The questions are often asked, "Is the gain worth the cost? Does the improvement correspond to the outlay and effort?" There is but one answer. These Druse boys and girls are eager to be taught, not only to read and write, but to understand the story and teachings of Christ. They go from the school entirely different persons, and they are wholly unwilling to go back to their unchristian manners of life. They are capable of becoming good scholars, and many of them are ready to teach others. The character of the natives around Mount Lebanon has completely changed, while those being trained are now in a condition to exert an elevating influence on those about them.
Mission-work, like all other work, must consent to be tested by its fruits. The work of Friends on Lebanon and at Ramallah will stand this test well.
In a letter to his friend S. F. T., Eli Jones writes to express his feeling of loneliness without his wonted companion, and the nature of the work being done in the Holy Land at the time of his third visit there in 1876:
Brummana, 1st mo. 8, 1876.
While my fellow-travellers and Th. Waldmeier have gone to a distant village to attend to matters of business, I have been left to my own reflections, and I have in an unusual manner missed the sympathy and the words of cheer in times of trial that I was sure to receive from her who has been called up higher before me. Her words were as balm to my troubled breast, but now I plod on alone. My life would be too sad and weary to be borne did I not trust that an Eye of compassion beholds me here even as when in my native land surrounded by loved friends.
We left England on the 9th of 11th mo., and spent several days in France attending ten meetings in that country; then embarking at Marseilles for Alexandria, where we spent a few days meeting old acquaintances and attending to what seemed called for. Again we went on board ship, and next day came to Port Said at the mouth of the Suez Canal, the morning after we were in Joppa. Here we visited the institution under the instruction of Jane Arnot, a woman of great faith and of much works, who has a school of sixty girls. We found her occupying a new house erected on the very spot where our tent was pitched a few years ago, and where we had a meeting one First day afternoon with the people of Joppa.
We reached Beirut the 31st of 12th mo., and the next day came to Brummana, where we received a warm welcome. Hanne Ferach, my little Bethlehem girl, rushed forward and grasped the hand of her old friend with the cordiality of a loving daughter; also several of the citizens came to bid us welcome to their town. All this was unexpected, and, to speak honestly, it moved our hearts and was a delightful ending of a long journey.
We are much pleased with the work begun here. On First day our meeting frequently numbers over one hundred, the Bible meeting in the middle of the week over thirty.
In the room where I am setting a teachers' meeting is going forward preparatory to the labors to-morrow, which will be the first of the week. Sitting around the table are ten preachers and teachers; two of these are female. Their conversation is all Greek to me, but it is very interesting to see them arming for their work from such an armory.
The Sabbath-school numbers sixty, while there are six schools in operation through the week, reaching at least two hundred and thirty children; all these are emphatically Bible-schools.
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
AS A FRIEND.
"Be ye complete in Him."
"God's own hand must lay the axe of inward crucifixion unsparingly at the root of the natural life; God in Christ, operating in the person of the Holy Ghost, must be the principle of inward inspiration moment by moment, the crucifier of every wrong desire and purpose, the Author of every right and holy purpose, the Light and Life of the soul."—Upham.