under the
direction of the distinguished scholar Dr. Van Dyck, who labored
assiduously in the completion of the translation of the Bible from the
Hebrew and Greek languages, which was commenced by the compassionated of
God, Dr. Eli Smith. They had printed from time to time large editions of
this Bible with great labor and expense, and sold them out, and then
were obliged to set up the types again for a new edition. But Dr. Van
Dyck thought it best, in order to find relief from the vast expenditure
of time and money necessary to reset the types, to prepare for every
page of the Bible a plate of copper, on whose face the letters should be
engraved. He therefore proceeded to New York, and undertook in
co-operation, with certain men skilled in the electrotyping art, to make
plates exactly corresponding to the pages of the Holy Book, and he has
sent to us a specimen page taken from the first plate of the vowelled
Testament, and on comparison with the page printed here, we find it an
exact copy of the Beirut edition which is printed in the same type with
our journal. We regard it as far clearer and better than the sheets
printed from movable types, and we congratulate Dr. Van Dyck, and wish
him all success in this enterprise."

Such statements as these derive their value from the fact that they
appear in the official paper of a Mohammedan government, and are a
testimony to the value of the Word of God.

The next article is a literal translation of an address delivered in
June, 1867, at the Annual Examination of the Beirut Female Seminary.
This Seminary was the first school in Syria for girls, which was
established on the paying principle, and in the year 1867 its income
from Syrian girls who paid their own board and tuition was about fifteen
hundred dollars in gold. It commenced with six pupils, and now has fifty
boarders. A crowded assembly attended the examination in the year above
mentioned, and at its close, several native gentlemen made addresses in
Arabic. The most remarkable address was made by a Greek Priest, Ghubrin
Jebara, the Archimandrite and agent of the Patriarch. When it is
remembered that in the days of Bird, Goodell and Fisk, the Greek clergy
were among the most bitter enemies of the missionaries, it will be seen
that this address indicates a great change in Syria. Turning to the
great congregation of three or four hundred people who were assembled in
the American Chapel, Greeks, Maronites, Mohammedans, Cath