SYRIA.
1830-1838.
Syria was not in a condition for a return of the missionaries until
after two years. Messrs. Bird and Whiting left Malta for Beirût on
the 1st of May, 1830. Mr. Abbott, the English Consul, had already
returned, and gave them a cordial welcome. The members of the Greek
Church greeted them in a friendly manner, and were ready to read the
Scriptures with them; but the Maronite priests, faithful to the
Church of Rome, forbad their people all intercourse with the "Bible
men," whom they described as "followers of the devil." Among those
who received them gladly were a few young men, over whom the
missionaries had rejoiced in former years, and who had remained
steadfast in the faith, and had honored the Gospel by their lives.
Gregory Wortabet, one of the two Armenian ecclesiastics who early
became connected with the mission, is already somewhat known to the
reader. He belonged to the monastic priesthood in the Armenian
Church, and there is an interesting autobiography of him in the
"Missionary Herald" for 1828. His career up to that time, as
described by himself, shows him to have been an uncommon character;
and his personal sufferings, both for good and evil doing, prepared
him to receive benefit from his converse with the missionaries at
Beirût, which began in 1826, when he was twenty-six years of age. He
was then ignorant of the Gospel, with his mind in great darkness and
confusion. His first ray of light was from the good example of his
missionary friends. Comparing their lives with their preaching, he
admired the consistency of the two. He then compared both with the
Scriptures, reading through the entire New Testament. At length day
dawned upon his darkness. He became fully satisfied, that the
Scriptures were from God, and committed himself to their divine
teaching. Renouncing his self-righteousness, and all dependence on
the absolutions of the Church, he trusted for salvation only in the
blood of the Lord Jesus. Having adopted the opinion, that his
monastic vows were unscriptural and therefore void, he married a
discreet woman, who not long after gave good evidence of piety.
Wortabet accompanied the missionaries to Malta, as did also
Dionysius, the other ecclesiastic. This change in their
circumstances was at their own earnest request, but it was a great
change. The author saw them at Malta, and did not wonder at some
dissatisfaction on the part of the younger of the two, which helped
to bring a cloud, for a time, over his Christian character. But his
morals were irreproachable in the view of the world, and on his
return to Syria in 1830, which was mainly in consequence of the
failure of his eyes, the sun shone forth again, and continued to do
so till his death. He went back to Beirût with the intention of
supporting himself by manual labor, but the return of ophthalmia
interrupted his plans, and reduced him to poverty. Mr. Bird visited
him in May, 1831, at his residence near Sidon, and found him and his
wife destitute indeed of the good things of this life, but contented
and cheerful, and Wortabet warning all around him, night and day.
Much of his conversation was spiritual, and he was listened to with
deference. He was respected by the principal inhabitants of the
place, and his wife was regarded as a model of humility and piety.
Two or three were thought to have received saving impressions from
his conversation. He obtained his support, such as it was, by means
of a small shop, and was rigidly conscientious in his dealings.
Respectable men of all classes came frequently to converse with him
on religious subjects, and so gave him an opportunity to circulate
the Bible, and to recommend its religion to Druses, Armenians,
Papists, and Jews. Even Moslems sometimes listened with attention.
Having been drawn into a written controversy by a zealous Maronite,
Wortabet called in the aid of Taunûs el Haddad, not being himself at
home in the Arabic, and with important aid from the written
discussions of Messrs. King, Bird, Goodell, and the lamented Asaad,
he came out with a full exposition of the points at issue between
Protestants and the Church of Rome, which attracted much attention.
An answer was repeatedly promised, but none ever appeared, and it
was thought the Maronite was himself half convinced of his error.
Wortabet's weight of character, and his perfect knowledge of the
people, made his influence at Sidon exceedingly valuable, and it was
increasing and extending. But on the 10th of September, 1832, a
short illness, supposed to be the cholera, terminated his earthly
labors. From the first attack, he regarded the disease as fatal, and
met death with a calm reliance on the Saviour.
The operations of the mission in 1832, were disturbed by plague,
cholera, and war. The ravages of the plague were not great, but
cholera occasioned intense alarm. It swept over Armenia and along
the western borders of Persia, cut off one third of the pilgrims
from Beirût to Mecca, was exceedingly fatal at Cairo and Alexandria,
and made approaches to the seat of the mission as near as Aleppo,
Damascus, Tiberias, and Acre; but from this terrible judgment the
inhabitants of Beirût were providentially shielded. They suffered
much, however, from the rapacity of the Pasha of Acre, until his
power was broken by the invading army of the Viceroy of Egypt, under
Ibrahim Pasha. With the aid of ten or fifteen thousand men from
Mount Lebanon, under the Emir Beshir, Ibrahim Pasha took Acre; then
pushing his conquests to Damascus, established the dominion of Egypt
over Palestine and all Syria.
The papal bishop of Beirût having published an answer to Mr. King's
"Farewell Letter," Mr. Bird made a reply in thirteen letters,
containing many extracts from the Fathers and Roman Catholic doctors
against the bishop's opinions and expositions of Scripture.
Preparatory to this, the mission library was furnished with the more
important works of the ancient Fathers; and what was wanting to
complete the polemic department of the library, was munificently
supplied by Mr. Parnell, of the Bagdad mission; who also presented
the mission with a lithographic press for printing in the Arabic and
Syriac languages. About this time, Mr. Temple was instructed to send
the Arabic portion of the Malta establishment to Beirût, where Mr.
Smith, who returned from the United States in 1834, was to have the
charge of it.
Mr. Smith had been instructed by the Prudential Committee, to
explore the country eastward of the Jordan, and also that bordering
on the eastern range of Lebanon. Accordingly, soon after his
arrival, he and Dr. Dodge visited Damascus, and then went into the
Hauran, which was never before explored by Protestant missionaries,
and until the publication of Burckhard's travels, twelve years
before, was almost unknown in modern times. The Bozrah of the
Scriptures was the limit of their travels southeastward, and marks
the limit of habitation towards the great desert. Thence they
traversed the region of Bashan to the southwest, as far as the river
Jabbok, now called Zerka, beyond which the country is surrendered to
the wild Bedawîn. Turning to the north, they crossed the Jordan not
far from the lake of Tiberias, ascended the western shore, visited
the numerous Greek Christians on the west of Mount Hermon, and
returned to Damascus. The health of the mission now called Dr. Dodge
back to Beirût, and Mr. Smith completed the survey of Anti-Libanus
alone; visited a village of Jacobite Syrians in the desert towards
Palmyra; passed through Homs, and as far north as Hamah, or "Hamath
the great;" then, bending his course homeward, he crossed Lebanon in
the region of the Ansaireea, through Tripoli to Beirût. Of this
whole deeply interesting tour Mr. Smith, as was his custom, kept an
accurate journal, which he intended to elaborate for publication as
soon as he should have opportunity. The learned world heard with
deep regret, in the year 1836, of the loss of this valuable
manuscript in the shipwreck of Mr. and Mrs. Smith on their voyage to
Smyrna. The Arabic press arrived in 1834, and passed without
objection through the customhouse. Indeed, there were at that time
no less than six presses in Syria and the Holy Land, belonging to
Jews and Papists, and no one of them was subjected to hindrance,
censorship, or taxation.
It could not truly be said, that any material change had taken place
in the character and condition of the people at large, as a
consequence of Protestant missions. But this at least was true, that
the impression given by the Jesuits, that Protestants had no
religion, no priesthood, and no churches, had been extensively
removed. The missionaries unite in their testimony, that the
circulation of the Scriptures is not alone sufficient to regenerate
a people. A very considerable number of copies had been put in
circulation from Aleppo to Hebron and Gaza, and many of them had
been in the hands of the people for more than ten years. It is not
known indeed how much they had been used; but where there had been
no personal intercourse with missionaries, not a single radical
conversion of the soul unto God had come to the knowledge of the
missionaries.
Commodore Patterson visited Beirût during the summer with the U. S.
ship _Delaware_ and schooner _Shark_; principally, as he said, to do
honor to the mission, and to convince the people that it had
powerful friends.
Ten interesting young men placed themselves under the tuition of Dr.
Dodge to learn English, and Mr. Smith gave them lessons in geography
and astronomy, of which they knew almost as little as of English. A
school taught by Taunûs el Haddad was converted into a girls'
school. A female school was also opened by the ladies of the
mission, assisted by the widow of Wortabet, for which a house was
erected by the subscriptions of foreign residents. The school
contained twenty-nine pupils, of whom three were Moslem children,
and one a Druse, and no opposition was made to it. Religious
instruction was given, of course, and the scholars made good
progress in reading, sewing, knitting, and behavior. The whole
number in the schools exceeded a hundred. Mr. Abbott, the early and
valued friend of the mission, died during this year.
In 1835, Mr. Bird was compelled, by the declining health of his
wife, to visit Smyrna. After remaining there nearly a year, and not
receiving the benefit they expected, they came to the United States,
and were never able to return to Syria. Their removal was for a time
an irreparable loss to the mission, and was a severe disappointment
to themselves. In subsequent years, they gladly gave two of their
children to the missionary work in Western Asia. Miss Rebecca W.
Williams arrived this year as a teacher; and in the next year the
Rev. Messrs. Story Hebard and John F. Lanneau, and Miss Betsey
Tilden. In 1835, Mr. William M. Thomson was married to Mrs. Abbott,
the widow of the late English Consul, who, from an early period in
the mission, had given decisive evidence of attachment to the
kingdom of Christ.
The high school, commenced in 1835, took a more substantial form in
the following year. It was wisely decided, that the pupils should
lodge, eat, and dress in the style of the country; and the annual
expenses of each scholar for boarding, clothing, etc., was only from
thirty-five to forty dollars. The course of study embraced the
Arabic language for the whole period, the English language,
geography and astronomy, civil and ecclesiastical history, with
chronology, mathematics, rhetoric,--in the Arab sense, a popular
study,--natural and moral philosophy, composition and translation,
natural theology, and sacred music. The Bible was studied
constantly. In all these departments there was a great deficiency of
books; in some it was entire.
Mr. Hebard and Miss Williams were united in marriage in October,
1836. Mr. Hebard had then the care of the seminary, and the girls'
school was taught by Mrs. Hebard and Mrs. Dodge. The latter was
subsequently married to the Rev. J. D. Paxton, a clergyman from the
United States, then on a visit to Syria.
The mission, as early as 1836, became sensible of a serious
deficiency in their Arabic type. As it did not conform to the most
approved standard of Arabic caligraphy, it did not meet the popular
taste. Mr. Smith therefore took pains to collect models of the
characters in the best manuscripts. These were lost in his
shipwreck, but he afterwards replaced them at Constantinople, to the
number of two hundred; so varied, that the punches formed for them
would make not far from a thousand matrices. These he placed in the
hands of Mr. Hallock, the missionary printer at Smyrna, who
possessed great mechanical ingenuity, and was entirely successful in
cutting the punches. The type was cast at Leipzig by Tauchnitz. Thus
a really great and important work, without which the press could not
have been domesticated among the many millions to whom the Arabic is
vernacular, was brought to a successful issue.
The disastrous shipwreck of Mr. and Mrs. Smith on their way from
Beirût to Smyrna, has been already mentioned. The voyage was
undertaken chiefly for the benefit of Mrs. Smith's health; but the
exposures consequent on the shipwreck, extending through
twenty-eight days until their arrival at Smyrna, aggravated her
consumptive tendencies, and hastened her passage to the grave. She
died on the thirtieth of September, 1836, at the age of thirty-four.
The closing scene is described by her husband. "Involuntary groans
were occasionally muttered in her convulsions. These, as we were
listening to them with painful sympathy, once, to our surprise,
melted away into musical notes; and for a moment, our ears were
charmed with the full, clear tones of the sweetest melody. No words
were articulated, and she was evidentally unconscious of everything
about her. It seemed as if her soul was already joining in the songs
of heaven, while it was yet so connected with the body as to command
its unconscious sympathy. Not long after, she again opened her eyes
in a state of consciousness. A smile of perfect happiness lighted up
her emaciated features. She looked deliberately around upon
different objects in the room, and then fixed upon me a look of the
tenderest affection. .... Her frequent prayers that the Saviour
would meet her in the dark valley, have already been mentioned. By
her smile, she undoubtedly intended to assure us that she had found
him. Words she could not utter to express what she felt. Life
continued to struggle with its last enemy until twenty minutes
before eight o'clock; when her affectionate heart gradually ceased
to beat, and her soul took its final departure to be forever with
the Lord."1
1 _A Memoir of Mrs. Sarah Lanman Smith_ was given to the public by
her brother, Edward W. Hooker, D. D., in 1837, pp. 407.
In the winter and spring of 1838, an opportunity was afforded Mr.
Smith to perform a very useful service as the associate of Dr.
Edward Robinson, in his celebrated "Biblical Researches in Palestine
and the Adjacent Regions."1 The aid was essential to the full
success of the enterprise, from Mr. Smith's acquaintance with the
Arabs and their language, and it was cheerfully rendered by the
missionary, and assented to by the mission and by the officers of
the Board at home. Mr. Smith had been hopeful of being able to visit
the Hauran, and to recover the more important facts lost in the
shipwreck, but the troubled state of the country prevented. Joining
Dr. Robinson in Egypt, he travelled with him from Cairo to Suez;
thence to Sinai and Jerusalem, by way of Akabah; then to Bethel, the
Dead Sea, and the valley of the Jordan. At Jerusalem, they attended
the annual meeting of the Syria mission.
1 Mr. Smith rendered a similar service, during a part of Dr.
Robinson's second tour in 1852, in a portion of the same regions.
The Rev. Messrs. Elias R. Beadle and Charles S. Sherman, and their
wives, joined the mission this year.