The next letter is from Melita Carabet, daughter of the Armenian Bishop Dionysius Carabet, who became a Protestant in 1823. She writes as follows:

"Nothing could give me more pleasure than to comply with your request, and thereby recall some of the happy days and incidents of my childhood and youth, spent under the roof of my godly teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Whiting. I ought to remember them as far back as at the baptismal font, for I heard afterwards that they were both present on the occasion, which took place in Malta, where I was born. But as my memory does not carry me back so far, I must date my recollections from the time I was five years of age, when I came to live in their family. I can distinctly recollect the first texts of Scripture and verses of hymns that dear Mrs. Whiting taught my young lips to repeat, and my little prayer which I used to say at her knees on going to bed, I still repeat to this day, "Now I lay me," etc. One incident which happened about a year later, was so deeply impressed on my memory, and had such an effect upon me at the time, that I must mention it. It was this. Mrs. Whiting had given us girls (we were five in number, my sister Salome, and Hannie, Dr. Wortabet's sister, and Sada and Rufka Gregory) some raisins to pick over preparatory to making cake. I stole an opportunity after a while, to slip about a dozen of these raisins into my pocket. No one saw me do it but from the moment I had done it, I began to feel very unhappy, and repented the deed. My companions went out to play, but I could not join in their sports. My heart was too heavy. I sat mourning over my sin, and could eat no supper, and had no rest until I had made a full confession to Mrs. Whiting at bed-time. She prayed and wept over me, and somehow I was comforted and went to my little bed much happier.

"I remember nothing more until a much later period, when I was about the age of twelve. About this time, there was a great awakening among the young girls in some of the Mission families. Mr. Calhoun's prayers and advice were very much solicited and sought, in guiding and praying with the young inquirers. One Sunday as I was reading the little tract "The Blacksmith's wife," (which I have kept to this day,) I felt a great weight and sense of sin. I trace my conversion to the reading of this tract. It was not long before I found peace. I have often since longed for those days and hours of sweet communion with my Saviour. I joined the Church a very short time after this, and at this early age was given charge of a Bible class in Abeih.

"Now I must pass over a few more years, when I went to Hasbeiya, to spend a little time with my sister Salome, now wife of Dr. John Wortabet, who was appointed pastor of the little Protestant Church there. I spent one year of my life here, during which time I took charge of a little day school for girls in my sister's house. Dr. Wortabet's sister Hannie had opened this school some years before I came. I do not remember the number of pupils, but there were five little Moslem princesses, grandchildren of the great Emir "Saad-ed-Deen," who was called some years later to Constantinople to be punished for having spoken disrespectfully of Queen Victoria. These little princesses were regular attendants at the school, and learned to read in the New Testament, and studied Watts' Catechism with the rest of the Christian children. I had also charge of a Bible class for women, who used to meet once a week in the Protestant Church. This was before the massacre of 1860. The rest of my life has been spent in teaching in Beirut. Since the massacres, I have been teaching the orphans in the Prussian School, where I at present reside. Indeed it has been my home ever since I undertook this work which I love dearly, and which I hope to continue so long as the Lord sees fit, and gives me strength to work for Him."

I am permitted to make the following extract from a letter written by Melita to Mrs. Whiting, in February, 1868. I give the exact language, as the letter is written in English:

Prussian Institution, Beirut, February 23, 1868.

My Dear Mrs. Whiting—

It is so cold this morning that I can with difficulty hold my pen. It has been a very cold and stormy month, and there seems no prospect of fair weather yet. The snow on the mountains is as low as the lowest hills, and I pity the poor creatures who must be suffering in consequence. J. enjoys the weather very much; indeed he seems so exhilarated and invigorated by it that one could almost wish it to last on his account, but I must say that I wish it was over, and the warm sunbeams shedding their genial rays again upon the cold frozen earth.

Trouble and grief are such a common complaint at present that you will not be surprised to hear me relate my share of them. I have indeed had my full share, and you would say so too had you seen how I was occupied during my holidays last summer, in taking care of my ill and suffering brother. And aside from my fatigue, for I was always on my feet until two or three hours after midnight, quite alone with him—merely to witness such indescribable suffering as he went through, was more than is generally allotted to human beings on earth. He had been unwell for some time previous, and had been advised by the Doctor to go up to the mountains, so Mr. Calhoun kindly offered him a place in the Seminary, where he could stop until his health was recruited, and in the meantime give a couple of English lessons during the day to the boys in the Seminary. He lodged with the Theological students in a little room above the school, but he had not been up there more than a week, when his whole body became suddenly covered with a burning eruption that was always spreading and increasing in size. He could neither lie nor sit in any possible position, and was racked with pains that seemed at times well nigh driving him mad. I trembled for his reason, and was so awed and terrified by the sight, that I was in danger of losing mine as well. No one would come near him, and Mrs. Calhoun had kindly asked me to come and spend the holidays with them, so it fell to my lot to nurse and take care of him. I used to go to him in the morning as soon as I got up, and sit (or stand) up with him until two or three o'clock at night, dressing his sores; running down only occasionally for my meals, and with my little lantern coming down in the dead of night, all alone, to lay my weary head and aching heart and limbs on my bed for a little rest. But not to sleep, for whenever I closed my eyes, I had that eternal picture and scene of suffering before me. I could find no one who was willing for love or for money to help me or relieve me for one night or day. The disease was so offensive as well as frightful, that no one could stop in the room. One of the Prussian "Sisters" who went up with me, kindly assisted me sometimes until she came down. In this state did J. find me on his return from England. His family was up in Aaleih, and he used to ride over occasionally to see P. and prescribe some new medicine for him, but his skill was baffled with this terrifying disease, and poor P. remained in this agonizing state of suffering for five whole months without leaving his bed. He was carried down on a litter to Beirut, where he has been since. He took a little room by himself, and gives lessons in English until something more prosperous turns up for him. Twenty years' experience seemed to be added to my life in those three months of anxiety I went through last summer; and what a picture of suffering and grief was I, after this, myself. No wonder if I feel entirely used up this winter, and feel it a great effort to live.

There is not the slightest prospect of my ever getting back my lost property from that man—as he has long since left the country, and is said to be a great scoundrel and a very dishonorable man. If he were not, he would never have risked the earnings of a poor orphan girl by asking for it on the eve of his bankruptcy. Had I my property I might perhaps have given up teaching for a while, and gone away for a little change and rest, but God has willed it otherwise, no doubt for some wise purpose, and to some wise end, although so difficult and incomprehensible at present. It is all doubtless for the trial of my faith and trust in Him. Let me then trust in Him! Yea, though He slay me, let me yet trust in Him! Has He ever yet failed me? Has He not proved Himself in all ages to be the Father and the God of the orphan and the widow? He must see that I need these troubles and sorrows, or He would not send them, for my Father's hand would never cause his child a needless tear. A bruised reed He will not break, but will temper the storm to the shorn lamb; I will then no longer be dejected and cast down, but look upward and trust in my Heavenly Father, feeling sure that He will make all right in the end.

My letter is so sad and melancholy that I cannot let it go without something more cheerful, so I will add a line to brighten and cheer it up a little. For life, with all the bitterness it contains, has also much that is agreeable and affords much enjoyment; for there is a wonderful elasticity in the human mind which enables it, when sanctified by divine grace, to bear up under present ills. So with all my griefs and ills, I have been able to enjoy myself too sometimes this winter. I have lately attended two Concerts, one here, given by the Prussian Sisters, for the benefit of the new Orphanage, "Talitha Kumi," at Jerusalem, lately erected by the Prussian Sisters there—and one given by the "Sisters of Charity," for the benefit of the orphans and poor of this town. Daood Pasha most generously gave up the large hall in his mansion for the occasion, as well as honoring it by his attendance. The Concert in our Institution was entirely musical, vocal and instrumental. All the Missionaries came. We had nearly three hundred tickets sold at five francs apiece, so that there was a nice little sum added to the Orphan's Fund at Jerusalem.

Ever your affectionate

Melita.

Saada Gregory was engaged in teaching at different times in Tripoli, Aleppo, Hasbeiya and Egypt. Her school in Tripoli was eminently successful, and her labors in Alexandria were characterized by great energy and perseverance. She kept up a large school even when suffering from great bodily pain. She is now in the United States in enfeebled health.

American Mission House, Alexandria, November 8, 1867.

My Dear Mrs. Whiting,

I know you will be expecting a letter from me soon, partly in answer to yours sent by Mrs. Van Dyck, and especially because it is the day on which you expect all your children to remember you. I never do forget this day, but this time there are special reasons for my remembering it. Whenever the day has come around, I have felt more forcibly than at others, how utterly alone I have been, for since dear Mr. Whiting was taken away from us, it has seemed as though we were made doubly orphans, but this time it has not been so. I think I have been made to realize that I have a loving Father in heaven who loves and watches over and cares for me more than ever you or Mr. Whiting did. I do really feel now that God has given me friends, so this day has not been so sad a one to me as it usually is. Another source of thankfulness to-day is, that I have been raised up from a bed of pain and suffering from which neither I nor any of my friends thought I ever would rise. Weary days and nights of pain, when it was torture to move and almost impossible to lie still, and when it seemed at times that death would be only a relief, and yet here I am still living to praise Him for many, many mercies. Mr. Pinkerton waited on me day and night, often depriving himself of sleep and rest in order to do it, and when convalescence set in, and with the restlessness of a sick person, I used to fancy I would be more comfortable up stairs, he used to carry me up and down and gratify all my whims. For five weeks I was in bed, and many more confined to my room and the house. But the greatest reason for thankfulness is, that God has in His great mercy brought me to a knowledge of Himself, and of my own lost state as a guilty sinner. It was while lying those long weary days on the bed that I was made to see that for ten long years I had been deceiving myself. Instead of being a Christian and being prepared to die, I was still in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity, and if God had taken me away during that sickness, it would have been with a lie in my right hand. Now when I look back on those long years spent in sin and in self-deception, I wonder at God's loving kindness and patience in sparing me still to show forth in me His goodness and forbearance. Truly it is of His mercies that I was not consumed. How often I taught others and talked to them of the love of Christ, and yet I had not that love myself. How many times I sat down to His table with his children, and yet I had no portion nor lot in the matter. Sometimes when I think how near destruction I was, with literally but a step between me and death, eternal death, and yet God raised me up and brought me to Christ and made me love Him, and how ever since He has been watching over me giving me the measure of comfort and peace that I enjoy and giving me the desire to know and love Him more, I wonder at my own coldness, at the frequency with which I forget Him. How strong sin still is over me, how prone I am to wander away from Christ and to forget His love, to allow sin to come between me and Him, and yet He still follows me with His love, still He brings me back to Him, the good Shepherd. Oh! if I could live nearer Christ, if I could realize and rejoice in His love. Now when I think how near I may be to the eternal world, that at any moment a severe attack of pain may come on which will carry me off, it is good to know that my Saviour will be with me; that He is mine and I am His. It is not easy to look death calmly in the face and know that my days are numbered, yet can I not participate in the promise that He Himself will come and take me to be with Him where He is. I would like to be allowed to live longer and be permitted to bring souls to Christ, but I feel assured that He will do what is best, and that He will not call me away as long as He has any work for me to do here I have a feeling that this will be my last letter to you, and I now take the opportunity of thanking you for all you have done for me, for all the care you bestowed on me, the prayers you have offered for me, and the kind thoughtfulness you still manifest for my welfare. It would be a comfort to me if I could see and talk with you once more, but I fear that will never be in this world, but shall we not meet in our Saviour's presence, purified, justified and sanctified through His blood? With truest love and gratitude

I remain yours,

Saada.



CHAPTER VII.

DR. DE FOREST'S WORK IN BEIRUT.

In 1847, Dr. and Mrs. De Forest commenced their work of female education, receiving two young women into their family. In 13 Mission schools there were 163 girls and 462 boys. During the year 1847, six schools were in operation in connection with the Beirut Station. One in the Mesaitebe with 32 pupils, of whom 10 were girls. This school was promising and 15 of the pupils could read in the Bible. Another was in the Ashrafiyeh, with 50 pupils, of whom 12 were girls. Nineteen in this school could read in the Bible. Another was on the Mission premises with seventy pupils. Another school, south of the Mission premises, had 60 pupils, of whom 15 were girls. In addition to these was the Female School with thirty girls, taught by Raheel.

In 1848, on the organization of the first Evangelical Church, nineteen members were received, of whom four were women. Dr. De Forest had seven native girls in his family, and there were fifty-five girls in other schools.

In 1849, Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. De Forest visited Hasbeiya to labor among the women, by whom they were received with great cordiality. The girls' school of that time was regularly maintained and well attended. Dr. De Forest had thirteen native girls boarders in his family in Beirut, and Mr. Whiting had five.

In the Annual Report of the Beirut Station for 1850, it is stated that "a more prayerful spirit prevails among the brethren and sisters. One pleasing evidence of this is the recent establishment of a weekly female prayer-meeting, which is attended by all the female members of the Church. Yet it is somewhat remarkable that in our little Church there is so small a proportion of females. Unhappily, only one of our native brethren is blessed with a pious wife. Some of them are surrounded with relatives and friends whose influence is such as to hinder rather than help them in their Christian course, and in the religious training of their children."

This difficulty still exists in all parts of the Protestant community, not only in Syria, but throughout the Turkish Empire, and probably throughout the missionary world. The young men of the Protestant Churches at the present time endeavor to avoid this source of trial and embarrassment by marrying only within the Protestant community, and the rapid growth of female education in these days gives promise that the time is near when the mothers in Syria will be in no respect behind the fathers in either virtue or intelligence. The Beirut Church now numbers 107 members, of whom 57 are men and 50 are women.

In 1851, Miss Anna L. Whittlesey arrived in Beirut as an assistant to Dr. and Mrs. De Forest, and died in a year less one day after her arrival, beloved and lamented by all. In July of that year five of the women in Hasbeiya united with the Church.

In 1852 and 1853 the Female Seminary in Beirut reached a high degree of prosperity, and the girls' schools in different parts of the land were well attended. Miss Cheney arrived from America to supply Miss Whittlesey's place.

In 1854, Dr. De Forest was obliged from failing health, to relinquish his work and return to the United States. A nobler man never lived. As a physician he was widely known and universally beloved, and as a teacher and preacher he exerted a lasting influence. The good wrought by that saintly man in Syria will never be fully known in this world. The lovely Christian families in Syria, whose mothers were trained by him and his wife, will be his monuments for generations to come. It is a common remark in Syria, that the great majority of all Dr. De Forest's pupils have turned out well.

I have not been able to find the official reports with regard to the Female Seminary of Dr. De Forest in Beirut for the years 1847, 1848, and 1849, but from the Reports made by Dr. De Forest himself for the years 1850, 1852 and 1853, I make the following extracts:

In 1850, the Doctor writes: "The Seminary now has seventeen pupils including two, Khozma and Lulu, who act as teachers. The older class have continued to study the Sacred Scriptures as a daily lesson, and have nearly finished the Old Testament. They have studied a brief Compend of History in Arabic, and have continued Arithmetic and English. Compositions have been required of them weekly in Arabic until last autumn, when they began to write alternately in English and Arabic. A brief course of Astronomy was commenced, illustrated by Mattison's maps, given by Fisher Howe, Esq., of Brooklyn, N.Y.

"Recently the pupils have been invited to spend every second Sabbath evening with the other members of the family in conversation respecting some missionary field which has been designated previously. The large missionary map is hung in the sitting-room, and all are asked in turn to give some fact respecting the field in question. Even the youngest, who have not yet learned to read with facility in their own language, furnish their mite of information.

"The instruction in this school has been given by Dr. and Mrs. De Forest, aided by Mrs. De Forest's parents and the two elder pupils who have rendered such efficient aid heretofore. The pupils of all the classes have made good progress in their various studies, and their deportment has been satisfactory. They are gaining mental discipline and intellectual furniture, and have acquired much evangelical knowledge. Deep seriousness has been observed on the part of some of the elder pupils at different times, and they give marked and earnest attention to the preached word.

"In our labors for the reconstruction of society here, we feel more and more the absolute need of a sanctified and enlightened female influence; such an influence as is felt so extensively in America, and whose beneficent action is seen in the proper training of children, and in the expulsion of a thousand superstitions from the land. Christian schools seem the most evident means of securing such an end. Commerce and intercourse with foreigners, and many other causes are co-operating with missionary effort to enlighten the men of Beirut and its vicinity, but the women, far more isolated than in America, are scarcely affected by any of these causes, and they hinder materially the moral elevation of the other sex. Often the man who seems full of intelligence and enterprise and mental enlargement when abroad, is found when at home to be a mere superstitious child; the prophecy that his mother taught him being still the religion of his home, and the heathenish maxims and narrow prejudices into which he was early indoctrinated still ruling the house. The inquirer after truth is seduced back to error by the many snares of unsanctified and ignorant companionship, and the convert who did run well is hindered by the benighted stubbornness to which he is unequally yoked.

"While exerting this deleterious influence over their husbands and children, the females of the land have but little opportunity for personal improvement, and are not very promising subjects of missionary labor. His faith must be strong who can labor with hope for the conversion of women, with whom the customs of society prohibit freedom of intercourse, and who have not learning enough to read a book, or vocabulary enough to understand a sermon, or mental discipline enough to follow continuous discourse."

In the Report for 1852, Dr. De Forest writes: "At the date of our last Annual Report, Miss Whittlesey was in good health, was rapidly acquiring the Arabic, and was zealously pressing on in her chosen work, with well-trained intellect, steady purpose and lively hope. But God soon called her away, and she departed in "hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began." The Female Boarding School has suffered much from the loss of its Principal, but the same course of study has been pursued as before, though necessarily with less efficiency. One of the assistant pupils, (Lulu,) who has been relied upon for much of the teaching, and superintendence of the scholars, was married last autumn to the senior tutor of the Abeih Seminary. The number of pupils now in the school is fifteen. The communication of Biblical and religious knowledge has been a main object of this school. All the pupils, as a daily lesson, study the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, first in Arabic with proof-texts, and afterwards in English with Baker's Explanatory Questions and Scripture proofs, and they are taught a brief Historical Catechism of the Old and New Testaments. The first of proper school hours every day is occupied with the Scriptures by all the school. The Epistles to the Hebrews and the Romans formed the subject of these lessons until the autumn, when Mr. Calhoun's revised edition of the "Companion to the Bible" was adopted as a text-book, and the Old Testament has been studied in connection with that work. The pupils all attend the service at the Mission Chapel, and have lessons appropriate to the Sabbath in the intervals of worship.

"The evening family worship is in Arabic, and is a familiar Bible Class. All the pupils are present, and not unfrequently some of their relatives and other strangers. In addition to this religious instruction, the several classes have studied the Arabic and English languages, some of them writing in both, geography and history, arithmetic mental and higher, astronomy, and some of the simple works on natural philosophy and physiology. Compositions have been required in Arabic and English. The lessons in drawing, commenced by Miss Whittlesey, have been continued under the instruction of Mrs. Smith, and plain and fancy needle-work have been taught as heretofore.

"To those who have watched the growth of intellect, and in some instances, we hope, the growth of grace in these few pupils, and in the other female boarding scholars in some of the mission families, who have seen the pleasing contrast afforded by Syrian females when adorned after the Apostolic recommendation by good works and a "meek and quiet spirit," with those who cover empty heads with pearls and enrobe untidy persons in costly array,—who have rejoiced to see one and another family altar set up, where both heads of the family and the hearts of both unite in acknowledging God,—this branch of our labors need offer no further arguments to justify its efficient prosecution.

"The library of the Seminary consists of 220 school books, and 148 volumes of miscellaneous books, chiefly for the young. The school has 6 large fine maps, and 5 of Mr. Bidwell's Missionary maps, and 16 of Mattison's astronomical maps. These maps were the gifts of Mrs. Dr. Burgess and of Fisher Howe, Esq. The school has a pair of globes, one Season's machine, one orrery, a pair of gasometers, a spirit-lamp and retort stand, a centre of gravity apparatus, a capillary attraction apparatus, a galvanic trough, a circular battery, an electromagnet, a horse shoe magnet, a revolving magnet, a wire coil and hemispheric helices, and an electric shocking machine."

The report of the Female Seminary for 1853 is written in the handwriting of Mrs. De Forest, owing to the increasing infirmity of Dr. De Forest's health, and this report has a sad interest from its being the last one ever dictated by Dr. De Forest.

"A small day-school for girls has been taught by one of the pupils in Mrs. Whiting's family during the winter, and it is contemplated to continue the school hereafter in the Girl's School house on the Mission premises, under the instruction of a graduate of the Female Seminary. The demand for such instruction for girls is steadily increasing.

"The teaching force of the Seminary was increased last spring by the arrival of Miss Cheney, who entered at once upon the duties of her position, devoting a portion of her time to the acquisition of Arabic, and a part to the instruction of some classes in English. Still, on account of the repeated illnesses of Dr. De Forest, it was not deemed advisable to receive a new class last autumn. The only girls admitted during the year were one of Mrs. Whiting's pupils who was transferred to the Seminary for one year, one of the class who graduated two years since, and who desired to return for another year, and Sara, the daughter of Mr. Butrus Bistany. These three were received into existing classes, while it was not deemed advisable under the circumstances to make up another class composed of new pupils.

"The course of instruction, Biblical and other, has been much the same as that hitherto pursued. Miss Cheney commenced "Watts on the Mind," with some of the older pupils, in English. All the pupils have had familiar lessons on Church History in Arabic, and some of them have begun an abridged work on Moral Philosophy. Much effort has been bestowed upon the cultivation of a taste for the reading of profitable books, and a number of the girls have read the whole of "D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation," and other history with Mrs. De Forest in the evening class, the atlas being always open before them. Mrs. Smith has given some instruction in the rudiments of drawing to a part of the pupils, and Mrs. Bird and Mrs. Calhoun have given lessons in vocal music, for which some of the pupils have considerable taste.

"After completing the 'Companion to the Bible' in Arabic, the whole school were engaged daily in a Harmony of the Gospels, and other Biblical and religious instruction has been continued as heretofore. We have ever kept in mind the necessity of not denationalizing these Arab children, and we believe that this desired result has been attained. The long vacation of six weeks in the spring, and the same in the autumn, the commencement of all instruction in Arabic, and the preponderance of Arabic study in the school, have contributed to this result. The older pupils have attained to a considerable knowledge of English, giving them access to books suitable for girls to read, and yet Arabic is the language of the school, and the pupils are Syrians still in dress and manners. The advantages of the school are more and more appreciated in the city, and the adjacent mountains. Many were exceedingly earnest in offering their daughters last autumn, both Protestant and other, and some when repulsed at the Seminary, besought the mission families to receive their children."

During the next year, the school was placed in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, under the charge of Miss Cheney. A class of eight graduated, and the pupils contributed to benevolent objects of the fruits of their industry, over 1200 piastres, or about fifty dollars.

In a report on Education, prepared by the Syria Mission in 1855, it was stated, that "without entering into details in regard to the course of study pursued, we are happy to say that the results of Dr. De Forest's Seminary were very gratifying, and proved, if proof were needed, that there is the same capacity in the native female mind of the country that there is in the male, and that under proper instruction, and by the blessing of God, there will be brought forward a class of intelligent, pious and efficient female helpers in the great work of evangelizing this community."

The hope implied in the above sentence with regard to the raising up of "a class of intelligent, pious and efficient female helpers," has been abundantly realized. The list of Dr. De Forest's pupils is to a great extent the list of the leading female teachers and helpers in all the various departments of evangelic work in Syria.

Not having access to the records of the Seminary as they have been lost, I have obtained from several of the former pupils a list of the members of the various classes from 1848 to 1852. The whole number of pupils during that period was twenty-three. Of these two died in faith, giving good evidence of piety. Of the twenty-one who survive, twelve are members of the Evangelical Church, and nine are now or were recently engaged in teaching, although nearly twenty years have elapsed since they graduated. Twenty-one are at the head of families, esteemed and honored in the communities where they reside. The names of the whole class are as follows:

Ferha Jimmal, now Kowwar of Nazareth. Sara Haddad, now Myers of Beirut. Sada Sabunjy, now Barakat of Beirut. Sada Haleby, of Beirut. Miriam Tabet, now Tabet of Beirut. Khushfeh Mejdelany, now Musully of Beirut. Khurma Mejdelany, now Ashy of Hasbeiya. Mirta Tabet, now Suleeby of B'hamdun. Feifun Maluf, of Aramoon. Katrin Roza, of Kefr Shima. Mirta Suleeby, now Trabulsy of Beirut. Sara Suleeby, of Beirut. Esteer Nasif, now Aieed of Suk el Ghurb. Hada Suleeby, now Shidoody of Beirut. Helloon Zazuah, now Zuraiuk of Beirut. Khushfeh Towileh, now Mutr of Beirut. Fetneh Suleeby, now Shibly of Suk el Ghurb. Akabir Barakat, now Ghubrin of Beirut. Hamdeh Barakat, now Bu Rehan of Hasbeiya. Eliza Hashem, now Khuri of Beirut. Rufka Haddad, (deceased). Sara Bistany, (deceased). Durra Schemail, of Kefr Shima.

Two of the most successful of those engaged in teaching, are now connected with the British Syrian Schools. They are Sada Barakat and Sada el Haleby. The former has written me a letter in English in regard to her own history and religious experience, which I take the liberty to transcribe here verbatim in her own language. She was one of the least religious of all the pupils in the school, when she was first received but the work of conviction and conversion was a thorough one, and she has been enabled by the grace of God to offer constant and most efficient testimony to the reality of Christian experience, in the responsible position she has been called upon to fill in the late Mrs. Thompson's institution.

Suk el Ghurb, Mt. Lebanon, September 3, 1872.

Dear Sir—I am thankful to say, in reply to your inquiry, that I was not persecuted when I became a Protestant, like my other native sisters were when they became Protestants, because I was very young. I was about four years old when my father died, and a year after, my mother married a Protestant man. I came to live with my mother in her new home, with my two brothers. It was very hard to lose a dear loving father who loved his children so much as my mother tells me he did. But the Lord does everything right, because if the Lord had not taken my father away from us I should not have known the true religion. I lived in my step-father's house till I was twelve years old. I was then placed in Dr. De Forest's school, in the year 1848. I stayed there four years. I was not clever at my studies, and especially the English language was very difficult for me. Even until now I remember a lesson in English which was so hard for me that I was punished twice for it, and I could not learn it. Now it will make me laugh to think of these few words, which I could not translate into Arabic: "The hen is in the yard." My mind was more at play than at learning. I was very clever at housework, and at dressing dolls, and was always the leader in all games. From that you can see that I was not a very good girl at school. After the two first years I began to think how nice it would be to become a real Christian like my dear teacher Dr. De Forest. Then I used to pray, and read, especially the "Pilgrim's Progress," and my mind was so busy at it that I used sometimes to leave my lesson and go and sit alone in my room. Nobody knew what was the matter with me, but Dr. De Forest used to ask me why I did not go to school? I told him that I was very troubled, and he told me to pray to God very earnestly to give me a new heart. I did pray, but I did not have an answer then. Three or four times during my school time I began to wish to become a Christian. I prayed and was very troubled. I wept and would not play, and as I got no immediate answer, I left off reading and sometimes praying entirely. Everybody noticed that I did not much care to read, and especially a religious book. I felt that my heart had grown harder than before I had wished to become a Christian. The greatest trial was that I had no faith, and for that reason I used not to believe in prayer, but still I longed to become a real Christian. I left school in the year 1852, and went to live at home with my mother. I was taken ill, and when I was ill I was very much afraid of death, for I felt that God was very angry with me.

Till about two years after I left school, I had no religion at all. One evening a young man from Abeih came to our house. His name is Giurgius el Haddad, who is now Mr. Calhoun's cook. After a little while he began to talk about religion, and to read the book, "Little Henry and his Bearer." I felt very much ashamed that others who did not have the opportunity to learn about religion had religion, and I, who had learned so much, had none. That was the blessed evening on which I began to inquire earnestly about my salvation. I was three months praying and found no answer to my prayers. Christian friends tried to lead me to Christ, but I could not take hold of Him, till He Himself appeared to my soul in all His beauty and excellency. Before I found peace Dr. Eli Smith and Mr. Whiting wanted me to teach a day school for them. That was about three years after I left off learning. "Oh," thought I, "how can I teach others about Christ when I do not know Him myself?" However I began the school by opening and closing it with prayer, without any faith at all. So I began by reading from the first of Matthew, till I came to the 16th chapter. When I came to that chapter I read as usual, with blinded eyes; but when I came to the (13th) thirteen verse, and from there to the seventeenth, where it says, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven," I felt that this had been said to me, and were these words sounded from heaven I would not have felt happier. How true it is that no flesh could reveal unto me what God had revealed, because many Christian friends tried to make me believe, but I could not, I felt as if everything had become new and beautiful, because my Heavenly Father had made them all. I was sometimes with faith and sometimes doubting, and by these changes my faith was strengthened. After a short time, I asked Mr. Whiting to let me join the Church. He asked me if I saw any change in myself, and I said, "One thing I know, that I used to dislike Christian people, and now they are my best friends." After a short time I was permitted to join the Church. Then I left off teaching the day school, and was asked to teach in a Boarding school with Miss Cheney, in the same Seminary where I was brought up. We taught in that school only six months. Miss Cheney married, and I was engaged to be married. While I was engaged, I went to Mr. Bird's school for girls in Deir el Kamr, and taught there for more than a year. I was married by Mr. Bird in his own house to M. Yusef Barakat, and then we went to Hasbeiya. I stayed there seven months and then went to Beirut, and thence to Damascus with my husband, because he had to teach there. I had nothing to do there but to look after my house, my little boy, and my husband.

After some time, the massacre broke out in Damascus, (July 9, 1860,) so we came back as refugees to Beirut. Soon after my husband was taken ill and then died. In that same year 1860, dear Mrs. Bowen Thompson came to Beirut. She felt for the widows and orphans, being herself a widow. She asked me if I would come and teach a school for the widows and orphans, which I accepted thankfully. We opened the school with five children and seven women, and the work, by God's help has prospered, so that now, instead of one school, there are twenty-two schools. Until now I continue teaching in the Institution, and had I known that nearly all my life would be spent in teaching, I should have tried to gain more when I was a child. I can forget father and mother, but can never forget those who taught me, especially about religion. Although some of them are dead, yet still they live by their Christian example, which they have left behind. My whole life will be full of gratitude to those dear Christian friends, and I pray that God himself may reward them a hundred fold.

Yours respectfully,

Sada Barakat.

In the year 1851 the Missionary Sewing Society of the Beirut Female Seminary heard of the interesting state of things in Aintab, and that the women there were anxious to learn to read. The missionaries in Aintab hired an old man to go around from house to house to teach the women to read in their homes, but the women were so eager to learn that the old man was unable to meet the demand. So children were employed to assist. The plan worked admirably, and in 1851, eighty women received instruction and became able to read God's Word. The Arab girls in Mrs. De Forest's school were called together, and it was proposed that they sew and embroider and send the proceeds of their work to pay the little girl teachers in Aintab. There were present, Ferha, (joy,) Sara, Saada Sabunjy, Miriam, Khushfeh, Khurma, Mirta, (Martha) Feifun, Katrina, Hada, Sada el Haleby, Esteer, Helloon, Fetny, Akabir, Hamdy, and Liza. The needles were briskly plied, and in due time, two hundred and fifty piastres were collected and forwarded to Aintab. Mrs. Schneider wrote back thanking the "dear Arab girls." The habits of benevolence thus acquired have continued with the most of these girls until now. The greater part of them are now church-members and the heads of families.

The following letter written by Mrs. De Forest in Feb. 1852, gives some account of Lulu Araman.

Beirut, Syria, February, 1852.

My Dear young friends in Thetford:

The quilt you sent came safely, and I thank you much for all the care and trouble you have taken to make and quilt it for me. I at first thought of keeping it for myself, but then it occurred to me that perhaps it might please you better and interest you more if I gave it to Lulu, one of my girls, who is to be married some time this year to Mr. Michaiel Araman, one of the teachers in the Abeih Seminary. You will thus have the pleasure of feeling that you have in one sense done something for the school, as she is an assistant pupil, or pupil teacher. She has been with me now for about eight years, and seems almost like my own daughter. Perhaps you will be interested in knowing something of her.

She was born in a pleasant valley, Wady Shehrur, near Beirut, celebrated for its fine oranges, and indeed for almost all kind of fine fruits. She lost both her parents early in life. Her brothers (contrary to the usual custom here where girls are not much regarded or cared for) were very kind to her, and as she was a delicate child, they took great care of her, and often used to make vows to some saint in her behalf. At one time, when she was very ill, they vowed to Mar Giurgis (for they are members of the Greek Church, and St. George is one of the favorite saints of the Greeks, and indeed of all the Christian sects here, and they still show the spot where he is said to have killed the dragon) that if she recovered, she should carry to one of his shrines two wax candles as tall as herself and of a prescribed weight. While she was still feeble they provided the candles, and as she was too weak to walk, they carried her and the candles also, to the holy place and presented them.

When she was eight years old, they were persuaded by an acquaintance to place her in one of the Mission families. Here she was instructed in her own language, and especially in the Holy Scriptures. She was allowed, however, to keep her feasts and fasts, and to attend her own church, until she became convinced that these things would not save her and she wished to give them up. One feast day the lady with whom she lived gave her some sewing and told her to seat herself and do her task. She refused, saying it was a feast day, and it was unlawful work. A little while after she asked permission to go and visit her brother's family; but the lady told her, "No, if it is unlawful to work, it is unlawful to visit. I have no objection to your keeping your feast days, but if you do you must keep them as holy time." So she gave her a portion of Scripture to learn, and she was kept very quiet all day, as though it was the Sabbath, and without the day being made agreeable to her like the Sabbath by going to Church and Sabbath School. She did not at all like keeping a feast in this manner, which is very different from the manner in which such a day or even the Sabbath, is kept in this land, and was ever after ready to work when told to do so. When her brothers saw that she was beginning to give up their vain ceremonies, they became anxious to get her away, lest she should become a Protestant; and at one time, when she went home to attend the wedding of one of her relatives, they refused to allow her to return, and it was only through the good management of the native friend who was sent for her, and her own determination to come, that she was permitted to come back.

We hope that she became truly pious six years ago, in 1846, as her life evinces that she is striving to live according to the precepts of the gospel. She has never dared to go home again, although it has been a great trial for her to stay away, because she knew that she should be obliged to remain there, and to conform to the idolatrous rites of the Greek Church. She has assisted us in the School for nearly five years, besides teaching a day school at various times, before the Boarding School was commenced, and we shall feel very sorry to part with her. Still we hope that she will yet be useful to her countrywomen, and furnish them an example of a happy Christian home, of which there are so few at present in this country.

Our school has now nineteen pupils, most of whom are promising. Some we hope are true Christians. The girls opened their box the other day, and found that they had a little more than last year from their earnings. Some friends added a little, and they have now forty dollars. One half they send to China, and the other half give to the Church here.

The hope expressed by Mrs. De Forest in 1852, with regard to the future usefulness of Lulu, has not been disappointed. Her family is a model Christian family, the home of piety and affection, the centre of a pure and hallowed influence. Her eldest daughter Katie, named from Mrs. De Forest, is now a teacher in the Beirut Female Seminary in which her father has been the principal instructor in the Bible and in the higher Arabic branches for ten years. For years this institution was carried on in Lulu's house, and she was the Matron while Rufka was the Preceptress, and its very existence is owing to the patient and faithful labors of those two Christian Syrian women. If any one who reads these lines should doubt the utility of labors for the girls and women of the Arab race, let him visit first the squalid, disorderly, cheerless and Christless homes of the mass of the Arab villagers of Syria, and then enter the cheerful, tidy, well ordered home of Mr. and Mrs. Araman, when the family are at morning prayers, listen to the voice of prayer and praise and the reading of God's word. Instead of the father sitting gloomily alone at his morning meal, and the mother and children waiting till their lord is through and then eating by themselves in the usual Arab way, he would see the whole family seated together in a Christian, homelike manner, the Divine blessing asked, and the meal conducted with propriety and decorum. After breakfast the father and Katie go to the Seminary to give their morning lessons, Henry (named for Dr. De Forest) sets out for the College, in which he is a Sophomore, and the younger children go to their various schools. Lulu's place at church is rarely vacant, and since that "relic of barbarism" the curtain which separated the men from the women has been removed from the building, the whole family, father, mother, and children sit together and join in the worship of God. Her brother and relatives from "Wady" are on the most affectionate terms with her, and her elder sister is in the domestic department of the Beirut Female Seminary.

This change is very largely due to the efforts of Mrs. De Forest, whose name with that of her sainted husband is embalmed in the memory of the Christian families of Syria, and will be held in everlasting remembrance. The second generation of Christian teachers is now growing up in Syria. Three of Mrs. De Forest's pupils have daughters now engaged in teaching. Khushfeh, Lulu, and Sada el Haleby; and Miriam Tabet has a daughter married to Mr. S. Hallock, of the American Press in Beirut.

FRUITS OF DR. DE FOREST'S GIRL'S SCHOOL.

In the autumn of 1852, there was a school of thirty girls in B'hamdun, a village high up in Mt. Lebanon. Fifteen months before the teacher was the only female in the village who could read, and she had been taught by the native girls in Dr. De Forest's school. Quite a number of the girls of the village had there learned to read, and they all came to the school clean and neatly dressed. They committed to memory verses of Scripture, and it was surprising to see how correctly they recited them at the Sabbath School. At meeting they were quiet and attentive like the best behaved children in Christian lands. It would be difficult to sum up the results of that little school for girls twenty years ago in B'hamdun. That village is full of gospel light. A Protestant church edifice is in process of erection, a native pastor, Rev. Sulleba Jerawan, preaches to the people, and the mass of the people have at least an intellectual acquaintance with the truth.

The picturesque village of B'hamdun, where Dr. De Forest's school is established, is on the side of a lofty mountain. It is nearly 4000 feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea. The village is compact as a little city, the streets narrow, rocky and crooked, the houses flat-roofed, and the floors of mud. One of the Protestants, the father of Miriam Tabet, has built a fine large house with glass windows and paved floors, which is one of the best houses in that part of Lebanon. The village is surrounded by vineyards, and the grapes are regarded as the finest in Mt. Lebanon. The people say that they never have to dig for the foundation of a house, but only to sweep off the dust with a broom. There is not a shade tree in the village. One day Dr. De Forest asked, "Why don't you plant a tree?" "We shall not live till it has grown," was the reply. "But your children will," said the Doctor. "Let them plant it then," was the satisfactory answer.

My first visit to B'hamdun was made in February, 1856, a few days after my first arrival in Syria. On Sabbath morning I attended the Sabbath School with Mr. Benton, at that time a missionary of the A.B.C.F.M. One little girl named Katrina Subra, then nine years of age, repeated the Arabic Hymn "Kumu wa Rettelu," "Awake and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb." She was a bright-eyed child of fair complexion and of unusual intelligence. At that time there was no children's hymn book in Arabic, and I asked Mr. B. to promise the children that when I had learned the Arabic, I would translate a collection of children's hymns into Arabic, which promise was fulfilled first in the printing of the "Douzan el Kethar," "The tuning of the Harp," in 1861. Katrina was the daughter of Elias Subra, one of the wealthiest men in the village, who had just then become a Protestant. She had been interested in the truth for some time, and though at the time only eight years old, was accustomed during the preceding summer to tell the Arab children that she was a Protestant, though they answered her with insults and cursing. At first she could not bear to be abused, and answered them in language more forcible than proper, but by the time of my visit she had become softened and subdued in her manner, and was never heard to speak an unkind word to any one. She undertook, even at that age, to teach the Greek servant girl in the family how to read. One day the old Greek Priest met her in the street and asked her why she did not go to confession as the other Greek children do. She replied that she could go to Christ and confess. The priest then said that her father and the rest of the Protestants go to the missionary and write out their sins on papers which he puts into rat holes in the wall! Katrina knew this to be a foolish falsehood and told the priest so. He then asked her how the Protestants confess. She replied that they confess as the Lord Jesus tells them to, quoting to him the language of Scripture, (Matt. 6:6.) "But thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." The priest was confounded by the ready truthful answer of the child, and turned away.

Three years later Katrina was a member of the Mission Female Seminary in Suk el Ghurb, a village three hours distant from Beirut, under the instruction of Miss Temple and Miss Johnson, and continued there until the Seminary was broken up by the massacres of May and June, 1860. I remember well the day when that procession of girls and teachers rode and walked down from Suk el Ghurb to Beirut. All Southern Lebanon was in a blaze. Twenty-five villages were burning. Druze and Maronite were in deadly strife. Baabda and Hadeth which we passed on our way to Beirut, were a smoking ruin. Armed bodies of Druzes passed and saluted us, but no one offered to insult one of the girls by word or gesture. Dr. and Mrs. Bliss gave us lunch at their home in the Suk as we came from Abeih, and then followed a few days later to Beirut. Miss Temple tried to re-open the school in Beirut, but the constant tide of refugees coming in from the mountains, and the daily rumors of an attack by Druzes and Moslems on Beirut, threw the city into a panic, and it was found impossible to carry on the work of instruction. The girls were sent to their parents where this was practicable, and the Seminary as such ceased for a time to exist. Katrina, was married in 1864 to M. Ghurzuzy, a Protestant merchant of Beirut, who is now secular agent or Wakil of the Syrian Protestant College. In 1866, she united with the Evangelical Church in Beirut. She has had repeated attacks of illness, in which she has manifested the most entire submission to the Divine will, and a calm and sweet trust in her Lord and Saviour. Her home is a Christian home, and her children are being trained in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord."



CHAPTER VIII.

RE-OPENING OF THE SCHOOL IN BEIRUT.

In 1856 Miss Cheney re-opened the Female Seminary with eight pupils, in Beirut, and in the 34 schools of the Mission there were 1068 pupils, of whom 266 were girls.

In 1857, there were 277 girls in the various schools.

In 1858, Miss Temple and Miss Johnson arrived from America, and the Female Seminary was opened in Suk el Ghurb in the family of Rev. Dr. Bliss. Miss Johnson and Miss Cheney having returned to the United States, Miss Mason came to aid Miss Temple in February, 1860. The girl's school in Beirut under the care of Rufka Gregory, had about 60 pupils. The civil war in Lebanon, followed by the massacres in Jezzin, Deir el Komr, Hasbeiya, Rasheiya and Damascus, beginning in May, and continuing until the middle of July, broke up all our schools and seminaries, and filled the land with sorrow and desolation.

Miss Temple and Miss Mason remained for a season in Beirut, studying the Arabic language, and in 1862 Miss Temple having returned to the U.S.A., Miss Mason opened a Boarding School for girls in Sidon.

It was decided that none but Protestant girls should be received into this school, that no English should be taught, and that the style of eating, sleeping and dress should be conformed as much as possible to the standard of native customs in the country villages, in order that the girls might the more readily return to their homes as teachers, without acquiring European tastes and habits. Miss Mason carried on this school until 1865, when she returned to the U.S.A., and it was decided if possible to carry it on with native instructors under the supervision of Mrs. Eddy.

In the winter of 1867 it was under the kind charge of Mrs. Watson of Shemlan and her adopted daughter, Miss Handumeh Watson, and is now conducted by two English young ladies, Miss Jacombs and Miss Stanton, who are supported by the London "Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the East." On the removal of the girls' Boarding School to Sidon, it was evident that the Female Seminary must be re-opened in Beirut. Owing to the depressed state of Missionary finances in America, arising from the civil war, it was deemed advisable to reorganize the Beirut Seminary on a new basis, with only native teachers. The Providence of God had prepared teachers admirably fitted for this work, who undertook it with cheerful hope and patient industry. It was decided to make a paying Boarding School of a higher order than any existing institution in Syria, and to resume instruction in the English language, giving lessons also in French and Music to those who were willing to pay for these branches.

Mr. Michaiel Araman, for many years a teacher in the Abeih Seminary with Mr. Calhoun, and for some time a native preacher in Beirut, was appointed instructor in the Biblical History and the Higher Arabic branches; his wife Lulu, the Matron, and Miss Rufka Gregory, the Preceptress. Rufka was an orphan, as already stated, and was trained with her sister Sada in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Whiting for many years. As a teacher and a disciplinarian she had not an equal among the women of Syria, and under the joint management of this corps of teachers, aided by competent assistants in the various branches, the Seminary rose in public esteem, until it became one of the most attractive and prosperous institutions in Syria.

In March, 1862, Rufka's day school of seventy girls held a public examination in the Chapel. The girls were examined in Arabic reading, geography, grammar, catechism, arithmetic, Scripture lessons and English, with an exhibition of specimens of their needle work. In the fall it was commenced as a Boarding School, with two paying pupils and four charity pupils. The funds for commencing the boarding department were furnished by Mr. Alexander Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Henry Farnum, Col. Frazer, H.B.M. Commissioner to Syria, and others. The Seminary not being under the direction of the Mission as such, nor in connection with the American Board, was placed under the care of a local Board of Managers, consisting of Dr. Thomson, Dr. Van Dyck, Consul J.A. Johnson, and Rev. H.H. Jessup. Dr. Thomson was indefatigable in his efforts to place it on a firm and permanent foundation, as a purely Native Protestant institution, and the fact that such a school could be carried on for a year without a single foreign instructor, was one of the most encouraging features in the history of the Syria Mission. It was the first purely native Female Seminary in Western Asia, and we hope it will not be the last.

It will continue to be the aim of the Mission, and of the present able faculty of the institution, to train up Native teachers qualified to carry on the work in the future.

At the same time in the fall of 1862, a school for Damascene girls was opened in an upper room of my house, under the care of one of Dr. De Forest's pupils, Sada el Haleby, who carried it on successfully with seventy girls until August, 1864, when, on my departure for the U.S.A. the school was taken up by the late Mrs. Bowen Thompson, whose Society has maintained it until this day.

In 1863, the number of paying boarders in the Seminary had increased to twenty, and in 1866 the pupils numbered eighty, and the income from native paying pupils was about fifteen hundred dollars in gold!

The Annual Examination was held in the latter part of June, in the Mission Chapel, and continued three days, thronged by a multitude of interested spectators. The Turkish official Arabic Journal of Beirut, the "Hadikat el Akhbar," published a lengthy report of the Examination, pronouncing it the most satisfactory examination of girls that ever took place in Syria. An English clergyman who was present refused to believe that they were Syrian girls, insisting that they must be English. The girls recited in Bible History, giving all the important dates from Adam to Christ, with an account of the rites, sacrifices and prophecies which refer to Christ, giving also the names of all the patriarchs, judges, kings and prophets in their order. Twenty-two different classes were examined, and many of the girls read original compositions.

On the Sabbath, July 1st, two of the assistant teachers, Asin Haddad and Sara Sarkis were received to the communion of the Beirut Church. They traced their religious awakening to the dying testimony of Sara Bistany, which is described in a subsequent chapter. Several of the younger pupils were much interested in the subject of religion at the time, and one little girl about seven years old said to her teacher, "I gave the Lord my heart, and He took it." Asin died in Latakiah in 1869, triumphing in Christ. The women of the neighborhood came to the house of her brother to hear her joyous expressions of trust in Jesus, and her assurance that she should soon be with Him in glory. She was the second daughter of that young bride of fifteen years of age, who learned to read in 1825, in the school taught by her own husband, Tannus el Haddad.

In 1867, the health of Rufka having become seriously impaired, she removed to Egypt, where after a period of rest, she opened on her own account a school for girls in Cairo, which she maintained with her wonted energy, until her marriage with the Rev. Mr. Muir, a Scotch clergyman, whom she accompanied to Melbourne, Australia, in 1869. Since the death of her husband she has returned to her favorite employment of teaching, with marked success, among the British population of Melbourne.

While in Cairo, she passed through a deep and agonizing religious experience, which she described in the following letter to Mrs. Whiting, and the result of which was a new life in Christ.

Cairo, Egypt, July 9, 1868.

"I think I shall always remember my stay in Cairo with much pleasure, but the greatest advantage of this year is the opportunity I had of stopping to think of the interests of a never dying soul, of a neglected Saviour, an offended God. Yes, I have reflected, struggled, oh, how hard, and thanks to an ever merciful God, I trust I have been led by the Holy Spirit to see and feel my great sin, and casting myself at the feet of Jesus, stayed there with my sinful heart till a loving Saviour just came and took it up. Oh, how grieved was His tender heart when He saw how defiled it was with sin and wickedness, but He said, fear not, my blood will cleanse it and make it pure; then how He pleaded my case before His Father, setting forth His boundless love and infinite righteousness as a reason why He wished to be accepted. Yes, dear Mrs. Whiting, I hope I can now say, Thy God is my God, and the blessed Saviour you have loved so long is now very precious to me. The past winter has been a solemn time with me. Many hard struggles have I had, much fear that I might have forever grieved God's Holy Spirit, and for a long time it all seemed so dark, there seemed no hope for me who had been so long living away from the Saviour, but in great fear and despair I just rushed and cast myself at His feet, and asked Him to let me perish there if I must perish; there was nothing else for me to do, and I felt such happiness in just leaving myself in His care. How wonderful is His love! But what a life of constant prayer and watching is that of a Christian! in the first place to aim at close walking with God, leaving Him to order our steps for us, and trusting Him so to order our way as to best enable us to walk closely with Him. It has been a most comforting thought when I find it difficult to live right and feel my utter weakness, that Jesus is each day saying to His Father for me, "I pray not she should be taken out of the world, but that she should be kept from the evil," and to live up to our privileges and to walk worthy of our high calling.

My precious teacher, I know you will rejoice and thank God with me for His great goodness to me in bringing me to the feet of Jesus. Oh, how precious He is to my poor soul! He is Heaven. How He blesses me every moment! His boundless love to me who am most unworthy of the least of His mercies. If ever any one had reason to boast of the loving kindness of the Lord, it surely must be myself. In His great mercy I have had the privilege of openly confessing my faith in Him, and publicly professing my determination to be the Lord's at the last communion in the Church here in May. I put it off till then hoping to do it in Beirut in the Church dear Mr. Whiting had preached in for so many years, and among the girls I had taught, and all the young friends there, but as that was not allowed me, I joined the Church here."

Her devoted friend and loving assistant teacher Luciyah, was deeply affected by what she learned from Rufka of her new spiritual life, and she too turned her thoughts to divine things, and soon after the arrival of Miss Everett and Miss Carruth in 1868, to take charge of the Seminary, she came out openly on the Lord's side, and in the midst of a fire of domestic persecution, publicly professed her faith in Jesus as her only Saviour.

Miss Carruth, after staying just long enough in the Seminary to win the hearts of teachers and pupils, was obliged to return to her native land, where she is still an efficient laborer in the New England Woman's Boards of Missions.

The year following the departure of Rufka to Egypt was a critical time in the history of the Seminary. Lulu continued in charge of the domestic department, and Mr. Araman managed the business of the school, while Mrs. Salt (a sister of Melita and Salome) aided in several of the classes. But the institution owed its great success during that year, if not its very existence, to the untiring energy and efficient services of Mrs. Dr. Bliss and Miss Emilia Thomson, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Thomson. They each gave several hours every day to instruction in the English language, the Scriptures and music, and the high standard of excellence already attained in the Seminary was maintained if not surpassed.

Their perfect familiarity with the Arabic language gave them a great advantage in the management and instruction of the pupils, and their efforts on behalf of the Institution, in maintaining it in full and successful operation during the year previous to the arrival of Miss Everett and Miss Carruth, deserve grateful recognition.

In the winter of 1870 and 1871 Miss Sophia Loring, and Miss Ellen Jackson arrived from America as colleagues of Miss Everett, and under their efficient management aided by Mr. Araman, Luciyah and other native teachers, the Seminary is enjoying a high degree of prosperity.

In March, 1864, the Mission had issued an appeal for funds to erect a permanent home for this Seminary, and in 1866 the present commodious and substantial edifice was erected, a lasting monument of the liberality of Christian men and women in America and England.

Its cost was about eleven thousand dollars, and the raising of this sum was largely due to the liberality and personal services of Mr. Wm. A. Booth, of New York, who also kindly acted as treasurer of the building fund. The lumber used in its construction was brought from the state of Maine. The doors and windows were made under the direction of Dr. Hamlin of Constantinople, in Lowell, Mass., the tiles came from Marseilles, the stone from the sandstone quarries of Ras Beirut, the stone pavement partly from Italy and partly from Mt. Lebanon, and the eighty iron bedsteads from Birmingham, England. The cistern, which holds about 20,000 gallons, was built at the expense of a Massachusetts lady, and the portico by a lady of New York. The melodeon was given by ladies in Georgetown, D.C., and the organ is the gift of a benevolent lady in Newport, R.I.

Time would fail me to recount the generous offerings of Christian men and women who have aided in the support of this school during the ten years of its history. Receiving no pecuniary aid from the American Board, the entire responsibility of its support fell upon a few members of the Syria Mission. Travellers who passed through the Holy Land, sometimes assumed the support of charity pupils, or interested their Sabbath Schools in raising scholarships, on their return home, and a few noble friends in the United States have sent on their gifts from time to time unsolicited, to defray the general expenses of the Institution. Its support has been to some of us a work of faith, as well as a labor of love. Not unfrequently has the end of the month come upon us, without one piastre in the treasury for paying the teachers' salaries or buying bread for the children, when suddenly, in some unknown and unexpected way, funds would be received, sufficient for all our wants. About two years since the funds were entirely exhausted. More than a hundred dollars would be owing to the teachers and servants on the following day. The accounts were examined, and all possible means of relief proposed, but without avail. At length one of the members of the Executive Committee asked leave to look over the accounts. He did so, and said he could not find any mention of a sum of about thirty Napoleons, which he was sure he had paid into the treasury several months before, as a donation from Mr. Booth of New York, whose son had died in Beirut. The money had not been paid into the school treasury. The vouchers were all produced, and there was left no resort but prayer. There was earnest supplication that night that the Lord would relieve us from our embarrassment, and provide for the necessities of the school. The next morning the good brother, above mentioned, recalled to mind his having given that money to Dr. Van Dyck in the Mission Library for the School. Dr. Van Dyck was consulted, and at once replied, "Certainly I received the money. It is securely locked up in the safe where it has been for months awaiting orders." The safe was opened, and the money found to be almost to a piastre the amount needed for obligations of the School.

Since the transfer of the Syria Mission to the board of Missions of the Presbyterian Church, the pecuniary status of the Seminary has been somewhat modified. The Women's Boards of Missions of New York and Philadelphia have assumed the responsibility of raising scholarships for its support among the Auxiliary Societies and Sabbath Schools; the salaries of the teachers are provided for by individuals and churches, and several of the old friends of the school retain their interest in it, while the danger of a deficit is guarded against, by the guarantees of the good Christian women who are doing so grand and noble a work in this age for the world's evangelization. The annual cost of supporting a pupil now is about sixty dollars gold. The number of paying pupils is increasing, and the prospect for the future is encouraging.

In the year 1864, a letter was received from certain Christian women in America, addressed to the girls of the School, and some of the older girls prepared a reply in Arabic, a translation of which was sent to America. It was as follows:

"From the girls of the Beirut School in Syria, to the sisters beloved in the Lord Jesus, in a land very far away. We have been honored in reading the lines which reached us from you, O sisters, distant in body but near in spirit, and we have given glory to God the Creator of all, who has caused in your hearts true love to us, and spiritual sympathies which have prompted you, dear sisters in the Lord, to write to us. Yes, it is the Lord Jesus who has brought about between us and between you (Arabic idiom) a spiritual intercourse, without the intercourse of bodily presence. For we have never in our lives seen you, nor your country, nor have we spoken to you face to face, and so you likewise have not seen us. Had neither of us the Word of God, the Holy and Only Book which is from one Father and a God unchangeable, to tell us that we have one nature, and have all fallen into one transgression, and are saved in one way, which is the Lord Jesus, we could not, as we now can, call you in one union, our sisters. The Lord Jesus calls those who love Him His brethren, and since He is the only bond and link, are we not His sisters, and thus sisters to each other? Truly, O dear sisters, we are thirsting to see you, and we all unite in offering prayers and praises to God, through His Son Immanuel, the possessor of the glorious Name, praying that we may see you; but we cannot in this world, for we are in the East, and you are in the West, far, very far. But, O dear friends, as we hope for the resurrection from the dead, so after our period in this world is ended, we shall meet by the blessing of God in those bright courts which are illumined by the light of the Saviour, which need not sun nor moon to give them light,—that holy place which is filled with throngs of angels who never cease to offer glory to God. There we may meet and unite with all the saved in praising the Saviour. There we may meet our friends who have passed on before us "as waiting they watch us approaching the shore," as we sing in the hymn. There around the throne of the glorious Saviour, there in the heavenly Jerusalem, our songs will not be mingled with tears and grief, for the Lord Jesus Himself will wipe away all tears from our eyes. There will not enter sin nor its likeness into our hearts sanctified by the Holy Spirit. There this body which shall rise incorruptible, will not return to the state in which it was in this world. In those courts we shall be happy always, and the reason is that we shall always be with the Great Shepherd, as it is said in the Book of Revelation, 'He shall shepherd them and lead them to fountains of living waters and wipe all tears from their eyes.' Our sisters, were it not for the Holy Bible which the Lord has given to His people, we should have no comfort to console us with regard to our friends whom we have lost by means of death. We beg you to help us by offering prayers to the living and true God that He will make us faithful even unto death,—that He will bless us while on the sea of this life, until we reach the shore of peace without fear or trouble, that we may be ready to stand before the seat of the Lord Jesus the Judge of all, clothed in the robes of His perfect righteousness, which he wove for us on the Cross, and is now ready to give to those who ask Him. Let us then all ask of God that this our only treasure may be placed where no thief can break in and steal, and no moth shall corrupt. And may the Lord preserve you!

We love to sing this hymn,

'Holy Bible, Book Divine, Precious treasure, thou art mine!'

and we entreat you that when you sing it, you will let it be a remembrancer from us to you."

In March, 1865, a little girl was brought to the school under somewhat peculiar circumstances. Years ago, in the days of Mr. Whiting, a Maronite monk named Nejm, became enlightened, left the monastery and was married to a Maronite woman named Zarifeh, by Mr. Whiting. For years the poor man passed through the fires of persecution and trial. Even his wife, in her ignorance, though not openly opposing him, trembled with fear every time he read the Scriptures aloud. At the time mentioned above, their little daughter Resha was about five years of age. The Papal Maronite Bishop of Beirut made a visit to Nejm's village, Baabda, to dispense indulgences, in accordance with the Pope's Encyclical letter. Nejm was called upon to pay his portion of the sum assessed upon the people, but having been a Protestant fifteen years, he refused to pay it. At the instigation of the priests, his wife was then taken from him, and his little Resha, his only child, was carried off by one of the priests to Beirut, and thrust inside the gates of the convent of the French Sisters of Charity. The poor father came to me, well-nigh broken-hearted, pleading for assistance. I laid the case before His Excellency Daud Pasha, Governor of Lebanon, who was then in Beirut, and drew up a petition to the Pasha of Beirut also, on the subject. Nejm went about weeping and wringing his hands, and my feelings became deeply enlisted in his behalf. Three weeks afterwards, after a series of petitions and visits to the Pasha of Beirut, the girl Resha was removed from the convent and taken by Nejm's enemies to a house near Nahr Beirut, about two miles distant, and just over the border line of the Mountain Pashalic. I then addressed another letter to Daud Pasha, and he promptly ordered her to be restored to her father. The manner in which Nejm, the father, finally secured the child was not a little amusing. He had been searching for his child for several weeks, waiting and watching, until his patience was about exhausted, when he heard that Resha was again in the hands of the priests in Baabda. The mother followed the child, and the priests threatened to kill her, if she informed her husband where the girl was secreted. Daud Pasha was then at his winter palace in Baabda, and Nejm took my letter to him. While awaiting a reply at the door, some one informed him that his daughter was at the fountain. Without waiting further for official aid, he ran to the fountain, took up his daughter, put her on his back, and ran for Beirut, a distance of about four miles, where he brought her to my house, and placed her in my room, with loud ejaculations of thanks to God. "Neshkar Allah; El mejd lismoo." Thanks to God! Glory to His name! The mother soon followed, and the girl was sent as a day scholar to the Seminary. They are now living in Baabda. The mother, Zarify, united with the Evangelical Church of Beirut, July 21, 1872, giving the best evidence of a true spiritual experience. The little girl is anxious to teach, and it was proposed to employ her as an assistant in the girls' school in Baabda, but the tyrannical oppressions of the priesthood upon the family who had offered their house for the school, and the refusal of the Pasha of Lebanon to grant protection to the persecuted, have obliged the brethren there to postpone their request for a school for the present.

Alas for the poor women of Syria! Even when they seek to obtain the consolations of the Gospel by learning to read the Word of life, they are surrounded by priests and Sheikhs who watch their chance to destroy the "Bread of Life!" In March, 1865, a Maronite woman called at the Press to buy a book of poems, to teach her boy to read. "Why not buy a Testament?" asked the bookseller. "I did buy an Engeel Mushekkel," (a voweled Testament.) "Be careful of it then," said Khalil, "for the edition is exhausted, and you cannot get another for months." "It is too late to be careful now, for the book has been burned." "Burned? by whom?" "By the Jesuits, who gathered a large pile and burned them." God grant that as Tyndale's English New Testament, first printed in 1527 was only spread the more widely for the attempts of the Papal Bishop of London to burn it, so the Arabic Bible may receive a new impulse from the similarly inspired efforts of the Bishop's successors!



CHAPTER IX.

LUCIYA SHEKKUR.

The work done for Christ and for Syrian girls in the families of Missionaries in Syria, may well compare with that done in the established institutions of learning. Mrs. Whiting was not alone in the work of training native Arab girls in her own home. The same work had been done by other Missionaries before her, and has been carried on with no little success by Mrs. Bird, Mrs. Calhoun and others, up to the present time.

It is an interesting sight to see the Thursday afternoon Women's meeting in the house of Mrs. Calhoun in Abeih, and to know that a large part of that company of bright, intelligent and tidily dressed young native women, who listen so intently to the Bible lesson, and join so heartily in singing the sweet songs of Zion, were trained up either in her own family, or under her own especial influence. By means of her own example in the training of her children, she has taught the women of Abeih, and through them multitudes of women in other villages, the true Christian modes of family government and discipline, and introduced to their notice and practice many of those little conveniences and habits in the training of children, whose influence will be felt for many generations.

When Mr. and Mrs. Bird removed to Deir el Komr in 1855, they not only opened a large school for the education of girls, with Sada Haleby, one of Dr. De Forest's pupils, as teacher, but received into their own family three young girls, named Luciya, Sikkar and Zihry, all of whom entered upon spheres of usefulness. Zihry became a teacher, in Deir el Komr, and has continued to teach until the present time. She was at one time connected with the Beirut Female Seminary, and is now teaching in the Institution of Mrs. Shrimpton, under the auspices of the British Syrian Schools.

Luciya taught in Deir el Komr until the school was overwhelmed in the fires and blood of the Massacre year, 1860.

In 1862 she taught in the Sidon School, and afterwards married the Rev. Sulleba Jerwan, the first native pastor in Hums. In that great city, and amid the growing interest of the young Protestant community, she found a wide and attractive field of labor. She was a young woman of great gentleness and delicacy of nature, and of strong religious feeling, and entered upon the work of laboring among the women and girls of Hums, with exemplary zeal and discretion. She became greatly beloved, and her Godly example and gentle spirit will never be forgotten.

But at length her labors were abruptly cut short. Consumption, a disease little known in Syria, but which afterwards cut down her brother and only sister Sikkar, fastened upon her, and she was obliged, in great suffering, to leave the raw and windy climate of Hums, for the milder air of Beirut. Her two brothers being in the employ of Miss Whately in Cairo, she went, on their invitation, to Egypt, where after a painful illness, she fell asleep in Jesus. Amid all her sufferings, she maintained that same gentle and lovely temper of mind, which made her so greatly beloved by all who knew her.

She has rested from her labors, and her works do follow her. Not long after her sister Sikkar, who had also been trained in Mrs. Bird's family, died in her native village Ain Zehalteh.

Her last end also, was peace, and although no concourse of Druze Sheikhs came barefoot over the snow to her funeral, as they did on the death of the Sitt Selma, in the same village, no doubt a concourse of higher and holier beings attended her spirit to glory.

When Luciya was in Beirut before her departure to Egypt, I used to see her frequently, and I shall never forget the calm composure with which she spoke of her anticipated release from the pains and sufferings of life. Christ was her portion, and she lived in communion with him, certain that ere long she should depart and be with him forever.

The poor Moslem women in the houses adjoining her room used to come in, and with half-veiled faces look upon her calm and patient face with wonder. Would that they too might find her Saviour precious to them, in their hours of sickness, suffering and death!

Truly, there is no religion but that of Jesus Christ, that can soften the pillow of suffering, and take away the sting and dread of death.

One of the most serious difficulties in the way of the higher female education in Syria, is the early age at which girls are married. One young girl attended the Beirut Seminary for two years, from eight to ten, and the teachers were becoming interested in her progress, when suddenly her parents took her out of the school, and gave her to a man in marriage. After the festivities of the marriage week were over at her husband's house, she went home to visit her mother, taking her dolls with her to amuse herself!

The Arabic journal "the Jenneh" of Beirut, contained a letter in June, 1872, from its Damascus correspondent, praising the fecundity of Syria, and stating that a young woman who was married at nine and a half, became a grandmother at twenty! Such instances are not uncommon in Damascus and Hums, where the chief and almost the only concern of parents is to marry off their daughters as early as nature will allow, without education, experience or any other qualification for the responsible duties of married life. When the above mentioned letter from Damascus was published, Dr. Van Dyck took occasion to write an article in the "Neshra," the Missionary Weekly, of which he is the editor, exposing the folly and criminality of such early marriages, and demonstrating their disastrous effects on society at large.

Since the establishment of schools and seminaries of a high grade for girls, this tendency is being decidedly checked in the vicinity of Beirut, and girls are not given up as incorrigibly old, even if they reach the age of seventeen.

Dr. Meshakah of Damascus, who has long been distinguished for his learned and eloquent works on the Papacy, is a venerable white-bearded patriarch and his wife looks as if she were his daughter. I once asked him how old she was when married, and he said eleven. I asked him why he married her so young? He said that in his day, young girls received no training at home, and young men who wished properly trained wives, had to marry them young, so as to educate them to suit themselves!

Education is rapidly obviating that necessity, and young men are more than willing that girls to whom they are betrothed, should complete their education, lest they be eclipsed by others who remain longer at school. I once called on a wealthy native merchant in Beirut, who remarked that "the Europeans have a thing in their country which we have not. They call it ed-oo-cashion, and I am anxious to have it introduced into Syria." This "ed-oo-cashion" is already settling many a question in Syria which nothing else could settle, and the natives are also learning that something more than mere book-knowledge is needed, to elevate and refine the family. One of the most direct results of female education thus far in Syria has been the abolition from certain classes of society of some of those superstitious fears which harass and torment the ignorant masses.



CHAPTER X.

RAHEEL.

No sketch of Woman's Work for Syrian women would be complete which did not give some account of the life and labors of that pioneer in work for Syrian women, Mrs. Sarah L.H. Smith, wife of Dr. Eli Smith. She reached Beirut, January 28, 1834, full of high and holy resolves to devote her life to the benefit of her Syrian sisters. From the first to the very last of her life in Syria, this was the one great object of her toils and prayers. As soon as April 2, she writes, "Our school continues to prosper, and I love the children exceedingly. Do pray that God will bless this incipient step to enlighten the women of this country. You cannot conceive of their deplorable ignorance. I feel it more and more every day. Their energies are expended in outward adorning of plaiting the hair and gold and pearls and costly array, literally so. I close with one request, that you will pray for a revival of religion in Beirut." Again she writes, June 30, 1834, "I feel somewhat thoughtful, this afternoon, in consequence of having heard of the ready consent of the friends of a little girl, that I should take her as I proposed, and educate her. I am anxious to do it, and yet my experience and observation in reference to such a course, and my knowledge of the sinful heart of a child, lead me to think I am undertaking a great thing. I feel, too, that my example and my instruction will control her eternal destiny." This girl was Raheel Ata. Again, August 16: "It is a great favor that so many of the men and boys can read. Alas, our poor sisters! the curse rests emphatically upon them. Among the Druze princesses, some, perhaps the majority, furnish an exception and can read. Their sect is favorable to learning. Not so with the Maronites. I have one scholar from these last, but when I have asked the others who have been here if they wished to read, they have replied most absolutely in the negative, saying that it was for boys, and not for them. I have heard several women acknowledge that they knew no more than the donkeys."

August 23. A Maronite priest compelled two little girls to leave her school, but the Greek priest sent "his own daughter, a pretty, rosy-cheeked girl" to be taught by Mrs. Smith. On the 22d of September, 1834, she wrote from B'hamdun, a village five hours from Beirut, on Lebanon, "Could the females of Syria be educated and regenerated, the whole face of the country would change; even, as I said to an Arab a few days since, to the appearance of the houses and the roads. One of our little girls, whom I taught before going to the mountains, came to see me a day or two since, and talked incessantly about her love for the school, and the errors of the people here, saying that they 'cared not for Jesus Christ, but only for the Virgin Mary.'"

October 8. She says, "A servant woman of Mrs. Whiting, who has now lived long enough with her to love her and appreciate her principles, about a year and a half since remarked to some of the Arabs, that the people with whom she lived did 'not lie, nor steal, nor quarrel, nor do any such things; but poor creatures,' said she, 'they have no religion.'"

On the 22d of October, she wrote again, "Yesterday I went up to Mr. Bird's to consult about the plan of a school-house now commenced for females. I can hardly believe that such a project is actually in progress, and I hail it as the dawn of a happy change in Syria. Two hundred dollars have been subscribed by friends in this vicinity, and I told Mr. B. that if necessary he might expend fifty more upon the building, as our Sabbath School in Norwich had pledged one hundred a year for female education in Syria."

The principal contributor to this fund was Mrs. Alexander Tod, formerly Miss Gliddon, daughter of the U.S. Consul in Alexandria.

The building stood near where the present Church in Beirut stands, and was removed, and the stones used in the extension of the old Chapel. In the year 1866 Mr. Tod revisited Beirut and contributed L100 towards the erection of the new Female Seminary, saying that as Mrs. Tod aided in the first Female Seminary building in Beirut, he wished to aid in the second. The school-house was a plain structure, and was afterwards used as a boy's school, and the artist who photographed the designs printed in this volume received his education there under the instruction of the late Shahin Sarkis, husband of Azizy.

In the latter part of October, 1834, Mrs. Smith writes, "Yesterday I commenced the female school with four scholars, which were increased to ten to-day, and the number will probably continue to augment as before from week to week. As I walked home about sunset this evening, I thought, 'Can it be that I am a schoolmistress, and the only one in all Syria?' and I tripped along with a quick step amid Egyptians, Turks and Arabs, Moslems and Jews, to my quiet and pleasant home."

November 9. "I sometimes indulge the thought that God has sent me to the females of Syria—to the little girls, of whom I have a favorite school—for their good."

January 5, 1835. "On Friday I distributed rewards to twenty-three little girls belonging to my school, which, as they are all poor, consisted of clothing. Our Sabbath School also increases. Eighteen were present last Sabbath."

On the 11th of January Dr. Thomson wrote, "Mrs. Smith's female school prospers wonderfully, but it is the altar of her own health; and I fear that in the flame that goeth up toward heaven from off that altar, she will soon ascend as did Manoah's angel. We can hardly spare her; she is our only hope for a female school in Beirut at present."

The state of society in Syria at that time is well pictured in the following language, used by Mrs. Smith in a letter dated February 12, 1835: "Excepting the three or four native converts, we know not one pious religious teacher, one judicious parent, one family circle regulated by the fear of God; no, not even one!"