this step, and they are now
planning the opening of such a school, which will be a means of great
benefit and glory to Islam."

The editor then states that the great want of Syria is a school where a
high _practical_ education can be given, and says:--

"We now publish the glad tidings to the sons of Syria that such a
College has just been opened in Syria, in the city of Beirut, by the
liberality of good men in America and England, and called the "Syria
Protestant College." It is to accommodate eventually one thousand
pupils, will have a large library and scientific apparatus, including a
telescope for viewing the stars, besides cabinets of Natural History,
Botany, Geology and Mineralogy. It will teach all Science and Art, Law
and Medicine, and we doubt not will meet the great want of our native
land."

Five years have passed since the above was written. Since that time the
number of pupils in the various schools in Beirut has trebled, and new
educational edifices of stately proportions are being built or are
already finished, in every part of the city. It may be safely said that
the finest structures in Beirut are those built for educational
purposes. The Latins have the Sisters of Charity building of immense
proportions, the Jesuit establishment, the Maronite schools, and the
French Sisters of Nazareth Seminary, which is to be one of the most
commanding edifices of the East. The Greeks have their large High
School, and the Papal-Greeks, or Greek-Catholics their lofty College.
The Moslems have built with funds drawn from the treasury of the
municipality, a magnificent building for their Reshidiyeh, while the
Protestants have the imposing edifices occupied by the American Female
Seminary, the British Syrian Schools, the Prussian Deaconesses
Institute, and most extensive and impressive of all, the new edifices of
the Syrian Protestant College at Ras Beirut.

As another illustration of public sentiment in Syria with regard to
evangelical work, I will translate another paragraph from this official
newspaper:

"We have been writing of the progress of the Press in Syria, and of
Arabic literature in Europe, but we have another fact to mention which
will no doubt fill the sons of our country with astonishment. You know
well the efforts which were put forth some time since in the printing of
the Old and New Testaments in various editions in the Arabic language,
in the Press of the American Mission in Beirut. This work is