Fifty Three Years in Syria - Volume II

Henry Harris Jessup

Description

The author of this volume is One of the pioneers of the new historic era and the changing social order in the Nearer East. He is entitled to this distinction not because of direct political activity, or of any strenuous role as a social reformer, but because of those fifty-three years of missionary service in the interests of religious uplift, educational progress, social morality, and all those civilizing influences which now by
general consent are recognized results of the missionary enterprise.
It is a chronicle of eventful years in the history of Western Asia. It is necessarily largely personal, as the book is a combination of autobiographical reminiscence with a somewhat detailed record of mission progress in Syria. No one can fail to be impressed with the variety and continuity, as well as the large beneficence of a life service such as is herein reviewed. In versatile and responsible toil, in fidelity to his high commission, in diligence in the use of opportunity, in unwavering loyalty to the call of missionary duty, his career has been worthy of the admiration and affectionate regard of the Church. The writer of this introduction regards it as one of the privileges of his missionary service in Syria that for twenty-two of the fifty-three years which the record covers he was a colleague of the author, and that such a delightful intimacy has marked a lifelong friendship.
Dr. Jessup has been a living witness of one of the most vivid and dramatic national transformations which the world's annals record, as well as himself a contributor, indirectly and unconsciously perhaps, yet no less truly and forcefully, to changes as romantic, weird, and startling as the stage of history presents. We seem to be in the enchanted atmosphere of politics after the order of the Arabian Nights. In fact, no tale of the Thousand and One Nights can surpass in Imaginative power, mystical import, and amazing significance, this story of the transportation of an entire empire, as if upon some magic carpet of breathless flight, from the domain of irresponsible tyranny to the realm of constitutional government. The cruel and shocking episode of massacre in transit seems to be in keeping with the ruthless barbarity of the despotic environment.

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528760058
• Langue: English

Extrait

Fifty-Three Years In Syria


By HENRY HARRIS JESSUP, D. D.
Introduction by James S. Dennis, D. D.


IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME II


N EW Y ORK C HICAGO T ORONTO
Fleming H. Revell Company
L ONDON AND E DINBURGH
HENRY H. JESSUP
Taken when Moderator of the General Assembly.
Contents
SECOND VOLUME
XIX. N OTABLE V ISITORS AND C ONVERTS
XX. A C HOLERA Y EAR
XXI. H ELPS AND H INDRANCES
XXII. M ISSION S CHOOLS
XXIII. S KETCHES (1887)
XXIV. T HREE Y EARS OF P ROGRESS (1888)
XXV. M ARKING T IME
XXVI. A N EW C ENTURY D AWNS (1899-1900)
XXVII. T HE W HITENING F IELDS (1901-1902)
XXVIII. M Y L ATEST F URLOUGH -Y EARS 1903-1904
XXIX. J UBILEE T IMES (1905-1907)
XXX. W HAT S HALL THE H ARVEST B E ?-J ANUARY 1908-M AY 1909
A PPENDICES :
I. Missionaries in Syria Mission from 1819 to 1908
II. The History-Bibliography
III. American Medical Missionaries and Agencies in Syria Mission
IV. List of Mission Schools of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in Beirut and Damascus, and in the Mutserfiyet of Lebanon
V. Outline of the History of the Syria Mission of the American Presbyterian Church and Contemporary Events, 1820-1900
VI. Figures, 1908-1909-Statistics of the Syria Mission
VII. Statistics of the Syrian Protestant College from 1866 to 1906
I NDEX
Illustrations
SECOND VOLUME
Dr. Jessup
College Hall, Syrian Protestant College
Mission Group
A View of Lebanon
A View in the Lebanon
Hasroun, A Lebanon Village
Geo. E. Post Science Hall, Syrian Protestant College
Assembly Hall, Syrian Protestant College
Sarcophagus of Alexander the Great. Sarcophagus of Weeping Women
Front View of Gerard Institute, Sidon
Dar es Salaam Orphanage. Gerard Institute Pupils
Asfuriyeh Hospital. General View
Pietro s Hotel, 1875
Jedaan the Bedawy
Kamil Aietany
Syrian Mission in 1893 with Drs. Bliss and Post
Gorge of Nahr Barada
American Press
The Damascus to Mecca Railway
Beirut Memorial Column
Daniel Bliss Hall
Mission Stations
The Seventieth Birthday Picnic. Ancient Mule Bridge
Yusef Ahtiyeh, Kasim Beg Amin
Dr. Daniel Bliss in 1905
Syrian Churches and Houses
Group of Syrian Teachers and Preachers
Interior of the Chapel of the Protestant College, Beirut
Group of Syrian Churches
Plan of the American Mission Property
XIX
Notable Visitors and Converts
The one-eyed kadi-Mr. Roosevelt-Two great sheikhs-The new bell-Wm. E. Dodge-Abu Selim and Moosa Ata-The monthly concert at home.
A T the close of 1873 the stations were manned as follows: Beirut, Drs. Thomson, Van Dyck, Dennis, and H. H. Jessup.
Abeih, Messrs. Calhoun and Bird.
Sidon, Messrs. W. W. Eddy and Pond.
Tripoli, Messrs. S. Jessup and Hardin, and Dr. Danforth.
Zahleh, Messrs. Dale, Wood, and March.
The theological seminary was opened in Beirut in premises adjoining Dr. Dennis s house, the teachers being Dr. Dennis, Dr. C. V. A. Van Dyck, Dr. Wm. M. Thomson, and myself.
The Syrian Protestant College at this time had eighty-four students in all its departments and all its friends were much encouraged. They little thought that in 1907 the number would be 878.
In September the notable meeting of the International Evangelical Alliance, postponed from 1870 on account of the Franco-Prussian War, was held in New York. My paper on Missions to the Oriental Churches was read in my absence by my dear friend, Rev. D. Stuart Dodge. It was subsequently the basis of a booklet on The Greek Church and Protestant Missions, written at the request of the Christian Literature Society of New York and a special edition of which was published in England by my friends, Canon H. B. Tristram and Rev. H. E. Fox, and sent to hundreds of clergymen of the Church of England. The object of this act of Canon; Tristram was to counteract the efforts of the High Church Anglican Clergy to fraternize with the Greek Church ecclesiastics, ignoring the anti-scriptural teachings of the Greek Church. A reformation of the Greek Church is possible, but not very probable. With education and the Bible the people some day will demand the abolition of Mariolatry and ikon worship.
Early in March Dr. Van Dyck, manager of the press, was sent for by Kamil Pasha, the governor, to come to the seraia, as he was about to shut up the press for a violation of the press laws. Dr. Van Dyck proceeded to the seraia and asked the pasha what he meant. The pasha, holding up a little tract, said, Was this printed at your press? Yes. Then it must be confiscated, as it contains an attack on the Turkish government. Dr. Van Dyck asked, Wherein does it attack the government? The pasha pointed out several passages which criticized the bribery and corruption everywhere prevalent, perjury and lying among witnesses and public officials; and the fact that truth had fallen in the streets and equity could not enter. Dr. Van Dyck replied, Are not these statements true? Your Excellency ought to put a copy into the hands of every government official in your pashalic. Is it not so? asked the doctor. Yes, said the pasha, but we don t like to be so constantly reminded of it. Have you never heard the story of the Kadi el Ah-war? ( i. e ., the one-eyed judge). And what is that? asked the doctor. Well, once there was a famous one-eyed kadi. One day a man came into the court and addressed him as follows: Good-morning, oh, one-eyed kadi! May your day be blessed, oh, one-eyed kadi. I have heard of the noble character and justice of the one-eyed kadi, and I would ask the distinguished and revered one-eyed kadi to do me justice, and, Stop, said the kadi, supposing I am one-eyed, do I want to be everlastingly reminded of it? Get out of my sight.
And so, said the pasha, we know that these reflections on our country and our courts are true, but we don t want to be publicly reminded of them. Who wrote that tract? The doctor explained that it was a prize tract on veracity and the prize was won by Rev. Saraf m Potaji of Shefa-Amr near Nazareth. But the pasha insisted that it be destroyed. The doctor withdrew and the case was taken up by the British consulate, as the tracts belonged to the London Tract Society. Then the pasha insisted that the consul seal them up in a box and send them out of Syria. The consul sent a dragoman and sealed the box and left it at the press. Dr. Van Dyck sent and asked the consul to remove the box. He did not do it. Then the doctor gave him a week s notice that if it were not taken away in that time the press would not be responsible for its safekeeping. The British consul never sent for it and it disappeared, being scattered throughout the land.
The prohibition by the Sultan of all criticism in the newspaper press is one great cause of the universal official corruption in the empire. Bribery exists in civilized lands, but is kept at a minimum through fear of exposure in the press. Here there is no such fear, and it is at a maximum.
On Saturday, March 22d, I called at the hotel on Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., of New York, and the next day he spoke to our Arabic Sunday-school on his work among the newsboys of New York. His son Theodore was with him and was a boon companion of Frederick and Howard Bliss, sons of Dr. Daniel Bliss. The three boys rode together on one donkey, the property of Mrs. Bliss. One of those boys is now President of the United States, while another is president of the Syrian Protestant College, and, as a witty Arab remarked on hearing this reminiscence, The donkey is now the Waly of---.
Mr. Roosevelt gave $500 to the college in Beirut. His visit was memorable and an inspiration to young and old.
In February, 1871, we were favoured with a visit from a celebrated Arab sheikh, the noted Sheikh Mohammed Smeir Ibn ed Dukhy, the emir of the Anazeh tribe, who can command ten thousand horsemen and who receives 280,000 piastres annually from the Turkish government to keep the Bedawin in order.
He had just sent off a detachment of his tribe with the great Mohammedan caravan of pilgrims from Damascus to Mecca and was sent for by Rash d Pasha, Waly of Syria, to come to meet him in Beirut. While here, he was the guest of a friend of ours and we invited him to call. He came on Thursday, February 2d, at 2 P. M. , first calling at my house and then at the female seminary. He looked through the institution and after examining the appearance of the pupils, turned to them and said, Our Bedawin girls would learn as much in six months as you learn in two years. I told him we would like to see the experiment tried. He said, Perhaps it may be some day. Our friend had informed us that although the sheikh could not read, one of his wives could both read and write well, being the daughter of a sheikh near Hamath, so we had prepared an elegant copy of the Arabic Bible bound in green and gilt with a waterproof case to prevent injury on his long return journey of twelve days into the desert, and when we reached the press it was presented to him. He received it with the greatest respect and asked what he would find in it. We told him it was the complete Tourah and Ingeel (Old and New Testaments) and he said it would be profitable to read about Ibrahim the friend of God, and Ishmael the father of the Arabs, and Moosa (Moses) and Soleyman the king and Aieesa or Jesus the son of Mary. The electrotype apparatus deeply interested him but when Mr. Hallock showed him the steam cylinder press rolling off the printed sheets with so great rapidity and exactness, he stood back and remarked in the most deliberate manner, The m