spirit-lamp and
retort stand, a centre of gravity apparatus, a capillary attraction
apparatus, a galvanic trough, a circular battery, an electromagnet, a
horse shoe magnet, a revolving magnet, a wire coil and hemispheric
helices, and an electric shocking machine."
The report of the Female Seminary for 1853 is written in the handwriting
of Mrs. De Forest, owing to the increasing infirmity of Dr. De Forest's
health, and this report has a sad interest from its being the last one
ever dictated by Dr. De Forest.
"A small day-school for girls has been taught by one of the pupils in
Mrs. Whiting's family during the winter, and it is contemplated to
continue the school hereafter in the Girl's School house on the Mission
premises, under the instruction of a graduate of the Female Seminary.
The demand for such instruction for girls is steadily increasing.
"The teaching force of the Seminary was increased last spring by the
arrival of Miss Cheney, who entered at once upon the duties of her
position, devoting a portion of her time to the acquisition of Arabic,
and a part to the instruction of some classes in English. Still, on
account of the repeated illnesses of Dr. De Forest, it was not deemed
advisable to receive a new class last autumn. The only girls admitted
during the year were one of Mrs. Whiting's pupils who was transferred to
the Seminary for one year, one of the class who graduated two years
since, and who desired to return for another year, and Sara, the
daughter of Mr. Butrus Bistany. These three were received into existing
classes, while it was not deemed advisable under the circumstances to
make up another class composed of new pupils.
"The course of instruction, Biblical and other, has been much the same
as that hitherto pursued. Miss Cheney commenced "Watts on the Mind,"
with some of the older pupils, in English. All the pupils have had
familiar lessons on Church History in Arabic, and some of them have
begun an abridged work on Moral Philosophy. Much effort has been
bestowed upon the cultivation of a taste for the reading of profitable
books, and a number of the girls have read the whole of "D'Aubigné's
History of the Reformation," and other history with Mrs. De Forest in
the evening class, the atlas being always open before them. Mrs. Smith
has given some instruction in the rudiments of drawing to a part of the
pupils, and Mrs. Bird and Mrs. Calhoun have given lessons in vocal
music, for which some of the pupils have considerable taste.
"After completing the 'Companion to the Bible' in Arabic, the whole
school were engaged daily in a Harmony of the Gospels, and other
Biblical and religious instruction has been continued as heretofore. We
have ever kept in mind the necessity of not denationalizing these Arab
children, and we believe that this desired result has been attained. The
long vacation of six weeks in the spring, and the same in the autumn,
the commencement of all instruction in Arabic, and the preponderance of
Arabic study in the school, have contributed to this result. The older
pupils have attained to a considerable knowledge of English, giving them
access to books suitable for girls to read, and yet Arabic is the
language of the school, and the pupils are Syrians still in dress and
manners. The advantages of the school are more and more appreciated in
the city, and the adjacent mountains. Many were exceedingly earnest in
offering their daughters last autumn, both Protestant and other, and
some when repulsed at the Seminary, besought the mission families to
receive their children."
During the next year, the school was placed in the family of Mr. and
Mrs. Wilson, under the charge of Miss Cheney. A class of eight
graduated, and the pupils contributed to benevolent objects of the
fruits of their industry, over 1200 piastres, or about fifty dollars.
In a report on Education, prepared by the Syria Mission in 1855, it was
stated, that "without entering into details in regard to the course of
study pursued, we are happy to say that the results of Dr. De Forest's
Seminary were very gratifying, and proved, if proof were needed, that
there is the same capacity in the native female mind of the country that
there is in the male, and that under proper instruction, and by the
blessing of God, there will be brought forward a class of intelligent,
pious and efficient female helpers in the great work of evangelizing
this community."
The hope implied in the above sentence with regard to the raising up of
"a class of intelligent, pious and efficient female helpers," has been
abundantly realized. The list of Dr. De Forest's pupils is to a great
extent the list of the leading female teachers and helpers in all the
various departments of evangelic work in Syria.
Not having access to the records of the Seminary as they have been lost,
I have obtained from several of the former pupils a list of the members
of the various classes from 1848 to 1852. The whole number of pupils
during that period was twenty-three. Of these two died in faith, giving
good evidence of piety. Of the twenty-one who survive, twelve are
members of the Evangelical Church, and nine are now or were recently
engaged in _teaching_, although nearly twenty years have elapsed since
they graduated. Twenty-one are at the head of families, esteemed and
honored in the communities where they reside. The names of the whole
class are as follows:
Ferha Jimmal, now Kowwar of Nazareth.
Sara Haddad, now Myers of Beirût.
Sada Sabunjy, now Barakat of Beirût.
Sada Haleby, of Beirût.
Miriam Tabet, now Tabet of Beirût.
Khushfeh Mejdelany, now Musully of Beirût.
Khurma Mejdelany, now Ashy of Hasbeiya.
Mirta Tabet, now Suleeby of B'hamdûn.
Feifun Malûf, of Aramoon.
Katrin Roza, of Kefr Shima.
Mirta Suleeby, now Trabulsy of Beirût.
Sara Suleeby, of Beirût.
Esteer Nasif, now Aieed of Suk el Ghurb.
Hada Suleeby, now Shidoody of Beirût.
Helloon Zazûah, now Zuraiuk of Beirût.
Khushfeh Towîleh, now Mutr of Beirût.
Fetneh Suleeby, now Shibly of Suk el Ghurb.
Akabir Barakat, now Ghubrîn of Beirût.
Hamdeh Barakat, now Bû Rehan of Hasbeiya.
Eliza Hashem, now Khûri of Beirût.
Rufka Haddad, (deceased).
Sara Bistany, (deceased).
Durra Schemail, of Kefr Shima.
Two of the most successful of those engaged in teaching, are now
connected with the British Syrian Schools. They are Sada Barakat and
Sada el Haleby. The former has written me a letter in English in regard
to her own history and religious experience, which I take the liberty
to transcribe here verbatim in her own language. She was one of the
_least_ religious of all the pupils in the school, when she was first
received but the work of conviction and conversion was a thorough one,
and she has been enabled by the grace of God to offer constant and most
efficient testimony to the reality of Christian experience, in the
responsible position she has been called upon to fill in the late Mrs.
Thompson's institution.
Suk el Ghurb, Mt. Lebanon,
_September 3, 1872_.
Dear Sir--I am thankful to say, in reply to your inquiry,
that I was not persecuted when I became a Protestant, like my other
native sisters were when they became Protestants, because I was
very young. I was about four years old when my father died, and a
year after, my mother married a Protestant man. I came to live with
my mother in her new home, with my two brothers. It was very hard
to lose a dear loving father who loved his children so much as my
mother tells me he did. But the Lord does everything right, because
if the Lord had not taken my father away from us I should not have
known the true religion. I lived in my step-father's house till I
was twelve years old. I was then placed in Dr. De Forest's school,
in the year 1848. I stayed there four years. I was not clever at my
studies, and especially the English language was very difficult for
me. Even until now I remember a lesson in English which was so hard
for me that I was punished twice for it, and I could not learn it.
Now it will make me laugh to think of these few words, which I
could not translate into Arabic: "The hen is in the yard." My mind
was more at play than at learning. I was very clever at housework,
and at dressing dolls, and was always the leader in all games. From
that you can see that I was not a very good girl at school. After
the two first years I began to think how nice it would be to become
a real Christian like my dear teacher Dr. De Forest. Then I used to
pray, and read, especially the "Pilgrim's Progress," and my mind
was so busy at it that I used sometimes to leave my lesson and go
and sit alone in my room. Nobody knew what was the matter with me,
but Dr. De Forest used to ask me why I did not go to school? I
told him that I was very troubled, and he told me to pray to God
very earnestly to give me a new heart. I did pray, but I did not
have an answer then. Three or four times during my school time I
began to wish to become a Christian. I prayed and was very
troubled. I wept and would not play, and as I got no immediate
answer, I left off reading and sometimes praying entirely.
Everybody noticed that I did not much care to read, and especially
a religious book. I felt that my heart had grown harder than before
I had wished to become a Christian. The greatest trial was that I
had no faith, and for that reason I used not to believe in prayer,
but still I longed to become a real Christian. I left school in the
year 1852, and went to live at home with my mother. I was taken
ill, and when I was ill I was very much afraid of death, for I felt
that God was very angry with me.
Till about two years after I left school, I had no religion at all.
One evening a young man from Abeih came to our house. His name is
Giurgius el Haddad, who is now Mr. Calhoun's cook. After a little
while he began to talk about religion, and to read the book,
"Little Henry and his Bearer." I felt very much ashamed that others
who did not have the opportunity to learn about religion had
religion, and I, who had learned so much, had none. That was the
blessed evening on which I began to inquire earnestly about my
salvation. I was three months praying and found no answer to my
prayers. Christian friends tried to lead me to Christ, but I could
not take hold of Him, till He Himself appeared to my soul in all
His beauty and excellency. Before I found peace Dr. Eli Smith and
Mr. Whiting wanted me to teach a day school for them. That was
about three years after I left off learning. "Oh," thought I, "how
can I teach others about Christ when I do not know Him myself?"
However I began the school by opening and closing it with prayer,
without any faith at all. So I began by reading from the first of
Matthew, till I came to the 16th chapter. When I came to that
chapter I read as usual, with blinded eyes; but when I came to the
(13th) thirteen verse, and from there to the seventeenth, where it
says, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven," I
felt that this had been said to me, and were these words sounded
from heaven I would not have felt happier. How true it is that no
flesh could reveal unto me what God had revealed, because many
Christian friends tried to make me believe, but I could not, I
felt as if everything had become new and beautiful, because my
Heavenly Father had made them all. I was sometimes with faith and
sometimes doubting, and by these changes my faith was strengthened.
After a short time, I asked Mr. Whiting to let me join the Church.
He asked me if I saw any change in myself, and I said, "One thing I
know, that I used to dislike Christian people, and now they are my
best friends." After a short time I was permitted to join the
Church. Then I left off teaching the day school, and was asked to
teach in a Boarding school with Miss Cheney, in the same Seminary
where I was brought up. We taught in that school only six months.
Miss Cheney married, and I was engaged to be married. While I was
engaged, I went to Mr. Bird's school for girls in Deir el Kamr, and
taught there for more than a year. I was married by Mr. Bird in his
own house to M. Yusef Barakat, and then we went to Hasbeiya. I
stayed there seven months and then went to Beirût, and thence to
Damascus with my husband, because he had to teach there. I had
nothing to do there but to look after my house, my little boy, and
my husband.
After some time, the massacre broke out in Damascus, (July 9,
1860,) so we came back as refugees to Beirût. Soon after my husband
was taken ill and then died. In that same year 1860, dear Mrs.
Bowen Thompson came to Beirût. She felt for the widows and orphans,
being herself a widow. She asked me if I would come and teach a
school for the widows and orphans, which I accepted thankfully. We
opened the school with five children and seven women, and the work,
by God's help has prospered, so that now, instead of one school,
there are twenty-two schools. Until now I continue teaching in the
Institution, and had I known that nearly all my life would be spent
in teaching, I should have tried to gain more when I was a child. I
can forget father and mother, but can never forget those who taught
me, especially about religion. Although some of them are dead, yet
still they live by their Christian example, which they have left
behind. My whole life will be full of gratitude to those dear
Christian friends, and I pray that God himself may reward them a
hundred fold.
Yours respectfully,
Sada Barakat.
In the year 1851 the Missionary Sewing Society of the Beirût Female
Seminary heard of the interesting state of things in Aintab, and that
the women there were anxious to learn to read. The missionaries in
Aintab hired an old man to go around from house to house to teach the
women to read in their homes, but the women were so eager to learn that
the old man was unable to meet the demand. So children were employed to
assist. The plan worked admirably, and in 1851, eighty women received
instruction and became able to read God's Word. The Arab girls in Mrs.
De Forest's school were called together, and it was proposed that they
sew and embroider and send the proceeds of their work to pay the little
girl teachers in Aintab. There were present, Ferha, (joy,) Sara, Saada
Sabunjy, Miriam, Khushfeh, Khurma, Mirta, (Martha) Feifun, Katrina,
Hada, Sada el Haleby, Esteer, Helloon, Fetny, Akabir, Hamdy, and Liza.
The needles were briskly plied, and in due time, two hundred and fifty
piastres were collected and forwarded to Aintab. Mrs. Schneider wrote
back thanking the "dear Arab girls." The habits of benevolence thus
acquired have continued with the most of these girls until now. The
greater part of them are now church-members and the heads of families.
The following letter written by Mrs. De Forest in Feb. 1852, gives some
account of Lulu Araman.
Beirût, Syria, _February, 1852_.
My Dear young friends in Thetford:
The quilt you sent came safely, and I thank you much for all the
care and trouble you have taken to make and quilt it for me. I at
first thought of keeping it for myself, but then it occurred to me
that perhaps it might please you better and interest you more if I
gave it to Lulu, one of my girls, who is to be married some time
this year to Mr. Michaiel Araman, one of the teachers in the Abeih
Seminary. You will thus have the pleasure of feeling that you have
in one sense done something for the school, as she is an assistant
pupil, or pupil teacher. She has been with me now for about eight
years, and seems almost like my own daughter. Perhaps you will be
interested in knowing something of her.
She was born in a pleasant valley, Wady Shehrûr, near Beirût,
celebrated for its fine oranges, and indeed for almost all kind of
fine fruits. She lost both her parents early in life. Her brothers
(contrary to the usual custom here where girls are not much
regarded or cared for) were very kind to her, and as she was a
delicate child, they took great care of her, and often used to make
vows to some saint in her behalf. At one time, when she was very
ill, they vowed to Mar Giurgis (for they are members of the Greek
Church, and St. George is one of the favorite saints of the Greeks,
and indeed of all the Christian sects here, and they still show the
spot where he is said to have killed the dragon) that if she
recovered, she should carry to one of his shrines two wax candles
as tall as herself and of a prescribed weight. While she was still
feeble they provided the candles, and as she was too weak to walk,
they carried her and the candles also, to the holy place and
presented them.
When she was eight years old, they were persuaded by an
acquaintance to place her in one of the Mission families. Here she
was instructed in her own language, and especially in the Holy
Scriptures. She was allowed, however, to keep her feasts and fasts,
and to attend her own church, until she became convinced that these
things would not save her and she wished to give them up. One feast
day the lady with whom she lived gave her some sewing and told her
to seat herself and do her task. She refused, saying it was a feast
day, and it was unlawful work. A little while after she asked
permission to go and visit her brother's family; but the lady told
her, "No, if it is unlawful to work, it is unlawful to visit. I
have no objection to your keeping your feast days, but if you do
you must keep them as holy time." So she gave her a portion of
Scripture to learn, and she was kept very quiet all day, as though
it was the Sabbath, and without the day being made agreeable to her
like the Sabbath by going to Church and Sabbath School. She did
not at all like keeping a feast in this manner, which is very
different from the manner in which such a day or even the Sabbath,
is kept in this land, and was ever after ready to work when told to
do so. When her brothers saw that she was beginning to give up
their vain ceremonies, they became anxious to get her away, lest
she should become a Protestant; and at one time, when she went home
to attend the wedding of one of her relatives, they refused to
allow her to return, and it was only through the good management of
the native friend who was sent for her, and her own determination
to come, that she was permitted to come back.
We hope that she became truly pious six years ago, in 1846, as her
life evinces that she is striving to live according to the precepts
of the gospel. She has never dared to go home again, although it
has been a great trial for her to stay away, because she knew that
she should be obliged to remain there, and to conform to the
idolatrous rites of the Greek Church. She has assisted us in the
School for nearly five years, besides teaching a day school at
various times, before the Boarding School was commenced, and we
shall feel very sorry to part with her. Still we hope that she will
yet be useful to her countrywomen, and furnish them an example of a
happy Christian home, of which there are so few at present in this
country.
Our school has now nineteen pupils, most of whom are promising.
Some we hope are true Christians. The girls opened their box the
other day, and found that they had a little more than last year
from their earnings. Some friends added a little, and they have now
forty dollars. One half they send to China, and the other half give
to the Church here.
The hope expressed by Mrs. De Forest in 1852, with regard to the future
usefulness of Lulu, has not been disappointed. Her family is a model
Christian family, the home of piety and affection, the centre of a pure
and hallowed influence. Her eldest daughter Katie, named from Mrs. De
Forest, is now a teacher in the Beirût Female Seminary in which her
father has been the principal instructor in the Bible and in the higher
Arabic branches for ten years. For years this institution was carried
on in Lulu's house, and she was the Matron while Rufka was the
Preceptress, and its very existence is owing to the patient and faithful
labors of those two Christian Syrian women. If any one who reads these
lines should doubt the utility of labors for the girls and women of the
Arab race, let him visit first the squalid, disorderly, cheerless and
Christless homes of the mass of the Arab villagers of Syria, and then
enter the cheerful, tidy, well ordered home of Mr. and Mrs. Araman, when
the family are at morning prayers, listen to the voice of prayer and
praise and the reading of God's word. Instead of the father sitting
gloomily alone at his morning meal, and the mother and children waiting
till their lord is through and then eating by themselves in the usual
Arab way, he would see the whole family seated together in a Christian,
homelike manner, the Divine blessing asked, and the meal conducted with
propriety and decorum. After breakfast the father and Katie go to the
Seminary to give their morning lessons, Henry (named for Dr. De Forest)
sets out for the College, in which he is a Sophomore, and the younger
children go to their various schools. Lulu's place at church is rarely
vacant, and since that "relic of barbarism" the _curtain_ which
separated the men from the women has been removed from the building, the
whole family, father, mother, and children sit together and join in the
worship of God. Her brother and relatives from "Wady" are on the most
affectionate terms with her, and her elder sister is in the domestic
department of the Beirût Female Seminary.
This change is very largely due to the efforts of Mrs. De Forest, whose
name with that of her sainted husband is embalmed in the memory of the
Christian families of Syria, and will be held in everlasting
remembrance. The _second generation_ of Christian teachers is now
growing up in Syria. Three of Mrs. De Forest's pupils have daughters now
engaged in teaching. Khushfeh, Lulu, and Sada el Haleby; and Miriam
Tabet has a daughter married to Mr. S. Hallock, of the American Press in
Beirût.
FRUITS OF DR. DE FOREST'S GIRL'S SCHOOL.
In the autumn of 1852, there was a school of thirty girls in B'hamdûn, a
village high up in Mt. Lebanon. Fifteen months before the teacher was
the only female in the village who could read, and she had been taught
by the native girls in Dr. De Forest's school. Quite a number of the
girls of the village had there learned to read, and they all came to the
school clean and neatly dressed. They committed to memory verses of
Scripture, and it was surprising to see how correctly they recited them
at the Sabbath School. At meeting they were quiet and attentive like the
best behaved children in Christian lands. It would be difficult to sum
up the results of that little school for girls twenty years ago in
B'hamdûn. That village is full of gospel light. A Protestant church
edifice is in process of erection, a native pastor, Rev. Sulleba
Jerawan, preaches to the people, and the mass of the people have at
least an intellectual acquaintance with the truth.
The picturesque village of B'hamdûn, where Dr. De Forest's school is
established, is on the side of a lofty mountain. It is nearly 4000 feet
above the level of the Mediterranean Sea. The village is compact as a
little city, the streets narrow, rocky and crooked, the houses
flat-roofed, and the floors of mud. One of the Protestants, the father
of Miriam Tabet, has built a fine large house with glass windows and
paved floors, which is one of the best houses in that part of Lebanon.
The village is surrounded by vineyards, and the grapes are regarded as
the finest in Mt. Lebanon. The people say that they never have to dig
for the foundation of a house, but only to sweep off the dust with a
broom. There is not a shade tree in the village. One day Dr. De Forest
asked, "Why don't you plant a tree?" "We shall not live till it has
grown," was the reply. "But your children will," said the Doctor. "Let
them plant it then," was the satisfactory answer.
My first visit to B'hamdûn was made in February, 1856, a few days after
my first arrival in Syria. On Sabbath morning I attended the Sabbath
School with Mr. Benton, at that time a missionary of the A.B.C.F.M. One
little girl named Katrina Subra, then nine years of age, repeated the
Arabic Hymn "Kûmû wa Rettelû," "Awake and sing the song of Moses and the
Lamb." She was a bright-eyed child of fair complexion and of unusual
intelligence. At that time there was no children's hymn book in Arabic,
and I asked Mr. B. to promise the children that when I had learned the
Arabic, I would translate a collection of children's hymns into Arabic,
which promise was fulfilled first in the printing of the "Douzan el
Kethar," "The tuning of the Harp," in 1861. Katrina was the daughter of
Elias Subra, one of the wealthiest men in the village, who had just then
become a Protestant. She had been interested in the truth for some time,
and though at the time only eight years old, was accustomed during the
preceding summer to tell the Arab children that she was a Protestant,
though they answered her with insults and cursing. At first she could
not bear to be abused, and answered them in language more forcible than
proper, but by the time of my visit she had become softened and subdued
in her manner, and was never heard to speak an unkind word to any one.
She undertook, even at that age, to teach the Greek servant girl in the
family how to read. One day the old Greek Priest met her in the street
and asked her why she did not go to confession as the other Greek
children do. She replied that she could go to Christ and confess. The
priest then said that her father and the rest of the Protestants go to
the missionary and write out their sins on papers which he puts into rat
holes in the wall! Katrina knew this to be a foolish falsehood and told
the priest so. He then asked her how the Protestants confess. She
replied that they confess as the Lord Jesus tells them to, quoting to
him the language of Scripture, (Matt. 6:6.) "But thou when thou
prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray
to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly." The priest was confounded by the ready
truthful answer of the child, and turned away.
Three years later Katrina was a member of the Mission Female Seminary in
Suk el Ghurb, a village three hours distant from Beirût, under the
instruction of Miss Temple and Miss Johnson, and continued there until
the Seminary was broken up by the massacres of May and June, 1860. I
remember well the day when that procession of girls and teachers rode
and walked down from Suk el Ghurb to Beirût. All Southern Lebanon was in
a blaze. Twenty-five villages were burning. Druze and Maronite were in
deadly strife. Baabda and Hadeth which we passed on our way to Beirût,
were a smoking ruin. Armed bodies of Druzes passed and saluted us, but
no one offered to insult one of the girls by word or gesture. Dr. and
Mrs. Bliss gave us lunch at their home in the Suk as we came from Abeih,
and then followed a few days later to Beirût. Miss Temple tried to
re-open the school in Beirût, but the constant tide of refugees coming
in from the mountains, and the daily rumors of an attack by Druzes and
Moslems on Beirût, threw the city into a panic, and it was found
impossible to carry on the work of instruction. The girls were sent to
their parents where this was practicable, and the Seminary as such
ceased for a time to exist. Katrina, was married in 1864 to M. Ghurzûzy,
a Protestant merchant of Beirût, who is now secular agent or Wakil of
the Syrian Protestant College. In 1866, she united with the Evangelical
Church in Beirût. She has had repeated attacks of illness, in which she
has manifested the most entire submission to the Divine will, and a calm
and sweet trust in her Lord and Saviour. Her home is a Christian home,
and her children are being trained in "the nurture and admonition of the
Lord."
CHAPTER VIII.
RE-OPENING OF THE SCHOOL IN BEIRUT.
In 1856 Miss Cheney re-opened the Female Seminary with eight pupils, in
Beirût, and in the 34 schools of the Mission there were 1068 pupils, of
whom 266 were girls.
In 1857, there were 277 girls in the various schools.
In 1858, Miss Temple and Miss Johnson arrived from America, and the
Female Seminary was opened in Suk el Ghurb in the family of Rev. Dr.
Bliss. Miss Johnson and Miss Cheney having returned to the United
States, Miss Mason came to aid Miss Temple in February, 1860. The girl's
school in Beirût under the care of Rufka Gregory, had about 60 pupils.
The civil war in Lebanon, followed by the massacres in Jezzin, Deir el
Komr, Hasbeiya, Rasheiya and Damascus, beginning in May, and continuing
until the middle of July, broke up all our schools and seminaries, and
filled the land with sorrow and desolation.
Miss Temple and Miss Mason remained for a season in Beirût, studying the
Arabic language, and in 1862 Miss Temple having returned to the U.S.A.,
Miss Mason opened a Boarding School for girls in Sidon.
It was decided that none but Protestant girls should be received into
this school, that no English should be taught, and that the style of
eating, sleeping and dress should be conformed as much as possible to
the standard of native customs in the country villages, in order that
the girls might the more readily return to their homes as teachers,
without acquiring European tastes and habits. Miss Mason carried on this
school until 1865, when she returned to the U.S.A., and it was decided
if possible to carry it on with native instructors under the supervision
of Mrs. Eddy.
In the winter of 1867 it was under the kind charge of Mrs. Watson of
Shemlan and her adopted daughter, Miss Handumeh Watson, and is now
conducted by two English young ladies, Miss Jacombs and Miss Stanton,
who are supported by the London "Society for the Promotion of Female
Education in the East." On the removal of the girls' Boarding School to
Sidon, it was evident that the Female Seminary must be re-opened in
Beirût. Owing to the depressed state of Missionary finances in America,
arising from the civil war, it was deemed advisable to reorganize the
Beirût Seminary on a new basis, with only native teachers. The
Providence of God had prepared teachers admirably fitted for this work,
who undertook it with cheerful hope and patient industry. It was decided
to make a paying Boarding School of a higher order than any existing
institution in Syria, and to resume instruction in the English language,
giving lessons also in French and Music to those who were willing to
pay for these branches.
Mr. Michaiel Araman, for many years a teacher in the Abeih Seminary with
Mr. Calhoun, and for some time a native preacher in Beirût, was
appointed instructor in the Biblical History and the Higher Arabic
branches; his wife Lulu, the Matron, and Miss Rufka Gregory, the
Preceptress. Rufka was an orphan, as already stated, and was trained
with her sister Sada in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Whiting for many
years. As a teacher and a disciplinarian she had not an equal among the
women of Syria, and under the joint management of this corps of
teachers, aided by competent assistants in the various branches, the
Seminary rose in public esteem, until it became one of the most
attractive and prosperous institutions in Syria.
In March, 1862, Rufka's day school of seventy girls held a public
examination in the Chapel. The girls were examined in Arabic reading,
geography, grammar, catechism, arithmetic, Scripture lessons and
English, with an exhibition of specimens of their needle work. In the
fall it was commenced as a Boarding School, with two paying pupils and
four charity pupils. The funds for commencing the boarding department
were furnished by Mr. Alexander Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Henry Farnum, Col.
Frazer, H.B.M. Commissioner to Syria, and others. The Seminary not being
under the direction of the Mission as such, nor in connection with the
American Board, was placed under the care of a local Board of Managers,
consisting of Dr. Thomson, Dr. Van Dyck, Consul J.A. Johnson, and Rev.
H.H. Jessup. Dr. Thomson was indefatigable in his efforts to place it on
a firm and permanent foundation, as a purely Native Protestant
institution, and the fact that such a school could be carried on for a
year without a single foreign instructor, was one of the most
encouraging features in the history of the Syria Mission. It was the
first purely native Female Seminary in Western Asia, and we hope it will
not be the last.
It will continue to be the aim of the Mission, and of the present able
faculty of the institution, to train up Native teachers qualified to
carry on the work in the future.
At the same time in the fall of 1862, a school for Damascene girls was
opened in an upper room of my house, under the care of one of Dr. De
Forest's pupils, Sada el Haleby, who carried it on successfully with
seventy girls until August, 1864, when, on my departure for the U.S.A.
the school was taken up by the late Mrs. Bowen Thompson, whose Society
has maintained it until this day.
In 1863, the number of paying boarders in the Seminary had increased to
twenty, and in 1866 the pupils numbered eighty, and the income from
native paying pupils was about fifteen hundred dollars in gold!
The Annual Examination was held in the latter part of June, in the
Mission Chapel, and continued three days, thronged by a multitude of
interested spectators. The Turkish official Arabic Journal of Beirût,
the "Hadikat el Akhbar," published a lengthy report of the Examination,
pronouncing it the most satisfactory examination of girls that ever took
place in Syria. An English clergyman who was present refused to believe
that they were Syrian girls, insisting that they must be English. The
girls recited in Bible History, giving all the important dates from Adam
to Christ, with an account of the rites, sacrifices and prophecies which
refer to Christ, giving also the names of all the patriarchs, judges,
kings and prophets in their order. Twenty-two different classes were
examined, and many of the girls read original compositions.
On the Sabbath, July 1st, two of the assistant teachers, Asîn Haddad and
Sara Sarkis were received to the communion of the Beirût Church. They
traced their religious awakening to the dying testimony of Sara Bistany,
which is described in a subsequent chapter. Several of the younger
pupils were much interested in the subject of religion at the time, and
one little girl about seven years old said to her teacher, "I gave the
Lord my heart, and He took it." Asîn died in Latakiah in 1869,
triumphing in Christ. The women of the neighborhood came to the house of
her brother to hear her joyous expressions of trust in Jesus, and her
assurance that she should soon be with Him in glory. She was the second
daughter of that young bride of fifteen years of age, who learned to
read in 1825, in the school taught by her own husband, Tannus el
Haddad.
In 1867, the health of Rufka having become seriously impaired, she
removed to Egypt, where after a period of rest, she opened on her own
account a school for girls in Cairo, which she maintained with her
wonted energy, until her marriage with the Rev. Mr. Muir, a Scotch
clergyman, whom she accompanied to Melbourne, Australia, in 1869. Since
the death of her husband she has returned to her favorite employment of
teaching, with marked success, among the British population of
Melbourne.
While in Cairo, she passed through a deep and agonizing religious
experience, which she described in the following letter to Mrs. Whiting,
and the result of which was a new life in Christ.
Cairo, Egypt, _July 9, 1868_.
"I think I shall always remember my stay in Cairo with much
pleasure, but the greatest advantage of this year is the
opportunity I had of stopping to think of the interests of a never
dying soul, of a neglected Saviour, an offended God. Yes, I have
reflected, struggled, oh, how hard, and thanks to an ever merciful
God, I trust I have been led by the Holy Spirit to see and feel my
great sin, and casting myself at the feet of Jesus, stayed there
with my sinful heart till a loving Saviour just came and took it
up. Oh, how grieved was His tender heart when He saw how defiled it
was with sin and wickedness, but He said, fear not, my blood will
cleanse it and make it pure; then how He pleaded my case before His
Father, setting forth His boundless love and infinite righteousness
as a reason why He wished to be accepted. Yes, dear Mrs. Whiting, I
hope I can now say, Thy God is my God, and the blessed Saviour you
have loved so long is now very precious to me. The past winter has
been a solemn time with me. Many hard struggles have I had, much
fear that I might have forever grieved God's Holy Spirit, and for
a long time it all seemed so dark, there seemed no hope for me who
had been so long living away from the Saviour, but in great fear
and despair I just rushed and cast myself at His feet, and asked
Him to let me perish there if I must perish; there was nothing else
for me to do, and I felt such happiness in just leaving myself in
His care. How wonderful is His love! But what a life of constant
prayer and watching is that of a Christian! in the first place to
aim at close walking with God, leaving Him to order our steps for
us, and trusting Him so to order our way as to best enable us to
walk closely with Him. It has been a most comforting thought when I
find it difficult to live right and feel my utter weakness, that
Jesus is each day saying to His Father for me, "I pray not she
should be taken out of the world, but that she should be _kept from
the evil_," and to live up to our privileges and to walk worthy of
our high calling.
My precious teacher, I know you will rejoice and thank God with me
for His great goodness to me in bringing me to the feet of Jesus.
Oh, how precious He is to my poor soul! He is Heaven. How He
blesses me every moment! His boundless love to _me_ who am most
unworthy of the least of His mercies. If ever any one had reason to
boast of the loving kindness of the Lord, it surely must be myself.
In His great mercy I have had the privilege of openly confessing my
faith in Him, and publicly professing my determination to be the
Lord's at the last communion in the Church here in May. I put it
off till then hoping to do it in Beirût in the Church dear Mr.
Whiting had preached in for so many years, and among the girls I
had taught, and all the young friends there, but as that was not
allowed me, I joined the Church here."
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,
'Holy Bible, Book Divine,
Precious treasure, thou art mine!'
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.
LUCIYA SHEKKUR.
The work done for Christ and for Syrian girls in the families of
Missionaries in Syria, may well compare with that done in the
established institutions of learning. Mrs. Whiting was not alone in the
work of training native Arab girls in her own home. The same work had
been done by other Missionaries before her, and has been carried on with
no little success by Mrs. Bird, Mrs. Calhoun and others, up to the
present time.
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.
RAHEEL.
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.
HUMS.
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.
CHAPTER XII.
MIRIAM THE ALEPPINE.
The city of Aleppo was occupied as a Station of the Syria Mission for
many years, until finally in 1855 it was left to the Turkish-speaking
missionaries of the Central Turkey Mission. It is one of the most
difficult fields of labor in Turkey, but has not been unfruitful of
genuine instances of saving faith in Christ. Among them is the case of
Miriam Nahass, (or Mary Coppersmith,) now Miriam Sarkees of Beirût.
From a letter published in the Youth's Dayspring at the time, I have
gathered the following facts:
In 1853 and 1854 the Missionaries in Aleppo, Messrs. Ford and Eddy,
opened a small private school for girls, the teacher of which was Miriam
Nahass. When the Missionaries first came to Aleppo, her father professed
to be a Protestant, and on this account suffered not a little
persecution from the Greek Catholic priests. At times he was on the
point of starvation, as the people were forbidden to buy of him or sell
to him. One day he brought his little daughter Miriam to the
missionaries, and asked them to take her and instruct her in all that is
good, which they gladly undertook, and her gentle pleasant ways soon won
their love.
Her mother was a superstitious woman, who hated the missionaries, and
could not bear to have her daughter stay with them. She used for a long
time to come almost daily to their house and bitterly complain against
them and against her husband for robbing her of her daughter. She would
rave at times in the wildest passion, and sometimes she would weep as if
broken-hearted; not because she loved her child so much, but because she
did not like to have her neighbors say to her, "Ah! You have let your
child become a Protestant!"
It may well be supposed that this was very annoying to the missionary
who had her in special charge, and so it was; but he found some profit
in it. He was just then learning to speak the language, and this woman
by her daily talk, taught him a kind of Arabic, and a use of it, not to
be obtained from grammars and dictionaries. He traced much of his ready
command of the language to having been compelled to listen so often to
the wearisome harangues of Miriam's mother. Sometimes the father would
be overcome by the mother's entreaties and would take away the girl, but
after awhile he would bring her back again, to the great joy of those
who feared they had lost her altogether. This state of things continued
two or three years, while Miriam's mind was daily improving and her
character unfolding, and hopes were often entertained that the Spirit of
God was carrying on a work of grace in her soul.
One day her father came to the missionary, and asked him to loan him
several thousand piastres (a thousand piastres is $40,) with which he
might set up business. This was of course refused, when he went away
greatly enraged. He soon returned and took away his daughter, saying
that Protestantism did not pay what it cost. It had cost him the loss of
property and reputation; it had cost him the peace of his household and
the presence of his little girl, and it did not bring in to him in
return even the loan of a few piastres, and he would try it no longer.
Prayer continued to be offered without ceasing for Miriam, thus taken
back to an irreligious home; and though the missionaries heard of her
return and her father's return to the corrupt Greek Catholic Church, and
of the exultation of the mother over the attainment of her wishes, yet
they did not cease to hope that God would one day bring her back and
make her a lamb of His fold.
An Arab young woman, Melita, trained in the family of Mrs. Whiting in
Beirût, was sent to Aleppo about this time to open a girls' school
there. The Greek Catholic priests then thought to establish a similar
school of their own sect to prevent their children from attending that
of the Protestants. They secured Miriam as their teacher. As she went
from her home to the school and back again, she used sometimes to run
into the missionary's house by stealth, and assure him that her heart
was still with him, and her faith unchanged. The school continued a few
weeks, but the priests having failed to pay anything towards its
support, her father would let her teach no more. Perhaps two years
passed thus, with but little being seen of Miriam, but she was not
forgotten at the throne of grace.
The teacher from Beirût having returned to her home, it was proposed to
Miriam's father that she should teach in the Protestant school. Quite
unexpectedly he consented, with the understanding that she was to spend
every evening at home. At first, little was said to her on the subject
of religion; soon she sought religious conversation herself, and brought
questions and different passages of Scripture to be explained. After
about a month, having previously conversed with the missionary about her
duty, when her father came for her at night, she told him that she did
not want to go home with him, but to stay where she was. She ought to
obey God rather than her parents. They had made her act the part of a
hypocrite long enough; to pretend to be a Catholic when she was a
Protestant at heart, and they knew that she was. Her father promised
that everything should be according to her wishes, and then she returned
with him.
Two or three days passed away and nothing was seen or heard of Miriam. A
servant was then sent to her father's house to inquire if she was sick,
and he was rudely thrust away from the door. The missionary felt
constrained to interfere, that Miriam might at least have the
opportunity of declaring openly her preference. According to the laws of
the Turkish government, the father had no right to keep her at her age,
against her will, and it was necessary that she have an opportunity to
choose with whom she wished to live. The matter was represented to the
American Consul, who requested the father to appear before him with his
daughter. When the officer came to his house, he found that the father
had locked the door and gone away with the key. From an upper window,
however, Miriam saw him and told him that she was shut up there a
prisoner, not knowing what might be done with her, and she begged for
assistance. She had prepared a little note for the missionary, telling
of her attachment to Christ's cause, and closing with the last two
verses of the eighth chapter of Romans, "For I am persuaded, that
neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord." The janizary proposed to her to try if she could
not get out upon the roof of the next house, and descend through it to
the street, which she successfully accomplished, and was soon joyfully
on her way to a place of protection in the Consulate.
Miriam, after staying three days at the Consul's house, returned to that
of the missionary. Her parents tried every means to induce her to
return. They promised and threatened and wept, but though greatly moved
at times in her feelings, she remained firm to her purpose. They tried
to induce her to go home for a single night only, but she knew them too
well to trust herself in their hands. Her mother had artfully arranged
to meet her at the house of a friend; but her brother came, a little
before the time, to warn her that a plan was laid to meet her at this
house with a company of priests who were all ready to marry her forcibly
to a man whom she knew nothing about, as is often done in this country.
Miriam thus gave up father and mother, brothers and sisters, for the
sake of Christ and his gospel.
In the year 1855 Mr. Ford removed to Beirût, and Miriam accompanied him.
She made a public profession of her faith in Christ in 1856, and was
married in 1858 to Mr. Ibrahim Sarkees, foreman and principal proof
reader of the American Mission Press. Her father has since removed to
Beirût, and all of the family have become entirely reconciled to her
being a Protestant. Her brother Habibs is a frequent attendant on Divine
service, and regards himself as a Protestant.
Miriam is now deeply interested in Christian work, and the weekly
meetings of the Native Women's Missionary Society are held at her house.
The Protestant women agree either to attend this Sewing Society, or pay
a piastre a week in case of their absence.
I close this chapter with the mention of Werdeh, [Rose,] daughter of the
celebrated Arabic poet Nasif el Yazijy, who aided Dr. Eli Smith in the
translation of the Bible into Arabic. She is now a member of the
Evangelical Church in Beirût. She herself has written several poems of
rare merit; one an elegy upon the death of Dr. Smith; another expressing
grateful thanks to Dr. Van Dyck for attending her sick brother. Only
this can be introduced here, a poem lamenting the death of Sarah
Huntington Bistany, daughter of Raheel, who died in January, 1866.
Sarah's father and her own father, Sheikh Nasif, had been for years on
the most intimate terms, and the daughters were like sisters. The
account of Sarah's death will be found in another part of this volume.
Oh sad separation! Have you left among mortals,
An eye without tears, hot and burning with sorrow?
Have you left on this earth a heart without anguish,
Or a soul unharrowed with grief and emotion?
Thou hast plucked off a flower from our beautiful garden,
Which shall shine like the stars in the gardens celestial.
Wo is me! I have lost a fair branch of the willow
Broken ruthlessly off. And what heart is _not_ broken?
Thou hast gone, but from me thou wilt never be absent.
Thy person will live to my sight and my hearing.
Tears of blood will be shed by fair maids thy companions,
Thy grave will be watered by tears thickly falling.
Thou wert the fair jewel of Syrian maidens,
Far purer and fairer than pearls of the ocean.
Where now is thy knowledge of language and science?
This sad separation has left to us nothing.
Ah, wo to the heart of fond father and mother,
No sleep,--naught but anguish and watching in sorrow
Thou art clad in white robes in the gardens of glory.
We are clad in the black robe of sorrow and mourning
Oh grave, yield thy honors to our pure lovely maiden,
Who now to thy gloomy abode is descending!
Our Sarah departed, with no word of farewell,
Will she ever return with a fond word of greeting?
Oh deep sleep of death, that knows no awaking!
Oh absence that knows no thought of returning!
If she never comes back to us here in our sorrow,
We shall go to her soon. 'Twill be but to-morrow
CHAPTER XIII.
MODERN SYRIAN VIEWS WITH REGARD TO FEMALE EDUCATION.
In the year 1847, a Literary Society was formed in Beirût, through the
influence of Drs. Thomson, Eli Smith, Van Dyck, De Forest and Mr.
Whiting, which continued in operation for about six years, and numbered
among its members the leading men of all the various native communities.
Important papers were read on various scientific and social subjects.
The missionaries had been laboring for years to create an enlightened
public sentiment on the subject of female education, contending against
social prejudices, profound ignorance, ecclesiastical tyranny and
selfish opposition, and at length the fruit of their labors began to
appear. In the following articles may be seen something of the views of
the better class of Syrians. The first was read before the Beirût
Literary Society, Dec. 14, 1849, by Mr. Butrus Bistany, who, as stated
above, married Raheel, and is now the head of a flourishing Academy in
Beirût, and editor of three Arabic journals. I have translated only the
salient points of this long and able paper:--