A letter to a friend in America

The following suggestion, occurring in a letter to a friend in America, written at this time, will be appreciated by all missionaries, and may help those who correspond with them to write letters that will be no less acceptable and no less useful because containing items of earthly intelligence: —

“ Tell us everything, good, bad, and indifferent. Do not say, ‘ I suppose this one and that one have written so and so,’ but write everything; for but few tell us anything. Some write us very good letters, but tell us no news, supposing that because we are missionaries we have no flesh and blood, and no concern with mortal things. Tell us everything! ”

For a time every thing connected with the missionary work in Beyrout went on prosperously, and without restraint from either civil or ecclesiastical authorities, and without the manifestation of hostility on the part of the people. Mr. Goodell and Mr. Bird mingled with Turks and Arabs and Maronites and Jews and Greeks, distributing the Bible and reading it to them, without molestation or hindrance.

Read in the church at Beyrout

But this state of things was not to continue. The words of the Master to His disciples, u If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you,” were again to be verified in the land where He suffered. Within the first year an order from the Maronite Patriarch was read in the church at Beyrout, forbidding the people to receive the Holy Scriptures circulated by the missionaries, specifying the editions published in England, and requiring all to return or burn those they had received. The Pope’s vicar-general subsequently called on Mr. Goodell and Mr. Bird, and assured them that this order was issued without his knowledge and without any authority from Rome; but the outbreak proved to be only the first breath of a coming storm.

The first severe trial through which Mr. and Mrs. Goodell were called to pass was incidental, and did not spring from their character and work as missionaries. The attempt to throw off the Turkish yoke, made by Greece in 1820, was still carried on when they landed at Beyrout in 1823, and for several years longer. It was in consequence of this war that the scenes occurred which are described in the following extracts from Mr. Goodell’s journal; scenes in which not only was he stripped of his property, but the lives of himself and his family were often in imminent peril: —

“ Sabbath, March 19, 1826. Yesterday two Greek vessels came in and anchored at the river, about two miles east of Bey- rout. As they frequently come in to visit European vessels and to seize whatever Turkish property they may find on board, we suspected nothing uncommon. At daylight this morning we were awakened by a brisk fire of musketry.