REV. H. H. JESSUP’S LETTER. PHOTOGRAPH OP MISSIONARY LIFE. Abeih, Mount Lebanon, Stria, 1 July 6th, 1865. J Rev. Jno. W. Mears —Dear Brother: Six months have passed since my re turn to Syria, and I have not written you one word. I promised to write you, and have not kept my promise, and my object in writing now is to tell you the reason. The amount of labor thrown upon a foreign missionary is something which few persons at home can under stand Not only is greater effort neces sary in a warm climate to do the same thing which you would do easily at home, but one is obliged to do a little of every thing, and bear burdens which few ministers of' the Gospel at home would consent to have thrown upon them. I promised myself, on returning to my missionary field, that I would write often to the churches at home, and do all.in my power to awaken and main tain an interest in this part of the Lord’s vineyard. But there is a limit to human Strength and endurance, and, in order to give your readers some idea of the daily life of a missionary in Beirut, and the reason why some missionaries cannot write home as often as they co®ld wish, I will write the journal of a single week’s experience during the past month. Beirut, June 26, 1865. Yesterday preached twice in Arabic to a large con gregation. Dr. Yan Dyck left for America on the 3d inst., and Dr. Thom son is absent in the interior, engaged in certain biblical explorations, preparatory to the publication of his new volume in continuation of the “ Land and the Book.” The weather is intensely hot, and, in order to be prepared for the labors of the coming Sabbath, I will begin in season. The preparation of two Arabic sermons every week for the congregation in Beirut is no light work. Among the hearers are some of the most intelligent men and women in the Pro testant community, the teachers and pupils of three different high schools, and merchants and business men of various grades, besides a larger or smaller number of strangers from dif ferent parts of Syria, who are always present at the public services of the sanctuary. Two sermons for such a congregation demand all one’s energies, and time must be taken for study and reflection through the week. You re solve to begin early in the week, so as not to be hurried in this hot weather. You begin to study—a knock at the door. Several men from a distant vil lage wish to see you, and beg for an Interview at once, as they are about to leave. You go down stairs, invite them in. They are strangers; say they have heard of the Protestant religion, and one of them has read some in a Testa ment—the rest cannot read They wish instruction. Wish to write down their names as Protestants. You explain to them the nature of Protestant Chris tianity ; find them grossly ignorant; no teacher in their village. They heard the preaching yesterday. Ask what to do. You advise them to take Testa ment with them when they go home, read every thing, and when they come to Beirut, or another missionary station, call on the missionaries and attend the public services. You try to lead their thoughts to Christ, and remove their worldly and mercenary spirit. After talking with them some time, they take their departure, and you are return ing to your study, when in comes the mis-, sion agent with a bundle of mail matter. You are postmaster, and the mails must be opened. The Austrian steamer is in with letters from America, Constanti nople, and Egypt; the Turkish mails from Jerusalem, Tyre, Sidon, and from Damascus, Aleppo, and Mardin have, ar rived, and the packages must be opened, letters weighed, accounts charged to different individuals, new packages made up, and messengers sent to various parties in Beirut, and on the mountains. The steamer leaves this evening. Im portant letters must be read and an swered. This one wishes a bill on London from the Imperial Ottoman Bank -to be sent to Malta by the first mail, the second of exchange to follow it by a subsequent mail. Another makes inquiries with regard to the steamers plying between Liverpool and the Syrian coast; the time of sailing and the fares, and whether reductions will be made for families. Another sends a box to be forwarded to the United States. You dispatch all the various items of busi ness, give the orders to the native agent, seal the letters for the mail, and it is one o’clock. In the whirl of business, the two sermons have disappeared from view, and now a quiet hour must be taken for rest and dinner.—At two o’clock the heat is so great that the mental ma chinery declines to run rapidly. Ser mon writing is out of the question. You remember that the Missionary monthly journal in Arabic is not finished, and as next Monday is the monthly meeting of the native Missionary So ciety, and the type must he set, and the proofs read, and the printing done, no time is to be lost. You turn to your files of missionary magazines and reli gious newspapers, and mark articles for translation. In a few quiet hours you can finish it, and select a wood cut, (the American Board having' sent us the blocks of the pictorial illustrations of the “Youth’s Day spring,”) and write a description of it for the Syrian children. This, at least, you will finish before night, and hand it over to the foreman of the press.—Knock at the door. The chaplain of one of the British ships-of war in the harbor calls to settle the account of the funeral expenses of a sailor who has just been buried in the American cemetery. He pays for the lot, takes a receipt, inquires about our mission work, and perhaps would like to look through our printing establishment, and get some information about mission schools, and the progress of the Gospel in Syria. You are only too happy to do a favor for a Christian friend, and find pleasure and profit in his society. As you return to your study, several men are waiting for you. The master mason who has taken the job of erecting, a building for the Native Girls Boarding School, comes to ask advice about the work. You go with him to the spot, for you have the charge of this also. You take measurements, make estimates, look over his accounts, see to it that he is using the right materials, and not slighting his work, and then he returns with you to receive funds for purchasing lumber and other materials while prices are low. The clock strikes six. You have taken no exercise to-day, and must mount your horse and ride a half hour, and call on your return on a family be longing to the Protestant congregation. They are in trouble; one of the sons is behaving badly. He will hot work, and is spending money, and frequenting coffee-houses, and getting into bad com pany. What shall we' do ? and will you not speak to him and advise him, and try to save him? You return home to tea. A stranger is waiting to see you. You ask him to wait, and take your tea in quiet. That missionary monthly is not finished. Those two sermons must be attended to to-morrow.- —The stranger proves to be a mountaineer from Beit Miri. He wishes me to buy his house and lot in the mountain. I tell him I never buy property ; that I do not own a square foot of land, and never intend to. He looks incredulous, and says it is well Watered, just below the fountain, and very cheap. I still refuse to enter into the subject, but he holds oh. It seems that some one had sent him to, me as a Frank that was anxious to buy pro perty in the. mountains, and he thought my protests and denials were only the Oriental way of driving a close bargain. I asked him if his children attended school. He denied that he had any children, fearing lest I would not bu y there were heirs to contest the title to the land. After nearly an hour’s talk he finally goes away, having heard more Gospel truth, and sold less land than he expected, and yet, not unlikely, believing that he will soon have an offer from the Beirut Franjee for his land. This even ing, which I had set apart for pastoral visiting, is now so far gone, and I am so wearied out, that I reluctantly decide to remain at home. It is nearly nine o’clock —when one of the native Protestants calls to tell me of a Mohammedan Sheikh of the city who has-become a Christian and is in prison. The evi dence is strong, but not sufficient to en able us to carry the case up to the Con suls, and we agree to investigate the sub ject thoroughly, and do all in our power to obtain his release, if it be found true. June 27, Tuesday. The missionary journal is finished this morning, and sent to the printer. A telegram is received from Sidon,making inquiries about steam ers. A missionary brother, for seven teen years laboring in Syria, without seeing his native land, has now broken down in health, and is obliged to return to the United States with his family. He (Rev. Mr. Ford,, of Sidon) had in tended to take ah English steamer via Alexandria to Liverpool, but on account of the ravages of the cholera in Alexan dria, it is not considered safe, and he is to come on to Beirut and sail via Smyrna to Liverpool. You go down town, call at the steamer offices, write an Arabic telegram to Sidon, advising them to come on at once so as to take the French or Russian steamer to Smyrna. To-day there is an opportunity to send to Alexandria, the port of Aleppo, and several boxes of books are to go. Bills of lading are to be prepared, lists of the books placed in each box, a letter to be written to the American Consul for an order on the Custom House to have the books passed free of duty, (in accordance with a firman of. the Sultan which granted this privilege to all religious sects,) and then the whole to be sent down by porter to the wharf. An account is kept of all the books, and you send it to Aleppo for payment. With these boxes you send several boxes of Bibles and re ligious books to Tripoli for. that city and Tunis. After two hours a man comes with a note, saying that the government censor has seized a number of the books, and will not allow them to pass- They are copies of a controversial work written by Dr. Meshaka, of Damascus, in de fence of Evangelical Christianity, and in reply to the Papists. How, as this book has been in circulation for more than ten years without objection, and thou sands of copies have passed through this same Custom House, you think it very strange, and call on the Consul to ask his interference. It seems that the pre sent censor of the press is a bigoted Papist, and grossly misrepresented the character of the book to the Turkish Bey who controls the Custom House! The books seized were carried to-the Mejlis, or Council, and there subjected to a rigid examination. The Moslem Mufti read on in the copy given to him with increasing delight, and when he found strong Scriptural arguments THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN, THURSDAY, AUGUST IT, 1865. against image and picture worship, ex claimed, “ This is a good book. Tell ■the Gdspel men I wish a copy myself.” Shortly after, the seized copies were all sent back to the book shop, and the officious censor was censured. On your return home you find the book-binder, with two hundred copies of the newly-bound Arabic Bible, waiting to be paid. He has twenty-six hundred copies to bind, and you pay him a little in advance, to enable him to meet heavy bills for pasteboard and leather. You urge him to make all possible dispatch, as the orders for the new Bible are mul tiplying, and the mission in Egypt alone have ordered one thousand, copies.— Soon after a Protestant woman calls to ask admission to the church at the next communion, and you spend half an hour in conversation with her.—A workman from the press comes run ning in pale with fright, saying that the cholera has broken out in Beirut, and wants to know what to do. Yon ask him his authority. He says, “ they say” a man just now died of it near the- Buij. You tell him not to credit street rumors and return to his work.—Several steamers have come from Alexandria, loaded down with refu gees from the cholera. They are all placed in quarantine, and those who have just been released from quarantine are telling about the streets what they haVe seen in Egypt, and the whole pop ulation of Beirut is beginning to tremble with alarm.—You find it necessary to go in person to Dr. Barclay, the Ameri can physician, and obtain from him the express statement that there is not and has not been a case of- cholera in Beirut. Just as you are beginning to get settled about your work again, Mr. Bis tany, Principal of the large Native Boarding School for boys, calls to see you about the printing of his great Ara-‘ bic dictionary, which we are now 1 print ing as job-work. There is some misun derstanding about the terms, apd as a change was made by Dr. Van Dy ck j ust be fore leaving, and the whole business of printing and publishing is something you never learned and find it difficult to understand without giving your whole time to it, you are not able to give Mr. Bistany much satisfaction, but enter in to the question a 3 well as you can, and pro mise to write to Dr. Yan Dyck for fur ther instructions. You begin to wonder what’will become of your sermons next Sabbath and the Sabbath after that and after that, if this rush ot business turmoil and care and entanglement is to con tinue. As Mr. Bistany goes away, you ask yourself how such and such a min ister at home would like to have the quiet hours of sermon preparation dis tracted by bills, and accounts, and build ing, and printing, and post-office business, almost every day of the week ?—Then comes a lull. There remains an hour be fore dinner. You lock the door and give orders that no one be allowed to come up the stairs. It is well you are able to keep Custom House and Bible binding and cholera and dictionary-print ing out of your thoughts, and settle down to deliberate thought about your sermon. You know that “ beaten oil” alone is fit for the sanctuary of God, but you feel very much as though everything else would be beaten but the oil this week.—But you have chosed your sub ject, and commenced your skeleton and that is one-half, and to-morrow and next day, the morning sermon at least will be thought out and finished. Bo you hope. In the afternoon you callat the house of a friend urho has just buried his dear est earthly friend, and you try to speak some words 'of consolation. Various matters of business, too, call you down into the city, and on your return you find Mr. Araman, Principal of the Na tive Female Seminary, waiting to-make up the monthly account. You enter into a long conversation with regard to the school and its future prospects; about Louisa Mejdelany, who is supported by the North Broad Street Sabbath school, and several other girls supported by friends in America, and six charity pupils who receive no support from home, and who must be discharged in a few weeks for want of the means to keep them on. Mr. Araman entreats for them. Says that some of them are bright and promising, and are just getting a good start, and it would be wrong to send them aWay now; that their parents are poor and some of them are*orpbans ; and again begs me to write to Christian friends in America to contribute the eighty dollars in gold which is now ne cessary for their support. I ask him to write such an appeal' and I will try to find time to translate it and send it to America. We then speak of the new building; the plan is discussed. We are to build according to the funds con tributed by kind friends while I was in America. Seven thousand dollars are paid in, but that- will not suffice for the accommodation of the school, and we must use what we have, trusting that the Lord will yet incline some of the be nevolent at home-to complete the fund to the sum of ten thousand dollars. The examination last week was one. of the best ever held in Beirut, and the girls did themselves and their friends great credit.—ln the evening you call upon several families of the congregation, after writing a number of pressing business letters, and resolve that you will be more moderate and careful of health and strength another day. Wednesday, June 28 This morning early you are reminded that the tiles for the roof of the new building must be or dered from Italy, in order to be here in the fall when they are needed. You call at the store of a friend in town and give him the measure of the roof and order seven thousand tiles.—You call also at the office of the Liverpool steamers, to enquire after some missing boxes.—On reaching home you find several packages of letters from various places, some re quiring immediate answer.' A quarrel has taken place among some of the work men in the press, and you must stop in and settle it.—A telegram comes from Sidon that Mr. Ford and family have just set sail from Sidon in a native sloop, and will be here soon after noon. You order animals to be saddled and sent down to the -shore, and at two o’clock you see the boat swing around Ras Bei rut before the wind, and hasten to the Custom House to greet them. Four hours in that little craft have been enough to make pale faces still paler, and the whole party look like fit subjects for the hospital. An hour more and they are safely under your roof, and you praise the Lord for'his goodness. Your heart fills with gratitude that they were pre served from going to pestilential Alex andria at this season. In two days they will take the steamer North, and go to Liverpool via Smyrna.—Little sick Sarah is laid on the divan, and her eyes sparkle with delight as she drinks a full draught of water cooled with Lebanon snow. May she speedily find in the sea air invigoration and health. Crowds of the native Protestants come in to see Mr. Ford, their former pastor and mis sionary, and to wish him God speed, on his journey. Towards evening an Irish Protestant gentleman called to see the press and to inquire about our mission work. He seemed deeply interested, and asked very intelligent questions. Just as he was leaving, however, he asked the Ameri can news. Said he, “Do you think they will do any violence to Mr. Davis ?” I replied that , if the Government con victed him of treason, they would hang him. He said it could not be treason for a man to defend his rights. Said he, " Mr. Davis only wished to be let alone.” -I told him that if the Arabs should shoot him on the highway, they would only wish to be let alone; but that it was no use to discuss the Ameri can Constitution with a man who be lieved in secession, and begged him to change the subject. Thursday, June 2d.—The sermon did not grow much to-day. It has been pay-day for' all the press and mission employees, and five hours were spent in steady work on accounts with the press, the mission, the Bible Societies,in New York and London, the school, and with different individuals in this and other missions. An unprecedented panic has fallen upon the city. There is not a case ofj, cholera nor the sign of it; but certain parties, by a system of intensifiediprien tal lying, have so frightened the people that-they are fleeing in hot bhste to the mountains. A continuous’procession of people, men, women, and children, is passing out of the city toward Lebanon, mounted on horses, mules, camels, and donkies, an.d the most fabulous prices are extorted by the. muleteers who take advantage of the public alarm. The physicians say there is less sickness than usual in Beirut, and no case of cholera thus far, although