CHAPTER XXXIX.
SYRIA.
1860-1863.
The year 1860 was noted for a civil war in Syria, and for savage massacres on Lebanon, at Hasbeiya, Damascus, and elsewhere, which awakened the indignation of the Christian world. The Druzes were prominent in these massacres, and so suffered greatly in character; yet the Turks were believed to have been the instigators. The war commenced in June; but the government for months had foreborne to check private assassinations and angry collisions, until the condition became unbearable.
All the Greek and Papal Christians united against the Druzes, with the declared purpose of not leaving one of them on Lebanon, but they had miscalculated their power. The Protestants decided to take the side of neither party. It was believed at Beirût, that the main object of the foreign Jesuits and native Catholic clergy was to exterminate the Protestants, who had their homes chiefly among the Druzes. The Druzes were aroused to desperation, and thirty or forty Maronite and Greek villages were burned early in June. The inhabitants who escaped massacre fled to Beirût. Not one of these fugitives was a Protestant.
The missionaries at Abeih, Deir el-Komr, and Sûk el-Ghûrb were not molested, and Messrs. Calhoun and Bird and their families remained at their several stations. It was thought best for those at the Sûk to descend to Beirût. Disturbance having arisen at Sidon, an English war steamer was sent thither to look after the foreigners. The steamer brought Mrs. Eddy and her children to Beirût, but Mr. Eddy and Mr. and Mrs. Ford decided to remain at Sidon.
In the country and gardens near that city, hundreds of unarmed men and defenseless women and children, many of whom had fled thither for their lives, were afterwards savagely butchered by Moslems and Druzes. The missionaries then asked for a guard from the city governor, which he refused until the American Consul in Beirût demanded it.
Mr. Bird, at Deir el-Komr, supposing that all was quiet around the city, left home to look after the little company of Protestants in Ain Zehalty. In his absence, the Druzes attacked Deir el-Komr on every side, and when Mr. Bird returned towards evening, he saw the town in flames, but could not enter. One of the more than one hundred houses burned, was a school-house belonging to the mission. The Druze Begs declared it was a mistake, and promised to rebuild it. The Christians had fought until their ammunition was exhausted, and then surrendered. Mr. Bird found his family unharmed, though the fighting and burning had been very near them. The Pasha coming up from Beirût made such arrangements that Mr. Bird and family decided to remain.
The Druzes were now masters of Mount Lebanon south of the Damascus road, and there was no power left in that district to oppose them, save in the town of Zahleh. It was from this town that a company of horsemen went to Hasbeiya, sixteen years before, to compel the Protestants there to recant; and from this same town, not many months before, Mr. Benton and his family had been expelled with great violence by a mob. Its time had now come. Mr. Lyons passing that way in October, with relief for the survivors of the massacre, thus speaks of Zahleh: "It presents one of the saddest spectacles in all the wide field of desolation. Only a few months before, I had seen this then flourishing town in all its beauty and pride. Now, nothing remained but a vast collection of roofless houses, with blackened, shattered walls, and shapeless heaps of stones and rubbish. Shops, magazines, costly dwellings, and elegant churches, all had shared in the common ruin."
The Protestants in Hasbeiya began to be troubled, early in the year, by premonitions of a coming storm. Mr. Eddy was there in May, accompanied by Mrs. Eddy and Miss Temple, who devoted themselves to labor for the spiritual good of the women in that community. Hardly had they returned to Sidon, when Hasbeiya was surrounded by hostile Druzes. They were driven off at first, but on the 3d of June the commander of the Turkish soldiers told the Christians to retire within the palace, and he would protect them. On the 11th the Druzes surrounded the palace, and the Turkish commander opened the gates, and allowed the Druzes to cut them in pieces. Some saved their lives by crawling under the dead bodies, and others by escaping over the walls. The Protestant church was partially destroyed, but not burned; its walls and roof remaining uninjured. At Rasheiya the Druzes told the Christians to give up their guns, and they would be safe. In the night, they set fire to the houses, and killed nearly all of one hundred and thirty men. More than one thousand persons were murdered in Hasbeiya and the surrounding region. Of these only nine were Protestants.
At Damascus, on the 9th of July, the wild Moslems, from one of the suburbs of the city, with Koords, Druzes, and Arabs, burst upon the Christian quarter, plundering, butchering, and burning; not opposed, but aided, by the Turkish soldiers, who could have suppressed the insurrection at any time. The slaughter continued several days, and the killed were estimated at five thousand. The whole Christian quarter of the city was plundered of its great wealth, and the houses and churches were laid in ruins.
Those who escaped these massacres fled towards Beirût and Sidon, destitute of everything. Appeals were at once made to the Christians of England and America, and the missionaries, acting for the "Anglo-American Relief Committee," were the chief almoners. The expenditure in August for food, clothing, bedding, shelter, hospital, and soup, was at the rate of about sixty thousand piasters a week, or two thousand four hundred dollars, and yet it seemed to make little impression on the mighty mass of misery. Dr. Thomson had the especial care of the clothing, bedding, shelter, and soup-kitchen, Dr. Van Dyck of the hospital and the sick in general, Mr. Jessup of the distribution of bread to about six thousand persons daily, and Butrus Bistany and Michael Aramon, two of the native brethren, had the daily distribution among about two thousand five hundred poor. The funds up to this time had come chiefly from the people of England, and English merchants at Beirût gave much time to managing the large financial business connected with so vast a charity. Dr. Thomson declares that the male children were generally murdered, and that the killed were largely mere boys; and who, he asks, were to support the thousands of widows, with their fatherless daughters? The country had no factories, and scarcely any kind of business by which such widows could gain a support. The silk, grape, and wheat harvests had been destroyed, the olive was likely to perish from neglect, there were no animals for the plough, no implements for husbandry, nor was life safe in the fields. He adds: "There was never, perhaps, a darker hour for missions in Syria; yet we are becoming acquainted with the people more rapidly than ever, and should we be permitted to visit them months hence, we shall have a most friendly welcome."
Rasheiya and Deir Mimas were burned. Cana and Alma, being far from the Druze district, were not invaded. Tripoli was undisturbed. The destroyers in the neighborhood of Baalbec were not Druzes, but Moslems and Metawales. It is a remarkable fact that, excepting perhaps in Damascus, no injury was offered to a missionary; and Protestants, when recognized as such, were generally safe. The arrival of ships of war and a detachment of the French army at Beirût, with apprehensions of an alliance of Christian powers for the protection of the Christian population, had, at first, a restraining, and finally, a controlling influence, on the Turkish government. The Prime Minister was sent to Damascus, and inflicted terrible justice on one or two hundred of the guilty there.
The direct effects of the war upon the missionary work were doubtless injurious. Immorality increased, the baser passions were aroused, and the hearts of many were hardened through suffering. But priestly and feudal power, the two greatest obstacles to the Gospel, were weakened, and new civil rights were secured to the Protestants. The respect for Protestant Christianity was increased, and prejudices were dissipated by witnessing its beneficent fruits; while multitudes were brought within the reach of the Gospel, who, but for these troubles, would never have heard its messages.
The connection of Mr. and Mrs. Benton with the Board and the mission terminated in June, 1861, though they remained in Syria some time longer.
The Arabic New Testament having been completed and published, the mission resolved to proceed, as soon as possible, with the translation and publication of the Old Testament, under the direction of Dr. Van Dyck. The British and Foreign Bible Society requested permission to adopt this version; instead of the one formerly issued by them. The result of a friendly negotiation was, that the American and the British and Foreign Bible Societies agreed to publish the version conjointly, from electrotype plates furnished by the former. The price of the reference edition was fixed at ten piasters, and of the pocket edition at five, or about forty and twenty cents, which placed them within reach of nearly all who could read.
The importance of this work cannot easily be overestimated. Imperfect translations, and type which seemed to caricature their alphabet, had done much to prejudice Arabic scholars against the Christian Scriptures. By the labors of the mission, these objections were now removed. The educated Arab finds a book printed in characters modeled after the most approved specimens of Arab caligraphy. He soon perceives the style to be that of a man who is master of this wonderful language in all its grammatical and idiomatic niceties and rich resources. As a literary work it secures his respect, and thus invites a candid perusal. If he reads it, he finds the truths of Christianity clearly and correctly stated. Its beneficial influence will yet be felt, it is hoped, not only by the Christian sects of Mount Lebanon and Syria, but by the many millions who speak that language in other parts of the world. This work alone, worth many times what the mission had cost, could not have been accomplished, except by Christian scholars residing permanently among Arabs, and for substantially missionary purposes.
The sale of the Scriptures, notwithstanding the poverty of the people, was unprecedented. In 1859, it amounted to four hundred and forty-eight copies; in 1860, to four thousand two hundred and ninety-three,—a nearly ten fold increase.
Dr. Van Dyck was preparing a voweled edition of the New Testament, suitable for Mohammedans, written in the style of the Koran, which required much care and labor. This was completed in 1863.
The field manifestly brightened in the two or three years after the war. There was an interesting development of the missionary spirit. Not less than six different missionary societies were formed, embracing nearly all the Protestants of the various towns and villages, and a commendable degree of liberality was shown by the natives in collecting and contributing. A hundred dollars thus raised will not appear a small amount to any one, who knows the extreme poverty of most of the congregations. There had been a great influx of population at Beirût, and preaching services, during some months, were held daily. The Sabbath-school numbered two hundred, and the children sang the same songs in Arabic, which American children love to sing in their own language. The mountain stations reported unusually large and attentive audiences. Ain Zehalty was wholly under Protestant influences. Its civil ruler was a member of the Protestant church, and its church edifice, purged of its altar and pictures, was no longer used for the idolatrous Greek service. The Gospel was preached in nine places in connection with the Sidon station, the congregations had doubled their number, and schools of both sexes were demanded. There were cases of unusual interest among the young men. Hasbeiya and Rasheiya were not yet safe for the return of their people, but their Protestants retained an ardor in the cause which was very encouraging. Ibl and Deir Mimas were still centres of evangelical light, and the people of Boaida, numbering one hundred, were all professed Protestants, and placed themselves under Biblical instruction. Mr. Ford and his family spent the summer in the district of which Deir Mimas is the centre, and more than thirty women were taught to read by Mrs. Ford. The field was open for schools, for preaching, and for influencing individuals, families, and communities. The only drawback was the want of laborers.
Brief extracts from a letter of Mr. H. H. Jessup, written in March, 1863, portray the work at that time.
"Delegation after delegation, of men from various villages and different sects, call upon and write to us, entreating us not to neglect them. They ask for preachers, and we have none to send. They ask for schools, and we have not the means to support them. We are in great straits, and lay the case before our Christian brethren at home, throwing the responsibility upon those to whom God has given the means, and especially upon the young men in a course of preparation for the ministry."
"The people of the village of Ain Kunyeh, near the Lake of Merom, on the upper waters of the Jordan, have with one consent turned away their priest, shut up their place of worship, and are entreating one of our Protestant helpers to come and teach them the way of life."
"A few Sabbaths since, while we were assembled for divine service in the Beirût chapel, a crowd of thirty men came in, and with difficulty found seats, so full was the chapel already. Upon inquiry, after service, we learned that they are from the village of Rasheiya-el-Wady, north of Mount Hermon, and are a part of the residue of the people who escaped the massacre in that place in 1860. They ask for a teacher, or native preacher, but we can give them only the most indefinite promises."
"Twenty men from the village of Koryet-el-Hosson, near the famous castle Kolat-el-Hosson, halfway between Tripoli and Hums, write that they too have seen the light, and wish some one to come and instruct them; but what can we do for them, when the twenty-five men of Sheikh Mohammed, who petitioned us some time since, have been sent away empty?"
"This morning a white-bearded priest called, with his aged brother, and several younger men. They declared their wish to become Protestants, and beg most earnestly for a school. They belong to a large and powerful family, and the Lord may use them as the entering wedge, to open that strong Greek district to the gospel. What shall we answer them?"
Daoud Pasha, the new papal Governor, secured in 1862 by foreign intervention for Mount Lebanon, was at first supposed to be a bigot, and a tool of the Jesuits, but he soon proved himself an impartial and excellent ruler. He had several Protestants in office about him, in very important situations. Instead of objecting to missionaries establishing schools, he encouraged all efforts to educate the people.
Among other evidences of an advance it may be stated, that in Hums two hundred and fifty persons avowed themselves Protestants, and sought earnestly for a Christian instructor. It was immediately decided to send them Suleeba Jerwan, who had lived two years in that place with Mr. Wilson, and was well acquainted with the people; and the native missionary society at Beirût decided to support him as their first missionary. This was done with a cordiality and earnestness that was most promising. Hasbeiya women and girls pledged weekly contributions for the spread of the Gospel, some promised two cents a week, and some half a cent; but even these small sums were large for them, and they gave with a hearty gladness that was most cheering. Two hundred and thirty Maronites in Bteddin had for months adhered steadfastly to the Protestant faith, and a flourishing school existed among them. In Cana the Protestant community had been augmented threefold, and the same was true of Deir Mimas. There had never been a time when so many were inquiring on the subject of religion; and a greater number avowed themselves Protestants within twelve months, than in the whole previous forty years. A new church edifice was built in Merj-Aiyun, costing about five hundred dollars, without drawing from the resources of the Board, and a new church had been formed in that district of seventeen members, most of them from the Hasbeiya church. In the Sidon field six persons had been admitted to the church, and there were twenty-two hopeful candidates. In Beirût and Abeih, there were seventeen such candidates, besides nine admitted to the communion. Bible classes were largely increased, and an unusual number of adults were learning to read, that they might study the Scriptures. Thirty of the best Sabbath-school songs published in America, had been translated into Arabic, and published at the expense of a sewing society at Beirût, and thus gospel truths, in an attractive form, were reaching the children all over the land.
The president of the missionary society at Beirût stated in May, 1862, that in the two previous months, they had not only sent a missionary to Hums, but had sent also a colporter to Jezzin, maintained religious meetings every Sabbath at Kefr Shima, and employed a city missionary in Beirût.
But with these signs of prosperity, there seems to have been a need of chastening. The clergy of the Greek church at Hums, excited, as was supposed, by foreign influence, set their people so against the Protestants, that it was feared few would be able to stand. The native brethren were stoned and beaten in the streets, and abused by all classes. Quite a large number returned, nominally, to the Greek church; but many of these commenced a Bible class in the Greek church itself, thus bringing the truth to many, who would not otherwise have heard it. About fifteen men stood firm, and met nightly with Suleeba, for reading the Scriptures, prayer, and conference. The priests had expected the utter overthrow of Protestantism, and were enraged at the firmness of these brethren, and forbade all dealings with them. Letters to Suleeba from the missionaries were taken from the mail, read, and destroyed, and the Protestant places of meeting were assailed with stones. In the midst of these trials, Suleeba wrote expressing his gratitude to God for sustaining grace. Some alleviation was experienced through the efforts of Colonel Fraser, Her Britannic Majesty's Commissioner, so that the Protestant community became regularly organized, with a representative in the Mejlis, and a tax roll distinct from other sects.
The Protestants in Ain Zehalty were also called to suffer. An order having come from Constantinople, requiring the restoration of all church edifices to their original sects, Daoud Pasha issued an order for giving up the edifice at Ain Zehalty. He must have acted under a misapprehension, since the building had never been the property of the bishop, but was built and still owned by the family of Khalil, the Protestant preacher. The Catholics were a very small minority in the village, yet the edifice appears not to have been recovered. Another convenient house of worship was soon after provided by Protestant friends.
Mr. H. H. Jessup wrote respecting Hums:—"Quite recently, one of the more enlightened among the Greeks was taken ill, and sent for Suleeba, the native helper. He went, and found quite a company of relatives and friends. The sick man asked him to read a portion of Scripture. The passage selected contained the ten commandments, and while he was reading the second, the wife of the sick man exclaimed,—'Is that the Word of God? If it is, read it again.' He did so, when she arose and tore down a wooden picture of a saint at the head of the bed, declaring that henceforth there should be no idol worship in that house; and then, taking a knife, she scraped the paint from the picture, and took it for use in the kitchen. This was done with the approbation of all present. The case is the more remarkable, as it was the first instance in Syria, in which a woman had taken so decided a stand in advance of the rest of the family."
The manifest agency of the Holy Spirit is the highest encouragement in the missionary work. "One of the members of the Beirût church," Mr. Jessup writes, "has passed through an interesting religious experience this summer. He was for a time troubled with blasphemous thoughts, till he gave himself up as lost. His language was not unlike that of Bunyan in his "Grace Abounding;" and only after protracted struggles in prayer, the study of God's word, and finally resolving to go forward and do his duty in both light and darkness, did he find relief. The case was interesting as indicating the presence of God's Spirit, in leading him through a most severe struggle into ultimate peace in believing. Several young Protestants of Hasbeiya, resident in Beirût, are now passing through very deep conviction of sin. I have rarely seen persons so completely broken down by a sense of their lost condition. On Monday I spent several hours with two young people, who were passing through deep waters. They burst into tears, exclaiming, "We are lost, we are lost!" The Spirit of God was striving with them. Never have I felt more deeply the need of Divine aid, than when trying to lead these heavy-laden ones to Christ. Yet the missionary can have no more delightful labor than this."
The mission was strengthened, in 1863, by the arrival of Rev. Messrs. Samuel Jessup, Philip Berry, and George Edward Post, M. D., and their wives. Miss Temple retired from the mission in consequence of the obstructions to the higher education of girls growing out of the massacres, but with the esteem of all her associates. Mr. Lyons, broken down by overwork, was also under the necessity of withdrawing from the field. The girls' boarding-school had been transferred from Sûk el Ghûrb to Sidon, where it was under the care of Miss Mason.
The population of Beirût was now not less than seventy thousand. A bank, a carriage road to Damascus, steamers plying to almost every maritime country in Europe, telegraphs in several directions, numerous schools and hospitals, and three printing presses, made it the commercial and intellectual capital of Syria.
The tendency was to intellectual rather than spiritual progress, and there was a growing demand for education. The Jesuits were striving to reap the benefit of this, by opening colleges and seminaries in various parts of the country; nor could the fact be overlooked, that zealous Protestant educators, from different parts of Europe, were becoming so numerous at Beirût as to embarrass the mission in its natural development. The exigency at length constrained the mission to consider whether advantage should not be taken of the offer of Christian friends at home to found a Protestant College at Beirût.
This was well, as will appear in the sequel. But it is impossible not to see, that the progress of the mission, in the years immediately following 1863,—in the increase of converts, and the multiplication of churches, with native preachers and pastors,—was not such as the facts already stated gave reason to expect. This the brethren on the ground foresaw, and their anxious appeals for help abound on the pages of the "Missionary Herald," and were enforced by appeals from the Prudential Committee. The "Annual Report" for 1863 thus states the deficiency of laborers at that time:—
"The field north of Beirût, a hundred miles long and fifty wide, has no missionary, although hundreds in Hums, and the large district of Akkar, are looking to the mission for instruction. A score of villages, in each one of which a faithful preacher would find an audience, do not receive a visit once a year from a gospel minister. Mount Lebanon, with its four hundred thousand inhabitants, scattered through its thousand villages, into nearly every one of which more or less light has penetrated, and from which cries for help constantly come, has but two missionaries; and one of them is confined, for the most part, to the Abeih Seminary. The southern district, comprising one half of the Syria mission field, with its ten regular preaching places, crippled by the disability of its oldest native helper and by the death of another, has but two missionaries, one of whom is just commencing to learn Arabic. Within the last eight years, thirteen missionary laborers, male and female, have entered the Syria field, while twenty-five have left it. During this period, the work has increased tenfold. Many who have fallen asleep took part in sowing, where now the harvest is so great that the few who remain cannot gather it; and unless the Lord of the harvest send more laborers, much precious fruit will be lost."
It is painfully evident, that the degree of missionary spirit in the churches at home then fell short of the providential calls for evangelical labor in this field. Yet it is by no means certain what would have been the effect of a very large, sudden increase in the working forces. Without the restraining grace of God, it might have been the occasion of a fierce and malignant outbreak of opposition.
The deficiency of laborers sufficiently accounts for the slow progress, and even the decline there was in not a few of the places named; as in Tripoli, and Hums, not to speak of promising villages in the western and southern sections. Churches, towns, cities in the most favored portions of New England would suffer a decline in religion and morals, if left, as these places necessarily were, with no more of the means of grace.