under the superintendence of the government, he and his party fought their way to the fortressconvent of Saidenaiya, and were instrumental in saving it from the fate of all other strongholds assailed by the Druzes. The butchery complete in the castle, the Druzes plundered all the houses of the Christians, and then burned them. One Druze family alone, Beit 'Uryan, saved many Christians alive.

The

During the horrible massacres of 1860 in Syria, the British Foreign Minister continued to repeat the apologies of Fuad Pasha, who, with the object of becoming himself Viceroy of Syria, is now known to have brought about the evil; but when the French division was sent to occupy Syria, the English fleet was sent to look after the French. When the French arrived, Fuad Pasha arrived, and the massacre was countermanded. Then a Commission was appointed and sat, and Fuad Pasha, having bought over two of the Commissioners, he was able to thwart Lord Dufferin and his more honourable colleagues whenever he pleased. The commission, however, effected much good, chiefly through the perseverance and tact of our accomplished countryman, the present Governor of Canada. Christians, who had lost everything but their lives, were to be compensated for their losses. But the compensation was to be paid through the ecclesiastical chiefs of the different sects; and loud and bitter were the complaints of the poor people, when their spiritual leaders grew rich and powerful, built splendid houses and churches, and they themselves remained in the most destitute condition. At the same time they saw British funds for the relief of the sufferers distributed by Protestant missionaries without partiality. A report, however, was circulated, by a Jesuit priest named Palgrave, now a British Consul, that the funds were being used by the Protestants for proselytizing purposes, and this report having been looked into by a Commission of natives and foreigners, and found to be false, the Protestants began to be looked upon at least as honest men. From that time forward they were constantly appealed to, and many a tale of clerical villany they were compelled to hear. These events brought the missionaries into more intimate relations with the people.

The ecclesiastical head of the Syrian Catholics in Rasheiya was a remarkable man: able, and unscrupulous, and bold, he had much influence with the government officials. He was one of those astute Syrians who had made a tour to Europe, for the ostensible purpose of raising funds for benevolent purposes in his own land, and had ever after become an object of envy to all who saw his wonderfully improved condition. On his first tour he made a great blunder, as he took an Armenian interpreter with him as clever as himself, and he, Gehazi-like, used to double back on the munificent Naamans of Europe with some after-thought of his master. He also returned a rich man to Damascus, but soon lost nearly all he had in reckless speculation. The old bishop once more returned to Europe, but alone, and has ever since been in very comfortable circumstances. To this shepherd the hungry sheep looked up, but looked in vain for food. The flock also complained that compensation moneys found their way into the wrong pocket; and perhaps they were right.

As soon as the Christians began to return to their homes in Damascus, the missionaries returned too, and the people, during their melancholy absence from the city, had ceased to put implicit belief in the priests' tales-that the missionaries were fire-worshippers, or devil-worshippers, or even infidels for in the interval they had seen the Protestant missionaries and merchants in Beyrout keep the Lord's-day, and assemble decorously for public worship. Many Nicodemuses came to the missionaries by night and by stealth, but there were some also who came openly and by day.

In March 1863, a large deputation from Rasheiya trudged down thirty miles to see the missionaries at Damascus. They were members of the Syrian Catholic Church, but were in almost heathenish darkness, and were entirely ignorant of the truths of the gospel. Notwithstanding some of them could read, they did not know the Bible when it was placed in their hands. They said they only came to ask the missionaries to take them under their care, and to instruct them in the truths of the gospel. No missionary work had ever been done in their village, and no direct Protestant influence had ever been brought

thoroughly dissatisfied with their spiritual leaders, whom they had come to believe were ignorant and ungodly men, and whom they knew to be only using their power and authority among the people for their own aggrandizement. In Rash eiya they had heard of the missionaries, had been told that they were upright and honest men, labouring for the good of others, and after much deliberation they had come to place themselves under their instruction and guidance. The missionaries, having learned from experience that such applications are often made from purely worldly motives, and seeing the great ignorance of the applicants, did not feel very hopeful of any good or permanent results springing from the Rasheiya case, but thought it probable that, on meeting with opposition or persecution from their priests, the Rasheiyans would return to their former spiritual allegiance. They told the deputation their fears on this head. The deputation had also come at an unfortunate time, for the small body of missionaries who had already returned to Damascus were already overworked. They were open and candid with the deputation. They told them that, with the work in Damascus, Nebk, and Deir Atich, their time was fully occupied, and they could only hope to visit them seldom at most, and at present they had no native helper whom they could place among them. This only made them more urgent in their appeals that they and their children should not be left in their present state of ignorance. They begged the missionaries not to come to a sudden conclusion, and implored that one of them should visit them, give them some instruction, and become better acquainted with them, before they finally rejected their petition; and they would not leave until they obtained a promise to that effect.

In the following month the Rev. John Frazer made the promised visit to Rasheiya, and brought back a very encouraging report. He found about a dozen families earnestly asking for religious instruction. Another visit was paid them in June by Mr. and Mrs. Crawford, who went a second time in the end of July, and spent the month of August among them. During his second visit Mr. Crawford united Mousa Dawoud and his

first rite ever celebrated in Rasheiya according to the Presbyterian form. The bridegroom was the man who was chief of the deputation that first waited on the missionaries, and it was by his importunity that they were first prevailed upon to visit Rasheiya. He was the young Syrian Catholic who three years previously, at the head of a small band of fellow-townsmen, aided in routing and chasing down the mountain the victorious and valorous Druze host; and would probably have saved his native place, but for the short-sighted folly of his compatriots. He was our travelling companion to-day from Damascus, and he is now our generous host for the night. The "Prophet's Chamber," in which we are now assembled, is fitted up with an eye to the comfort of guests like ourselves. We have a divan filled with straw, and covered with furniture cotton, on which we squat; but there is a large table in the middle of the floor, a few chairs occupy the corners of the room, and several other objects are about indicative of civilized man. There are shelves of books, a rarity in this land. Houses in this country are made up for show. One room or two in the best houses are usually adorned with marble, and gold, and precious stones, and cheap European ornaments. Barbaric effects are produced; but you seldom see in a house in Syria any food for the mind. Account-books, and I. O. U.'s, in which interest is included at thirty or forty per cent., are abundant enough, but you miss the casual book laid aside to be taken up again; and you seldom, except in a Protestant house, find such a shelf of books as you see in this poor man's dwelling. Many English travellers have enjoyed the hospitality of our host; and this comfortable room is much sought by Plymouth Brethren, who, in addition to the self-imposed task of railing at all organized Christian effort as "Babylon," give their entertainer a fine opportunity of learning practical lessons of hospitality and liberality. Our host is a poor man, though I cannot conceive of him asking his guests for remuneration; but a man should always in Syria give an equivalent for what he receives, and it is very acceptable if properly administered to the wife or daughter. Every Englishman who travels in this country

is supposed to be a gentleman, and if, in addition, he be a Protestant, his religion gives him access to the best accommodation and food that such a man as our host can provide. With such men Plymouth Brethren will settle down for weeks and months-eat their sheep, and honey, and cheese, generally affecting touching humility by eating with the fingers in native fashion; and having unsettled their minds about the imperfect form of Christianity which they have embraced, finally take their leave with a few unctuous words, and a present of a Plymouth Hymn-Book in English. A teacher in one of our schools, when demanding a rise of salary, urged his claim on the ground of having to entertain Plymouth Brethren.

The Rasheiya Mission was now fairly entered on in August 1863. Mousa Elias, the excellent teacher in Nebk, was transferred to Rasheiya to teach school during the week, to meet with the people, especially on the Sabbath, for religious instruction and prayer, to sell and distribute books and tracts, and to do evangelical work generally as opportunity offered. His place at Nebk was supplied by a very promising but less experienced teacher, and Mousa proved himself admirably suited for the various and important duties of a native helper. He was a man of great stature and strength,-physical qualities rarely despised, except by those who do not possess them. His zeal and mental powers were of the same large cast as his outward frame. He had admirable powers of conciliation; but oftentimes, when conciliation failed, he shielded effectually by his great strength the Protestant party from the priestly mob. The opening of a Protestant school in a village is an important event, as it opens as a rule three other schools; for the Greeks, Catholics, and Syrians open schools too. The indirect influence of missions is thus much greater than the direct influence. Sometimes, instead of opening rival schools, the priests merely anathematize those who send their children to the mission schools; but a few always, Ajax-like, defy the thunder; and the difference between the children who attend school and those who do not soon becomes so apparent, that the priests are obliged to open schools in self-defence. Missions are a sort of conscience in the land, and

| owing to them Christ is often preached out of envy and strife. A good instance of this occurred shortly after my arrival in Syria. We were spending the summer in Bludan, a mountain village in which one half of the population is of the Greek Church. We commenced an Arabic service, and had a very good attendance. The old priest-who was just one of the peasants, with the additional qualification of being able to read and write, which latter qualification he sometimes turned to account by forging documents-became uneasy. A happy thought struck him, that he should have a service too, and preach a sermon like the missionaries. An important question for him was, how to get a sermon. In his difficulty he applied to the chief man of our church, Dr. Meshaka, and he prepared for him an excellent sermon, and taught him to read it. The priest assembled his flock in the ruined convent of St. George; and by way of conciliating his flock for a late discovered forgery, he gave them a roast sheep to eat, and after they disposed of the burnt offering, he read to them for the first and last time in his life an admirable Protestant sermon.

The priests of Rasheiya, however, did not confine themselves to impotent anathemas (which, like chickens, come home to roost) and rival schools, but they began a fierce persecution of the Protestants, which was long carried on with all the ingenuity and malignity for which priests alone are celebrated. The Protestants had come over from the Papal-Syrian Church, and no man was fitter than the bishop of that flock to conduct a ruthless persecution against them. The Turks rarely persecute on account of religion, unless it be a case of apostasy from Islam; but they are easily induced for a consideration to be very zealous on one side or another. The local magistrate of Rasheiya, according to village report, "could be bribed by three eggs, and one of them rotten." With this man the Syrian bishop was very influential; for has he not been twice to Europe to raise funds "for the benefit of his poor, down-trodden flock"? The chief man in the local court was also an arch-enemy of the Protestant heretics. The Syrian bishop thus saw his heart's desire upon his enemies, who dared to crave education for their children, and

and

religious instruction for themselves; had dared to give up St. George, and the Virgin Mary, for him who was called Jesus, because he should save his people from their sins. The Protestants were deprived of their rights in the Church, of their vaults in the cemetery. They were arrested and tried and imprisoned on the most mendacious and frivolous charges. Heavier taxes were laid upon them than upon their neighbours. They were beaten in their shops and in the streets at the instigation of members of the law courts, and in the presence of the authorities, who afforded them no protection whatever; and as a refinement in cruelty, the bishop had the mother of our host, Um Mass'ad, tied naked on the roof of her own house, smeared over with honey, and left there a long summer day to be stung by wasps, and by the venomous tongues of her female neighbours "of the baser sort."

Trial is one of the conditions of Christianity. Christ did not pray that his disciples should be taken away from the testing and sanctifying trial," but that they should be kept from the evil." "All who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution;" and I believe that the rule holds good as well in ordinary life, and in civilized society, as in semi-barbarous places like Rasheiya. The day of the Lord" is not antedated by placing the burdens of trial on the wicked alone. He will separate the sheep from the goats before he metes out his rewards and punishments. In this matter, which seems to have disquieted even the prophets of God, the difference between the righteous and the wicked does not consist in the inequality of the burdens which they are given to bear, but in the manner in which they bear them. And though we do not always see the wisdom of the sore and visible trials by which some are almost crushed, yet we can rest assured that "what we know not now we shall know hereafter; and I think that generally the man of God may learn the lesson of the heavenly Father's will in the passing dispensation. True, no chastisement for the present is joyous or pleasant; but when the divine rule, not to despise the Lord's chastening, nor faint under his rebuke, is complied with, it brings to the believer joy and peace.

The converts at Rasheiya needed trial, for notwithstanding their pious assertions when they first visited the missionaries, their motives in becoming Protestants were far from pure, as they have since often told me. But the persecution was a good plough to deepen the shallow ground. It was a fire to separate the dross from the pure gold, and to burn up the wood, and the hay, and the stubble. Some, "who were not of us," were driven back to the barren pastures whence they came; but many remained steadfast in their adherence to the truth of the gospel of Christmost of them learned to read the Scriptures for themselves, and have steadily advanced in knowledge-and some of them, we believe, are savingly converted to Christ.

Silently and alone, unseen and uncheered by admiring hosts of followers, Mousa Elias nobly fought the good fight of faith for eighteen months, and then laid hold on eternal life. We have learned to admire the self-sacrifice of the missionary going forth, with his life in his hand, to be "despised and rejected of men," an object of hatred to those for whose good he labours. But then the missionary goes forth, cheered by his fellow-students, and followed by the prayers of the Church, and ever borne to a throne of grace by surviving parents, whose love time and distance only fan into a more consuming flame. If he fails, and returns to his home, he is heartily welcomed, except by the few who are zealously self-denying by proxy. If he is successful in drawing men to Christ, he knows that the Church of his fathers will rejoice in his joy; and should he see no immediate fruit of his labour, the Church is willing to continue to do that which she knows to be her duty, and leave the results to God. And never will the Church rise to her true dignity as a Church of Christ, until she has learned to do her duty without the spar of success, and until she removes from her missionaries the temptation of writing home flash reports to please. And should the missionary suffer persecution, he can claim and compel protection from even unwilling British authorities, as long as he abstains from breaking the law. But should he fall in harness, he knows with what genuine sympathy the intelligence will be received by all who knew him. These are

motives not of the highest order; but it would be affectation to say that they do not enter largely into the composition of causes which move a man to do and bear. Mousa Elias laboured and endured nobly, without almost any of these human encouragements. He left his own Church for the pure love of truth; and that Church cursed him and hated him with a perfect hatred. Among those who persecuted him most cordially were his father and mother and wife "they of his own household." British Consuls could protect Russian Jews, Afghan Moslems, and Druze assassins, but would be sharply reproved for imprudence did they attempt to shield from outrage the followers of Christ. And when he died, his death was hailed as a judgment from God on an enemy of the Church. Mousa Elias was a hero as much above the world's type of hero, as the deep blue heaven is above the cold, sluggish earth on which we tread. "He rests from his labours, and his works do follow him." With his last breath he bequeathed his two infant boys to the missionaries, to be educated for the work of the Lord in Syria; but the grandfather, with religious horror, came and took possession of the children, and the missionaries could not carry out their dying friend's wish without creating a commotion detrimental to the cause of missions. Their wisdom in surrendering the children has since become manifest.

On a Sunday evening a few weeks ago a dozen of youths assembled in my Leewan to be examined in the Shorter Catechism for prizes. They all knew the whole of the Catechism almost perfectly, and it was difficult to decide who knew it best. A son of Dr. Meshaka assisted me; and it was only by counting stumbles or mispronunciations that we were able to make a distinction. When we had completed the Catechism, three was the greatest number of mistakes made by any of the boys. One little boy with a large head, and clear ruddy complexion, and large brown sparkling eyes, made only one mistake, and got a prize. He was FARHAN ELIAS, one of the boys who had been consigned by his dying father to the care of the missionaries. grandfather having compelled one of his sons by main violence to quit the missionaries, lived to see him become a miserable reprobate. He then came to think better of the missionaries; and though he has not yet joined the missionaries himself, he has surrendered to their charge his orphan grandchildren. The boy Farhan was the brightest of all the boarders under my care during the past winter. We intend to give him the best education Syria can afford, at the same time taking care not to unfit him for living among his own people; and I trust by the blessing of God he shall live to do good work in his native land.

21 STRAIGHT STREET, DAMASCUS.

The

at Bonn, and elected Dr. Joseph Reinkens, a Breslau theological professor, to the exercise of the episcopal office among them; and two months later, on the 11th of August, the consecration of Dr. Reinkens took place at Rotterdam in Holland. The circumstances connected with that consecration are interesting and peculiar, and the following narrative-half personal, and half historical-will, we hope, not be unacceptable to the readers of the Treasury.

We are familiar enough, even in this country, with the stress laid upon the doctrine of apostolical succession. A High Anglican will recognize the orders of no man who has not been ordained by a validly consecrated bishop; and as this is an idea which is derived from the Church