SYRIA.
1823-1828.
The civil and social condition of Jerusalem and Palestine was such,
on the arrival of Messrs. Bird and Goodell in 1823, that their
brethren advised them to make Beirût the centre of their operations.
The advice was followed; and this was the commencement of what took
the name of the Syria Mission.
The ancient name of Beirût was Berytus. The city is pleasantly
situated on the western side of a large bay, and has a fertile soil,
with a supply of good water, sufficient in ordinary seasons, from
springs flowing out of the adjacent hills. Its population and wealth
have greatly increased of late. The anchorage for ships is at the
eastern extremity of the bay, two miles from the city. Lebanon rises
at no great distance on the east, stretches far toward the north and
the south, and is a healthful and pleasant resort for Franks in
summer. There is a large and beautiful plain on the south, abounding
in olive, palm, orange, lemon, pine, and mulberry trees. Damascus
was then distant three days, but less time is required now, by
reason of the new macadamized road. Sidon might be reached in one
day, Tyre in two, and Tripoli in three. An additional motive, in
those troublous times, for making Beirût a central station, was the
protection afforded by Mr. Abbott, a friendly English Consul.
The two brethren landed, with their wives, October 16th. During the
nine mouths of their sojourn at Malta, they had made considerable
progress in the Italian language, which was spoken extensively in
the Levant; and now, without wholly neglecting the Italian, they
applied themselves to the languages of Syria.
Mr. Bird made the Arabic--spoken by the Maronites and Syrian Roman
Catholics--his chief study; and Mr. Goodell the Armeno-Turkish,
--Turkish written with the Armenian alphabet,--which was the
language of the Armenians.
Going to Sidon for aid in his linguistic studies, Mr. Goodell formed
the acquaintance of Yakob Agha, an Armenian ecclesiastic, who had
dared to marry, a privilege not allowed to him as a bishop. That he
might be able to defend his course, he began the study of the New
Testament, and thus became impressed with the wickedness around him.
He was at that time acting British agent at Sidon. Mr. Goodell also
became acquainted with Dionysius, another Armenian bishop, who had
committed a similar offense, and engaged him as a teacher; giving
him the name of Carabet, the "Forerunner." He was a native of
Constantinople, and had lived thirty-six years in the Armenian
convent at Jerusalem. During the last nine of these years, he was a
bishop. On account of his age, his services and acquirements, he was
regarded as having the standing of an archbishop. Though in darkness
on many points, and giving no satisfactory evidence of piety, he
made himself useful as a teacher and interpreter, and in his
intercourse with the people.
Several English missionaries were added to the Protestant force at
that time, and the Papal Church became thoroughly alarmed. Letters
were addressed from Rome to the Patriarchal Vicar of Mount Lebanon,
the Maronite Patriarch, and the Vicar of Syria and Palestine, urging
them to render ineffectual, in every possible manner, the impious
undertaking of those missionaries. These letters were dated in the
first month of 1824, and the firman against the circulation of the
Scriptures was issued by the Grand Seignior very soon after. Though
feebly enforced by the Turkish authorities this gave weight and
influence, for a time, to the "anathemas," of the Maronite and
Syrian Patriarchs against the "Bible men." Peter Ignatius Giarve,
the Syrian Patriarch, some years before, while Archbishop of
Jerusalem, had visited England, and there obtained, under false
pretenses, a considerable sum of money from Protestant Christians,
to print the Holy Scriptures according to the text of his own
Church. He now issued a manifesto, first defending himself from the
charge of deception, and then warning his flock "not to receive the
Holy Scriptures, nor any other books printed and circulated by the
Bible-men, even though given gratis, and according to the edition
printed by the Propaganda under ecclesiastical authority."
Notwithstanding all this, the brethren took a hopeful view of their
prospects. "To get a firm footing," they say, "among a people of a
strange speech and a hard language; to inspire confidence in some,
and weaken prejudice in others; to ascertain who are our avowed
enemies, and who are such in disguise; to become acquainted with the
mode of thinking and feeling, with the springs of action, and with
the way of access to the heart; to begin publicly to discuss
controversial subjects with the dignitaries of the Church, and to
commence giving religious instruction to the common people; to be
allowed to have a hand in directing the studies and in controlling
the education of the young; and to begin to exert an influence,
however circumscribed at first, yet constantly extending and
increasingly salutary,--all this, though it be not 'life from the
dead,' nor the song of salvation, yet is to be regarded as truly
important in the work of missions."
In the year 1824, the schools were commenced at Beirût, which have
since grown into an influential system. The first was a mere class
of six Arab children, taught daily by the wives of the missionaries.
Soon an Arab teacher was engaged, and before the end of the year the
pupils had increased to fifty. In 1826 the average attendance in the
free schools of Beirût and vicinity, was more than three hundred; in
the following year it was six hundred in thirteen schools, and more
than one hundred of these pupils were girls. The Arabs were thought
to have less quickness than the Greeks, to be less studious and
ambitious, and more trifling, inconstant, and proud of little
things; but many of them were lively and promising, and did
themselves honor by their punctuality and application. The Romish
ecclesiastics were very hostile to all these schools.
It was in the summer of 1825, that Asaad el-Shidiak became first
personally known to the mission, as the instructor of Mr. King in
the Syriac language. His case soon acquired an extraordinary
interest, and will occupy a separate chapter.
In March, 1826, several Greek vessels entered the port of Beirût,
and landed five hundred men. They were unable to scale the walls,
but plundered the houses of natives on the outside. The wild
Bedawîn, whom the Pasha of Acre sent to drive them away, were worse
than the Greeks. They plundered without making any distinctions, and
among other houses the one occupied by Mr. Goodell, but Consul
Abbott obliged the Pasha to pay for what they took from the
missionaries. It was afterwards ascertained, that the Maronite
bishop, having learned that the leases of the missionaries would
soon expire, came to Beirût just before this invasion, with an
excommunication for every Maronite who should permit his house to be
hired by a missionary; and prepared by bribery and intrigue to bring
also the Greek bishop and the Moslem rulers to act in concert with
himself, in driving Protestant missionaries from the country. The
sudden landing of the Greeks obliged him to flee in the night,
leaving his wicked devices unaccomplished, while the Maronites were
glad to place their best houses in the hands of the missionaries.
In 1827, the missionaries hoped that about twenty of those among
whom they labored, had been created anew in Christ Jesus. Among them
were Asaad and Phares Shidiak, from the Maronite Church; a lady from
the Latin Church; Dionysius, Gregory Wortabet, Jacob, and the wife
of Dionysius, of the Armenian Church; the wife of Wortabet and
Yooseph Leflufy, of the Greek Catholic Church; and Asaad Jacob and
Tannûs el-Haddad, of the Greek Church. Leflufy was described as a
youth of great boldness and decision, and as thoroughly convinced of
the errors of his Church. In April of this year, Dionysius revisited
Jerusalem, as the interpreter of German missionaries. The Armenian
Convent owed him a sum of money, which it refused to pay, and
forbade any Armenian in the city to speak to him. The Greeks, on the
other hand, treated him with attention, and so did the Moslem
governor. He returned to Beirût in company with three hundred of the
Armenian pilgrims, who were no sooner out of Jerusalem than they
began to treat him with kindness and respect, while they were full
of inquiries as to what he and the Protestants believed, what
ordinances they had, and how they observed them, with many more such
questions. He was engaged in conversation with them day and night,
and had full opportunity to explain his religious views, and to show
them the difference between the Christianity of the New Testament,
and that of the Oriental Churches; and they expressed much
astonishment at his statements. Some of them were persons of
respectability and influence, and declared their indignation at the
treatment he had received from the convent. It is probable that
these conversations had some connection with the spirit of
reform among the Armenians, which not long after appeared at
Constantinople.
The Rev. Eli Smith reached Beirût early in 1827. At the monthly
concert in March, kept as a day of fasting and prayer, and closed
with the Lord's Supper, sixteen persons were present, who were all
regarded as hopefully pious. They were from America, Europe, Asia,
and Africa, and were members of nine churches,--Congregational,
Episcopal, Lutheran, Reformed Lutheran, Moravian, Latin, Armenian,
Greek Catholic, and Abyssinian. Dionysius Carabet, Gregory Wortabet,
and their wives were then received into the mission church, as was
also the wife of Mr. Abbott, the English Consul, a native of Italy.
This admission of converts into a church, without regard to their
previous ecclesiastical relations, was a practical ignoring of the
old church organizations in that region. It was so understood, and
the spirit of opposition and persecution was roused to the utmost.
In the Maronite and Greek Catholic churches, severe denunciations
were uttered against the missionaries, and all who should render
them any service.
Messrs. Goodell and Bird gave more or less time, with the help of
their native assistants, to preparing useful works in the native
languages. These, with Mr. King's "Farewell Letter," were copied by
the pen, and were eagerly sought and gladly transcribed, and the
need of a printing-press on the ground began to be felt.
Beirût was visited by the plague in the spring of 1827, but the
deaths were not numerous. In August Mr. Bird, finding it needful to
take his family to the mountains, ascended to Ehden by way of
Tripoli, from which Ehden was distant seven hours. He went by
special permission of the Emir Beshir, and was received in the most
friendly manner by the Sheikh Latoof, and his son Naanui. The
"Patriarch of Antioch and all the East," who resided at Cannobeen,
hearing of this, proceeded at once to excommunicate the sheikh and
his family, who had dared to associate "with that deceived man, and
deceiver of men, Bird, the Bible-man." An infernal spirit appears in
the excommunications of the Romish Church. This of Latoof and family
ran thus: "They are accursed, cut off from all the Christian
communion; and let the curse envelope them as a robe, and spread
through all their members like oil, and break them in pieces like a
potter's vessel, and wither them like the fig tree cursed by the
mouth of the Lord himself; and let the evil angel reign over them,
to torment them by day and night, asleep and awake, and in whatever
circumstances they may be found. We permit no one to visit them, or
employ them, or do them a favor, or give them a salutation, or
converse with them in any form; but let them be avoided as a putrid
member, and as hellish dragons. Beware, yea, beware of the wrath of
God." With regard to Mr. Bird and his family, the Patriarch said:
"We grant no permission to any one to receive them; but, on the
contrary, we, by the word of the Lord of almighty authority, require
and command all, in the firmest manner, that not one visit them, nor
do them any sort of service, or furnish them any sort of assistance
whatever, to protract their stay in these parts or any other. Let no
one receive them into his house, or into any place whatever that
belongs to him, but let all avoid them, in every way, in all things
temporal as well as spiritual. And whoever, in his stubbornness,
shall dare to act in opposition to this our order with regard to
Bird, and his children, and his whole family, shall fall, _ipso
facto_, under the great excommunication, whose absolution is
reserved to ourself alone."
A copy of this document was furnished to Mr. Bird, by the Bishop of
Ehden; who, though feeble in health, was second to no prelate of his
sect in knowledge, prudence, and evangelical sentiment. On hearing
the Patriarch's proclamation read in church, he is said to have
fainted, and did not recover his health for weeks afterwards. As a
consequence of this proclamation of the Patriarch, a rival sheikh
was encouraged to make a violent assault upon Latoof, in which the
latter received a severe contusion on the head, and his wife's
mother had her wrist broken. Being warned of a still more determined
effort to drive the missionary away, Mr. Bird thought it due to his
friend to leave the place; which he did, accompanied by Naanui,
leaving his wife and children, and descending to the Greek convent
of Hantûra, and from thence to Tripoli. Thither the Patriarch
followed him with his maledictions. He however obtained a quiet
residence at Bawhyta, under Moslem protection, where he was rejoined
by his family, and afterwards in the convent of Belmont. Naanui was
his faithful companion through all his wanderings and sojourning on
the mountains.
Mr. Bird returned to Beirût on the 22d of December, and was received
by his Maronite acquaintances with unwonted cordiality.
The battle of Navarino was not the immediate cause of the suspension
of the mission; but, in all the ensuing five months, there was
constant apprehension of war between Turkey and the allies engaged
in that battle, which was so destructive to the naval power of the
Turks. The British Consulate was closed, and Mr. Abbott, their
friend and protector, was obliged to withdraw privately. No reliance
could be placed on the Pasha; and the Prince of the mountains had
sent word, that no Frank refugees would be received in his
dominions, in case of war. In the utter stagnation of trade, the
missionaries could obtain no money for their bills, and no European
or American vessels of war visited the port. Messrs. Goodell, Bird
and Smith, in view of all these facts, thought it their duty to
avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by an Austrian vessel
to remove, for a season, to Malta.
They accordingly embarked on the 2d of May, 1828, taking with them
Carabet, Wortabet, and their wives, and arrived at Malta on the
29th. No opposition was made. "The parting scene at our leaving, was
more tender and affecting than we could have expected, and afforded
a comforting evidence that, whatever may be the impression we have
left on the general population, there are _some_ hearts in Syria,
which are sincerely attached to us. Many, as we passed them, prayed
that God would protect us on our voyage. And others, notwithstanding
the plague, came to our houses to bid us farewell. One thoughtful
youth, who was with us daily, belonging to one of the first Greek
families, was full of grief, and earnestly begged us to take him
with us, though contrary to the will of his parents."