SYRIA.
1863-1869.
Mrs. Henry H. Jessup died at Alexandria, after a prolonged sickness,
on the 2d of July, 1864, whither her husband had taken her on his
way to the United States. Mr. George C. Hurter, after laboring
twenty-three years as printer and secular agent with great
usefulness, found himself constrained by domestic circumstances to
withdraw from the mission. Mr. Bird was prostrated with a dangerous
sickness for several months at Abeih, but a merciful Providence
spared his valuable life.
A boarding high-school was established at Beirût by Mr. Butrus
Bistany, with nearly a hundred and fifty pupils. The charge for
tuition and board was large for that country, yet the school was
self-supporting. The pupils were made up of Greeks, Maronites,
Greek-Catholics, Druzes, Moslems, and Protestants. A girls'
boarding-school in the same city, under native instruction and
government, promised also to be soon self-sustaining. The common
schools of the mission were twenty-five, with five hundred and
forty-eight pupils. The Seminary at Abeih had thirty-three pupils, a
larger number than ever before. Five were in the theological
department, and several others gave good evidence of piety. The
graduates of this institution were now scattered over a wide region.
The boarding-school for girls at Sidon, under Miss Mason, had ten
pupils, and was making a favorable impression. It became evident,
however, that pupils could not be obtained there sufficient to
warrant so large an outlay, taking also into view the unhealthiness
of that climate, and Miss Mason returned home, though with great
reluctance. The girls' boarding-school at Beirût, under the care of
Mr. Aramon and Miss Rufka Gregory, was prosperous.
The printing, in 1862, amounted to eight thousand volumes and nine
thousand tracts, making an aggregate of 6,869,000 pages, more than
two thirds of which were Scripture. The number of pages from the
beginning, was about 50,000,000. Somewhat more than six thousand
volumes of Scripture were distributed during the year.
The translation of the Scriptures into Arabic was completed on the
22d of August, 1864, and the printing of the whole Arabic Bible in
March of the next year. This event, of the highest importance to a
large portion of the human race, was appropriately celebrated by the
missionaries and their native brethren. In the upper room where Dr.
Smith had labored on the translation eight years, and Dr. Van Dyck
eight years more, the assembled missionaries gave thanks to God for
the completion of this arduous work. "Just then," writes one of
them, "the sound of many voices arose from below, and on throwing
open the door, we heard a large company of native young men,
laborers at the press and members of the Protestant community,
singing to the tune of 'Hebron' a new song, 'even praise to our
God,' composed for the occasion by one of their number in the Arabic
language. Surely not for many centuries have the angels in heaven
heard a sweeter sound arising from Syria, than the voices of this
band of pious young men, singing a hymn composed by one of
themselves, ascribing glory and praise to God, that now, for the
first time, the Word of God is given to their nation and tongue in
its purity." The hymn was composed by Mr. Ibrahim Sarkis and
translated by Dr. H. H. Jessup, as follows:--
"Hail day, thrice blessed of our God!
Rejoice, let all men bear a part,
Complete at length thy printed word,
Lord, print its truth on every heart.
"To Him who gave his precious word,
Arise and with glad praises sing;
Exalt and magnify our Lord,
Our Maker and our Glorious King.
"Doubting and darkness flee away
Before thy truth's light-giving sun,
Thy powerful word, if heeded, may
Give guidance to each erring one.
"Lord, spare thy servant, through whose toil
Thou giv'st us this, of books the best;
Bless all who shared the arduous task,
From Eastern land, or distant West.
"Amen! Amen! lift up the voice;
Praise God whose mercy 's e'er the same;
His goodness all our song employs,
Thanksgivings then to His Great Name."
Ten different editions of parts of the Scriptures were printed as
the version was gradually prepared for publication, and over thirty
thousand copies had been put into circulation, nearly all by sale.
The demand for the volume, in one form or another, after the version
was completed, was greater than the mission presses could meet,
though worked by steam. The American Bible Society wisely undertook
to electrotype several editions of different sizes, and Dr. Van Dyck
came to New York to superintend the work. But after the royal octavo
edition had been stereotyped, it was thought best for him to return
to Syria, with the understanding that the Bible Society would enable
him to electrotype the version in other forms, at Beirût.
The press was now unable to meet the demand which had arisen for the
books, as well as for the Bible. The issues were called for on the
southern and eastern coasts of Arabia, and in India, and a box of
them was sent to the interior of Africa.
The administration of Daoud Pasha, the Christian Governor of Mount
Lebanon, continued to be marked by commendable justice, vigor, and
liberality, and there was a sense of security to which the land had
long been a stranger. Industry and thrift began to appear, and all
the interests of society received an impulse. Much, however,
depended on the foreign Protestant Powers exerting a proper
influence on the councils of the Turkish government in favor of
religious liberty.
The only ordination of a native preacher by the mission, up to this
time, was that of the Rev. John Wortabet, in 1853, afterwards pastor
of the Hasbeiya church. On the 10th of May, 1864, Mr. Suleeba Jerwan
received ordination at Abeih. He had gone successfully through a
four years' course of study in the Seminary, and had for some time
proved himself faithful and efficient as a teacher and preacher.
The Druzes had a prosperous high school at Abeih, under the special
patronage of His Excellency Daoud Pasha, supported by the income
from their religious establishments. Both of the instructors were
Protestants and graduates of the Abeih Seminary. Though not a
religious institution, such a school must have had an important
bearing on the future of that singular people. In 1866, the
Principal left, and was succeeded by another Protestant, also a
graduate of the mission Seminary. Referring to the Druzes, the
brethren of the Abeih station close their report for the year 1864
with the following remarkable declaration:--
"While it is true that the government of the mountain was never
better, and we are free to open schools wherever parents dare send
their children, it is no less true that the Protestants are a small
and hated minority. Providence has made the Druzes a wall of
defense, for the present. To them, under God, it is due that we
pursue our labors on this mountain."
Tannûs El Haddad, the oldest and most esteemed native helper in the
mission, died in 1864, after more than thirty years of efficient
labor. "A guileless, spiritual man, whose lovely spirit disarmed the
enmity even of those who hated his religion. The church of Christ in
Syria owes much to the holy life and faithful teaching of this man
of God. The missionaries owe much. He long upheld their hands by the
strength of his affection and sympathy."
The installation of Suleeba Jerwan as pastor of the church in Hums,
occurred in 1865. The Protestants there had long resisted the
settlement of a native pastor, hoping to obtain the residence of an
American missionary, but their welcome to the native pastor was now
cordial. His wife was an excellent young woman, formerly a pupil in
Mr. Bird's family, and his assistant in the instruction of her sex.
Both pastor and people had a varied experience in after years, not
unlike what is often seen in Christian lands.
In the spring of 1865, the oppression of the Turkish government
became so unbearable at Safeeta, in the district of Tripoli, that a
large number of the people resolved to seek relief in Protestantism.
A deputation of sixty heads of families, representing nearly five
hundred souls, was accordingly sent to the missionaries at Tripoli.
Their motives were wholly secular, and they were not at all aware of
the spiritual object of the missionaries. This had to be explained,
and they were told, that it was beyond the power of the mission to
afford civil protection. The government allowed them to register
their names as Protestants, and they listened with marked attention
to the spiritual instructions of Dr. Post; Mr. Samuel Jessup, the
other missionary, being then at Hums. On leaving, they asked for
books, and to be more thoroughly inducted into the new way.
The region of Safeeta was new to Protestant missions, but was
populous and fertile, and bordering on the Nusaireyeh. Among the
names handed to Dr. Post, as interested in this movement, were one
hundred and fifty of this strange people, and there were a number of
them in the deputation; but all of this class soon fell away. Dr.
Post visited Safeeta in May, and arrangements were effected with the
government, which opened the door for Christian teaching. He had
audiences of one hundred and fifty every night, listening with
reverent attention to words they had never heard before. "I taught
them hymns," he writes, "and heard them repeat passages of Scripture
and answer religious questions. On Sunday they commenced coming at
five, A. M., and kept pouring in upon me all day long, till ten P.
M.,--just allowing me time to eat, and not even leaving the room
while I did that. Our large meetings in the evenings were by the
light of the moon, as an open light would have been extinguished,
and we had no lantern. A most interesting feature was the number of
women in the audiences, an exceptional thing in all new religious
movements in Syria." Two horsemen came from distant villages, to
inquire about the new faith and sect. The motive was doubtless
secular, but there is always hope where the Gospel gains a hearing.
The fires of persecution soon began to burn with fury. The Greek
bishop bribed the Turkish government, and the people were driven
from their homes; everything was broken that could be broken,
everything eaten that could be eaten, and women were left to the
brutal lusts of the Turkish soldiers. It was surprising with what
tenacity the people held out against all this. A few had become
earnest inquirers; but without a more general acquaintance with the
truth they could not be expected long to stand such an onset. Some
relief came after a few weeks, through the death by cholera of the
Greek bishop.
Failing to find relief from English intervention, the newly made
Protestants went _en masse_ to the governor of Tripoli; and failing
to meet him, they then crossed the mountains to the Governor-general
at Damascus, taking with them their wives, that the sight of their
distress might move the heart of the Moslem ruler. At last they
secured a hearing from him, and he promptly removed the oppressive
tax-gatherer at Safeeta, and gave the poor people some money in
token of his sympathy. But returning to their homes, they were still
oppressed by their local governor. Mr. Samuel Jessup writes in
October, that poverty and want had come upon them beyond anything
seen elsewhere in Syria, excepting at Hasbeiya. Some had no means of
buying their daily bread. They were promised a restoration of all
that had been taken from them, if they would return to their old
faith, but they stood firm. They desired a school for their girls,
and a married teacher was sent them for a boys' school, so as to
accommodate a female teacher in his family.
Some months later, the cattle of a Protestant strayed, and while
driving them home he was met by one of their persecutors, of the
house of Beshoor, who, with some savage Nusairiyeh, threw him on the
ground, stamped upon him, and drew a sword, threatening to kill him
if he did not desist from his unclean religion. They dared not do
more through fear of witnesses. Again, the plowmen of this same
house plowed up the wheat belonging to the Protestants, ruining
their hopes of a coming harvest, and leaving them without means to
pay their taxes; which they must pay or go to prison. They also
gathered all the olives of the Protestants, reducing them to the
greatest straits for the means of living. The Moslem governor
received large bribes to exterminate the sect, and would give them
no hearing, but quartered his soldiers on them, who ate up all their
scanty food, and distrained even their miserable cooking utensils,
that they might sell them for barley for their horses. Many lived
from day to day on what they could beg, or borrow. Still, after a
year of such trials, they remained firm; which is the more
wonderful, as only a few of them gave evidence of piety, and the
time had not come for organizing them into a church. The school was
doubtless helpful, being a decided success. Even the shepherds took
tracts and primers, and studied them while tending their flocks.
In January, 1867, the whole Protestant community of Safeeta were
arrested, men, women, and children, and imprisoned in a small room,
and a fire of cut straw was made on the floor to torture them with
smoke. This wanton cruelty was based on a false demand made on them
for money. Their sufferings were so great that they were finally
released. In the evening, while assembled for worship, with their
native preacher, government horsemen broke open and plundered their
houses, and in the night drove them all, old and young, mothers and
children, boys and girls, into the wilderness.
The terrible experience of this people in the summer of 1869,
somewhat more than two years later, is too suggestive and
interesting to be passed in silence. I give the facts as related by
Mr. Samuel Jessup.
"For four years, a large number have been Protestants, and the
oppressors have added persecution to oppression. Many fell away at
first, but since then we have seen no special signs of apostasy
until lately. Their enemies recently made a desperate effort to
crush out Protestantism from that region. They took the leading men,
one by one, and led them through fire and perils of all kinds;
promising, at every step, to give immediate relief, if they would
only return to the Greek Church. They fulfilled their promises to
some who yielded, and then increased the pressure on the others. At
length, seizing the opportunity when our teacher was absent, they
made another grand onset. On Sunday morning, the Greek bishop and
the abbots of the neighboring convents, with priests and people from
all the region around, together with a great number of horsemen and
footmen, made a grand parade, and came down like locusts upon the
Protestants. Their former oppressor is dead, but his son, Tamir
Beshoor, is making his little finger thicker than his father's
loins. He headed a grand parade, and brought with him a supply of
new garments, which he had purchased as bribes for the occasion.
With the bishop and others, he entered the house of every
Protestant, and by bribes and promises, followed by fiendish
threats, carried off many captives. Some few had previously sold
themselves, and agreed to take their stand on this occasion, and
then they headed the crowd, and declared that every Protestant had
decided to return, and that Protestantism was dead. Where they found
a house locked, they forced it open, and sprinkled holy water in it.
"But though their success was far too great, it was not complete.
They succeeded in taking with them, that morning, twenty-one males.
Eleven of them have not been to the Greek church since that time,
but continue to meet with our brethren for prayer; and though it is
now an important Greek fast, they do not observe it. The other ten
either dare not or care not to come back to us, though all came to
see me.
"Before finishing their work that Sunday morning, they sent men to
our school-room, broke it open, sprinkled it with holy water, and
stole our bell."
The firmness of some of the church-members is thus described: "After
exhausting their catalogue of promises and threats on one, he said
to them,--'Take my property, my house, my clothes, my family, even
my body, and do with them what you will, but my soul you cannot
have, and nothing will induce me to leave Christ.' Another said,
when they came to his house,--'Come in, and let us read in the New
Testament together, and perhaps you will see that we are right.' One
girl, who had been two years in the Sidon school, saw her parents
and relatives all fall into the procession; but when special effort
was made to induce her to yield, she said,--'Though you should cut
my body in pieces, I will never go with you.'
"I reached Safeeta a few days after, and found that those who had
stood firm had been obliged to flee for safety, and did not dare
return until I went there. The wrath of their persecutors seems to
have reached its height, and the poor people know not what to do.
Appeal to the government seems useless, for it is from the
government that their chief oppressor gets his power to persecute.
All who went back came to call on me, and most of them attended the
services. They said, in palliation of their course, 'We are flesh
and blood, and have families to support. We have waited for
deliverance for years, and now Tamir (the chief oppressor) says,
Come back and I will restore to you all; remain as you are, and I
will strip you of the little you have left, and drive you out of the
country. And so we went back, but our hearts are with you, and we
will come here too, though they compelled our bodies to go with
them.' One woman showed a striped gown, threw it on the ground, and
trampling on it said, with tears in her eyes, 'With that they bought
my husband.' Some of the women, with tears and entreaties, tried to
keep their husbands and friends from going, telling them that death
was better."[1]
[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1869, pp. 407-409.
Twenty men were standing firm at Safeeta in February of the
following year, though there had been little abatement of
persecution. In April Dr. Jessup wrote, that it had just terminated,
and the brethren at the Tripoli station had good hopes that there
would be peace in that long persecuted community. This was owing, in
great measure, to the interference of the American and English
Consuls-general, and their influence with the Governor-general of
Syria.
The people of Hums becoming dissatisfied with their pastor, Suleeba,
his connection was dissolved, three years after his settlement. The
church remained in a divided condition for a year or more, without
any celebration of the Lord's Supper. In the summer of 1869, Mr.
Samuel Jessup visited the city, and finding the Protestants in a
better state of feeling, invited the communicants to assemble at the
Lord's table. All came and seemed to enjoy it as a season of rest
and refreshment, after a long and weary wandering. They were ready
to take a native pastor who suited them, and pay the larger part of
his salary. They needed one well acquainted with the historical
defenses of the Gospel, because of the inroads of European Jesuits
and French infidel literature. Suleeba found demands for his
faithful labors in other places. "The news," says Dr. Jessup, "from
'scattered and peeled' Safeeta and from distracted Hums, is alike
cheering, and indicative of progress in the right direction."
The Tripoli station sent forth two of the Safeeta church-members as
missionaries to visit the villages to the north and east, sending
two together, as it would not be safe for one to go alone. The
native missionary society at Beirût employed a zealous colporter,
whose tours took a wide range, from Acre on the south to Hamath and
even to Aleppo on the north, and his monthly reports showed that,
throughout the country, there was not only urgent need of such
labor, but also an increasing number prepared to profit by the
visits of the gospel messenger. During the latter part of the year,
another person was employed in similar work near Beirût. He also
testified to a great increase of desire among the people for
religious instruction.
Daoud Pasha, alter inaugurating important reforms and improvements
on Lebanon, was promoted to a seat in the cabinet at Constantinople.
He had started a newspaper, "The Lebanon," established telegraphic
lines, commenced a carriage road, encouraged education, and made his
pashalic the safest in the empire for travelling. His successor was
Franco Pasha, a Latin Catholic. The Beirût Arabic official journal,
in speaking of his arrival, says, that "although attached to his own
religion, he is free from bigotry, and will guarantee liberty of
conscience to all."
The mission was strengthened in 1867 by the arrival of Samuel S.
Mitchell and Isaac N. Lowry, and their wives; and in 1869, of James
S. Dennis, and Misses Eliza D. Everett, and Nellie A. Carruth.
Messrs. Berry and Mitchell were constrained, by the failure of
health after a short service, to leave the mission. Miss Carruth,
also, though deeply interested in the work, and after valuable
service in the girls' school, felt constrained soon to return to the
United States.
Among the books printed in this time, were Edwards' "History of
Redemption;" Bickersteth's "Scripture Hand-book," with additions by
Mr. Calhoun; a large Psalm and Hymn Book; Curwen's "New System of
Musical Notation;"[1] a Children's Hymn Book; Bistany's Arabic
Dictionary, and his Elements of Grammar; and an Arabic Almanac,
probably the first ever printed in Arabic, although "Al-Manakh" (the
climate) is an Arabic word. The press was now under the direction of
Mr. Henry Thomson, a son of Dr. Thomson, who relieved the Beirût
station of a heavy burden of care. The necessary preparations were
completed in 1868 for electrotyping the Arabic Scriptures in Beirût.
[1] By this, musical notes written in a syllabic form can be given,
like the Arabic, from right to left. The staff, notes, and
signatures are dispensed with, and single letters are arranged in
succession, with separations by dots and marks. As a result, the
ordinary Arabic types can be used to print the most intricate music.