brother, mother and sister, all capable of promoting mutual cheerfulness
and improvement, greets her in her own house. I do not mean to imply
that there exists no family affection among them, for this tie is often
very strong; but it has no foundation in respect, and is not employed to
promote elevation of character. The men sit and smoke their pipes in one
apartment, while in another the women cluster upon the floor, and with
loud and vociferous voices gossip with their neighbors. The very
language of the females is of a lower order than that of the men, which
renders it almost impossible for them to comprehend spiritual and
abstract subjects, when first presented to their minds. I know not how
often, when I have attempted to converse with them, they have
acknowledged that they did not understand me, or have interrupted me by
alluding to some mode or article of dress, or something quite as
foolish." "Thus you see, my young friends, how unhappy is the condition
of the females of Syria, and how many laborers are wanted to cultivate
this wide field. On the great day of final account, the young females of
Syria, of India, of every inhabited portion of the globe, who are upon
the stage of life with you, will rise up, either to call you blessed,
or to enhance your condemnation." "God is furnishing American females
their high privileges, with the intention of calling them forth into the
wide fields of ignorance and error, which the world exhibits. I look
over my country and think of the hundreds and thousands of young ladies,
intelligent, amiable and capable, who are assembled in schools and
academies there; and then turn my eye to Jerusalem, Hebron, Nazareth,
Sychar, Damascus, Tyre, Sidon, Jaffa, and to the numerous villages of
Mount Lebanon, and think, 'Why this inequality of condition and
privileges? Why can there not be stationed at every one of those morally
desolate places, at least one missionary family, and one single female
as a teacher? Does not Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, require it of
His youthful friends in America, that from love to Him, gratitude for
their own distinguished mercies, compassion for perishing souls, and the
expectation of perfect rest and happiness in heaven, they should spread
themselves over the wide world, and feed the sheep and the lambs
scattered without a shepherd upon the mountains?' Yes, He requires it,
and angels will yet behold it; but shall we not see it in our day?"
Great changes have come over Syria since the above words were written.
Not less than twelve high schools for girls have been established since
then in Syria and Palestine, and not far from forty common schools,
exclusively for girls, under the auspices of the different Missionary
Societies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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