MISSIONS IN SYRIA AND ASIA MINOR
By Henry H. Jessup
BY REV. HENRY H. JESSUP, D.D. THERE are in Syria and Palestine 252 foreign laborers, men and women, 168 being in Syria and 84 in Palestine. Of the 168 in Syria there are men, 73; wives, 34; unmarried women, 61; Of the 84 in Palestine there are men, 34; wives, 14; unmarried women, 36; the totals of the 252 in Syria and Palestine being 107 men, 48 wives, and 97 unmarried women. Of the men 53 are ordained, and 26 are physicians, and one of the unmarried women is a physician. This is certainly a large corps, and should be effective in doing great good to the souls and bodies of the people. The population of Syria and Palestine is not far from 2,600,000. This gives, on an average, one foreign laborer to every 10,000 of the people. But it should be borne in mind that a large part of these laborers are engaged in educational work, having under instruction not far from 10,000 children and youths. For this reason certain centers, like Beyroot, Damascus, and Jerusalem, have more than their share of foreign laborers, while some of the outlying districts have none. Beyroot has 52 foreign laborers, with a population of 100,000. Of these 22 are in the Syrian Protestant College, and almost all of the rest are in the various institutions, American, English, Scotch, and German. Jerusalem, with a population not half that of Beyroot, has 28 laborers, who have charge of schools, hospitals, and general evangelistic work. The large institutions like the Syrian Protestant College, the Prussian Orphanage, and the British Syrian Training Institution for Educating Teachers, the American Female Seminary, and the Hospital of the Protestant Knights of St. John in Beyroot, with the boarding schools, orphanages, and hospitals in Damascus, Brummana, Nazareth, Jaffa, Bethlehem, Tiberias, and Jerusalem, will no doubt remain for many years to come in foreign hands and be maintained by foreign funds. It will be a long time before the men or the means can be found in this land to conduct such institutions. And in the evangelistic work, the founding of churches and communities, the obstacles to self-support are very great. The people seem to be growing poorer instead of richer. In Asia Minor the flourishing self-supporting churches in Aintah, Marash, and Kharpoot have been well-nigh blotted out by the recent massacres. In Syria and Palestine tens of thousands of the active and enterprising young men have emigrated to North and South America and Australia, depleting and almost destroying various little country churches. Whatever may be said by defenders of the government, it is not denied that it is the fixed policy to obstruct the building of churches and the opening of schools by Christians everywhere and always. Christianity is at a discount. On the other hand, the Eastern and Western Churches, the Russian and the Roman, are now engaged in a desperate struggle for the preponderance of political and ecclesiastical influence in this historic land. Russian and French gold is pouring into the country. Priests, monks, fathers, brothers, sisters, clerical and lay, swarm in all the historic and non-historic sites. Rival buildings, churches, schools, and hospitals spring up in Galilee, Samaria, and Judea, and all through the mountains and seacoast cities of Syria. They fight one another, and only unite in opposition to Protestant missions. The Russians now have 34 schools in Palestine and Syria. The redeeming feature of these schools is the fact that they require the use of the Arabic Scriptures as a text-book in all their schools, using the translation of Dr. Van Dyck, published at the American Press by the American Bible Society. They are also using numerous religious, moral, and educational works from the American press. All their schools are free. Tuition and books are given without money, so that even in places where the people have been willing to pay a moderate sum for the education of their children, they now can have it for nothing. With the Jesuits on the one side, and the Russians on the other, bidding for pupils, you can hardly expect the principle of self-support to gain ground in the little Protestant communities. And yet solid progress has been made. The natives of Syria contributed during 1895 for the education of their children in Protestant schools and for church expenses the sum of $19,000, which is a very creditable showing. Of this sum $11,000 was paid as board and tuition to the Syrian Protestant College. Yet during the first few years of this college almost all the pupils were taught gratuitously. The Female Seminary of the American Mission received last year $1,200 from pupils, whereas thirty years ago its boarders were lodged, fed, taught, and clothed without charge.—Mission News.