The appeal was published; but it continued painfully true, that the harvest was plenteous, while the laborers were few. Among the interesting events of the year, were the accession of nine persons to the church at Abeih; and a "fetwa" of the mufti, or Moslem judge, at Beirut, deciding that the Druzes stand in the same relation to the Mohammedan community and law with the Jews, or any Christian sect; _i.e_. as "_infidels_;" and, consequently, that a Druze was not subject to prosecution in the Turkish courts, in case of his embracing Christianity. Mr. and Mrs. Benton joined the mission in the latter part of the year. In the spring of 1847, the Protestants of Hasbeiya sent one of their number to Constantinople, to lay their grievances before the Sultan. The agent was informed, that the Pasha of Damascus had been instructed to protect the Protestants. The British Ambassador afterwards made inquiries, and received a copy of the document, which proved satisfactory. The Pasha sent a strong order to the Emir at Hasbeiya in 1848, for their protection; and he, though extremely reluctant to obey, sent word to the Protestants, that they might meet and worship together as Protestants, and he publicly forbade all parties to interfere with them. When the Greek Patriarch saw that the Turkish government had recognized the principle of toleration, and acknowledged the Protestants as a Christian sect, he resolved to try the effect of a bull of excommunication. The form of these missives is similar in the Latin and the Oriental Churches, and the reader will recall some of the specimens already given.1 The consequence at Hasbeiya, for a time, was that no Protestant could buy, sell, or transact any business, except with his fellow Protestants, and many of the poorer ones were at once thrown out of productive employment, and cut off from the means of living. They were compelled to pay their debts, but could collect nothing due to them, and no redress could they get from the Governor. Many suffered for the necessaries of life. But the faith of the brethren, with a single exception, did not fail. The Druzes and other sects remonstrated against the whole proceeding, and the rigor of the excommunication began at length to fail, and in December it had lost its force. 1 See in the case of Dr. King, chapter xvii.; and Mr. Bird, chapter iii.