Jonas king
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| in the country some time. I replied that it afforded me much pleasure to meet with one who belonged to that family, the name of which was known to every American, and repeated with respect by every child who knew how to read. She is the granddaughter of William Pitt, who plead the cause of America in the British Parliament. From this time our conversation was incessant for about three or four hours, after which she walked out with me and showed me her horses and garden." In the stables he found that curiously-deformed mare, having its back in shape of a natural saddle, which this singular woman kept for the use of the coming Messiah ! The animal was no myth, as many suppose.
After surveying the establishment, Lady Hester left him for an hour, just when he really wished to be alone, it being the time appointed for the Monthly Concert, which Messrs. Fisk and Lewis had agreed to observe together. "After spending this hour alone, Lady Hes ter sent for me, and with the exception of about another hour spent at supper, our conversation was uninterrupted till near break of day. It turned on various subjects—America, England, France, Turkey, the present state of things in the world, the religion of Jesus Christ, of Mo hammed, and of pagans, witchcraft, etc. She is really the most wonderful woman I ever saw. She believes in dreams as slight intimations of what is about to take place ; believes that every person is born under some
particular star," etc. This lady's strange views as to.the Messiah and spiritual influences were due no doubt to the partial disorder of a naturally fine mind. Dr. King writes : " There is not a single house on her mountain except her own, and here she can sit and see the Arab shepherds watching their flocks on the neigh boring mountains, all of whom are at her command. Her influence here is very great, both among Turks and Arabs." The attention she paid Dr. King was quite remarkable. Her offers of assistance were afterwards redeemed by her securing for him a good lodging-place and teacher at Deir el Kamar.
The first thing necessary was to secure protection from the Emir Busher, who lived about ten and a half hours from Beyrout. The road there was a very rough one, but upon arrival the emir received the missionaries with great respect, and gave them a letter to visit differ ent parts of the mountain, and to reside where they pleased to study Arabic. He also invited them to spend ten or fifteen days at his palace. Another visit was made to Antoura, where that good
though very singular man, Rev. Lewis Way, had taken a house, intending to make it a sort of college. This plan, however, was soon given up, as Mr. Way's health failed, causing his return to England. Here Mr. Fisk and Dr. King assisted Mr. Way in the Church of England ser vice. The next day the letters of introduction were de livered to the sheikh and the Maronite Bishop, who gave Dr. King a note that would be of use to him at Deir el Kamar, the place recommended for the study of Arabic by Lady Hester Stanhope. Arrived at this latter place, Dr. King records, July 29, 1823, "This day I am thirty-one years of age. Put on the Arab dress, and began to study Arabic in good earnest." The family in which he boarded was Roman-catholic, The women came into the family-room unveiled, and " conversed as freely as Eng lish ladies would do." One of them, after the baptism of a child, performed with superfluity of forms and with use of water, oil, and soap, said in Italian that women usually were more secluded ; " but I was a better man than the curate and a great treasure in the place, so that they had no fear of me." This gave opportunity for a little talk about baptism and true regeneration. The women said they wished he was their curate. Dr. King replied, " Were I your curate, I could say nothing better to you than this : to love Jesus Christ with all your heart, trust in him for salvation, confess your sins before God, live a life of prayer, and do good to others. All were silent, and in this manner I addressed them for some time. While I was speaking the tears often came in my eyes. I felt that it was a wonderful thing that in 132 , ONAS KING. this place, where a woman is seldom seen, I should be permitted to see them and preach to them Jesus Christ and him crucified. They then invited me to cat with them, and when they went away one of them invited me to visit at her house. These were some of the most respectable women in the place." A few days were taken up by a journey in company with Hanna, his teacher, back to Beyrout, by request of Mr. Way, who wished to see him before leaving the coun try. He stayed over Sunday at a convent for nuns. It is sometimes denied that any changes are made by the Roman-catholics in the sacred text; but here in the Prayer-book of the Catholic Christians, printed in Ara bic, Dr. King read the following heading : " ' The ten Commandments as written by God on two tables of stone, and handed down to us, the Church.' Then fol lowed ten commandments ; but the second, as in the law of Moses, was entirely left out, and the tenth divided into two, so as to make the number ten. The fourth com mandment also said, ' Observe the first day and the feast-days.' Soon after I had read these the priest came in, and I remarked to him what I had read, and told him that these were not the ten commandments delivered to Moses ; that there was another, as I knew, for I had read them in the Hebrew. He seemed angry, and tried to make me believe that I was under a mistake. I told him it was in vain for him to speak in this manner, for every body knew that there was another commandment, which was, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or
that is in the earth beneath,' etc.: ` thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.' " I really felt so indignant that any man should dare take away one of the commandments of God, that I told the priest plainly that it was an impious thing to make such a change. " My teacher replied, ` If these are the commands of the church, they are the commands of God.' This I de nied, and told him how one pope had said one thing and the succeeding pope had said another in direct contra diction to it ; and asked him if he thought both were from God. ` God never acts in such a manner,' said I ; ` it is man, erring man.'" A servant of Mr. Way was lying very sick and died the night Dr. King spent at Saide, and it was almost im possible to keep the Roman-catholic priests from troub ling his last hours with their sprinkling of holy water, that he might be reported a convert to their church. When returned to Deir el Kamar, Dr. King writes : " When in a garden with my teacher some one knocked at the garden-gate, and we were told that the intended wife of my teacher had come to spend a little time in the garden. On hearing this he instantly arose, and said he must leave the garden, for it would be a very improper thing for him to stay there if his senora came in. I told him I had no idea of going with him ; that I intended to stay there and see his girl, and all the company united in saying I must stay. He seemed to be in as great con fusion as if there had been a cry of fire in the village, and immediately left the garden, and his spouse entered. Jonas King• 12
All pointed out to me the blushing damsel, and asked me before her if I thought her handsome. " Here, when a young man wishes to marry, the pa rents make the agreement for him. My teacher told me he had not seen his spouse for nearly a year. He never goes to her father's house except with his father or mother. "In the evening went to the house of Michael. Sev eral Arabs were present. Soon came in a Catholic priest to hear the confessions of the family. The Arabs asked me if I confessed. 'To God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,' replied I, and not to a sinful priest, who has need himself to confess.' ` But have you no need of a middle person between you and God ?' said one of the Arabs. ` Yes,' replied I, ` and Jesus Christ is the Mediator ; I wish for no other.' "They then made further inquiries about my religion, and I told them how simple our forms of worship were, and how they were according to the examples of the apostles and the commands of Jesus Christ. All said, That is right, that is good,' and one man exclaimed, Henceforth I will be like you, and have nothing to do with these priests.' I replied that I thought the clerical office necessary, but that our priests should be such as Paul had described, ' not given to wine,' ' the husband of one wife,' etc, I then went on and proclaimed to them as well as I could Jesus Christ and him crucified, and the importance of relying wholly upon him for salva tion." The following gives some idea of missionary daily
life, and the difficulties in the way of acquiring the Ara bic language. " I read Arabic every day, except Sun days, from morning till noon, and in the afternoon we converse. The effort I make in pronouncing the guttu rals occasions pain in my breast, and I sometimes feel almost discouraged. At such times I go to my room and weep and pray, and in view of duty and of the short ness of life again make efforts to acquire this difficult language. I wish to be able to speak the Arabic like an Arab, so that I may be able to preach Jesus Christ to this dying people. " In the afternoon visited at the house of Andrew Domani, called the father of Khalil. The father here takes the name of his first-born son, and the mother also. If the first-born be called Khalil, the father goes by the name of Aba Khalil, and the mother Im Khalil. " Went to the house of Michael. While there, there came in a woman who made a long complaint against her husband, who had been beating her. She told of it in a laughing manner, and I said to her, ` I think he could not have beaten you very hard, for you laugh.' She is what is called a fellahh, and wears on her forehead a long horn. All the women here who are natives of the mountains wear horns, which give them a very odd appearance. They are generally made of silver, and are about a foot and a half long. I call them unicorns. After the woman had finished the story of her husband's beating her, I asked her if the women here did not sometimes hook their husbands. This set the whole company of Arabs present in a loud roar of laughter. 136 .7ONAS KING. " My teacher would not believe that the priests had kept back the second command, and said he would bring a Jew to see me and ask him whether that command was in the Jewish books. I told him to bring him, for every Jew knew that this is the second command given by God to Moses. He had in the morning read this in my Ara bic Bible; but, as it was printed in England, he doubted its authenticity. After a long discussion he sent for a Bible that he said was printed in Rome and must be true. I immediately opened to the twentieth chapter of Exo dus, and told him to read, and he to his astonishment found that I had told him the truth. " The mother of his spouse asked me why I did not make the sign of the cross. 'Because,' said I, that is nothing. Jesus Christ never told his disciples to make this sign, but to take up their cross and follow him,' and that if she attempted to follow Christ Jesus according to the gospel, she would find what that cross is ; that if she had not the Holy Spirit in her heart, teaching her to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, she might make the sign of the cross every day of her life and then go to hell. My teacher said, 'You have reason, I have reason, every man has reason ; let every one believe according to that and follow that.' ' Human reason,' replied I, ' is in the dark, you are in the dark, the priests are in the dark, and this book, the gospel, is the only sun which can dispel the darkness. Isere is light ; we must believe and act according to this rule, or there is no light in us.' All exclaimed, ' He is right ; that is truth.' After three or four hours' conversation of this kind I retired to rest,
but my feelings had been so much engaged that I could not sleep. " A priest came in and several women also while I was reading to my teacher the twenty-second psalm : All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindred of the nations shall worship before thee.' At this I stopped and asked the priest whether that time was past or whether it was to come. He hardly knew what to answer me, and I went on and proclaimed before all present how darkness cov ered the earth, and that a time was coming when Jesus Christ should reign on the earth; i. e., when all should know his name and serve him. "I then asked my teacher to read aloud the twentieth chapter of Revelation, and then the first three chapters of the same. As he read all were exceedingly solemn and the mother of my teacher wept, and I also could hardly refrain from weeping. " A man noted as an astronomer said he thought ' if a man did what was right he would go to heaven, whether Moslem or Christian, Jew or pagan.' "I replied, ' I am not the judge. God is the Judge of the whole earth, and he will save whom he pleases, and he may, for aught I know, reveal Jesus to a dying pagan. But without the blood of Jesus Christ there is no salvation, neither for you nor me, nor for any other son or daughter of Adam. "' In a few years,' said I, ' all our knowledge of lan guages, of astronomy, of mathematics, chemistry, etc., will cease, and I value them only in so far as they tend l2k 138 .7ONAS KING. to lead the mind to the great First Cause of all things, or fit it to make inquiries with regard to Him and the truths contained in his Holy Word.' On his appearing to be a little confused at this, I said to him, ` If I am your friend and you love me, as you say you do, I must tell you the truth : there is no salvation for you out of Jesus Christ.' "' I have one question to ask you, Aboona, and then I have done : When Jesus Christ commissioned his dis ciples to go and preach, what did he tell them to preach, himself or his mother ? What did they preach ? Jesus Christ and him crucified ; salvation alone through his blood and intercession ; not one word about the Virgin Mary. No. Jesus Christ is all in all ; he was such to the disciples of Christ, he is such, I trust, to my own soul, and he is such to every Christian.' All present listened attentively." Another discussion related to purgatory. "Aboo Troos spent the evening with me in conversing about purgatory, praying to the saints, etc. I related to him the history of my forefathers, who fled from the storms of persecution in Europe, and told him for what reason we had left the church of Rome, and what enormities had been committed under its sanction. " He seemed astonished, and listened to me with all the interest of a little chiid. ` With regard to purgatory,' said he, suppose there is a man who has sinned a little, but is nearly pure, must he not go into purgatory to be purified ?' " ' In the first place,' replied I, ` there are no such men as you mention, like white paper with here and there a STUDY AND LORI: IN PALESTINE. 139 little blot. We are all great sinners, altogether blot, and nothing but the blood of Christ can cleanse us. If you say it is necessary to go to purgatory, you take away from the merits of Christ's death and dishonor him. He bore our sins in the garden of Gethsemane and on the cross ; and if his blood is applied to my soul, my sins are all forgiven, and I shall be clean, whiter than snow, purer than silver tried in the furnace, and I need no puri fication in purgatory. You make I-Iim a half Mediator. His blood cleanses in part, and purgatory in part. No. He bore the sins of the whole world, and sweat as it were great drops of blood ; and shall I now say his blood is not sufficient, but that I too must suffer in purgatory, and thus in part expiate my sins ? No, never. •Glory be to his name, his blood cleanses from all sin. "`Thus,' said I, you see how the church of Christ, founded by the apostles themselves, turned away from the truth ; no wonder, then, if there should be error and darkness now in the church of Christ, and all the church es and every Christian has need to read these words to the churches of Asia.' " One Sunday evening " I remarked that all men were sinners, that every son and daughter of Adam, except Christ, were sinners, even the Virgin Mary. At this all started and exclaimed, ` The Virgin Mary, the mother of God, a sinner ?' ` Yes,' said I, ` she was a sinner, and had need of the merits of her Son, and without his blood could not be saved. She was a good woman' (` A good virgin,' interrupted my teacher). Yes, a good virgin,
Lord, but was saved only by the blood of Christ. Was not David a sinner, and Solomon, and Rehoboam ? and yet Christ, as to the flesh, was of the seed of David. Christ was born without sin—you say his mother must have been without, because he was without sin. In the same- manner you must say her father was without sin, and her father's father, and so on, till you trace the line age back to David, and say he was without sin; but that you know is not true, for the word of God expressly says he sinned greatly, and he himself confessed it.' To this no one was able to give an answer." After some discussion on the use of images, a priest said, "`The first commandment sufficed, and there was no need of the second.' My teacher said the same. I then raised my voice, and exclaimed, ' Where is the man who dare say to God Almighty, " Thou hast given more commandments than are necessary ; one or two or three or nine suffice ; I need not the whole" ? Where is the man ? If he says is a Christian, he is not.' " One evening a very intelligent Arab came to my lodgings and spent three hours in reading the Scriptures with me, and in conversation about images, idols, praying to saints, and the importance of faith in Jesus Christ alone as our Redeemer. He said that God was great and to be feared, and men feel the need of some Media tor to speak to him for us, and for this reason they prayed to the saints. I replied, ' You have well said that we need a Mediator; and for this very reason Jesus Christ came down from heaven and took upon him our nature—was made in all respects like one of us, sin ex- STUDY AND IVORA LzV PALESTINE. 141 cepted. He is our Mediator, and there is no other.' I then read to him i John i : i : ' If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.' ' There is not,' said I, ' a single word in the whole gospel about praying to saints and angels.' `But; replied he, would it be right to speak against the saints ?' ' No,' said I ; ' I honor their memory, for they loved Jesus Christ, and were heralds of salvation ; but if you think to honor Jesus Christ by giving his glory to them, or by making them in part mediators between God and us, you are greatly mistaken. In thus doing, you dishonor him. He is the only Mediator between God and man. I fear there are many who put their trust more in the interces sion of the Virgin Mary and Peter and Paul and the rest of the saints than in Jesus Christ, who is all in all to me, and must be all in all to you if you wish to be saved. Besides,' said I, ' how do you know that Paul hears you when you pray? Perhaps I am praying to him in Amer ica at the same time that you are praying to him here, six thousand miles away. Is Paul omnipresent ? Cer tainly not. Jesus Christ is, and hears every prayer that is offered in every part of the world.' ' True,' said he. "During the conversation he asked why many said this Arabic Bible printed in England ought not to be received. ' Because,' said I, 'there are many priests in the Roman-catholic church who say that the Word of God ought not to be put into the hands of all men, but only a few.' ' Why ?' said he. 'Because,' replied I, 'there are many things in that church which the word of God con demns.'"
Dr. King seems ever to have had an answer at hand when any one questioned the doctrines of grace. His arguments against infidelity and error, many more of which might be gleaned from his Journals, are ever re plete with good common sense, often quaintly expressed, and so well fitted to reach the mind and conscience. Of him, as of our Lord, it may be said, " the common people heard him gladly." MT. LEBANON AND THE SAMARITANS. 143 CHAPTER X. MOUNT LEBANON AND THE' SAMARITANS. Convents—Druses—Mount Lebanon—Arrival of Messrs. Bird and Goodell—Beyrout—Missionary Tour—Tyre—Acre—Nazareth —Mount Tabor—Ebal and Gerizim—Samaritans—Second Vis it to Jerusalem—Arabic Bible. AT every convent visited by Dr. King, he called at tention to the truth held by the monks, rather than to the errors with which it was entangled. At the convent of Mar Antonius Kazhiah, it was sad to find about one hundred monks of most filthy appearance, only one-half of whom were able to read. One old man of venerable appearance listened with wonder to the simple story of a free salvation; and others privately expressed the opin ion that they themselves were wrong, and wished they could follow the missionaries. A Maronite patriarch ac cepted an Arabic Bible and a Syriac Testament, and gave his address as "The vile Joseph Peter, patriarch of Antioch." He said there were eleven or twelve Bishops, and perhaps 150,000 Maronite Christians under his su pervision. A question as to using leavened or unleav ened bread had separated them from the Syrian church. Of the Druses, Dr. King writes: "They believe in one God, and are supposed by many to worship a golden calf. They express a great deal of love for those they meet, but the Christians say they are hypocrites and de- 144 jONAS KING. ceivers, and worst than the Bedouins of the desert; for if you eat with a Bedouin, you are safe; or if he says to you, Peace be to you,' you have nothing to fear: where as a Druse will welcome you, and eat with you, and per haps be devising means to rob you or take your life. "The Christians are many of them very punctilious as to saying their prayers and confessing, but there is very little good faith among them. On any occasion they will tell a lie. They say if they do not lie they cannot gain anything in trade. They regard the Sab bath as a day of sport, and are very profane. " The women are kept in a state of ignorance. The mind of a woman is generally considered by the men as being on a level with that of an ass ; and an ass, next to a hog, is considered as the most contemptible animal there is. At meals the men eat first, and then the women and servants eat together what is left." Their way on this journey led over Mount Lebanon. After passing a lovely spot, " Eheden," called " Eden " by the English, our travellers came to the ancient cedars so long famed as the glory of Lebanon. "As you ap proach them, they appear like a little grove of spruce or pine-trees in America. They stand on six little hills in the arena of a vast amphitheatre formed by lofty barren mountains on the north, east, and south, the tops of which, I suppose, form the highest part of Lebanon. On the hill south are eighty trees, six of which are very large; one which I measured was twenty-nine feet in cir cumference, and another thirty-one feet. On the northeast are thirty-five trees; on the north are sixty-six; five very
large—one being forty feet in circumference. On a hill toward the northwest are sixty-three trees. On the whole three hundred and twenty-one. Mr. Fiske count ed some very small ones, and so made three hundred and eighty-nine. Of these trees, those of middling size are tolerably straight, eighty or ninety feet high, covered with limbs nearly to the ground. The large ones are very irregular in shape, and appear to be made up of several trees grown together, thus uniting their strength against the strong hand of time." Further description in detail is given of these old settlers, under whose branches the Maronites hold a feast once a year, called the "Feast of Cedars." These cedars are called by the Arabs, Azek—almost the same word used by the Hebrews of old. Dr. King visited the ruins of Baalbec, and made drawings and measurements which may still be of ser vice to the more modern explorer, The Arabs account for the raising of such enormous stones more than thirty feet, by saying it was the work of the devil. The journey on the whole was a rough and danger ous one; terrific rains quite demoralized the attendants; accommodations were most uncomfortable; at the con vents opportunity was often given for serious talk with the inmates ; patriarchs and superiors of highest rank were glad to converse with strangers so intelligent, not withstanding their heresy. At Antoura Dr. King's portrait was painted in his Oriental dress, by Reuben Costar, a Jew brought from France by Lewis Way. Jonas Kin;, 13 146 7O1VAS KING. Returning next to Beyrout, Dr. King made arrange ments to continue his Arabic studies, receiving much kind attention from Mr. Abbott the English consul. At the request of Rev. Mr. Jowett, Dr. King made a few notes in regard to a tract, which the former was about to publish, in order to stir up Christians to pray for "an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, upon themselves, their Jewish and Mohammedan neighbors, and also for pagans." They read, condensed, as follows : " All men are our brethren ; their souls are as pre cious as ours. " Prayers are to be offered for all men everywhere. " We are debtors to the Jews, for we have received all that we hold precious from them. They are to be `grafted in again.' "WVe should pray for Moslems, because they are the worst of men, and Christ came to save the lost. "We should pray for pagans, for there is as much hope of their conversion as there was of that of our fore fathers. "`The ends of the earth' are promised to our Lord Christ. "We should be followers of God, having the Spirit of Christ, who gave himself for the redemption of the world." Then as encouragement to prayer, reference is made to numerous Bible illustrations of its power, and to our Saviour's direct promises concerning it ; also to the signs of the times," even then encouraging to watch men upon Zion. MT. LEBANON AND THE SAMARITANS. 147 Dr. King did not stay at Beyrout very long, return ing to Deir el Kamar, where advantages for study were much greater. Here he was received as a brother, with the utmost cordiality ; but his quiet studies were soon pleasantly interrupted again by letters from Rev. Isaac Bird, telling of his arrival with Mr. Goodell, and their wives at Beyrout. Dr. King felt at once much anxiety lest these friends should not take the right kind of lodg ings, for a mistake here might compromise their charac ter as missionaries. There had been a recent scandal concerning one man, on account of his allowing his daughter to marry a bishop who already had one wife ; so that the whole community was greatly incensed. The local sheikh had impressed into his own service every horse, mule, and jackass, and it was with difficulty Dr. King made his way back to Beyrout, where, to his relief, he found Mr. Abbott had taken the new-corners into his own home. It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the delight with which Dr. King welcomed these fellow-laborers. A house a little out of the city was soon taken at $36 for six months, and on Tuesday, Nov. 25, a service was held there, consecrating it to our Lord Jesus Christ ; and thus was begun a mission, which is still a power in the East. The story of Dr. Goodell's part in it has just been given to the public. Rev. Dr. Bird has himself written of "Bible Work in Bible Lands." It was a little difficult for Dr. King to decide upon his own course. The new missionaries wished him to remain with them. He thought he could study to better
advantage by going, as before, right in among the Arabs. Damascus might be a good place, but it was almost im possible to get there over the mountains at this season. In the meantime, Arabic still engaged his attention, while conversations were held by him as often as pos sible with Mussulmans and Jews, as well as with his own teacher, Hanna Domani, who was constantly bringing up quibbles of one kind or another as to the word of God, and yet who soon allowed, that since knowing Dr. King, he "could not rejoice as formerly in bowing to images and pictures." This man believed in miracles as performed in the convents, and offered twenty wit nesses to them. Dr. King challenged him in vain to produce even one or two. When the question came up as to the best location for a permanent missionary station, Nazareth and Tyre were proposed ; Dr. King gave his voice decidedly for Beyrout, an opinion which an experience of now more than fifty years fully justifies. He writes of Beyrout "It enjoys the advantage of consular protection; it is the best place for a depot, having easy communication with Malta ; it is in the vicinity of all the Christians of Mount Lebanon ; there are several families of Franks here, and the Turks are more civil than in most places farther south. In case of any great commotion, flight to the mountains or escape by sea would be easy." Sometimes thoughts of parents and home for the time overcame the stranger in a strange land. " Com mended my dear parents to the care of Him who has always been gracious to them and provided for them MT.. LEBANON AND THE SAMARITANS. 149 Why,' said I, ' should I wish to be with them in order to comfort them ? If God is their friend, is not that enough ? Is he not better to them than I could possibly be ? If I had not left them for the sake of Christ, per haps he would have taken me from them by sickness and death. 0 God, have mercy upon my soul and theirs ; and if it be thy holy will, let me see them again in the land of the living ; if not, let us be resigned, and may we meet in thy kingdom, where there is no separation of friends, no sorrow, no sin.' " Study was now interrupted by a season of conference with other missionaries, Messrs. Jowett, Fisk, and Wolff ; and by a missionary tour to Tripoli, or Trabloos. From El Kamar he wrote to his friend Mr. Wilder, "I ani now alone, entirely surrounded by Arabs, in what may be called the capital of Mount Lebanon, as it is the place where the prince (the Emir Bushir) resides. Mr. Fisk and Mr. Wolff are two days' distance from us. "My business is to read and talk Arabic from morn ing till night. I have put on the turban and the Arab dress, and my beard is so long that I am generally taken by strangers to be one of the sons of Ishmael. I sit on the floor like a native, and at dinner thrust my hand into the dishes of pillau as deep as any Arab of the coun try. Like the rest of the people, I get up in the morn ing and pick off the lice that are crawling on me, scrape away some of the biggest of the fleas, and sit down on my heels with the Arabs, who say they love me very much, and call me brother." On the journey, as usual, he was engaged in selling 1;
A letter now came from Mr. Fisk recalling his asso ciate to Jerusalem. It was thought expedient for Mr. Bird to go there also. As usual, special prayer was offer ed before these brethren set out on their way. Dr King writes, " In six hours and three quarters we arrived at a place called Neby Yunas, the spot where it is affirmed the prophet Jonas was vomited out upon dry land.' His name is revered by the Mussulmans, who believe that he was buried here, and a tomb has been erected in which a lamp is kept constantly burning." A little time was given to the ruins at Tyre, the missionaries taking a boat to examine the vast number of columns lying " in the water and out of the water," just as the prophet Ezekiel had said would be the case, and the position of which proved the great extent of the ancient city. In 1823 only three or four hundred mean-looking houses occupied perhaps half the present island, so that it may be said with truth, "Tyre is no more." At Bosa and other places much direct religious con versation was had with the Mussulmans. Acre was found strongly fortified with walls, recalling many scenes con nected with the Crusaders. One reader of the Koran said ' I can tell why the earth does not sink : it stands upon a bull.' ' And what is under the bull ?' said I. Ans. ' A rock.' ' And what is under the rock ?' Ans. ' The sea.' ' And what is under the sea ?' Ans. ' Smoke.'
pany burst into a laugh and he replied he did not know, but there was a learned sheikh in the city, and he wanted to bring us together, that we might dispute." Nazareth of course was eloquent with thought of the Saviour's daily home-life. "There was a school of forty or fifty boys in a convent here. I asked one of them, who read Latin very fluently, whether they understood what they read. ' Oh, yes.' `Tell me the meaning in Arabic.' This they could not do, not even a word. For any one who comes here and says one Pater Noster, and one Ave Maria, the pope promises seven years' and forty days' indulgence. To one of the Catholic Arabs present I said, ` What does this mean ? seven years past or seven to come ?' ' Seven to come,' said he. Then,' said I, ' I can say one Pater Noster, and one Ave Maria, and go away and sin as much as I please.' He did not know what to say to this, but another Arab Catholic came up and told him it was seven years past. ' But,' said he, ' if you do not repent, it is nothing 1' ' But,' said I, the paper says nothing about repenting. It only says if you say one Pater Noster, and one Ave Maria you have indulgence ; and if I repent towards God He will forgive me for Christ's sake, and I have no need of this indulgence.' He seemed to feel the force of what I said, and made little reply." At Mount Tabor, a bright rainbow so transfigured the mountain, just as the missionaries looked at it, that Mr. Bird said some men would have regarded the appear ance as miraculous. While waiting at the door of the church at Nazareth,
Dr. King being there alone, ten men came in ; and refer ring to some remarks Dr. King had made as to the sacredness of the place, he went on to say that our Lord Jesus is an ever-present Saviour, everywhere wherever his people worship him in spirit and in truth. A still larger number of people came together and listened for twenty minutes to a real Gospel sermon. One or more seemed deeply impressed. Quite exact measurements were taken at Nablous of Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, and facts of interest obtained from the priest of the Samaritans, Salameh, who was acquainted with the Abbe Gregoire, whom Dr. King had known at Paris. This priest, in answer to inquiry, said, "The number of Samaritans is about two hundred, the number of males sixty, and the number of houses twenty ; there are three persons at Jaffa ; there were formerly many at Damascus, Aleppo, Tripoli, Gaza, and in Egypt ; but now there are none.' " I asked him, ` When did your fathers separate from the Jews ?' " PRIEST. Their separation commenced under Shil kiah, in the days of Saul. At that time four tribes re volted. The final separation was in the time of Ezra, after which, several of the tribes went to the east into India beyond a river, and wandered about and went to Russia. " I. Do you know Hebrew ? "PRIEST. Yes. " I. Have you the Jewish books ? Do you believe in them ? X17: LEBANON AND THE SAMARITANS. 153 "PRIEST. We have the five books of Moses. This is our holy book. Moses commanded that nothing should be added. The Jews have changed the letters of the alphabet and added. "I. Have you the book of Joshua? " PRIEST. Yes. We consider it a good book, but not inspired by God like the books of Moses. "I. Do you believe in the prophet Samuel? " PRIEST. He was a great enemy to the Samaritans. " I. Do you know anything about Jeroboam and Ahab who were kings here ? " PRIEST. No. "I. Have you any sacrifices ? "PRIEST. Yes. Once a year, in commemoration of the passover, we offer six or seven lambs of a year old upon an altar of stone. "I. Have you no daily sacrifices ? " PRIEST. No. There is no place to offer them. Gerizim is the place where we should worship. "I. Had you a temple there formerly ? "PRIEST. Yes, but it is destroyed. "I. Have you an altar ? " PRIEST. Yes, of stones on Mount Gerizim, where we offer the passover. " I. Have you seen the Gospel ? " PRIEST. Yes, and read it much. " I. What do you think of Jesus Christ ? "PRIES!. He was one of the first of infidels; because he said he was the Son of God. " I. Were not his works good ? 154 OzVAS RING. " PRIEST. I say nothing against his works, neither do I curse him. I only say he was an infidel, because he called himself the Son of God. " I. Have you read his conversation with the woman of Samaria by the well of Sychar ? PRIEST. Yes. It is all a lie. He came to the well, and all he said was, What is the name of this well ?' and she replied ' Jacob's.' " I. Do you believe in a Messiah to come ? " PRIEST. Yes. " I. What will be his character ? Who will he be, a man or God ? " PRIEST. The spirit of Moses will descend from heaven and take another body and reign over all nations. "I. You believe, I presume, that I and you and all men are sinners. " PRIEST. Yes, truly. " I. What must a man do in order to inherit the kingdom of heaven ? " PRIEST. He must keep the law. "I. But we have none of us kept the law, and Joshua said, ' Ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is a Holy God.' Your fathers were very rebellious and Moses called them stiff-necked, and the law says, ' Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the .book of the Law to do them.' We are all under the curse. How can we be saved ? " PRIEST. By repentance, that is enough. " I. Moses sprinkled the book of the law with blood, and if a man sinned, he was to offer sacrifices, and with-
out the shedding of blood there was no remission. Were you a king and I a subject, and had you issued a decree, that whosoever should kill or steal should be put to death, and I should commit either of these crimes, repen- tance would not atone for it. God, who cannot lie, has said, ` Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.' We are all under the curse of God's holy law, which you and I be- lieve ; and there is no remission, but by the blood of Jesus Christ, to whom all the bloody sacrifices under the Mosaic dispensation had reference. " PRIEST. I am not a sinner like you. " I. Have you never sinned ? " PRIEST. Very little, very little, almost none. " I. If you say this, you do not know your own heart. God told his covenant people they were ever inclined to go astray. Moses sinned and was not permitted to en- ter the promised land. Are you better than Moses ? " PRIEST. Yes, better. "I. Is Moses in heaven ? " PRIEST. Yes. "I. How was he saved? "PRIEST. His sin was as nothing—small—small. "I. But the Lord was angry with him and did not permit him to enter into Canaan. "PRIEST. God commanded that you should not add to, or diminish from the law, or change a single letter. But you say the sacrifices are done away, and you keep the first day of the week. Why is this? " I. The sacrifices all referred to the death of Christ,
the great sacrifice which was made to atone for the sins of the world, and they ceased, as a matter of course, when he suffered. All the ritual in the Law as it respects sac rifices was then fulfilled, and the work of redeeming man was so much greater than that of creating the world, that we keep the first day of the week instead of the seventh. You ask me, Why change the law ? Why abolish sacri fices? You yourselves have left off the daily sacrifice. "PRIEST. Why is circumcision abolished? "I. That was a bloody sea] of the covenant God made with Abraham, and like the blood of the sacrifices, prob ably had reference to him, the seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed : to his blood, which was to be shed that the covenant might be estab lished. The covenant God made with Abraham was, ' I will multiply thee, etc., and in thy seed shall all the na tions of the earth be blessed.' This seed was Christ ; He said not seeds, as of many, but in thy seed.' "PRIEST. No. The seed is all his posterity, and the promise or covenant was multiplication of them. "I. Why then are you diminished to the number of two or three hundred, and the Jews to about seven mill ions, and scattered over the face of the earth ? "PRIEST. There are multitudes of Samaritans in the world. "I. Where? "PRIEST. I know not, but they exist somewhere. " I. No. The promise made to Abraham had refer ence to those who should be of the like faith with him. Those who believe in Jesus Christ, and walk according Jonas King. 14 MT. LEBANON AND THE SAMARITANS. i 5 q to God's Holy Word, are his children according to the promise, and I trust there are many such in England and America, and among other nations, who are not his seed according to the flesh. " Yüklə 0,75 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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