A History of Protestant missions in the near East

204 History of Protestant Missions in the Near East
to a modest extent, and without charges, mostly by means of
dispensaries, in Beirut, Damascus, Baalbek and Tyre.
English " Friends," who, though few in numbers, are spiritually
strong and zealous in mission work (Leslie " The
:
Story of the Friends' Work in Syria "), also took up work in
more or less as
Syria, individual men and women acting
volunteers, at their own charges. As might be expected
from the loose organization of the Friends, their mission
work abroad was slow to take on the centralized organization
of a mission directed by a committee of management at
home. The first introduction of a general plan took place
after the visitation conducted by "Watson Grace, a young
mission secretary, who died soon afterwards, in 1901. The
Friends chose the airy, high-lying village of Brummana, to the
southeast of Beirut, on the slopes of the Lebanon, for their
headquarters. Here they opened advanced boarding-schools
for boys and girls, these being gradually followed by fifteen
village schools, so that now the mission has about 1,300
pupils altogether. Later on medical mission work was begun,
and a hospital established in Brummana, which has been several
times enlarged. It was superintended by two well-qualified
Syrian doctors, who had, however, English nurses under
them. Four Bible-women carry the Gospel to the mountain
villages of the Maronites and Druses. The Friends have
formed among the Syrians a community after their own
pattern, but there are only eighty-two adult members. Since
1890 some out-stations round Brummana have been supplied
with missionaries,
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