ng and her
character unfolding, and hopes were often entertained that the Spirit of
God was carrying on a work of grace in her soul.

One day her father came to the missionary, and asked him to loan him
several thousand piastres (a thousand piastres is $40,) with which he
might set up business. This was of course refused, when he went away
greatly enraged. He soon returned and took away his daughter, saying
that Protestantism did not pay what it cost. It had cost him the loss of
property and reputation; it had cost him the peace of his household and
the presence of his little girl, and it did not bring in to him in
return even the loan of a few piastres, and he would try it no longer.
Prayer continued to be offered without ceasing for Miriam, thus taken
back to an irreligious home; and though the missionaries heard of her
return and her father's return to the corrupt Greek Catholic Church, and
of the exultation of the mother over the attainment of her wishes, yet
they did not cease to hope that God would one day bring her back and
make her a lamb of His fold.

An Arab young woman, Melita, trained in the family of Mrs. Whiting in
Beirut, was sent to Aleppo about this time to open a girls' school
there. The Greek Catholic priests then thought to establish a similar
school of their own sect to prevent their children from attending that
of the Protestants. They secured Miriam as their teacher. As she went
from her home to the school and back again, she used sometimes to run
into the missionary's house by stealth, and assure him that her heart
was still with him, and her faith unchanged. The school continued a few
weeks, but the priests having failed to pay anything towards its
support, her father would let her teach no more. Perhaps two years
passed thus, with but little being seen of Miriam, but she was not
forgotten at the throne of grace.

The teacher from Beirut having returned to her home, it was proposed to
Miriam's father that she should teach in the Protestant school. Quite
unexpectedly he consented, with the understanding that she was to spend
every evening at home. At first, little was said to her on the subject
of religion; soon she sought religious conversation herself, and brought
questions and different passages of Scripture to be explained. After
about a month, having previously conversed with the missionary about her
duty, when her father came for her at night, she told him that she did
not want to go hom