MISSIONARY WORK IN PALESTINE. WHEN, after our Lord's ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the church commenced to do its Missionary work, the people of the Holy Land had the Gospel preached to them. The 132 PRAYER, &c. [NOV. and the gold are Thine, O King of kings! Supply us with what is needful for our great work, and make us faithful stewards of Thy bounty, for proclaiming to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. We pray also for all who are united with us in the direction of this sacred cause. May Thine especial blessing rest upon our Committees, with their Secretaries, throughout the world. Bestow on them the help that we feel so needful for ourselves. Enable them to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and ever to find favour in the sight of all with whom they may have to do. Especially we beseech Thee to look, O most merciful Father, upon our Missionary brethren. Draw out our hearts towards them more and more; and while they are bearing the burden abroad, give us grace to help and succour them by our sympathy and prayers at home. Bless every letter written to them from this house, and all our intercourse with them. We pray for them that they may be filled with Thy Spirit. Grant that the same mind may be in them which was also in Christ Jesus. Let them never lose their first love. Raise them above the cares of this world. Help them to deny themselves, and to endure all things for the elects' sake. Give them the tongue of the learned. Clothe them with humility. Teach them to follow peace with each other, and with all men. Support them under spiritual distresses, temptations of the Adversary, bodily sickness, domestic anxieties, and hope deferred. And so confirm Thy word from their lips by the power of the Holy Ghost, that, through them, multitudes may be turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. We most heartily thank Thee, O Lord, for those whom Thou hast already sent forth through this Society; and we pray for a yet larger outpouring of a Missionary spirit on our younger Clergy, on the members of our Universities, on the young men of all ranks and orders throughout our land. And herein do we implore Thy special favour on our Islington Institution, that its numbers may be replenished continually; and that none may go forth thence but such as shall be able ministers of the New Testament, full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost. We praise Thee, O Thou God of all grace, for the Converts, the Native Catechists, and the Native Clergy, whom Thou hast granted to us in our several Missions. As Thou hast raised the Native Churches thus far, bring them, we pray Thee, to full ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ. Pour out upon them Thy Holy Spirit. Stablish, strengthen, settle them, and so enlarge their liberality, that they may both maintain Thy word among themselves, and may make it known to the regions beyond them, till all the Gentiles hear the glad tidings of Thy love. And now, O Lord God, be Thou in the midst of us to-day. Give us a constant sense of Thy presence, and may all our undertakings be begun, continued, and ended in Thee, to the honour of Thy great name, for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. MISSIONARY WORK IN PALESTINE. WHEN, after our Lord's ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the church commenced to do its Missionary work, the people of the Holy Land had the Gospel preached to them. The 134 MISSIONARY WORK IN PALESTINE. [DEC. population in those days consisted of Jews, with a sprinkling amongst them of Gentiles, and, more especially, of Romans, by whom the country had been conquered, and who were then its masters. The population and circumstances of the country are much changed since then. The main body of the people and peasants are Chris-tians by name, but their Christianity is so corrupted by the inventions and traditions of men, that it is more akin to idolatry, than to the pure Gospel which the Apostles taught. They are Greek Christians, and trust more in Mary than in Jesus, and have their picture worship and relics, and numberless other superstitions. The masters of the land are the Turks, who are by religion Mohammedans. There are a few Jews, an impoverished remnant, who are strangers in the land which had belonged to their forefathers. All alike, Jews, Mohammedans, and so-called Christians, require evangelists, just as much as the people of ancient times; and it is a matter of gratification and thankfulness to know that there are Missionaries amongst them, as of old, to the Jews and to the Gentiles. It is very satisfactory when we hear the commencement and step-by-step progress of any special Missionary work traced out by one who has been himself in the midst of it, and whose testimony is thus reliable; and we can present to our readers an interesting account of Missionary work in Palestine, drawn out by Dr. Gobat, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem. It is as follows:: "The means which I felt it necessary to employ was Scripture readers. It was exceedingly difficult to find proper instruments. The American Missionaries had been at Bethlehem and Jerusalem for several years, and finding no opening either for schools or for the preaching of the Gospel, they left one or two years before I went there, supposing that their labours had been in vain. They had sown the seed, though sparingly, and it had grown up in two individuals. One of these individuals I appointed a Scripture reader, and sent him first beyond the Jordan, to the wild Arabs, to read the Gospel to them, and then to various places in Palestine; and owing, I believe, to his instrumentality, though he was a man of but little learning, there was a great excitement among Christians of different denominations. They all began to feel that they had abandoned themselves to ignorance and error: this feeling, from time to time, diminished, and again increased, and by degrees some were brought to the knowledge of the truth, whom I could employ in some way as Scripture readers or colporteurs. For the last seven or eight years I have generally had five or six persons of that class under me: at present I have only four, three of the best having died within the last six years. Of results there are two kinds: there are the natives who have joined our church, and formed themselves into Protestant communities; and there are those-a much larger number than the first-who read the Bible notwithstanding the prohibition of their priests, but have not courage to come out of their church, because Protestants are always subjected to persecutions, which are sometimes 1862.] MISSIONARY WORK IN PALESTINE. 135 carried to great lengths. My object has been, not to make proselytes from the Greek church, but to introduce into that church a little light, and a little life; for there is, generally speaking, neither light nor life in that church, any more than there is in the Roman-Catholic church. As soon as a few members of the Greek church had begun, not only to read but to study the Scriptures, and found that their church was in error, they were forbidden, by their ecclesiastical superiors, to read the Bible any longer. If they did not obey, and especially if they professed what they had discovered, that the teaching of the Bible was against the errors of their own church, they were excommunicated; notwithstanding which, according to the forms of the Turkish government, they still remained under the power of their priests. But in the year 1852 came that famous firman-the fruit of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe's exertions at Constantinople-by which the Turkish Government recognises the Protestant church as having the same right to exist in its dominions as the other churches. In consequence of this, during my absence in 1852, from twenty to twenty-five Greeks left their church at Nablous, and formed themselves into a Protestant community. We have now about 500 Protestants in different parts-Judea, Samaria, and Galilee ; and although I cannot say of the majority of them that they are thoroughly and inwardly converted from "darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God," I can truly say that they are thoroughly Protestant, in so far that they reject the grosser errors of the Greek and Romish churches-transubstantiation, the worship of pictures and images, the invocation of saints, the adoration of relics, and the like. They are fully persuaded that the Bible is the word of God, and contains all things necessary for salvation. I have said that they are exposed to petty persecutions. In the last year the persecutions in Galilee have been carried to such an extent, that they might almost be termed great persecutions, though not unto death; but through the exertions, first of Lord Dufferin and afterwards of Colonel Fraser, security for the time from those persecutions was secured for those Protestant communities, four or five months ago. However, the last post has brought me news that several united Greeks-that is, Greeks who have joined the Church of Rome-attacked two Protestants, at a large village half-way between Nazareth and Acre, and that, had it not been for some other Protestants who came to their assistance, they would probably have been seriously injured. It is remarkable that the priests of the Greek church in the villages are not opposed to the reading of the Bible, or the preaching of the Gospel by Protestants, if left alone it is only when under the influence of the higher ecclesiastics of their church that they interfere. For example, at Rafidieh, in the mountains of Samaria, where there is a Protestant community, we determined to ask for a site to build a chapel, the people having no place sufficient to accommodate all who attended. While I was there the inhabitants of the place met together, including the Greek priest; and the schoolmaster of the village asked those who were in favour of a Protestant church being built to go on one side, and all who were against it to go on the other. The Greek priest very goodnaturedly said that he had no objection. Several priests have appeared |