A History of Protestant missions in the near East

260 History of Protestant Missions in the Near East
firman.
The Protestant congregation in Bethlehem now numbers
one hundred and fifty baptized members. In 1879 a
second Protestant Arab congregation was formed in the large
and almost entirely Christian village of Beit Jala, close to
Bethlehem, which has also, in the]main, had a pleasing growth,
and now numbers one hundred and forty baptized members.
In 1884 the Union endeavoured to extend its work to the
fanatical town of Hebron, where there is a small, but influential
congregation of Greek Christians. Here the Union met
with fierce opposition, and has only a very limited work, carried
on by a native catechist. When, in 1895 and 1896, the
Armenians were suffering the fearful massacres, the Union was
ready to reach a helping hand, and established in 1898, near
Bethlehem, an " Armenian Orphanage," into which they received
fifty of the unfortunate children. The house was
solidly built, since it was to be'permanently used as a trainingschool,
in which boys belonging to Oriental and Protestant
Churches might receive a free education of a simple but
thorough character. Inasmuch as the Turkish government
subsequently prohibited the introduction of Armenian children
into Palestine, it is chiefly children of natives of Palestine and
Syria who are received into this institution. In 1899 twentyfour
families living in Beit Sahur, near the so-called " Shepherds'
field," left the Greek for the Protestant Church, and
were taken under the spiritual care of the Jerusalem Union.
Here a building for a boys' and a girls' school, with quarters for
the teachers, is
being erected. As so often happens in the
Near East, the converts, feeling themselves disappointed in
their unreasonable expectations, first quarrelled, and then for
the most part fell away.
Encouraged thereto by Bishop Scheele, Swedish friends of
the Holy Land sent a doctor to Bethlehem in 1904, who soon
had many applications from sick people of all confessions, so
that there is prospect of a hospital's being built.
Thus, amid many difficulties and disappointments, the work
of the Jerusalem Union in and around Bethlehem has grown.
At present there are about three hundred and forty Arab