From the Press, the Sheikh went to the Church, and after gazing around
on the pure white walls, remarked, "There is the Book, but I see no
pictures nor images. You worship only God here!" He was anxious to see
the _Tower Clock_, and although he had lost one arm, and the other was
nearly paralyzed by a musket shot in a recent fight in the desert, he
insisted on climbing up the long ladders to see the clock whose striking
he had heard at the other end of the city, and he gazed long and
admiringly at this beautiful piece of mechanism. On leaving us, he
renewedly thanked us for _The Book_, and the next day he left by
diligence coach for Damascus.
In the summer we sent, at Mr. Arthington's expense, a young man from the
Beirut Medical College, named Ali, as missionary to itinerate among the
Bedawin, with special instructions to persuade the Arabs if possible to
send their children to school. He remained a month or two among them, by
day and by night, sleeping by night outside the tents with his horse's
halter tied to his arms to prevent its being stolen, and spending the
evenings reading to the assembled crowd from the New Testament. He was
present as a spectator at a fight between Mohammed's men and the Ruella
Arabs east of the Sea of Galilee, in which the Ruella were defeated, but
Mohammed's son Faur was wounded, and Ali attended him. The Sitt Harba
told Ali that a papist named Shwiry, in Damascus, had taken the Arabic
Bible from them! So Ali gave them another. This Bible-hating spirit of
the Papacy is the same the world over. How contemptible the spirit of a
man _professing_ the name of Christian, and yet willing to rob the only
woman among the Bedawin who can read, of the word of everlasting life!
The whole family of the Sheikh were interested in reading an illustrated
book for children of folio size, styled "Lilies of the Field," which we
printed in Beirut last year. When Ali set out on this journey, I gave
him a letter to the Sheikh, reminding him of his visit to Beirut, and
urging again upon him the sending of his children to school. The Sheikh
sent me the following reply, written by his wife, the Sitt Harba, and
sealed with his own signet ring. I value the letter highly as being
written by the only Bedawin woman able to write:
To his excellency the most honored and esteemed, our revered
Khowadja Henry Jessup, may his continuance be prolonged! Amen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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