HISTORY OF THE GAZA MISSION OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY (1878-1912) The Muslim city of Gaza (in Arabic _Chazzeh_) was visited by the late Rev. F. A. Klein during a tour of investigation in 1862. Later on a pressing invitation was received from the inhabitants to open a school in their midst. A catechist was sent to make inquiries, but nothing more was then done. In 1878, however, the C.M.S. took over the four schools, two for boys and two for girls, containing some 250 to 300 children, and other work which had been started and carried on for several years by Mr. Pritchard, a gentleman of independent means, who had settled in Gaza. Shortly afterwards the Rev. A. W. Schapira entered into residence. He opened a reading-room, which attracted even higher-class Muslims. Notwithstanding a temporary opposition, the Kaimakam, on Christmas Eve, 1880, addressed the gathering, and encouraged the school. Medical work was started about 1882, and was the first C.M.S. work of the kind in Palestine. The dispensary received a gift from the late Rev. John Venn, of Hereford, and a fund was raised in Salisbury Square for establishing a permanent medical mission. In 1886 the late Rev. Dr. R. Elliot took charge. Dr. H. J. Bailey was also temporarily at this post in 1890, in order to assist in the medical work. [Illustration: NATIVES WITHIN THE C.M.S. GAZA COMPOUND] During this period Dr. Elliot had the joy of baptising, on October 12, 1890, Moorjan and Mehbruki, two of his own servants, man and wife, natives of the Sudan. Some years before they had been sold in Gaza as slaves, the man for ten pounds, and the woman for twice that sum. The slave market has been abolished for about twenty years. All this time the medical work was confined to the treatment of out-patients, but in March 1891 a hospital adapted from a native house was opened. Medical itineration now began to be undertaken at Mejdel and Ashdod. The fame of the hospital spread far and wide. The Rev. Dr. Sterling (the author of _A Grammar of the Arabic Language_, and _Arabic and English Idiom--Conversational and Literary_) arrived in 1893, and his predecessor, the Rev. J. Huber, of German nationality, who built the ladies' house and church room, entered into rest on July 18, and his body was buried in the cemetery in the mission compound. Other branches of the work have prospered. In 1902 the numbers in the girls' school rose from sixty-eight to three hundred, and have now increased to four hundred. The Sunday school has increased proportionately with the day school. It would be difficult to find more interesting schools in Palestine, so efficiently superintended by Miss Smithies, who is ably assisted by her own trained staff of native teachers. In 1906 the Muslims presented Dr. Sterling, on behalf of the building fund of the hospital, with £100, which they had subscribed in token of their gratitude for his work among them.