CHAPTER XXXII. 
THE MISSIONARIES IN SYRIA. 
I had the pleasure of becoming acquainted, during my 
sojourn in Damascus, with several of the American mission¬ 
aries ; and I feel that it would he ungrateful to omit a pass¬ 
ing tribute to their kindness of heart, unpretending piety, and 
noble exertions in the dissemination of Christianity among the 
Arabs. Prejudiced, in some degree, against the missionaries 
as a class—partly from having paid but little attention to the 
subject, and partly because I had seen some very bad speci¬ 
mens in other countries, yet I had never doubted the high 
and praiseworthy aim of the system; and it was a source of 
genuine gratification to find that there are a great many 
more sincere people in the world than I had supposed in my 
younger days. A good cause often suffers from the unfitness 
or insincerity of its followers ; but if it be founded upon true 
and righteous principles, it must triumph in the end. It has 
been well remarked, that “if men wdio are set apart to in¬ 
struct others, instead of entertaining them with what neither 
teachers nor hearers understand, and (what is worse), stirring 
up the latter to dislike and hate one another for difference in 
opinions, would preach the true Grospel of Jesus Christ, which 
is ‘ peace on earth and good-will to men,’ and also enforce this 
excellent doctrine by their own examples, and all other vir¬ 
tues by the same means, we should undoubtedly soon experi¬ 
ence a great alteration in the world.” Nothing can be more 
injudicious than to attempt the reformation of a barbarous 
people by threats, or by confounding them with abstruse doc¬ 
trinal mysteries. The Christian religion is simple and easily 
understood ; the most ignorant may be taught to comprehend 
