At Beyrout

During the Lebanese civil war the church visited by Rev.
Talmage was destroyed. Only the bell tower remained, it's
congregation scattered and torn. In 1998, it was recon-
structed and services have resumed.

       Christmas we spent in Beyrout, and I preached in the Scotch Presbyterian chapel of that city, The majority of the audience were Syrians, but they all understood English, and a more attentive people I never addressed. The music was superb, solos, anthems and congregational singing. I will never forget the kindness of Dr. Bliss, the president of the college and the illustrious educator; nor Dr. Jessup, the renowned missionary, and moderator in 1883 of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, and a mighty agent for the transference of the best of Christian literature into Arabic; nor Dr. Post, the surgeon, the botanist, the Christian philosopher and prince of Christian workers. We dined at the hospitable home of Dr. Jessup and became acquainted with his lovely and accomplished family. It was an American Christmas dinner. At four o'clock we went on the steamer Minerva bound for Constantinople.

       The next morning we found ourselves off the island of Cyprus. We took a boat and went ashore for three hours, visited the excavations from which Cesnola took his famous collection of antiquities, and walked the strange streets in which Paul and Barnabas went up and down when here preaching Christ to the people. At midnight we stopped at the island of Rhodes, staying on deck to catch a glimpse of it. The Colossus was not standing there to greet us, for it long ago fell and was broken up and sold, and nine hundred camels carried it away. We were not permitted to go ashore, but saw lights and nine boats came out to take freight and to bring three passengers. The next day we sailed by Coos. We noticed the wonderful consecutiveness in the statement in Acts xxi. The order of scenery is accurately observed. We are going in the opposite direction to that which Paul traveled. So it is with us Syria, Cyprus, Rhodes, Coos, Ephesus; while with him it was Ephesus, Coos, Rhodes, Cyprus, Syria. The record says that he left Cyprus on the left hand. We, coming in the opposite direction, left it on the right hand.

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