Fox's Book of Martyrs Part 54

_Bishop._--"But you read in the Bibles of the English."

_Phares._--"Yes, and from whom is the Bible? is it from the English, or from G.o.d?"

_B._--"But it is _printed_ by the English."

_P._--"Well, is it altered in any place?"

_B._--"See, now you have begun again to argue on the subject of religion. I tell you, young man, cease this heretical habit, or you are excommunicated."

Phares informed us of three or four Bibles and New Testaments, that we had given at different times to individuals in Hadet, which had lately been destroyed by order of the bishop. This news, together with a discovery we yesterday made in the neighbouring house, of two covers of the New Testament, whose contents had long ago been torn out, shews us anew, if new evidence were wanting, that if the Gospel is ever introduced again in its power and purity into this country, it will be with a desperate struggle.

Two brothers of Phares, Mansoor and Galeb, came to converse with him anew. We saw them seated together on the ground, at a little distance from the house, but afterwards saw them no more. It is singular that Phares should have left without coming either to take his cloak, or bid us farewell.[J]

28. Having heard nothing particular directly from Asaad since he left, especially since the affair of the books, I yesterday sent him a line, and to-day received the following reply:

_Letter from Asaad to Mr. Bird._

"Dear Sir,--After expressing imperfectly the love I bear you, and the desire I have to see you in all health, I have to say, that in due time your letter came to hand, and I read and understood it. You ask respecting our health. I answer, I am in a state of anxiety, but not so great as some days ago.

"On Thursday last, having come home from a visit to the emir Sulman, I found the remnants of the Holy Scriptures, torn in pieces, as there is reason to believe, by order of the bishop. When I was told, that my brother Mansoor had done this mischief, I returned to the emir, and informed him of the affair. He sent to call Mansoor, while I returned again to our house. I now learned, that my brother Phares had gone off. After searching for him some time, I went down to the inn in quest of him, but he was not to be found. As I was on my way returning from the inn, where I had gone in search of my brother, I prayed to G.o.d, that he would take every thing from me, if necessary, only let faith and love towards him remain in my heart.

"As I proceeded on, a man came up, and gave me information that all the consuls of Beyroot were slain, and that you also were slain with them. The report came from a man, who said he had deposited goods with you for safety. In order to be the more sure, I asked the man if it were really true, and he again a.s.sured me, that it was. Ask me not the state of my feelings at that moment.

"On reaching home, I heard this terrible news confirmed; at the same time looking out, and seeing the heap of ashes near the house, all that remained of the 11 copies of the holy scriptures which my brothers had destroyed, I burst into tears, and committed all my concerns into the hands of G.o.d, saying, 'Blessed be his holy name: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;'--and so I prayed on, with tears and groanings, which I cannot describe.

"I afterwards heard, that Phares was probably in the neighbourhood, and set off to search after him by night, but found him not. When I heard the news of your death confirmed, I sent off a messenger, that, wherever Phares might be found, he might return; and when I received his letter, saying that he had gone to your house, I could not yet believe that the report respecting you was false.

"But when the truth on this subject began to appear, then I heard by a person who came to the yesterday evening, that the patriarch and the emir had made an agreement to kill _me_, and that they had sent men to lie in wait for that purpose. I was afterwards told, by another person, that some of the servants of the emir were appointed to accomplish this end.

"Here I am, then, in a sort of imprisonment, enemies within, and enemies without.

"One of my brothers, the other day, advised me to surrender my self entirely to the mercy of the bishop, whereupon I wrote the bishop a letter, (of which I send you the enclosed copy,) and gave it to my brother Tannoos, begging him to carry it to the bishop, and bring me his reply. Tannoos read the letter, and without saying a word, threw it down in contempt. I then gave it to my uncle with the same request, but as yet I have got no reply.[K]

"All my concerns I commit into the hands of G.o.d, who created me. Through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, I hope that all my distresses will be for the best.

"I accept with pleasure all your kind wishes, and send you many salutations in the Lord, and pray for you length of days.

"Yours, &c. ASAAD."

"March 27, 1826."

_His relatives deliver him up to the Patriarch._

31. Information is received, that Asaad has been taken away against his will, to the patriarch.

_April 4._ Phares Shidiak arrived here in the evening direct from Der Alma, and said he had accompanied Asaad to that convent a week ago, that Asaad was still there, and that the patriarch, having in the morning set off for Cann.o.been, would send down for a.s.sad after a few days. He then handed me the following line from Asaad.

"If you can find a vessel setting off for Malta, in the course of four or five days, send me word; if not, pray for your brother.

ASAAD."

We were disposed to send off a messenger this very evening, but Phares said it would not be necessary.

Had some serious conversation with Phares, in which I exhorted him to continue reading the New Testament, and take particular notice of the general spirit of it; and then to judge, if all this deceit, confining, beating, and threatening to kill, was consistent with that spirit. We observed, that we supposed the patriarch and the bishop were well pleased with all the violence that Mansoor had used in this affair.

"Yes," said Phares, "priest Hanna Stambodi, at Ain Warka, told me yesterday, that none of us had any religion, except Mansoor."

In a subsequent part of his journal, Mr. Bird records the following particulars respecting Asaad, during his last visit to Hadet, and when about to be violently removed from thence. They were received from Phares.

A neighbouring emir being sick, one day, Asaad carried him a paper of medicine, on the outside of which he had written how it was to be taken.

While Asaad stood without, a servant took in this medicine, and gave it to the prince, saying, "This is from Asaad Esh Shidiak, and here he has written the directions on the paper." The prince, who is not remarkable for mildness, and perhaps was not conscious that Asaad overheard him, spoke out angrily, "A fig for the paper and writing; 'tis the medicine I want." "Your lordship is in the right," replied Asaad, "the truth is with you. The _medicine_ is the thing; the _paper_ that holds it, is nothing. So we ought to say of the gospel, the great medicine for the soul. 'Tis the _pure gospel_ we want, and not the _church_ that holds it."

After Mansoor, in his catholic zeal, had torn up and burned all his Bibles and Testaments, Asaad could not remain without the scriptures, but sent and obtained a copy from the little church, which he daily read, marking the most striking and important pa.s.sages.

When his relatives, to the number of twenty or more, had a.s.sembled, and Asaad perceived they were come to take him to the patriarch by force, he began to expostulate with Tannoos, and besought him to desist from a step so inconsistent with fraternal love. He besought in vain. Tannoos turned away from him with a cold indifference. Affected with his hardness, Asaad went aside, and wept and prayed aloud.

The evening before he was taken away, he said to those who had a.s.sembled, "If I had not read the gospel, I should have been surprised at this new movement of yours. But now it is just what I might have expected. In this blessed book, I am told, _the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and a man's foes shall be they of his own household_. Here you see it is just so. You have come together to fulfil this prophecy of the gospel. What have I done against you? What is my crime? Allowing that I do take the Bible as my only and sufficient guide to heaven, what sin is there in this?" During the evening, he laid himself down to sleep, as he was to set off early in the morning. But he was often interrupted; for, whenever he caught a word of false doctrine from the lips of those who continued their conversation, he would rise up, refute them, and again compose himself to rest. One of his uncles, speaking of his going to the patriarch, said in a great rage, "If you don't go off with us peaceably, we will take your life." Asaad replied, "Softly, softly, my dear uncle, don't be hasty. _Blessed are the meek._"

Phares wrote a letter this evening to Asaad, in a hand that had been agreed on between them, saying, that if he would come to Beyroot, he need not fear, and that it might be a matter for further consideration whether he should leave the country.

5. The letter of Phares was sent off by a moslem, who returned at evening, saying that when he arrived at the convent, he was accosted by two or three men, inquiring his business, telling him he was a Greek, and had letters from the English. They then seized him, and took the letter by force, and, had he not shewn them that he was a moslem, would have probably sent him to the emir of the district for further examination. They then asked him some questions about the English, and a.s.sured him that after eight days Asaad would no longer be a living man.

Thus were our hopes of a second deliverance of this sufferer of persecution, for the present, blasted. After all the threats, which have been thrown out without being put in execution, we rather hope, that this last will prove like the rest; yet we cannot tell how far their hatred of the truth may, with the divine forbearance, carry them. We leave all with him, in whose hands our life and breath are, and whose are all our ways, with the humble hope, that light may yet arise out of darkness, and that much glory may be added to his name, from this evident work of Satan.

6. Sent word, in a blind hand, on a torn sc.r.a.p of paper, to Phares respecting the fate of our message to his brother. He returns answer that he is coming to Beyroot to-morrow.

7. Phares came, according to his notice of yesterday, saying, that if the patriarch should get his letter to Asaad, there would be danger in his staying at Hadet. He should be glad to go to Malta, or almost any other place out of the Maronite influence, lest his brothers should seize him, and deliver him up to the fury of the patriarch, as they had done his brother Asaad. Mansoor, the eldest and most violent of them, when he heard, yesterday, that a letter had arrived for Phares from Beyroot, breathed out threatenings and slaughter, not only against Phares, but against the innocent messenger himself.

8. Wrote to ----, a friendly Maronite bishop, to give me whatever information he might be able to procure respecting Shidiak.

_May_ 10. A messenger whom we sent to Cann.o.been, returned with the report that he was denied the privilege of seeing Asaad, under pretence that he was going through a course of confession, during which the rule is, that the person so confessing, shall pa.s.s his time, for a number of days, alone, and see no company.

14. We were, to-day, credibly informed, that Shidiak is still firm in his adherence to the gospel, but that he was kept under rigid inspection, not being permitted to step out of his room without an attendant.

17. Phares Shidiak informed us to-day, that he had been told that his brother Asaad had been at the college of Ain Warka. He thought it might be true, as one object in delivering him up to the patriarch was, to give the people the general impression, that he had no longer any thing to do with the English. He had now been a sufficient time absent from us to give general currency to the report, that he was no longer with us, and now, perhaps, the patriarch had let him go free.

_Asaad is cruelly treated._

27. The messenger, who went before to Cann.o.been, had set out to go for us a second time, and this morning early returned with the following story:--Being met by a man near Batroon, whom he suspected to be from Cann.o.been, he inquired him out, and found him to be a messenger sent by Asaad himself to his uncles and other connexions, to beg them to come and deliver him. Asaad saw the man, and gave him his commission from the window of the convent, without the knowledge of the patriarch, or the others in his service. This messenger said, _that Asaad was in close confinement, in chains, and was daily beaten_; and that the great cause of complaint against him was, that he refused to worship either the pictures, or the virgin Mary.

I had written a letter of mere salutation to Shidiak by my messenger, which letter he enclosed in one from himself, and sent it on by his brother, returning himself with the messenger from Asaad. This brother of his, he is much afraid, may be ill-treated by the patriarch.

28. J., the messenger, called, and said, that he himself should not go to Cann.o.been, but twelve or fifteen of his other relatives would go and endeavour at least to save him from chains and stripes. J. had been to the emir Beshir the less, who lives at Hadet, begging him, (with a present) to save his brother, if it should prove that he had suffered by the suspicion or the resentment of the patriarch. The emir promised to interfere--"But why," said he, "should Asaad go and join the English?

they are a people I do not love."

_June_ 2. A youth of the neighbourhood said it was reported that Asaad was a complete maniac; that he rent his garments, raved, reviled, &c.

and that he had been sent to the convent at Koshia, like other lunatics, for a miraculous cure. This news was brought by priest Bernardus, of Gzir, mentioned in Shidiak's statement.