installed in June,
1872. His wife Leila, is a graduate of the Beirut Female Seminary, and
has been for several years a teacher. Her father died in January, 1871,
in the hospital of the Beirut College, and her widowed mother, Im
Mishrik, has gone to labor in Hums as a Bible Woman. When her father was
dying, I went to see him. Noticing his emaciated appearance, I said,
"Are you very ill, Abu Mishrik?" "No my friend, _I_ am not ill. My body
is ill; and wasting away but _I_ am well. I am happy. I cannot describe
my joy. I have no desire to return to health again. If you would fill my
hands with bags of gold, and send me back to Abeih in perfect health, to
meet my family again, I would not accept the offer, in the place of what
I _know_ is before me. I am going to see Christ! I see Him now. I know
He has borne my sins, and I have nothing now to fear. It would comfort
me to see some of my friends again, and especially Mr. Calhoun, whom I
love; but what are my friends compared with Christ, whom I am going so
soon to see?" After prayer, I bade him good bye, and a few hours after,
he passed peacefully away.

The teacher of the Girls' School in Hums, is Belinda, also a former
pupil of the Beirut Seminary. Her brother-in-law, Ishoc, is the faithful
colporteur, who has labored so earnestly for many years in the work of
the Gospel in Syria. His grandfather was a highway robber, who was
arrested by the Pasha, after having committed more than twenty murders.
When led out to the gallows, the Pasha offered him office as district
governor, if he would turn Moslem. The old murderer refused, saying that
he had not much religion, but he would not give up the Greek Church! So
he was hung, and the Greeks regarded him as a martyr to the faith!
Ishoc's father was as bad as the grandfather, and trained Ishoc to the
society of dancing girls and strolling minstrels. When Ishoc became a
Protestant, the father took down his sword to cut off his head, but his
mother interceded and saved his life. Afterwards his father one day
asked him if it was possible that a murderer, son of a murderer, could
be saved. He read the gospel to him, prayed with him, and at length the
wicked father was melted to contrition and tears. He died a true
Christian, and the widowed mother is now living with Ishoc in Beirut.
Belinda has a good school, and the wealthiest families of the Greeks
have placed their daughters under her care.

CHAPTER XII.

MIRIAM THE ALEPP