DAMASCUS | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 16, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 23.

DAMASCUS.

THE city of Damascus is one of the oldest cities, if not the oldest city, in the world. Its history reaches back into the misty regions before the time of written history. It is said by Josephus to have been founded by Uz, the son of Aram, and we have no reason to doubt the statement. The name given to this district in the Old Testament is "Aram-Damesk," or Aram of Damascus.

In the time of Abraham, Damascus was already a noted place; the steward of his house was Eliezer, of Damascus. Though not in Palestine, yet the history of Damascus was again and again connected with that of the children of Israel. Who that thinks of Damascus fails to call to mind the little Hebrew maiden who had been taken captive by the marauding hosts of its king, and who was the means of causing Naaman, the captain of the forces of the king of Syria, to take a peaceable journey into the land of Israel to be healed of his leprosy by the prophet of the Lord? The mention of Damascus, too, reminds us of the prophet Elisha, and the supernatural warning which he gave to the king when the armies of Benhadad issued forth for the subjugation of the kingdom of Israel. And last, but not least, Damascus was the scene of the conversion of Saul, the persecutor, who afterwards became the chiefest of the apostles.

The city of Damascus stands in a plain at a distance of about one mile and a half from the base of Anti-Lebanon. The plain has an elevation of 2,200 feet above the sea, and though surrounded with arid mountains and uncultivated plains, it is a perfect picture of beautiful vegetation and fertility. So lovely is it with its verdant groves and gardens that, according to the faithful, Mahomet is said at one time to have refused to enter it, exclaiming, "I seek not my paradise on earth, but in Heaven." Unbelievers, however, have another version of this story, which is to the effect that Mahomet well knew that Damascus was too well defended for him to effect its capture with the troops he then had under him, and that he was astute enough to put the best possible face on his retreat; but it afterwards fell into the hands of the Moslems, and has since remained under their power.

For nearly three centuries Christianity was the predominant faith, but the alternative, "the Koran or the sword," well-nigh exterminated it. At the present time the population consists of from 150,000 to 200,000 souls, of whom only some 20,000 are Christians. Before the year 1860 the Christians were more numerous, but in that year a terrible uprising of the Moslem population, aided by the Druses, took place, and at least 2,500 of the adult male Christians were murdered in cold blood, and many of the women and girls were seized by the murderers and condemned to a life worse than death itself.

The Christian population is, to a very large extent, merely so in name and form; hence, of late years, an effort has been made to evangelize them, in common with the Moslems and the Jews. A Protestant mission was commenced in the year 1843 by two missionaries, one from the Presbyterian Church of Ireland and the other from the Church of Scotland; but for some years past the missionaries have been under the direction of the former church. There are now two ordained missionaries, and a medical missionary who works in conjunction with them and who labors under the auspices of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society.—Christian World.