AROUND THE WORLD STUDIES AND STORIES OF PRESBYTERIAN FOREIGN MISSIONS CHAPTER I. EVANGELISM IN THE SYRIAN MISSION FIELD. T History in Brief HE Syrian Mission has had five distinct epochs. It was begun in 1819 by Levi Parsons and Pliny Fisk. Their purpose in going to Syria was twofold: to get the old Christian churches of Western Asia, in which there are less than one million members, to lay aside their gross superstitions, idolatrous forms and unspiritual ceremonials which veil God in Christ from the people; and, secondly, to bring God in Christ to the Moham. medans, of which there are in both branches of this faith in Syria about one million members. However, the responsibility of the American Presbyterian Mission in Syria cannot be confined to two million people. Some have estimated it as being not less than five million. Even that number is not expressive of our responsibility when we measure the place the Syrian Mission holds through its educational and publicational departments as an inter-Mohammedan world force. The five epochs of the Syrian Mission history, with one or two events in each epoch to differentiate the periods, are: First, from 1819 to 1840. One great event that characterizes this period is the founding of the American Press. For a time during this period the missionaries, by reason of political disturbances, retired to the Island of Malta, where, since 1822, they had maintained a press. On returning to Beirut in 1833 they brought the press with them. Then began in Syria the wonderful work of one of the mightiest agencies under God to bring the Moslem world face to face with God in Christ as reflected on the printed page of God's Word. The second epoch dates from 1840 to 1860, and is characterized especially by the translation of the Bible into the Arabic language, making it possible to furnish the whole Mohammedan world with the Scriptures in the language of their Koran. This work was begun by the Rev. Eli Smith, D. D., who "superintended the cutting and casting of the beautiful fonts of Arabic type from the most perfect models of Arabic calligraphy, collected the philological library for use in Bible translation, and prosecuted the work of translation from 1849 until the day of his death in June, 1857.” The third period, from 1860 to 1880, is distinctly marked as an educational epoch. It was during this time, 1862, that the American School for Girls was opened in Beirut and during the same year the Sidon Seminary was begun in Sidon. In 1865 the American College in Beirut was formally organized. This was the date also when the Arabic Bible went out from the Beirut Press. The records state concerning this last |