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Syria THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 284

Education is a prominent branch of the missionwork in Syria. The first missionaries found the

people in a deplorable state of intel 8. Educe- lectual and moral ignorance. The only

tional schools were the Moslem medrisehs

Work. attached to the mosques, and the clerical training-school of the Maronites at Ain Wurka, Mount Lebanon. Books were to be made for readers, and readers for books. Drs. Thomson and Van Dyck founded a seminary for boys in Abeih in 1846, which was placed under the care of Simeon Howard Calhoun in 1849, and continued in his care until 1876. It was the highest literary institution in Syria for years, until the founding of the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut (see below). In the absence of any adequate public school system the mission has more than 100 day-schools gathering nearly 5,000 children from all the religious sects. It has three boarding-schools-in Beirut, Sidon, and Tripoli-for the higher education of girls with nearly 300 pupils; four training-schools for boys-in Suk ul-Gharb, Sidon, Shweir, and Tripoli-where 500 boys are being educated along the best American lines. The Sidon school for boys, now known as Gerard Institute, has industrial training in four departments and on its large farm an orphanage for children from Protestant families. Several members of the mission give theological instruction to candidates for the Christian ministry. The total number under instruction is nearly 6,000 pupils.

2. The Syrian Protestant College: Situated on a commanding location at Ras Beirut, with its eighteen stone buildings scattered over its campus of forty acres, this college is now the largest American educational institution in the world outside the boundaries of the United States. While a direct outgrowth of the American mission and closely affiliated with its work, it is not connected with any missionary society, but is undenominational, and has an entirely independent organization. It was incorporated by the legislature of New York in 1863 and is under the control of the board of trustees residing in that state, who have charge of all the funds of the college and ultimate authority in all the affairs of the institution. The local government is vested in the faculty. The college began with a preparatory class in 1865 and the college proper opened in the fall of 1866. A medical class was formed in 1867. In the autumn of 1873 the college moved to the present location. The departments of the college are seven: preparatory, collegiate, commerce, medicine, pharmacy, training-school for nurses, and Biblical archeology. English is the language of instruction in all the departments. The eighteen buildings furnish excellent accommodations for the present staff of 70 instructors and nearly 900 students. There are nine well-furnished laboratories; a library with over 15,000 volumes; the George E. Post Hall of Science contains nine museums scientifically arranged for exhibition and study; the astronomical observatory is well equipped; four new buildings accommodate the hospitals for women, children, and eye diseases, together with the training-school for nurses. The whole number of students in the college for the year 1909-10 was 845, of whom 4 were Behai, 25 Druses, 88 Jews, 104

Moslems, 160 Protestants, 85 from the Roman, and the remainder, 379, from the orthodox Christian sects of the orient. They represented- at least 12 nationalities and spoke 24 different languages. The total number of graduates to the year, 1909 was 1,767, distributed as follows: preparatory (,since 1883), 922; collegiate (since 1870), 300; commerce (since 1902), 53; pharmacy (since 1875), 162; medicine (since 1871), 330.

3. Irish Presbyterian Mission in Damascus:

This was founded in 1843. The United Presbyterian Church of the United States soon entered upon the work, and continued to cooperate for a number of years, until the latter church concentrated its work upon Egypt. Since 1905 the Irish church has confined its work to Damascus and the village of BludAn in the Anti-Lebanon. Besides the evangelistic work of preaching, there are in Damascus a girls' boarding- and day-school and a boys' boarding- and day-school in the Christian quarter, and two similar schools in the Jewish quarter for Jews, all under the care of Irish ladies; also two day-schools in Bludin. On the rolls of these schools are about 600 pupils of various sects, including 200 Jews. Two Bible women visit about 230 homes in the Jewish quarter of the city.

4. The Church of England Missions., These, having their center at Jerusalem, embrace a variety of enterprises which, while acknowledging and affiliating with the Anglican bishopric, differ in their organization and policy from each other. The historical beginnings and relations of the four main divisions are not easy to disentangle. (1) The London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews dates back to 1829, when its Jerusalem mission was begun. The other centers now occupied are Safed and Damascus. Since 1829 various institutions have been founded, many of which have passed into other hands. In 1910 there were two boarding-schools for Jewish children, with 80 scholars, and a day-school for girls with a regular.attendance of 130; an industrial establishment for receiving inquirers and teaching them a trade in addition to ordinary Christian instruction. The society has two workshops for carpentry and printing. A prominent feature is the medical work in the hospital and three dispensaries, this being the first medical mission of modern times. Christ Church, Jerusalem, was the first Protestant church built fn Syria and was consecrated in 1849. There have been 659 baptisms of Hebrews since the foundation. The staff consists of two clergy and twelve lpy missionaries with two doctors and five English trained nurses. In connection with Jerusalem there is a small mission in Jaffa. Safed is the center of the work in Galilee. Here there are schools and a hospital served by two clergy, three lay missionaries, an English doctor, and three nurses. In Damascus there has been a small mission with schools and industrial work among girls. (2) The Protestant bishopric of Jerusalem (see JERUSALEM, ANGLICANGERMAN BISHOPRIC IN) now has attached the Collegiate Church of St. George with the status of a cathedral, a school for boys and for girls, two hostels, and a home for nurses, and is the main center of the Jerusalem and the East Mission whose opera-