The story of mission work in Arabia is not very long, but it is full of
interest. From the day when Mohammed proclaimed himself an apostle in
Mecca until about sixteen years ago when Ion Keith Falconer came to Aden
as a missionary, all of Topsy-turvy Land lay in darkness as regards the
gospel. For thirteen hundred years Mohammed had it all his own way in
Arabia. Now his dominion over the hearts of men, is in dispute, and there
is no doubt that the final, full victory will rest with Jesus the Son of
God, the Saviour of the world.
Would you like to hear something, before we close this book about the
missions that are now working in this country? There are _three_ missions.
The missionaries of the Church of England began work in Bagdad about the
year 1882. Bagdad is not at all a small town. It has a population of one
hundred and eighty thousand people, and it was once a very important city.
You can read all about its ancient beauty and wealth and commerce in the
Arabian Nights. Some of the palaces that Harouner Rashid visited are still
standing. In the city there are at present sixty-four mosques, six
churches and twenty-two synagogues. One-third of the population are Jews,
and there are over five thousand Christians. Most of the latter belong to
the Roman Catholic faith, or to other twilight churches. The Roman
Catholic cathedral, which you see in the picture, is the only church in
all Northern Arabia that has a bell. Moslems do not like to hear
church-bells, and they were forbidden by some rulers of the Moslem world
long ago. The Protestant Christians meet for worship in a dwelling-house.
The Bagdad mission has a large dispensary for the sick where thousands of
Moslems and Jews and Christians come every year for treatment. Books are
sold to the people, and there is a school for boys and girls which is also
helping to _turn down_ old prejudices and _turn up_ the right side of
child-life. The Moslem children are beginning to believe that the world is
_round_ and that Constantinople is not the capital of all Europe.
The British and Foreign Bible Society is also helping to turn this part of
the world downside up. The gospel which has been buried under many
superstitions and traditions so long, is again showing its power.
_Colporteurs_ are men who carry the Bible about, offer it to the people
and read and explain it to those whose hearts are open. They have a hard
task, but if it were not for them the "Little Missionaries" would not get
along at all.
On the way from Bagdad to Busrah, we pass Amara, an enterprising village
where the people once burned books and threw stones at the missionary, but
where now the little Bible-shop of the American Mission shines unhindered,
"Like a little candle, burning in the night."
At Busrah, Rev. James Cantine began mission work in 1891, and ever since
that time he and others have been ploughing and sowing seed and waiting
for the showers that come before the harvest. It was at Busrah that Kamil
Abd el Messiah, the Moslem convert from Syria, died a witness for Christ.
Have you read the wonderful story of his life? It is full of pathos and
shows how in the heart and life of at least one Moslem the Holy Spirit
made topsy-turvy things straight. There are others like Kamil in Arabia,
but many of them are still following the Master afar off, because they
fear the persecutions of men. At Busrah, there is also a dispensary, and
here too the gospel is sold and preached and lived before the people.
Bahrein, you know, is a group of islands, and it is about six years ago
that the people first saw a missionary. Nearly three-fourths of the
population are pearl-merchants or pearl-fishers. Will you not pray that
they may learn to value the Pearl of Great Price?
A visit any morning in the week to the dispensary at Bahrein, would soon
convince you that here too the Arab world is slowly but surely turning
downside up. Women learn to their delight that they have equal right to
sympathy with men, and they need not wait until the men are helped first.
The Arabs are very ignorant of medicine and their remedies are either
foolish or cruel. To "let out the pain" in rheumatism, they burn the body
with a hot iron. All their ideas are upside down, and very few know on
which side of their body the liver is located. Now when our mission
doctors perform miracles of surgery on the maimed, and miracles of mercy
on the suffering, the result is to prepare their hearts for Christ's
message. To the fanatic Moslem a Christian is "an ignorant unbeliever."
But we may put a parody on Pope's lines and say, in their case:
"A Christian is a monster of such frightful mien
That to be hated needs but to be seen.
But seen too oft familiar with his face
They first endure, then pity, then embrace."
Many of the Moslems who in gratitude are ready to embrace a Christian
physician may yet learn to embrace Christian teaching.
Muscat in Arabic, means "the place where something falls." And the
surroundings are so rocky and steep that everything has a chance to tumble
down except the mercury in the thermometer. That is always up high. In
this hot, crowded town, the Arabian Mission opened its third station in
the year 1893. Two years before the veteran missionary-bishop, Thomas
Valpy French laid down his life here, and the fallen standard was taken up
by Peter J. Zwemer. After five years of toil in Oman, he also entered into
rest. George E. Stone, his successor in Oman, was also worthy of the
martyr's crown, and his simple grave at Muscat tells how "he arose,
forsook all, and followed Christ."
This part of Arabia is sacred because of what these three pioneers
suffered to open the door for the gospel. I do not think the King will
leave a province where He has buried so much treasure in the hands of the
enemy, do you? The work of preaching in Oman is at present full of
promise, and the people seem willing to hear. The American Bible Society
is sending the Scriptures all over Eastern Arabia.
[Illustration: MUSCAT HARBOUR.]
The last mission station in Arabia we mention, is the first that people
generally visit. Aden is a coaling station as well as a missionary centre
and passengers travelling to the Orient nearly always stop here on the
way. There are Christian churches and hospitals and government schools. At
Sheikh Ottoman, a short distance from Aden, Ion Keith Falconer, the first
modern missionary to this land, began his work. He died here also, but his
life was so full of love and sacrifice that his _work_ is still going on.
The Free Church of Scotland mission has medical work, an industrial school
for waifs and a memorial chapel. From a great distance patients come to be
cured, and Moslems to buy the Bible.
The great lighthouse on the island of Perim, near Aden, throws its light
for ten miles out on the dark sea and saves ships from the breakers. But
the light of the gospel in the Bible depot at Aden, shines two hundred
miles to the north as far as Sanaa, and three hundred miles east to
Makalla on the coast. Yet I dare say it costs more to keep up the
lighthouse at Perim (not to speak of building it) than it does to keep
open all the Bible lighthouses of all Arabia. Perhaps Keith Falconer
thought of this when he said in his farewell address:
_"We Christians have a great and imposing war office, but a very small
army. While vast continents are shrouded in almost utter darkness and
hundreds of millions suffer the horrors of heathenism and Islam, the
burden of proof lies upon you to show that the circumstances in which God
has placed you, were meant by Him to keep you out of the foreign mission
field."_
_Before you lay aside this book, will you not ask yourself why you should
not go out to Arabia, or to some other land yet shrouded in darkness, and
shine for Jesus?_
An Old Friend in a New Dress.