SUBJECTS FOR MONTHLY CONCERTS. JANUARY.-General summary in connection with week of prayer.

FEBRUARY.-China.

MARCH.-Mexico and Central America.

APRIL.-India.

MAY.-Siam and Laos.

JUNE.-Africa.

JULY.-Indians, Chinese and Japanese in America. AUGUST.-Papal Europe.

SEPTEMBER.-Japan and Korea.

OCTOBER.-Persia.

NOVEMBER.-South America.

DECEMBER.-Syria.

SYRIA.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Matt. 28: 19).

Blessed are they that do his commandments (Rev. 22: 14).

MISSION IN SYRIA.

BEIRUT: Rev. Messrs. C. V. A. Van Dyck, D.D., M.D., H. H. Jessup, D.D., William W. Eddy, D.D., James S. Dennis, D.D., Samuel Jessup, and their wives; Mrs. Gerald F. Dale, Miss Eliza D. Everett, Miss Emilia Thomson and Miss Alice S. Barber.

ABEIH: Rev. Messrs. William Bird and Theodore S. Pond and their wives; Miss Emily G. Bird.

SIDON Rev. Mr. William K. Eddy and wife, Miss H. M. Eddy and Miss Charlotte H. and Miss Rebecca M. Brown.

TRIPOLI: Rev. Messrs. G. J. Hardin and F. W. March and Ira Harris, M.D., and their wives; Miss Harriet La Grange, Miss Mary T. Ford.

ZAHLEH: Rev. George A. Ford.

In this country: Rev. William M. Thomson, D.D., Mrs. Mary P. Ford, Miss Eliza Everett.

Faculty of the Syrian Protestant College: Rev. Daniel Bliss, D.D., President; Rev. George E. Post, M.D., Rev. John Wortabet, M.D., Rev. Harvey Porter, B.A., Charles F. Dight, M.D., Thomas W. Kay, M.D., John C. Fisher, M.D., Rev. Andrew Macfar lane, M.D., Ph.D., Robert H. West, M.A., Rev. W. W. Martin, M.A., Louis F. Giroux, B.A., William S. Nelson, B.A., and eight assistant instructors.

A SYRIAN RETROSPECT.

REV. W. W. EDDY, D.D., BEIRUT. A piece of tapestry is the result of the interweaving of many threads of different colors in warp and woof. A plant is the product of many combined forces in nature. How many influences co-operate in producing any man's character! In like manner the results of mis

sionary labor in any mission as summed up in an advanced stage of its history must be counted as the outcome of various agencies exerted in different times and ways.

In applying this to the Syria mission, the writer will omit reference to individuals now living and working in the field.

Among the agencies conspicuous in bringing about present results must be counted first, the prayers and instructions and consecration on the part of the parents of the missionaries who have labored here. In some cases the mothers who gave the sons and daughters sacrificed more and made a higher consecration than the children who went.

Next to these should be classed the work here, for at least forty years time, of the secretaries of the American Board, and particularly of Dr. Anderson. Their deep interest, their many and long letters on missionary policy, their cheering words and unfailing sympathy, have strengthened the hearts and hands of the missionaries. From Pemberton Square for many years flowed streams of blessing to this land. With what prayers and counsels and tender farewells the missionaries embarking in sailing vessels from the wharf in Boston were sent on their way!

And behind the secretaries wrought the great constituency of the American Board, who gave to Syria their children and their money, who read letters from Syria from the Missionary Herald, and bore the missionaries on their hearts and in their prayers to the throne of grace in the monthly concert and at the family altar.

Next come the pioneers of missionary work in Syria. They wrought well and laid deep foundations. On a tombstone under a cypress in Beirut cemetery may be read, "Pliny Fisk, died . . . 1825, aged 33 years." He was one of the pioneers. Another was Jonas King, whose farewell letter to Syrian nominal Christians has been, and still is, a message of power to call men away from the errors of false Christianity. Another was Isaac Bird, scholar as well as saint, whose "Thirteen Letters" is a

treasure-house of sacred truth and a magazine of weapons against the false doctrines which have reigned here.

Among those who have been prominent in the work of education here was Rev. Mr. Hebard, who went more than forty years ago to his rest and reward. He taught the first class of youth here, and taught them well. Most of them are dead. Some have been our most efficient helpers.

Rev. S. H. Calhoun, influential in the pulpit, influential as a writer, did his greatest work as an educator of youth in the higher branches of learning, training them for both worlds, leaving the impress of his mind and heart upon the minds and hearts of his pupils, as a seal upon clay. Those pupils may be counted by scores in Syria and Palestine and Egypt, and there are none better than they.

Mrs. Sarah Huntington Smith, of Norwich, Conn., opened the first girls' school here, and the corner of the churchyard where her schoolhouse once stood is a sacred spot.

Dr. De Forest conducted the first female seminary, and his pupils still hold his name in precious remembrance. Few of those who were his associates remain. They think of him as a skillful physician, a fascinating companion and a devoted Christian.

Mrs. Bowen Thompson, of England, did a great work for the women of Syria, coming here at the time of the massacres, gathering the throngs of widows and orphans, feeding, clothing and instructing them. The work which she inaugurated still goes on since her death, enlightening, elevating, saving.

In literary work, in making the press a power for good in Syria, Dr. Eli Smith takes the first place. The Beirut press, which in 1886 printed thirty-three millions of pages in Arabic, half of them pages of Scripture, was, in its inception, the product of his brain and effort. His hand traced the forms of the type now used. He planned and wrote and worked so earnestly here that it almost seems as if his soul had passed over into the souls of all the workers here, and as if his hand was pushing wheel and roller and screw, in engine, presses, foundry and bindery. He spent the best years of his life in preparing to translate the Scriptures

into Arabic, and entered to a good degree upon the work. His share in that translation entitles him to higher honor than if he had built the Pyramids. No one but Dr. Van Dyck could have lifted and worn his mantle when it fell. Dr. Smith was clear in thought, convincing in argument, exact in execution. He was only fifty years old when he died.

Rev. J. Edwards Ford was a man of prayer, a man of faith and zeal, of untiring energy and unclouded cheerfulness, and as free from selfishness as mortal well could be. His sermons, conversations and prayers are precious seed brought from a heavenly storehouse to be returned yet in a harvest of souls. He died in his prime.

Mr. James Black, English merchant in Beirut, a warm friend of the missionaries and a true Christian, has aided Protestantism here by the witness he bore to it through his strict integrity during many years of commercial life. In business circles throughout all Syria he won a name above all others for truth and honesty. Merchants of all sects chose him as umpire in difficult cases, with implicit confidence in his impartiality and wisdom. He took a lively interest in the building of the Beirut church edifice. Besides giving liberally toward it, he superintended its construction as carefully as if it were his own house; but the character which he built up is a better memorial than would have been the most costly cathedral, and is still what it was in his life, a testimony of the power of the religion of the gospel to make a business man an honest man.

Dr. William M. Thomson is not living in Syria, therefore his work here may be spoken of with that of others. No other missionary has been privileged to labor so many years in Syria. No other one has travelled so widely through the land and made his influence so extensively felt. He was born to be a pioneer missionary. His resources for planning and suggesting new channels of effort, and extricating the mission from trouble in times of opposition, were boundless. His body and mind seemed insensible to fatigue. The present generation of Protestants will not forget Dr. Thomson. His brain thought out the Syrian Protestant College, and the Dodges,

father and son, made that thought an actual and splendid reality.

Medical labors have been not few nor unimportant in aiding the spiritual work. They have opened closed doors and dissolved icy prejudices, won access for the gospel and brought double healing to doubly-diseased sufferers. Drs. Dodge, De Forest, Danforth and William Calhoun have not lived and died in vain.

How can the labors of the wives of the missionaries be summed up so as to convey any idea of the influence thus exerted upon the hearts and homes of the women of Syria? The pen cannot describe that influence. The records of the great day will disclose it.

Of Syrian co-workers I might make long and honorable mention. Space permits me to mention only five. One of these was Asaad Shidiak, the martyr Protestant of Syria. His thrilling, tragic history is ever speaking to the hearts of Syrian youth, and inspiring them to like faithfulness and heroism.

Bishop Wortabet was another, who left the Armenian convent in Jerusalem, and lived in Sidon, honoring Christ and witnessing to his gospel.

Another eminent Protestant was Butros Bistany, who was the leading mind among men of all sects in this land and the father of the new era in Arabic literature. His dictionaries, encyclopædias, newspapers, reviews, grammars and other books are marvellous in their number and excellence. The educated youth now entering on the stage of action aim as the height of their ambition to walk in his footprints and reach the eminence which he attained.

John Abcarius, who lately died, was eminent as a man of wealth, of piety, of influence, of sagacity and of generosity. His character was lovely. He published some useful books, but his memory and his example are the most valuable legacy which his countrymen inherit of all that he has left.

Dr. Meshakah, still living in Damascus, published thirty or more years ago a number of volumes in defence of Protestantism, and exposing the errors of the papacy, wonderful in their pungency and power. They have

acted mightily as agents in demolishing the strongholds of superstitiou here. When one now wants to throw red-hot shot into the enemy's magazine, he calls for one of Dr. Meshakah's books.

Yes, Syria owes much of her advance into light to her veteran laborers. But does she owe nothing to the early dead, who while living had consecrated their lives to her service? Are those many graves in Beirut cemetery of young men and women, missionaries who died when barely thirty years old-are these monuments of wasted effort, squandered lives, useless sacrifice? No, they are God's remembrancers, silently pleading for mercies to this land. They are evidences of territory taken possession of and held for the Lord. The short service those young servants of Christ rendered won hearts and left shining examples. Being dead, they yet speak, calling others to a like consecration.

It would be wrong to omit to count among the indirect causes of blessed results here the tyranny of the clergy in former years, which drove the people "to turn Protestant" in order to punish their spiritual rulers and to bring them to terms. Places walled up to heaven against the missionaries by prejudice and hate opened wide their gates to them to spite their clergy, and gave large audiences and abundant opportunities to communicate volumes of truth and refute volumes of lies, before the quarrels were made up and the doors again closed,-not wholly closed, but always left a little ajar, so that the entrance once made could be permanently secured, and the narrow opening become in time a broad highway.

In the earlier days of the mission Syria was governed by native princes, who at times oppressed the people cruelly. To bring their wrongs into public notice, villages would profess Protestantism and call for missionaries, hoping that through their intercession they might be taken under the wing of the English consul. That official was then a power in the land. His word had then more influence than all the ambassadors now wield in Constantinople. English consuls were always ready to interpose in behalf of persecuted Protestants, and they helped mightily in this way to plant the gospel in this land. But for one of

these the enemy would have swallowed up quickly the Protestants of Hasbeiya in their hour of peril.

Another influence which tended to bring about present results was the massacre of 1860. The war then waged between the Druzes and the Christians greatly weakened the power of the Maronite clergy, who had excited it. As the results of those troubles, thousands of nominal Christians, who never had come into contact with Protestant missionaries, were assembled at their doors, naked, sick and starving. They found those whom their priests had represented as devils in disguise, to be angels of mercy to them. They were kept for months under the influence of the missionaries, receiving relief and instruction from them; and as the famine in China and the helps brought by missionaries opened doors of access to the Chinese, so the massacres in Syria, and the aid brought to the survivors, disarmed prejudices, cemented friendships, opened furrows in hearts to receive the dropped seed of truth. swords and firebrands of the Druzes, besides working woe and destruction, were instruments in the hands of God of slaying fierce enmities and burning away strong barriers which opposed the gospel.

The

Mountain and plain, city and hamlet, have been the receptacles of seed which has lain buried for long years after the hand of the sower was still in death, and has then sprung up and borne rich harvests. Prayers offered in distant America, and gifts laid on God's altar there, have brought spiritual blessings to Syria,

like clouds exhaled from far-off seas and wafted across continents to water deserts and make them gardens.

And when the great harvest day comes, and all the reapers assemble, bringing their sheaves with them, what wide and joyous partnership will then be revealed in the store gathered from this Syrian harvest field! the partnership of Pemberton Square with Centre Street; of wrestlers in prayer in closets on one side of the ocean with messengers publishing good tidings on mountains upon the other; of those who went down to the battle with those of equal ardor who were compelled to tarry by the stuff; of first laborers with later laborers, who

were unborn when the others died; of those who were called home at morn from the harvest field, with those who wrought till eveSyrian, Anglican and American-and all rejoicing to lay their gathered store at the feet of their common Lord.

MEDICAL MISSIONARY WORK IN SYRIA.

Ira Harris, M.D., of the Tripoli station, in a recent letter continues his account of a journey lately taken among the villages of the Nusairiyeh and other strange sects in the mountainous region north of Tripoli:

AMONG THE NUSAIRIYEH.

I believe I concluded my last letter by telling you of our work in Luckbee, which was once the home of 'Owash Beg, the celebrated Nusairiyeh chieftain. I mentioned also the many sick treated and the operations performed, the Bibles sold, our religious talks, etc. The next village visited was Deir Mama, forty minutes to the east. This is a large place, and, with the exception of one family, all Nusairiyeh. This family occupies an important position, as one of its number is the Christian member of the Turkish court for this district. We accepted this man's invitation to make his house our home during our stay. Well for us that we did, for he proved himself a friend indeed when the Turkish officers were going to arrest us and take us before the governor.

I found the people very friendly; they often told me how much they appreciated the efforts of the mission to give their children an education, but more especially the work of our teacher in going from house to house and reading to them "" out of that book that was the best of all books." It was very evident that the word had made an impression; it was seen in their eagerness to purchase the Scripture. In other places our colporteurs went to the people and asked them to buy; here the people came to them and in every instance paid the price asked.

INSTRUCTING PATIENTS.

I will not enter into a detailed account of the medical work; suffice it to say that nearly every moment of the day was occupied. In the evenings we spread rugs and mats upon the housetop, which was large enough to seat-Oriental fashion-two or three hundred. We chose the roof because it was cool, and free from dirt and vermin. Those acquainted with the Nusairiyeh

villages will understand the wisdom of this. During the day we told every patient to come in the evening and bring his friends, and we would read to them from the Bible and explain its teachings. Many came, and it was a blessed experience to have such earnest listeners.

CALLING A HALT.

All arrangements were made to visit Kudmoos, a large Ismailiyeh village five hours to the west. While our men were getting our baggage ready, two Turkish officers and a number of soldiers made their appearance. One of them took our men aside and told them that they might unload the animals, for the Kackeem was not going yet. One of the officers said that he had come to be treated for chronic rheumatism; the other had an aching tooth to be extracted. Many of the soldiers had something the matter and asked my help. I prescribed for all. They then told me that the pasha wished me to come and see a sick man. This was a falsehood. I told them I was very sorry that I should be unable to go. They then said that I must go and give an account of myself, what was my business among the Nusairiyeh, what were the books I was selling and the tracts I was giving away. I replied that I was a physician, plying my profession on a certificate granted by the sultan, that I had a Turkish passport, properly signed, granting me permission to travel anywhere in the empire; that the books I was selling had the imperial sanction and the tracts I was distributing were selections from the Bible. I referred to the fact that I had spent several days in the governor's own village and had treated many of the soldiers, and now when I was about to leave the district I was ordered to go eight miles back to give an account of myself. But for the intercession of our host they would have arrested me and taken me by force; as it was, we were told not to leave the village; soldiers were stationed to enforce this order until a messenger could bring instructions from the pasha. When he returned, the officers came to our room and said that the pasha was satisfied that I had a right to travel and practice my profession, but that we must submit to having our baggage examined lest our papers should contain anything against the Turkish government, and he also ordered that a thorough examination of the books we were selling be made, for it was rumored that we were political agents of some foreign power, inciting the Nusairiyeh to rebellion. Of course they found nothing in our baggage. They then turned their attention to our books,

PURCHASING A BIBLE.

The senior officer took a Bible, read a whole chapter, then asked the price, said he had heard of the book, but had never seen one; would like to purchase that he might compare it with the Koran. I offered to give him one, but he would not receive it as a present. He bought a Bible, a New Testament and a Gospel of Matthew. I told him that the Testament and Matthew were contained in the Bible; but he replied, "Never mind; I will give them to some of the soldiers to read." He asked for the tracts. I gave him fifty, telling him that if he found nothing objectionable in them he might distribute them among the garrison. He said he would do so. The officers then salaamed and took their departure.

THE ISMAILIYEH.

We were soon on our way, and reached Kudmoos after sunset. This place is beautifully situated on an isolated hill, with lovely fertile valleys on every side. On the highest point in the centre of the town are the ruins of an old castle. The people, the Ismailiyeh, are entirely different from the Nusairiyeh. They are supposed to be the Assassins who were such a terror during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They came from Egypt, and acquired here much power and influence. It was generally believed that they assassinated every one who opposed them. They acquired this place by purchase from its Moslem owners because they could not take it by force, owing to its strategic position. It was strongly fortified, and became the key of this whole region. Owing to internal dissensions, the Assassins lost the power gained by such unholy means, and their numbers have gradually decreased, until now there are only about five thousand. They possess only two villages of importancethis and one other, Messeaff, about which I wrote you last spring. We were very kindly received by the people here; the fact that we carried a well-filled medicine chest having been conveyed to them by some people who had seen us at our last stopping place. The next morning we were up at daylight, and gave notice that we would do no work upon the following day, that being the Sabbath, but that I was ready to treat all who came this day. They came in crowds. In the afternoon we held a reception in our tents, and all the principal men called upon us. As is usual on such occasions, most of the time was given to religious conversation. Our colporteurs, to my surprise, disposed of all that remained