well, ya
imme, I will not eat. If I keep the Lord's day, He will keep me." Away
went the mother to the olive orchard, and Miriam went to the preaching
and the Sunday School. At evening, when the family all came home, Miriam
read in her New Testament and went to bed without her supper. The next
morning she said, "Mother, now I am ready to gather olives. Didn't I
tell you the Lord would keep me?"

After this Miriam's father became a Protestant, and allowed the
missionaries to send her to the Seminary in Sidon, where she was the
best girl in the school. When she went home in the vacation in 1869, new
persecutions were stirred up against the Protestants. The Greek Bishop,
with a crowd of priests and a body of armed horsemen, came to the
village, to compel all the Protestants to turn back to the old religion.
The armed men went to the Protestant houses and seized men and women and
dragged them to the great Burj, in which is the Greek church. Miriam's
father and mother were greatly terrified and went back with them to the
Greeks. They then called for Miriam. "Never," said she to the Bishop, "I
will never worship pictures and pray to saints again. You may cut me in
pieces, but I will not stir one step with them." The old Bishop turned
back, and left her to herself. Near by was a man named Abu Isbir, who
was so frightened that he said, "yes, I will go back, don't strike me!"
But his wife, Im Isbir, was not willing to give up. She rebuked her
husband and took hold of his arm, and actually dragged him back to his
house, to save him the shame of having denied the Gospel. He stood firm,
and afterwards united with the Church.

Here comes Im Isbir. Poor woman, she is a widow now. Her husband died
and left her with these little children, and last night her valuable cow
died, and she is in great distress. Yusef, the preacher, says she is the
most needy person in Safita. You would think so from the ragged
appearance of the children. They are like the children in Eastern
Turkey, whom Mr. Williams of Mardin used to describe, whose garments
were so ragged and tattered that there was hardly cloth enough to _make
borders for the holes_! They dig up roots in the fields for food, and
now and then the neighbors give them a little of their coarse corn
bread. The Greeks tell her to turn back to them and they will help her,
but she says, "when one has found the light, can she turn back into the
darkness again?" Yusef wishes us to walk in and sit