:

"From the girls of the Beirut School in Syria, to the sisters beloved in
the Lord Jesus, in a land very far away. We have been honored in reading
the lines which reached us from you, O sisters, distant in body but near
in spirit, and we have given glory to God the Creator of all, who has
caused in your hearts true love to us, and spiritual sympathies which
have prompted you, dear sisters in the Lord, to write to us. Yes, it is
the Lord Jesus who has brought about between us and between you (Arabic
idiom) a spiritual intercourse, without the intercourse of bodily
presence. For we have never in our lives seen you, nor your country, nor
have we spoken to you face to face, and so you likewise have not seen
us. Had neither of us the Word of God, the Holy and Only Book which is
from one Father and a God unchangeable, to tell us that we have one
nature, and have all fallen into one transgression, and are saved in one
way, which is the Lord Jesus, we could not, as we now can, call you in
one union, our sisters. The Lord Jesus calls those who love Him His
brethren, and since He is the only bond and link, are we not His
sisters, and thus sisters to each other? Truly, O dear sisters, we are
thirsting to see you, and we all unite in offering prayers and praises
to God, through His Son Immanuel, the possessor of the glorious Name,
praying that we may see you; but we cannot in this world, for we are in
the East, and you are in the West, far, very far. But, O dear friends,
as we hope for the resurrection from the dead, so after our period in
this world is ended, we shall meet by the blessing of God in those
bright courts which are illumined by the light of the Saviour, which
need not sun nor moon to give them light,--that holy place which is
filled with throngs of angels who never cease to offer glory to God.
There we may meet and unite with all the saved in praising the Saviour.
There we may meet our friends who have passed on before us "as waiting
they watch us approaching the shore," as we sing in the hymn. There
around the throne of the glorious Saviour, there in the heavenly
Jerusalem, our songs will not be mingled with tears and grief, for the
Lord Jesus Himself will wipe away all tears from our eyes. There will
not enter sin nor its likeness into our hearts sanctified by the Holy
Spirit. There this body which shall rise incorruptible, will not return
to the state in which it was in this world. In those courts we shall be
hap