came thoroughly alarmed. Letters
were addressed from Rome to the Patriarchal Vicar of Mount Lebanon,
the Maronite Patriarch, and the Vicar of Syria and Palestine, urging
them to render ineffectual, in every possible manner, the impious
undertaking of those missionaries. These letters were dated in the
first month of 1824, and the firman against the circulation of the
Scriptures was issued by the Grand Seignior very soon after. Though
feebly enforced by the Turkish authorities this gave weight and
influence, for a time, to the "anathemas," of the Maronite and
Syrian Patriarchs against the "Bible men." Peter Ignatius Giarve,
the Syrian Patriarch, some years before, while Archbishop of
Jerusalem, had visited England, and there obtained, under false
pretenses, a considerable sum of money from Protestant Christians,
to print the Holy Scriptures according to the text of his own
Church. He now issued a manifesto, first defending himself from the
charge of deception, and then warning his flock "not to receive the
Holy Scriptures, nor any other books printed and circulated by the
Bible-men, even though given gratis, and according to the edition
printed by the Propaganda under ecclesiastical authority."
Notwithstanding all this, the brethren took a hopeful view of their
prospects. "To get a firm footing," they say, "among a people of a
strange speech and a hard language; to inspire confidence in some,
and weaken prejudice in others; to ascertain who are our avowed
enemies, and who are such in disguise; to become acquainted with the
mode of thinking and feeling, with the springs of action, and with
the way of access to the heart; to begin publicly to discuss
controversial subjects with the dignitaries of the Church, and to
commence giving religious instruction to the common people; to be
allowed to have a hand in directing the studies and in controlling
the education of the young; and to begin to exert an influence,
however circumscribed at first, yet constantly extending and
increasingly salutary,--all this, though it be not 'life from the
dead,' nor the song of salvation, yet is to be regarded as truly
important in the work of missions."

In the year 1824, the schools were commenced at Beirut, which have
since grown into an influential system. The first was a mere class
of six Arab children, taught daily by the wives of the missionaries.
Soon an Arab teacher was engaged, and before the end of the year the
pupils had increased