ed several days. Facts and principles were freely
discussed, and the results were embodied in written reports, drawn
up by committees appointed for the purpose. There is space for only
a concise statement of a few of these results.

It was recognized as a fact of fundamental importance, that the
people within the bounds of the mission were Arabs, whether called
Greeks, Greek Catholics, Druzes, or Maronites, and that the divers
religious sects really constituted one race. There were believed to
be advantages, in the fact, that these sects were intermingled in
the several villages, since the population was less inclined to
oppose, and more easily accessible, than where the villages were
exclusively of one sect. The most hopeful parts of Lebanon were the
southern districts, inhabited by a people social in their habits,
owners of the soil, shrewd, inquisitive, industrious, and capable of
devising and executing with tact and efficiency.

There was much discussion as to the best manner of cultivating the
field, but all agreed that wherever small companies were ready to
make a credible profession of piety, they were entitled to be
recognized as churches, and had a right to such a native ministry as
could be given them. The reformed churches might combine persons
from several, and perhaps from all, the various sects; and the
method of church organization should be such as to throw the
greatest responsibility on the individual members.

The question was raised, whether the marked disposition in the
mountain communities to place themselves collectively under the
instruction of the mission, would justify a lowering of the
qualifications for church-membership, especially with reference to
the baptism of children. It was believed that no good would result
from this; especially, as the people are so bent on regarding
baptism as a renewing ordinance. To form churches in this way, would
only be to multiply communities of merely nominal Christians.

The brethren admitted, that their labors had been too little
adapted, hitherto, to awaken religious feeling among the people. The
reasons assigned for this were, the absorbing demands of the press
and of education; the habits of preaching and laboring formed under
past unfavorable states of the field; and finally, a painful
impression of the suffering that converts must endure, with no civil
power to interpose between them and their persecutors.

To counteract the first of these causes