Seeing encouraging openings of new fields before us, one of our great needs is that additional helpers be sent to the Syrian-Egyptian Mission, locating in some of the larger cities, some of which as yet remain entirely untouched. Our nine laborers are at present distributed in Beirut, Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem in Syria, and at Cairo and Luxor in Egypt. The very near future must see a number of missionaries enter all these great cities and the many smaller places, granting them sufficient time to master the languages, to become acclimated, and to get accustomed to prevailing conditions. Missionaries responding to this call must come with the definite determination of consecrating their lives to permanent labor among these benighted peoples, willing to assimilate themselves to the situation just as it is, making this country their home as long as there is need of spreading this message. This will be one of the guaranties, under the blessing of God, for a successful work in this field.
Medical Needs
Another urgent need in our field is the wider extension of the medical work. The prevailing prejudice created by the misrepresentation of Christianity against Bible faith on the one hand, and the extreme fanaticism of Mohammedanism on the other, calls for a special development of medical missionary work. Even other mission societies are more and more advocating this work, as education alone will never prove sufficiently effective to reach Mohammedans.
Thirty Protestant hospitals prove the activity in introducing the medical mission. All our lay members in Syria have accepted the truth as a result of our medical work. No doubt there would have been much other fruit could this work have been operated on a larger scale. At present this part of our work is very encouraging, being nearly self-supporting. There is a strong tendency in favor of hydrotherapy, especially in Palestine.
Considering the important part that Syria has played in the history of God’s people, and is to play in the close of this work, and furthermore, seeing that it commands the entrance to Persia, and will be the center of communication when the railroads connecting Bagdad and Europe are completed, it seems that a special effort should be made to push the work in this field in preparation for the great missionary efforts yet before us in the Levant. This necessity is furthermore impressed upon my mind as the Arabic language is of such vast importance to the Mohammedan world in the East; the fact that this is the leading language does not put us to such linguistic difficulties as we must meet in other countries. Besides, as Christianity is so strongly developed in Syria, this part of the field seems to guarantee the greatest security for the establishment of a missionary center in the East.
Said a writer some fifty years ago: “It is remarkable that the brilliant star of Arabic literature, originally rising on the Arabian horizon, spreading from there such an illumination over the foreign nations of the East and West, has left Arabia in such a state of darkness.” This is true indeed. Considering, further, that this is the country whence the blessings of the Gospel have emanated, we, as Seventh-day Adventists, should feel a special responsibility to give the last Gospel message to those who sit in ignorance and darkness in this great field.
