Fifty-Three Years In Syria

By

Henry Harris Jessup, D. D.

Introduction by James S. Dennis, D. D.

VOLUME 1–2

Copyright, 1910, by

Fleming H. Revell Company

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue

Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue

Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W.

London: 21 Paternoster Square

Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street

Henry H. Jessup

Taken when Moderator of the General Assembly

hon. william jessup

amanda h. jessup

Dedicated

to the

Memory of

my revered father, Hon. William Jessup, LL. D., and my beloved mother, Amanda Harris Jessup: by whose godly example, wise counsel, and fervent prayers, I was led to Christ in my early boyhood; who helped me on my Christian course and to learn the luxury of doing good, and cheerfully gave me and my brother Samuel to the missionary work, at a time when a journey to Syria seemed like an act of self-immolation.

I have tried to follow their example, and pray that my children and grandchildren may all prove worthy of such an ancestry.

“The memory of the just is blessed.”

Introduction

THE author of this volume is one of the pioneers of the new historic era and the changing social order in the Nearer East. He is entitled to this distinction not because of direct political activity, or of any strenuous rôle as a social reformer, but because of those fifty-three years of missionary service in the interests of religious uplift, educational progress, social morality, and all those civilizing influences which now by general consent are recognized results of the missionary enterprise.

It is a chronicle of eventful years in the history of Western Asia. It is necessarily largely personal, as the book is a combination of autobiographical reminiscence with a somewhat detailed record of mission progress in Syria. No one can fail to be impressed with the variety and continuity, as well as the large beneficence of a life service such as is herein reviewed. In versatile and responsible toil, in fidelity to his high commission, in diligence in the use of opportunity, in unwavering loyalty to the call of missionary duty, his career has been worthy of the admiration and affectionate regard of the Church. The writer of this introduction regards it as one of the privileges of his missionary service in Syria that for twenty-two of the fifty-three years which the record covers he was a colleague of the author, and that such a delightful intimacy has marked a lifelong friendship.

Dr. Jessup has been a living witness of one of the most vivid and dramatic national transformations which the world’s annals record, as well as himself a contributor, indirectly and unconsciously perhaps, yet no less truly and forcefully, to changes as romantic, weird, and startling as the stage of history presents. We seem to be in the enchanted atmosphere of politics after the order of the Arabian Nights. In fact, no tale of the Thousand and One Nights can surpass in imaginative power, mystical import, and ...