History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions Volume I Part 11

CHAPTER XIV.

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 Beirt 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 Beirt, 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 G.o.d, 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 circ.u.mstances 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 Beirt 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 dest.i.tute 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 princ.i.p.al 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 cla.s.ses 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 Tauns 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 Beirt 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 Beirt were providentially s.h.i.+elded. 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 Bes.h.i.+r, Ibrahim Pasha took Acre; then pus.h.i.+ng his conquests to Damascus, established the dominion of Egypt over Palestine and all Syria.

The papal bishop of Beirt 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 Beirt, 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 Bedawin. Turning to the north, they crossed the Jordan not far from the lake of Tiberias, ascended the western sh.o.r.e, 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 Beirt, and Mr. Smith completed the survey of Anti-Liba.n.u.s alone; visited a village of Jacobite Syrians in the desert towards Palmyra; pa.s.sed 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 Beirt. 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 ma.n.u.script in the s.h.i.+pwreck of Mr. and Mrs. Smith on their voyage to Smyrna. The Arabic press arrived in 1834, and pa.s.sed 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, censors.h.i.+p, 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 G.o.d had come to the knowledge of the missionaries.

Commodore Patterson visited Beirt during the summer with the U. S.

s.h.i.+p _Delaware_ and schooner _Shark_; princ.i.p.ally, 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 Tauns el Haddad was converted into a girls'

school. A female school was also opened by the ladies of the mission, a.s.sisted 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 ma.n.u.scripts. These were lost in his s.h.i.+pwreck, 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 s.h.i.+pwreck of Mr. and Mrs. Smith on their way from Beirt 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 s.h.i.+pwreck, extending through twenty-eight days until their arrival at Smyrna, aggravated her consumptive tendencies, and hastened her pa.s.sage 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 a.s.sure 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 a.s.sociate 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 a.s.sented 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 s.h.i.+pwreck, 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.

CHAPTER XV.

SYRIA.

THE DRUZES, AND THE WARS OF LEBANON.

1835-1842.

We now enter upon a period of some special difficulty in the prosecution of the missionary work. Turkey, Egypt, and several great European powers, conflicting for secular objects, brought the Druzes into very singular and as it proved unfortunate, relations to the mission.

The Druzes are found chiefly on the mountains of Lebanon, and in the country called the Hauran, south of Damascus, and number sixty or seventy thousand souls. The sect originated with Hakem, a Caliph of Egypt, but derived its name from El Drusi, a zealous disciple of the Caliph. They believe Hakem to be the tenth, last, and most important incarnation of G.o.d, and render him divine honors. They have ever taken great pains to conceal their tenets, which seem to be compounded from Mohammedanism and Paganism, and it is only a portion of themselves that know what the tenets are. Those are called the Akkal, or _initiated_; the others are the Jebal, or _uninitiated_.

Four centuries and a half after the death of the founder of the sect, it became powerful under a single chief. Inhabiting the rugged mountains of Lebanon, they maintained for many ages a free and independent spirit in the midst of despotism, and were a semi-independent people within the Turkish dominions down to the summer of 1835, when they were subdued by Ibrahim Pasha.

As early as 1831, a hope was awakened in the mission, that the Gospel might be successfully introduced among that people. A Druze woman was in the habit of coming daily to listen to the reading of the Scriptures and to religious conversation, and would often say, "That's the truth," with her face bathed in tears. Her visits were continued until she fell a victim to the plague. An old man, also, who was one of the "initiated," came, and, after much disputation, professed to receive the Gospel. In proof of his sincerity, he brought one of the secret books of his religion, and gave it to the missionaries. Mr. Smith, moreover, when on the mountains, was invited to attend one of their stated meetings, and, at its close, was requested to read and expound a portion of the word of G.o.d.

The prospects became more favorable in 1835. Mr. Bird and others spent the hot months of summer at Aaleih, a Druze village on Lebanon. Mrs. Dodge gathered a school of girls there, and Mr. Bird had ten or fifteen Druzes present at his Arabic preaching every Sabbath, and among them the young sheiks of the village, with their servants. Many of the people listened with attention, and received and read the New Testament and other religious books, with apparent eagerness. They readily acknowledged that neither repentance, alms-giving, prayers, nor any works of their own, were sufficient to insure the pardon of sin; and when pointed to the great atonement of the Lord Jesus, it seemed to commend itself to their understanding and conscience. Though nominally the disciples of the Koran, they did not cry out "blasphemy," as did the Moslems, when told that Jesus is the Son of G.o.d, thus partaking of the divine nature; but they seemed to feel that this character was necessary for one who should undertake to be a Saviour for a world of sinners.

Mr. Bird coming down from the mountains to accompany his sick wife to Smyrna, Mr. Smith took his place, and visited eight or nine villages, with every opportunity afforded him for preaching the Gospel; and he was everywhere listened to with respectful attention.

Though aware of the deceitfulness of the people, he could not but see how open they then were to this species of missionary labor. Yet he could not find among them any real spirit of inquiry, and his only hope was in the influences of the Holy Spirit, giving efficacy to the truth. The Druzes, though wrapped up in hypocrisy, and apparently without one spiritual thought, were of the same race with all other men, and the preaching of the word might be expected, in the end, to have the same effect upon them.

There was reason to believe, that this movement among the Druzes grew mainly out of their recent subjugation by the Egyptians, and their apprehension of a military conscription. They had always professed Mohammedanism hypocritically, to escape the oppressions which Christians suffered under Moslem rule; but now the Christians fared better than the Moslems, in that they were not liable to be drafted into the army, to which as Moslems the Druzes were exposed.

They had very painful apprehensions of such a levy, and the reason having ceased that had led them to profess Mohammedanism, they were disposed to renounce that religion; and some among the uninitiated seemed ready to renounce the Druze religion also. Their great object was to enjoy equal rights with the Christians, and especially to escape the military conscription.

A levy had been demanded of the Druzes before this visit of the brethren to the mountains, and had been refused, with an urgent request to Mohammed Ali that he would not impose upon them so odious a burden. Nothing was heard in reply until the fourth day after Mr.

Smith's return to Beirt, when Ibrahim Pasha presented himself at Deir el-Kamr, at the head of eighteen thousand men. Taken by surprise, no opposition was made. Both Druzes and Christians were at once disarmed, and officers were left to collect recruits.

With the dreaded evil thus strongly upon them, there was a more general disposition to throw off the Druze religion. Applications came from individuals and from families in different and distant villages. Among them were some of the higher ranks. One whole family connection of eighty individuals declared their readiness to pledge their property as security that they would never apostatize from the Christian faith; and had it been in the power of the mission to secure to them the political standing of Christian sects, and had the brethren been disposed to favor a national conversion, after the example of the early and middle ages, it is probable that the whole body of the Jebal Druzes, at least, would have become nominal Protestants. Of course the missionaries explained to them how inconsistent with the spirituality of our religion would be such a mere profession of Christianity. For a few Sabbaths, the Arab congregation was composed chiefly of Druzes; and Mr. Smith threw open his doors to them at the time of family prayers, and had the opportunity of reading and explaining the Gospel to from ten to fifteen for two months; but without finding evidence, with perhaps a single exception, of a sincere desire to know the truth.

That exception was in the case of a Druze named Kasim. Mr. Smith saw him first in October, 1835. Residing in the mountains, Kasim had two of his sons already baptized by the Maronites, and had openly professed himself to be no longer a Druze, but a Christian. He had not himself received baptism, for fear of his relatives, who had once gone in a body and beaten him. He now removed into the immediate neighborhood of the missionary, where he hoped for protection, and he and his family became regular attendants upon Christian wors.h.i.+p. He professed a strong attachment to the Saviour, as did also his wife, and they both made evident progress in religious knowledge. Both openly declared themselves Protestants, and were anxious for baptism. The officer of the Emir Bes.h.i.+r, finding in his hands a testimonial from Mr. Smith, that he was a Christian, respected him in this character, while he was seizing all his Druze neighbors for soldiers; but he had not then been admitted to the church, for want of sufficient evidence of true conversion.