Part 11 (1/2)

On the 15th of 4th mo. came the dreadful news that the good man who had stood so n.o.bly at the head of the nation in this dreadful crisis had gone from works to reward, slain by the hand of the a.s.sa.s.sin. The great joy was turned into deepest mourning that he who was so endeared to all loyal hearts could not be with them to enjoy the restful time of peace. They held a meeting in the rooms of the Agricultural Department, and were comforted in their great grief by the presence of Him who said to the troubled waves, ”Peace, be still.” A visit was made to Stone Hospital, and it was found that the suffering ones there had had little religious instruction, but seemed grateful for Christian counsel. One poor fellow, who was dying and felt his lost condition, was entreated to look to the ”Lamb of G.o.d.”

A young lady came one day to Isaac Newton's and asked if a Quaker lady who preached was there. She said that some one had been thinking how appropriate it would be to have a Friends' meeting, for the awful stroke inclined them to be silent. Isaac Newton offered his parlors, and Sybil Jones consented. She says in her diary: ”We met at seven o'clock, and it was one of the most blessed seasons I have enjoyed in this city. The silence seemed to have healing in its wings and balm to the stricken spirit.” Much service was done in Emory Hospital; the poor fellows on their beds were visited one by one, and each was lovingly spoken to. They held meetings at Emory Hospital for the convalescent soldiers, and by all they were most gladly received.

Harwood and Finley Hospitals were fields of labor, and in each the gospel message was thankfully received. At first the surgeon in charge said that he never allowed service in the wards where the men were badly wounded or pa.s.sing away. Sybil Jones said to him, ”Doctor, wouldst thou take the responsibility of keeping the gospel from dying men, the suffering soldiers of our country, far from their homes and mothers?”--”No,” said he, ”but I do not want them disturbed.”--She said, ”Our services never disturb; we are a quiet people.” She then told him that she had a pa.s.s to all hospitals in the United States, but would not insist upon entering without his full permission. He then gave it most freely. The service was gladly received, and it seemed like drops of rain on a dry and thirsty land.

Sybil Jones felt that she must bear a message of her heavenly Father's love and sympathy to the widow of the lamented President. She had been ill, confined to her bed in the White House, since the fatal stroke.

Sybil Jones says of the visit: ”All crushed and broken under the heavy stroke, I spoke to her of the heavenly Chastener's love and care, and said that He could bind up the broken heart and give peace. She cordially invited us to come again. Her two sons, one about ten and the other about twenty, were at home, and very affectionate and attentive to their suffering mother, though themselves evidently feeling very deeply the sad event.”

Sybil Jones felt that she was given a message for Secretary Stanton.

She in company with others went to his house in the evening, and, pa.s.sing a guard of soldiers, was most kindly received by his interesting wife, the Secretary being absent. They spent an hour in pleasant conversation, and then the Secretary came and greeted them kindly. Very soon silence reigned, and Sybil Jones, after asking permission, rose and addressed the Secretary, telling him that as he had been raised up by the Almighty for the important duties of his office, he must dispense justice and judgment in the fear of G.o.d, plead the cause of the oppressed, and humbly in all things do the will of the great King, and the eternal G.o.d should be his refuge. She told him that, though his life had been sought, the angel of the Lord had guarded him, and if his trust was in Him no harm should befall him.

After her remarks the Secretary rose and thanked her most profoundly, and told her that her gospel message was most grateful, and said that he needed the prayers of the people and that his trust was in G.o.d.

Sybil Jones went again by invitation to call on the President's widow.

She was still in bed, much prostrated. The rooms were all lighted as in the days when their master paced through them with the weight of his mission pressing upon him. One lone sentinel guarded the mansion--a strange contrast to the past, when a strong guard was deemed necessary. The desolate lady gave them a sweet welcome, and told them some cheering incidents of her husband's last days. She said that several times during the last day he lived he said, ”This is the happiest day of my life.” He seemed to feel that the great work was done, and he rejoiced that the cloud which hung over his beloved America had lifted. Sybil Jones then spoke to her cheeringly of the sympathy of Jesus with the sorrowing sisters of Bethany--that in her boys she had a charge to keep for the King. After a season of feeling prayer they parted tenderly.

Stone Hospital, a beautiful home for the weary, suffering soldiers, was visited, and a wonderfully convicting season it proved. Sybil Jones was greatly saddened on a visit to the jail by its filthy appearance. Old and young were crowded in together, and the young in crime were by a.s.sociation with the vicious and degraded hastened in their downward course.

Feeling that she was called to labor in Alexandria, Sybil Jones went across the river to that place, and found a kind welcome at the temporary home of James P. Barlow, he, with his family, having fled from his own home on account of rebel persecution and confiscation.

She had a meeting with the convalescents in the colored hospital, and had most interesting services in Slough Barracks. She also had a large meeting at the Soldiers' Rest, where she addressed thousands of soldiers, all orderly and attentive, while a tear might often be seen tracing down the bronzed cheeks. Wonderful changes were apparent in this place since the abolition of slavery. Slave-pens were appropriated to useful purposes. One was used as a court of justice, where traitors took the oath of allegiance to their country and to the government.

Sybil Jones then returned to Was.h.i.+ngton, and did what she could in the hospitals there, and then, feeling again the call to Alexandria, she returned to that place, and after more service owned and blessed by the Master she left this great field of labor and went once more to her children in Philadelphia, and thence to her own home.

On the 16th of 4th mo., in 1866, she again left her home, accompanied as far as Providence by her son Grelet, and bearing a certificate from her friends granting freedom for such service as she was called to perform. She attended meetings at Salem, Lynn, and Burlington, visiting prisons, hospitals, and reformatory inst.i.tutions. She went to Richmond, Va., and attended the small meeting of Friends there, and with them praised the Lord for bringing them through the b.l.o.o.d.y rebellion and allowing them once more to a.s.semble under the banner of peace. She attended many meetings here; had a meeting in a penitentiary, where the poor inmates had not heard the gospel sound for five years, since before the dreadful struggle. Many Bibles were distributed and families visited.

In a town near Richmond it was thought very doubtful if she could obtain a meeting, as the feeling against the North was so strong. When the Methodist minister was applied to, a young man present exclaimed, ”That Quaker lady must have a meeting; she is the mother of my college cla.s.smate, Major Jones. She must have a meeting, and we will do our best to get the people out.” The meeting was a large one and blessed, and the people expressed their thanks at the close.

After much loving service in the prisons and elsewhere, Sybil Jones went once more to Was.h.i.+ngton, holding meetings and doing all she could to ”lift the skirts of darkness.” She felt that she had another message to bear to the White House, where now, at the head of affairs of state, was the late President's successor, Andrew Johnson. She had a most touching interview with the President's daughter, the wife of Senator Patterson. They mingled their prayers and tears, and then Sybil Jones was presented to the President. He was surrounded by supplicants, mothers, advocates of right, and artful politicians.

While waiting for audience the President's little granddaughter offered to her a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and, drawing her close, Sybil Jones spoke to her of the infinitely more beautiful flowers of heaven. The President courteously gave her permission to speak. She told him her message, and told him that it was in the name of the ”King of kings.” He thanked her seriously, and many were in tears. It was a most impressive scene.

After this, Sybil Jones returned to Maine, but she was not permitted long to enjoy the sweet a.s.sociations in the home so dear to her. The impression seemed to gather force daily that she must once more cross the ocean. These words came to her often with great emphasis: ”Get thee out of thy own country and from among thy own kindred to a land which I shall show thee.” Once more she cast her burden upon the meeting, and found, as ever, the sweet sympathy and unity with her call to go forth that were ever accorded her. She was liberated for the service that she felt was hers to perform, and her ”peace flowed like a river.”

Before engaging in the work in Europe, Sybil Jones obtained a certificate from the monthly meeting to visit the prisons and penitentiaries in some of the Southern States. She visited most inst.i.tutions of that character in many of the large Southern cities, bearing the news of life and salvation to the poor erring ones. Many tracts and Bibles were distributed and much work was done in the vineyard of the Lord. Once more she bore a message to President Johnson. She went to the White House on a reception day for the President's daughter, and pa.s.sed in with the throng. On every side were seen the glory and parade of this world that will pa.s.s away, but, obtaining audience with the President and his daughter, she spoke to them of the pleasures that are eternal. The Lord helped her to declare the truth, and she went away trusting that it would not be ”in vain in the Lord.” Her whole soul was rejoiced to see the great change that had swept over the South since the shackles of slavery had been removed. Those who had been slaves now stood up men. She felt that there is indeed ”a G.o.d who judgeth in the earth, and He only worketh wonders.”

CHAPTER XII.

_MISSION-WORK._

”'Tis time New hopes should animate the world, new light Should dawn from new revealings to a race Weighed down so long.”

BROWNING.

There was comparatively little known among Friends about the land of the Bible from personal observation before 1870, and some of the best works on the history, the geography, the manners, and customs of Palestine have been written since that date. The visits of Eli and Sybil Jones to Syria, and the letters which they and their companions, Alfred Lloyd Fox and Ellen Clare Peason (born Miller), wrote from there have done much to bring that country to the careful notice of Friends; and the interest felt in the missions at Brumanna and Ramallah has induced many to study their situations and to become better acquainted with that whole region, incontestably the most important on the globe if we a.s.sociate with the soil what has transpired there for the benefit of the race. We call it the ”Holy Land,” and the religious enthusiasts of the Middle Ages felt that it was a profanation for infidels to hold the sepulchre of the Lord and the cities where He taught; so that thousands rose from all Christian lands to win back the captured territory, and blindly gave their lives for what they thought a sacred cause. In those days the Crusades opened the eyes of Europe and showed to the people the civilization and wonders of this Eastern land, and they brought back accounts from the cradle of early civilization which changed the thoughts and ideas of the age. American missionaries began to work in Syria in 1823, not to win the soil from the hands of infidels, but to gain the souls of those living in blindness, ignorance, and sin; and their endeavors have been greatly blessed, although these strongholds yield slowly to the most vigorous a.s.saults.

Until the fourth century after Christ feasts were held annually in Syria to commemorate the death of Adonis--or Tammuz, as he was called in Syria--and his birth was celebrated again in the spring. These rites came from the story of Adonis being killed at the sources of the river which bears his name. This stream, which comes down with a swollen current in autumn, carries away much red iron ore; this gives the water a reddish color, which was said to be caused by the blood of Adonis, while in the spring Adonis was supposed to rise from the dead in all his beauty, at which time all gave themselves up to unrestrained joy. It was this mourning for Adonis of which Ezekiel speaks: ”He brought me to the door of the Lord's house, and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz” (or Adonis). All the heathen temples were destroyed and the wors.h.i.+p stopped by Constantine the Great. At present there are in Syria about one million Mohammedans, two hundred and fifty thousand Maronites, two hundred and thirty-five thousand members of the Greek Church, eighty thousand Roman Catholics, eighty thousand Druses, thirty thousand Jews, but only five thousand Protestants; besides many other kinds of religions.

The Maronites are thought by some to have taken their name from Maroon, an abbot who lived near the Orontes in the sixth century. He was considered as a saint by these people, though by the pope he was deemed a heretic. In the time of the Crusades the Maronites joined the Christian army from the West, and so came in contact with the Roman Church. They are divided into four orders--Jesuits, Franciscans, Lazarists, and Capuchins--over whom one patriarch is the governor. The order of the Jesuits, with the influence of the patriarch, has from the first opposed the work of all missionaries, and a heap of stones near the convent of Kan.o.bin marks the spot where a missionary was martyred in 1830 by the will of the Maronite patriarch.

The Druses are perhaps the most remarkable people of Syria, and they are, too, the most mysterious. It was formerly thought that they were the descendants of a band of the crusaders who were left behind and finally forgot their land and religion, taking their name from the count of Dreux. There is a more plausible theory which identifies them with some of the tribes introduced into the Palestine by Esarhaddon, the great a.s.syrian, in the seventh century, B. C. Their name seems to have come from Ismael Darazi, and dates no farther back than the eleventh century A. D.