After the service was over, however, there could be no charge of indifference brought against these Chaldean villagers—and here too American congregations might well learn from them. The same men who just now had seemed to ignore our existence came crowding around to greet us as “brethren.” They inquired about our life at Beirut and our own wonderful country far beyond the western ocean; they expressed a complimentary surprise at the extent of our travels; they sympathized tenderly with the homesickness which comes so strongly at Christmas-time and expressed kindly wishes for our dear ones in America; they pressed upon us the poor hospitality that it was in their power to offer. In short, out of church as in church, the people of Feruzi acted like the devout, courteous and friendly Christians that they were. When at last we had to leave, they all followed us out to the village limits, and one or two—such is the pleasant Oriental custom—walked on with us for a mile on our homeward journey. When the last strange, dark Chaldean had said “God be with you, brother!” we went on in the beautiful calm of evening a little more quietly than we had come, with a clearer understanding of the brotherhood of man, and a deeper faith in the teachings of man’s great Brother. * * * * * To those who look to see an effective Gospel brought again to the Near East through a reawakening of the ancient Oriental churches, it is encouraging to know that even now there are prelates who are earnest, sincere and capable. Such a one was Butrus Jureijery, the first bishop of Cæsarea Philippi and later the patriarch of the Greek Catholic Church. From beginning to end he was a thoroughgoing Catholic. Indeed, the most striking incident of his early career was an argument with a Protestant Bible-seller, which developed into a fierce fistic combat, with the result that the governor of Lebanon exiled both parties from their native town of Zahleh. Some years later, after he had been ordained priest, Butrus journeyed to Rome and presented to the Holy Father a novel petition. “We Catholics,” he said, “build our church upon St. Peter, the first bishop, the rock, the holder of the keys; and we remember that the apostle’s divine commission was given by Christ at Cæsarea Philippi on the slopes of Mount Hermon. How is it that the original bishopric of the Christian Church, the first see of Peter, has been so long allowed to remain unoccupied?” Now Butrus is the Arabic pronunciation of Peter. So he continued, “Here am I, bearing the very name of the greatest apostle, a native of the holy land of Lebanon, and ready to take up the arduous labors which shall reclaim for the church its first, long neglected bishopric.”