and that the divers religious sects really constituted one race. It was also agreed upon that wherever small companies were ready to make a credible profession of piety, they were entitled to be recognised as churches, and had a right to such a native ministry as could be given tliem. About tliat time a call for preaching came from Hasbeiya, a village of four or live thousand inhab- itants, situated at the foot of Mount Hermon, and about fifty miles south-east of HeirCit. A considerable body of Hasbeiyans had seceded from the Greek Church, de- clared themselves Protestants, and made a formal ap- plication to the mission for religious instruction. Sev- enty-six of these people were added to the Church of Christ. A persecution against the Protestants now en- sued, who fled to Abeih, where the high-school was re- vived under the charge of Mr. Calhoun. A chapel for public worship was fitted up, and here, as also at Beirut, there was preaching every Sabbath in the Arabic lan- guage, with an interesting Sabbath-school between the services. In the spring of the year 184;) war broke out afresh between the Druses and Maronites, and Lebanon was again purged by fire. The consequence was that the schools in the mountains were broken up ; but in the following year, when Dr. Van Dyck was ordained to the work of the Gospel ministr}', there were ten schools in the charge of the station at Abeih, with 43G pupils. Connected with tlie Beirut station were four schools for boys and girls, and one for girls alone. In Suk el-Ghiirb, a village four miles from Abeih, a Prot- estant secession from the Greek Church was in progress, embracing fourteen families, and religious services were held with them every Sabbath. At Bhamdun, the summer residence for the brethren of the Beirut station, there were a number of decided Protestants, and even in Zahleh, the hot-bed of fanaticism, there were men who openly argued from the Gospel against the pre- vailing errors. IMissionary work had now so increased that in the j'ear 1847 an earnest and eloquent appeal from the missionaries for an increase to their number was made to the Prudential Committee. The appeal was published, but it continued painfully true that the harvest was plenteous, while the laborers were few. In the same year the Protestants of Hasbeiya sent one of their number to Constantinople to lay their grievances before the sultan. The appeal was successful, and the principle of tolerating and acknowledging the Protes- tants as a Christian sect was recognised, in spite of the bull of excommunication of the (ireek patriarch. The most important event, however, in the year 1848 was the formation of a purely native Church at Beirut, and the beginning of translating the Scriptures into Arabic, which was committed to Mr. Eli Smith, who was assist- ed by Butrus el-Bistany and Nasif el-Vasiji. In the same year Aleppo was made a missionary station, but it was left in 1855 to be cultivated by the Armenian mis- sion, the language in that region being chiefly the Turk- ish. At that time the Gospel was preached statedly at sixteen places. At four of these — Beirut, Abeih, Sidon, and Hasbeiya — churches had been organized. The anathemas of the Maronite clergy, once so terrific, had lost their power, and the most influential inhabitants were on friendly terms with the mission, and in favor of education and good morals. Things had changed in the last fifteen years for the better in a most remarka- ble way. We have now arrived at the year 1857, which opened with the death of Dr. Eli Smith, the translator of the Bible into Arabic. He had departed at Beirut, Sabbath morning, Jan. 11, and was succeeded in the work of translation bj' Dr. Van Dyck, who had been re- moved for that purpose from Sidon to Beirfit. In the year 1859 the translation of the New Test, was com- pleted and published under the care of Dr. Van Dj'ck, who tlu'u proceeded with the translation and publica- tion of the Old Test., which was completed Aug. 22, 1864. The British and Foreign Bible Society requested permission to adopt this version, instead of the one for- merly issued by them. The result of a friendly nego-
tiation was that the American and the British and Foreign Bible Society agreed to publish the version conjointly from electrotype plates furnished by the for- mer.
The civil war which broke out in SjTia in 18t)0, and which was noted for savage massacres on Lebanon, at Hasbeiya, Damascus, and elsewhere, although doubtless injurious to the missionary work in its direct effects, was the means of an interesting development of the missionary spirit. Not less than six different mission- ary societies were formed, embracing nearly all the Protestants of the various towns and villages, and a commendable degree of liberality was shown by the natives in collecting and contributing. The number of converts increased, churches and stations were multi- plied and provided with native preachers and pastors, and a proposal was made for a Protestant college. The demand for the Scriptures and other religious works was so great that the press was unable to meet it. In 1862 the printing alone amounted to 8000 volumes and 9000 tracts, making an aggregate of 6,869,000 pages. Besides the Protestant college, which was proposed in 1861 and incorporated in 1863, in accordance with the laws of the state of New York, a theological seminary was commenced at Abeih in May, 1869, which opened with seven students. In the year 1870 the Syrian mis- sion was transferred from the American Board to the Presbyterian Board of Missions, under whose care it is still carried on.