Eli and Sibyl Jones Part 11

On the 15th of 4th mo. came the dreadful news that the good man who had stood so n.o.bly at the head of the nation in this dreadful crisis had gone from works to reward, slain by the hand of the a.s.sa.s.sin. The great joy was turned into deepest mourning that he who was so endeared to all loyal hearts could not be with them to enjoy the restful time of peace. They held a meeting in the rooms of the Agricultural Department, and were comforted in their great grief by the presence of Him who said to the troubled waves, "Peace, be still." A visit was made to Stone Hospital, and it was found that the suffering ones there had had little religious instruction, but seemed grateful for Christian counsel. One poor fellow, who was dying and felt his lost condition, was entreated to look to the "Lamb of G.o.d."

A young lady came one day to Isaac Newton's and asked if a Quaker lady who preached was there. She said that some one had been thinking how appropriate it would be to have a Friends' meeting, for the awful stroke inclined them to be silent. Isaac Newton offered his parlors, and Sybil Jones consented. She says in her diary: "We met at seven o'clock, and it was one of the most blessed seasons I have enjoyed in this city. The silence seemed to have healing in its wings and balm to the stricken spirit." Much service was done in Emory Hospital; the poor fellows on their beds were visited one by one, and each was lovingly spoken to. They held meetings at Emory Hospital for the convalescent soldiers, and by all they were most gladly received.

Harwood and Finley Hospitals were fields of labor, and in each the gospel message was thankfully received. At first the surgeon in charge said that he never allowed service in the wards where the men were badly wounded or pa.s.sing away. Sybil Jones said to him, "Doctor, wouldst thou take the responsibility of keeping the gospel from dying men, the suffering soldiers of our country, far from their homes and mothers?"--"No," said he, "but I do not want them disturbed."--She said, "Our services never disturb; we are a quiet people." She then told him that she had a pa.s.s to all hospitals in the United States, but would not insist upon entering without his full permission. He then gave it most freely. The service was gladly received, and it seemed like drops of rain on a dry and thirsty land.

Sybil Jones felt that she must bear a message of her heavenly Father's love and sympathy to the widow of the lamented President. She had been ill, confined to her bed in the White House, since the fatal stroke.

Sybil Jones says of the visit: "All crushed and broken under the heavy stroke, I spoke to her of the heavenly Chastener's love and care, and said that He could bind up the broken heart and give peace. She cordially invited us to come again. Her two sons, one about ten and the other about twenty, were at home, and very affectionate and attentive to their suffering mother, though themselves evidently feeling very deeply the sad event."

Sybil Jones felt that she was given a message for Secretary Stanton.

She in company with others went to his house in the evening, and, pa.s.sing a guard of soldiers, was most kindly received by his interesting wife, the Secretary being absent. They spent an hour in pleasant conversation, and then the Secretary came and greeted them kindly. Very soon silence reigned, and Sybil Jones, after asking permission, rose and addressed the Secretary, telling him that as he had been raised up by the Almighty for the important duties of his office, he must dispense justice and judgment in the fear of G.o.d, plead the cause of the oppressed, and humbly in all things do the will of the great King, and the eternal G.o.d should be his refuge. She told him that, though his life had been sought, the angel of the Lord had guarded him, and if his trust was in Him no harm should befall him.

After her remarks the Secretary rose and thanked her most profoundly, and told her that her gospel message was most grateful, and said that he needed the prayers of the people and that his trust was in G.o.d.

Sybil Jones went again by invitation to call on the President's widow.

She was still in bed, much prostrated. The rooms were all lighted as in the days when their master paced through them with the weight of his mission pressing upon him. One lone sentinel guarded the mansion--a strange contrast to the past, when a strong guard was deemed necessary. The desolate lady gave them a sweet welcome, and told them some cheering incidents of her husband's last days. She said that several times during the last day he lived he said, "This is the happiest day of my life." He seemed to feel that the great work was done, and he rejoiced that the cloud which hung over his beloved America had lifted. Sybil Jones then spoke to her cheeringly of the sympathy of Jesus with the sorrowing sisters of Bethany--that in her boys she had a charge to keep for the King. After a season of feeling prayer they parted tenderly.

Stone Hospital, a beautiful home for the weary, suffering soldiers, was visited, and a wonderfully convicting season it proved. Sybil Jones was greatly saddened on a visit to the jail by its filthy appearance. Old and young were crowded in together, and the young in crime were by a.s.sociation with the vicious and degraded hastened in their downward course.

Feeling that she was called to labor in Alexandria, Sybil Jones went across the river to that place, and found a kind welcome at the temporary home of James P. Barlow, he, with his family, having fled from his own home on account of rebel persecution and confiscation.

She had a meeting with the convalescents in the colored hospital, and had most interesting services in Slough Barracks. She also had a large meeting at the Soldiers' Rest, where she addressed thousands of soldiers, all orderly and attentive, while a tear might often be seen tracing down the bronzed cheeks. Wonderful changes were apparent in this place since the abolition of slavery. Slave-pens were appropriated to useful purposes. One was used as a court of justice, where traitors took the oath of allegiance to their country and to the government.

Sybil Jones then returned to Washington, and did what she could in the hospitals there, and then, feeling again the call to Alexandria, she returned to that place, and after more service owned and blessed by the Master she left this great field of labor and went once more to her children in Philadelphia, and thence to her own home.

On the 16th of 4th mo., in 1866, she again left her home, accompanied as far as Providence by her son Grelet, and bearing a certificate from her friends granting freedom for such service as she was called to perform. She attended meetings at Salem, Lynn, and Burlington, visiting prisons, hospitals, and reformatory inst.i.tutions. She went to Richmond, Va., and attended the small meeting of Friends there, and with them praised the Lord for bringing them through the b.l.o.o.d.y rebellion and allowing them once more to a.s.semble under the banner of peace. She attended many meetings here; had a meeting in a penitentiary, where the poor inmates had not heard the gospel sound for five years, since before the dreadful struggle. Many Bibles were distributed and families visited.

In a town near Richmond it was thought very doubtful if she could obtain a meeting, as the feeling against the North was so strong. When the Methodist minister was applied to, a young man present exclaimed, "That Quaker lady must have a meeting; she is the mother of my college cla.s.smate, Major Jones. She must have a meeting, and we will do our best to get the people out." The meeting was a large one and blessed, and the people expressed their thanks at the close.

After much loving service in the prisons and elsewhere, Sybil Jones went once more to Washington, holding meetings and doing all she could to "lift the skirts of darkness." She felt that she had another message to bear to the White House, where now, at the head of affairs of state, was the late President's successor, Andrew Johnson. She had a most touching interview with the President's daughter, the wife of Senator Patterson. They mingled their prayers and tears, and then Sybil Jones was presented to the President. He was surrounded by supplicants, mothers, advocates of right, and artful politicians.

While waiting for audience the President's little granddaughter offered to her a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and, drawing her close, Sybil Jones spoke to her of the infinitely more beautiful flowers of heaven. The President courteously gave her permission to speak. She told him her message, and told him that it was in the name of the "King of kings." He thanked her seriously, and many were in tears. It was a most impressive scene.

After this, Sybil Jones returned to Maine, but she was not permitted long to enjoy the sweet a.s.sociations in the home so dear to her. The impression seemed to gather force daily that she must once more cross the ocean. These words came to her often with great emphasis: "Get thee out of thy own country and from among thy own kindred to a land which I shall show thee." Once more she cast her burden upon the meeting, and found, as ever, the sweet sympathy and unity with her call to go forth that were ever accorded her. She was liberated for the service that she felt was hers to perform, and her "peace flowed like a river."

Before engaging in the work in Europe, Sybil Jones obtained a certificate from the monthly meeting to visit the prisons and penitentiaries in some of the Southern States. She visited most inst.i.tutions of that character in many of the large Southern cities, bearing the news of life and salvation to the poor erring ones. Many tracts and Bibles were distributed and much work was done in the vineyard of the Lord. Once more she bore a message to President Johnson. She went to the White House on a reception day for the President's daughter, and pa.s.sed in with the throng. On every side were seen the glory and parade of this world that will pa.s.s away, but, obtaining audience with the President and his daughter, she spoke to them of the pleasures that are eternal. The Lord helped her to declare the truth, and she went away trusting that it would not be "in vain in the Lord." Her whole soul was rejoiced to see the great change that had swept over the South since the shackles of slavery had been removed. Those who had been slaves now stood up men. She felt that there is indeed "a G.o.d who judgeth in the earth, and He only worketh wonders."

CHAPTER XII.

_MISSION-WORK._

"'Tis time New hopes should animate the world, new light Should dawn from new revealings to a race Weighed down so long."

BROWNING.

There was comparatively little known among Friends about the land of the Bible from personal observation before 1870, and some of the best works on the history, the geography, the manners, and customs of Palestine have been written since that date. The visits of Eli and Sybil Jones to Syria, and the letters which they and their companions, Alfred Lloyd Fox and Ellen Clare Peason (born Miller), wrote from there have done much to bring that country to the careful notice of Friends; and the interest felt in the missions at Brumanna and Ramallah has induced many to study their situations and to become better acquainted with that whole region, incontestably the most important on the globe if we a.s.sociate with the soil what has transpired there for the benefit of the race. We call it the "Holy Land," and the religious enthusiasts of the Middle Ages felt that it was a profanation for infidels to hold the sepulchre of the Lord and the cities where He taught; so that thousands rose from all Christian lands to win back the captured territory, and blindly gave their lives for what they thought a sacred cause. In those days the Crusades opened the eyes of Europe and showed to the people the civilization and wonders of this Eastern land, and they brought back accounts from the cradle of early civilization which changed the thoughts and ideas of the age. American missionaries began to work in Syria in 1823, not to win the soil from the hands of infidels, but to gain the souls of those living in blindness, ignorance, and sin; and their endeavors have been greatly blessed, although these strongholds yield slowly to the most vigorous a.s.saults.

Until the fourth century after Christ feasts were held annually in Syria to commemorate the death of Adonis--or Tammuz, as he was called in Syria--and his birth was celebrated again in the spring. These rites came from the story of Adonis being killed at the sources of the river which bears his name. This stream, which comes down with a swollen current in autumn, carries away much red iron ore; this gives the water a reddish color, which was said to be caused by the blood of Adonis, while in the spring Adonis was supposed to rise from the dead in all his beauty, at which time all gave themselves up to unrestrained joy. It was this mourning for Adonis of which Ezekiel speaks: "He brought me to the door of the Lord's house, and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz" (or Adonis). All the heathen temples were destroyed and the worship stopped by Constantine the Great. At present there are in Syria about one million Mohammedans, two hundred and fifty thousand Maronites, two hundred and thirty-five thousand members of the Greek Church, eighty thousand Roman Catholics, eighty thousand Druses, thirty thousand Jews, but only five thousand Protestants; besides many other kinds of religions.

The Maronites are thought by some to have taken their name from Maroon, an abbot who lived near the Orontes in the sixth century. He was considered as a saint by these people, though by the pope he was deemed a heretic. In the time of the Crusades the Maronites joined the Christian army from the West, and so came in contact with the Roman Church. They are divided into four orders--Jesuits, Franciscans, Lazarists, and Capuchins--over whom one patriarch is the governor. The order of the Jesuits, with the influence of the patriarch, has from the first opposed the work of all missionaries, and a heap of stones near the convent of Kan.o.bin marks the spot where a missionary was martyred in 1830 by the will of the Maronite patriarch.

The Druses are perhaps the most remarkable people of Syria, and they are, too, the most mysterious. It was formerly thought that they were the descendants of a band of the crusaders who were left behind and finally forgot their land and religion, taking their name from the count of Dreux. There is a more plausible theory which identifies them with some of the tribes introduced into the Palestine by Esarhaddon, the great a.s.syrian, in the seventh century, B. C. Their name seems to have come from Ismael Darazi, and dates no farther back than the eleventh century A. D.

Hakim, one of the caliphs, who reigned in 1019, and who seems from his tyranny and fanaticism to have been a madman, maintained that he had direct intercourse with the Deity, and that he was an incarnation of the divine intelligence. The claim was made known in the mosque at Cairo by Ismael Darazi, whose testimony was hostilely received by the people and he himself compelled to flee; but he at last succeeded in winning over the ignorant inhabitants of Mount Lebanon, whence the origin of this religion. The Druses hold that there is only one G.o.d, indefinable, incomprehensible, ineffable, and pa.s.sionless--that he has made himself known by ten successive incarnations, lastly by Hakim.

They believe in the transmigration of souls, and they say that virtuous souls pa.s.s into Chinese Druses, but those of the wicked into dogs or camels. These people have a high reputation for hospitality, and especially toward the English or Americans. G.o.d, they say, is great and liberal and all men are brothers, though in their b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacres they forget this, as Christians sometimes do.

The last hundred years have witnessed fearful struggles between the Maronites and Druses, and the rivers have run red--not from the supposed blood of Adonis, but from that of human beings--and many Christians have fallen victims.

Another sad fact is the low position which woman holds in Palestine.

It is only Christianity that can put her in her true place as man's equal.

Those, then, who go to Syria to herald the gospel and plant the seeds of progress in the hearts of these people have as much to contend with as those who go among uncivilized heathen, or perhaps more. Here they are opposed by uncompromising bigotry, by the despotic hand of a mighty ruler, and they must find untold obstacles in a land where the muezzin's voice is heard from a thousand Moslem minarets, with the hate which has ever existed between the two religions, and has not been lessened by the contests around Jerusalem for the possession of the holy sepulchre. But missionaries are peacemakers, and it is well that members of the Society of Friends have been led to do work here--a Society which would proclaim the "truce of G.o.d to the whole world for ever;" a Society which would give to woman the n.o.bility for which she was created. We may hope that the hills which witnessed the chorus of angels singing, "Peace on earth, good-will to men," shall look on a community in which this is fulfilled, and, though Jerusalem's altar-fires have gone out, there may a brighter light shine into the hearts of a people worshipping G.o.d in spirit and in truth.

We can hardly realize that this important land, "the cradle of revelation," is so small that it is only about the size of Wales.

"From Dan on the north to Beersheba on the south is a distance of only one hundred and thirty-nine miles, and the paltry breadth of twenty miles from the coast to the Jordan on the north increases slowly to only forty between the sh.o.r.e of the Mediterranean at Gaza and the Dead Sea on the south."

To this little country, made great and again humbled, raised up and again degraded, to this people divided into so many religions, Eli and Sybil Jones felt a call to bear the gospel first promulgated from its hills and in its valleys.

They were liberated by China monthly meeting, Va.s.salboro' quarterly meeting, and New England yearly meeting, and embarked from Boston on the 10th of 4th month, 1867.

"The last meeting attended by them before leaving their home in Maine was thronged by their townspeople, many of whom had known them through life, and several ministers from other societies from the overflowing of their hearts expressed their desire for the divine blessing upon their labors as amba.s.sadors for Christ. Between our two friends, and upon the same bench, sat their two aged mothers, respectively in their eighty-fourth and eighty-ninth years. The latter arose in the presence of the large a.s.sembly, and, referring to the prospect that she should not meet her dear children again in this life, expressed her willingness to give them up for the sake of the Lord. They were attended on board their steamer by a large delegation of Friends from Lynn, Salem, New Bedford, and Providence. Here they mingled in Christian sympathy and in a season of religious fellowship, giving their fellow-pa.s.sengers the opportunity of witnessing such brotherhood in Christ as used in the olden time to induce the exclamation: 'See how the Quakers love one another!'" Among those who came to bid them adieu and attend their religious exercises were John A. Andrew, governor of Ma.s.sachusetts, and General Banks. It was especially interesting, as marking a striking contrast to the treatment which the missionary Quakers two hundred years before received at the hands of the Boston officials.

John G. Whittier, who at one time had a desire to accompany them, wrote the following beautiful verses for the occasion:

"TO ELI AND SYBIL JONES.

"As one who watches from the land The lifeboat go to seek and save, And, all too weak to lend a hand, Sends his faint cheer across the wave,--

"So, powerless at my hearth to-day, Unmeet your holy work to share, I can but speed you on your way, Dear friends, with my unworthy prayer.

"Go, angel-guided, duty-sent!

Our thoughts go with you o'er the foam; Where'er you pitch your pilgrim tent Our hearts shall be and make it home.

"And we will watch (if so He wills Who ordereth all things well) your ways Where Zion lifts her olive hills And Jordan ripples with His praise.

"Oh! blest to teach where Jesus taught, And walk with Him Gennesaret's strand!

But whereso'er His work is wrought, Dear hearts, shall be your Holy Land."

Letters from Eli Jones and his companions will be given farther on to show the nature of their work, the places visited, and something of the good accomplished. Many of these letters are exceedingly interesting, and, being written on the spots which they describe, they throw new light on the scenes of the Bible-land. For the present I wish to follow out briefly the part these two Friends have taken in what may be called distinctive mission-work.

After being engaged for about a month attending meetings in and about London, mostly among the poor, and doing some work in Scotland, they began their journey, stopping with the Friends in the south of France, embarking from Ma.r.s.eilles for Greece, and thence going pretty directly to Beirut in Syria. They had as companions and helpers that earnest and sweet-spirited Christian, Alfred Lloyd Fox of Falmouth, England, and Ellen Clare Miller of Edinburgh, for whom, as she is still living, words of eulogy are happily not yet in place. They spent some months holding meetings, visiting schools, and doing much quiet work up and down nearly the whole length of Palestine. Sybil Jones being all the time in feeble health, they finally returned to England to spend the summer. Sybil went to Ireland, and Eli held meetings in different parts of England. Meantime, Alfred Fox and Ellen Clare Miller, who had become much interested in the work going on in Palestine, had raised a considerable sum of money to a.s.sist the mission-schools and general religious work in the Holy Land, and about seven hundred pounds were collected, some of which was sent to those needing it. As the summer went on, Eli and Sybil Jones each separately, began to feel that they had still further work in the East to do, and the way opened for them to return to the work which they had left unfinished. Ellen Clare Miller again attended them, also Richard Allen and Captain Joseph Pim.

What money remained was put into their hands to be spent as they saw fit to promote education and spread the gospel in Syria.

While in the neighborhood of Jerusalem they visited Ramallah. There was a boys' school in this place, and here they were met by a young woman who asked that she might be helped to teach a girls' school. Eli Jones asked her if she could teach, to which she answered, yes. After consideration it was decided to take some of the money which had been entrusted to them to start this young woman--Miriam--in the work of educating the girls of the neighborhood. On returning to England at the end of their visit, and reporting what they had done at Ramallah, it was at once accepted by the English Friends, and the little school thus begun was adopted and liberally supported. Ramallah became the seat of the mission and school of the London Friends, and was carefully watched over, built up, and maintained until 1888, when it was decided to be best for American Friends to take it in exchange for their interest in the Brummana mission on Mount Lebanon. It will be called the Eli and Sybil Jones Mission, and the New England Friends are ready zealously to take up and carry on the good work which for eighteen years has received the support of English Friends.

During this same visit, while at Beirut in the year 1869, they met Theophilus Waldmeier, who was engaged in the British Syrian schools.

He became much interested in the strangers, and desired to learn more of their religious principles. "Their addresses were so powerful and edifying," he writes, "that our hearts were touched, and I began to think that their religious principles must be of a superior nature. I went to the hotel where they lodged and made their acquaintance, and from that time I have believed that the Quaker principles are the right basis for a true spiritual Church. When these dear Friends left the country their blessed influence remained upon my heart, though they had not the slightest idea of it, nor had I any hope of seeing them again."

Two years later Theophilus Waldmeier met Stafford Allen, and accompanied him, his son, and Joseph Price to Baalbek, so that they became closely acquainted, and he was invited to come to Stafford Allen's house in London, which he did in 1872, and here he made the acquaintance of Hannah Stafford Allen, Robert and Christine Alsop, and others, and he became more and more familiar with the spiritual views of Friends, and later he joined himself to their Society.