Mr. Bird made the Arabic—spoken by the Maronites and Syrian Roman
Catholics—his chief study; and Mr. Goodell the Armeno-Turkish,
—Turkish written with the Armenian alphabet,—which was the
language of the Armenians.
Going to Sidon for aid in his linguistic studies, Mr. Goodell formed the acquaintance of Yakob Agha, an Armenian ecclesiastic, who had dared to marry, a privilege not allowed to him as a bishop. That he might be able to defend his course, he began the study of the New Testament, and thus became impressed with the wickedness around him. He was at that time acting British agent at Sidon. Mr. Goodell also became acquainted with Dionysius, another Armenian bishop, who had committed a similar offense, and engaged him as a teacher; giving him the name of Carabet, the "Forerunner." He was a native of Constantinople, and had lived thirty-six years in the Armenian convent at Jerusalem. During the last nine of these years, he was a bishop. On account of his age, his services and acquirements, he was regarded as having the standing of an archbishop. Though in darkness on many points, and giving no satisfactory evidence of piety, he made himself useful as a teacher and interpreter, and in his intercourse with the people.
Several English missionaries were added to the Protestant force at that time, and the Papal Church became thoroughly alarmed. Letters were addressed from Rome to the Patriarchal Vicar of Mount Lebanon, the Maronite Patriarch, and the Vicar of Syria and Palestine, urging them to render ineffectual, in every possible manner, the impious undertaking of those missionaries. These letters were dated in the first month of 1824, and the firman against the circulation of the Scriptures was issued by the Grand Seignior very soon after. Though feebly enforced by the Turkish authorities this gave weight and influence, for a time, to the "anathemas," of the Maronite and Syrian Patriarchs against the "Bible men." Peter Ignatius Giarve, the Syrian Patriarch, some years before, while Archbishop of Jerusalem, had visited England, and there obtained, under false pretenses, a considerable sum of money from Protestant Christians, to print the Holy Scriptures according to the text of his own Church. He now issued a manifesto, first defending himself from the charge of deception, and then warning his flock "not to receive the Holy Scriptures, nor any other books printed and circulated by the Bible-men, even though given gratis, and according to the edition printed by the Propaganda under ecclesiastical authority." Notwithstanding all this, the brethren took a hopeful view of their prospects. "To get a firm footing," they say, "among a people of a strange speech and a hard language; to inspire confidence in some, and weaken prejudice in others; to ascertain who are our avowed enemies, and who are such in disguise; to become acquainted with the mode of thinking and feeling, with the springs of action, and with the way of access to the heart; to begin publicly to discuss controversial subjects with the dignitaries of the Church, and to commence giving religious instruction to the common people; to be allowed to have a hand in directing the studies and in controlling the education of the young; and to begin to exert an influence, however circumscribed at first, yet constantly extending and increasingly salutary,—all this, though it be not 'life from the dead,' nor the song of salvation, yet is to be regarded as truly important in the work of missions."
In the year 1824, the schools were commenced at Beirût, which have since grown into an influential system. The first was a mere class of six Arab children, taught daily by the wives of the missionaries. Soon an Arab teacher was engaged, and before the end of the year the pupils had increased to fifty. In 1826 the average attendance in the free schools of Beirût and vicinity, was more than three hundred; in the following year it was six hundred in thirteen schools, and more than one hundred of these pupils were girls. The Arabs were thought to have less quickness than the Greeks, to be less studious and ambitious, and more trifling, inconstant, and proud of little things; but many of them were lively and promising, and did themselves honor by their punctuality and application. The Romish ecclesiastics were very hostile to all these schools.
It was in the summer of 1825, that Asaad el-Shidiak became first personally known to the mission, as the instructor of Mr. King in the Syriac language. His case soon acquired an extraordinary interest, and will occupy a separate chapter.
In March, 1826, several Greek vessels entered the port of Beirût, and landed five hundred men. They were unable to scale the walls, but plundered the houses of natives on the outside. The wild Bedawîn, whom the Pasha of Acre sent to drive them away, were worse than the Greeks. They plundered without making any distinctions, and among other houses the one occupied by Mr. Goodell, but Consul Abbott obliged the Pasha to pay for what they took from the missionaries. It was afterwards ascertained, that the Maronite bishop, having learned that the leases of the missionaries would soon expire, came to Beirût just before this invasion, with an excommunication for every Maronite who should permit his house to be hired by a missionary; and prepared by bribery and intrigue to bring also the Greek bishop and the Moslem rulers to act in concert with himself, in driving Protestant missionaries from the country. The sudden landing of the Greeks obliged him to flee in the night, leaving his wicked devices unaccomplished, while the Maronites were glad to place their best houses in the hands of the missionaries.
In 1827, the missionaries hoped that about twenty of those among whom they labored, had been created anew in Christ Jesus. Among them were Asaad and Phares Shidiak, from the Maronite Church; a lady from the Latin Church; Dionysius, Gregory Wortabet, Jacob, and the wife of Dionysius, of the Armenian Church; the wife of Wortabet and Yooseph Leflufy, of the Greek Catholic Church; and Asaad Jacob and Tannûs el-Haddad, of the Greek Church. Leflufy was described as a youth of great boldness and decision, and as thoroughly convinced of the errors of his Church. In April of this year, Dionysius revisited Jerusalem, as the interpreter of German missionaries. The Armenian Convent owed him a sum of money, which it refused to pay, and forbade any Armenian in the city to speak to him. The Greeks, on the other hand, treated him with attention, and so did the Moslem governor. He returned to Beirût in company with three hundred of the Armenian pilgrims, who were no sooner out of Jerusalem than they began to treat him with kindness and respect, while they were full of inquiries as to what he and the Protestants believed, what ordinances they had, and how they observed them, with many more such questions. He was engaged in conversation with them day and night, and had full opportunity to explain his religious views, and to show them the difference between the Christianity of the New Testament, and that of the Oriental Churches; and they expressed much astonishment at his statements. Some of them were persons of respectability and influence, and declared their indignation at the treatment he had received from the convent. It is probable that these conversations had some connection with the spirit of reform among the Armenians, which not long after appeared at Constantinople.
The Rev. Eli Smith reached Beirût early in 1827. At the monthly concert in March, kept as a day of fasting and prayer, and closed with the Lord's Supper, sixteen persons were present, who were all regarded as hopefully pious. They were from America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and were members of nine churches,—Congregational, Episcopal, Lutheran, Reformed Lutheran, Moravian, Latin, Armenian, Greek Catholic, and Abyssinian. Dionysius Carabet, Gregory Wortabet, and their wives were then received into the mission church, as was also the wife of Mr. Abbott, the English Consul, a native of Italy. This admission of converts into a church, without regard to their previous ecclesiastical relations, was a practical ignoring of the old church organizations in that region. It was so understood, and the spirit of opposition and persecution was roused to the utmost. In the Maronite and Greek Catholic churches, severe denunciations were uttered against the missionaries, and all who should render them any service.
Messrs. Goodell and Bird gave more or less time, with the help of their native assistants, to preparing useful works in the native languages. These, with Mr. King's "Farewell Letter," were copied by the pen, and were eagerly sought and gladly transcribed, and the need of a printing-press on the ground began to be felt.
Beirût was visited by the plague in the spring of 1827, but the deaths were not numerous. In August Mr. Bird, finding it needful to take his family to the mountains, ascended to Ehden by way of Tripoli, from which Ehden was distant seven hours. He went by special permission of the Emir Beshir, and was received in the most friendly manner by the Sheikh Latoof, and his son Naanui. The "Patriarch of Antioch and all the East," who resided at Cannobeen, hearing of this, proceeded at once to excommunicate the sheikh and his family, who had dared to associate "with that deceived man, and deceiver of men, Bird, the Bible-man." An infernal spirit appears in the excommunications of the Romish Church. This of Latoof and family ran thus: "They are accursed, cut off from all the Christian communion; and let the curse envelope them as a robe, and spread through all their members like oil, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel, and wither them like the fig tree cursed by the mouth of the Lord himself; and let the evil angel reign over them, to torment them by day and night, asleep and awake, and in whatever circumstances they may be found. We permit no one to visit them, or employ them, or do them a favor, or give them a salutation, or converse with them in any form; but let them be avoided as a putrid member, and as hellish dragons. Beware, yea, beware of the wrath of God." With regard to Mr. Bird and his family, the Patriarch said: "We grant no permission to any one to receive them; but, on the contrary, we, by the word of the Lord of almighty authority, require and command all, in the firmest manner, that not one visit them, nor do them any sort of service, or furnish them any sort of assistance whatever, to protract their stay in these parts or any other. Let no one receive them into his house, or into any place whatever that belongs to him, but let all avoid them, in every way, in all things temporal as well as spiritual. And whoever, in his stubbornness, shall dare to act in opposition to this our order with regard to Bird, and his children, and his whole family, shall fall, ipso facto, under the great excommunication, whose absolution is reserved to ourself alone."