He had taught them the Moslem prayers and prostrations, and to keep certain moral precepts.  How glad we should be if these boys would come and sit down by us while we talk to them of Jesus!  There they come.  See how their eyes sparkle, as I speak to them.  They have never heard about the gospel before.  But I must speak in a low tone, as the old Sheikh is coming and he looks down upon us as infidel dogs!  Perhaps some of them will think of these words some day, and put their trust in our Divine Saviour.

Many of the people seem to think that the missionary’s house is like the Cave of Adullam, where David lived, (1 Sam. xxii:2) when “every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him.”  It makes it very hard to deal with the people, to have so many of them come to us with improper motives.  They come and say they love the gospel and want instruction, and have endured persecution, when suddenly you find that they want money, or to be protected from punishment, or to get office, or to get married to some improper person, or something else that is wrong.

Once a sheikh from Dunniyeh in Lebanon came to Tripoli, and declared himself a Protestant.  He was very zealous, and wanted us to feel that he was too good a man to be turned away, as he was wealthy and of a high family.  He was armed with a small arsenal of weapons.  He had a servant to carry his gun and pipe, and came day after day to read books, and talk on religion.  He said that all he needed was the protection of the American Consul, and then he would make his whole village Protestants.  We told him we could have nothing to do with politics.  If he wanted to become a Christian, he must take up his cross and follow Christ.  He said that was just what he wanted to do, only he wished to benefit the cause by bringing others to follow Him.  He seemed very earnest, but there was something dark and mysterious in his ways, and we were afraid of him.  Now the Arabs have a proverb, “No tree is cut down but by one of its own limbs,” i.e. the axe handle, and we thought a native only could understand a native, so we took the famous convert around to see Yanni.  He went into Yanni’s office, and Mr. L. and myself sat out in the garden under the orange trees.  After a few minutes Yanni called out, “Come in, be preferred, your excellencies!  I have found it all out.  I understand the case.”  We went in and climbed up upon the platform, next the desk in the office.  The Maronite candidate for the church sat smiling, as if he thought he would now be received at once.  Yanni went on, “I understand the case exactly.  This man is a son of a Sheikh in Dunniyeh.  He is in a deadly quarrel with his father and brothers about the property, and says that if we will give him the protection of the American Consulate, he will go home, kill his father and brothers, seize all the property, and then come down and join the church, and live in Tripoli!”