The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-26
Mrs. Layah Barakat's Story of How
She Became a Christian Worker.
Rev. o. C.. McCulloch Attributes the Suffering
of Working People to the Competition
Which Produces Cheap Things.
A DAUGHTER OF LEBANON.
The Address by Mrs. Layah Barakat, the
Native Maronite, Last Evening.

tOSCbhSk al ahNACaSO thoD " MY IlACQ cNSIy
pew, but created a demand for an additional
number of seats, which, when furnished, were
readily taken. Rev. J.. A. Rondthaler read the
sixtieth chapter of Isaiah, and prayer was Of
fered by DR.. Mcleod. The meeting, as sugges t.
ed by DIR. Mcleod, might properly be called a
missionary mass meeting, and had been brought
about by the ladies of the four Presbyterian
churches named. in order that they might hear
a woman whose name, during the last two years,
has been heard in hundreds of churches, and
whose name has become known in thousands of
Christian homes-a native of Syria, a convert
born under the shadow of Lebanon.
With this introduction Mrs. Layah Barakat
came upon the platform. She said she had not
come to bring before the audience the manners
and customs of her country, but with a message
that must lay a great responsibility upon her
hearers as Christians. Her broken English and
inaccuracies in expression, gave her discourse a
flavor it would not otherwise have had, and the
audience listened with the closest attention,
hanging upon her every word. She said she was
a Maronite girl, born in the mountains of Leb-
anon, about sixteen miles from Beirut. Lebanon,
in Arabic, means milk, as the summit is covered
with snow summer and winter. She told of the
different religions in the part of Syria she came
from, and the prosecutions of the Mohamme-
dams. She said: 1.-THE first missionaries that
ever came into Syria were sent by the American
board, and came to Beirut. They went to
live among the Arabs. What is he 1.-THE mis-
sionary) coming here to do2 the people
would ask. They did not receive them and they
went, after a time, TO Athens. Some years later
more missionaries we're sent. They opened
schools and began to gather the children into
them. People began to talk about it. Before
the missionaries came, you could travel hun
dreds of miles and not find even an old Arab
sheik who could read. The poor people never
had a Bible until the American missionaries
came there. The people, who are very ignorant,
wanted to know what the missionaries meant by
coming so far, and some said that Americans
had not enough children and the missionaries
would make a writing and hold it over a child's
head. then burn it and the child would fly away
to America. Then it took some courage to be a
missionary-not so much now. You have
1860. We had a massacre. The
Druses and Mohammedons Joined against
the Maronites. / was a little girl, but three or
four years old. My father was badly wounded,
and in a short time died. We escaped to Beirut
my mother and six children II was the young
est) and were protected by the United States
government. The Missionaries gathered the
refugees and began to take care of them. The
New Testament was then only two weeks out of
press in the Arabic language. My people began
~ ANotAHO Sh0" SAO ALA ASob0 hu0 SOihO y " w
them good, but could not understand why they
should bring them a new religion. The mis-
sionaries started two schools in my village-one
for boys, and one for girls. My mother, to get
rid OF ME, sent me to the day school,, but told me
to be careful not to learn anything of the re-
ligion. l was taught to sew, and Mrs. Bid,
the wife of the missionary, said if | would
come to her home she would give me q veil. I
was afraid to go for fear she would write a pa
per, and l could be made to fly to America. But
| thought about the veil and went. When l got
to her door my shoes were worn and muddy,
and | left them outside. She asked me if l came
to the Sunday-school, and when / told her ''no"
she said if | would come she would get me new
shoes. said I would go once for the shoes. So
/ went, and there / was told a beautiful Bible
story. My mother did not want to let me go
any more, but l told her l would do whatever
she wanted me to if she would let me go and hear
them finish the story. She told me to go and
remember what they taught me. and tell her all
about it,"
She then described her home as a Maronite
girl, the widow and her six children all living
in one miserable little room, which was parlor,
dining-room, kitchen and sleeping-room. After
awhile her aunt and uncle, who lived in Beirut,
heard of her attending the Christian Sunday
school, and took her to Beirut, where they put
or thirteen years old, they determined she
should have a husband, to save her from becom-
ing a Christian, but she escaped and went to the
missionaries. From there she was taken home.
The family determined the new religion must be
given up, and her oldest brother would beat and
punish her. When she attempted to 60 to
church, he would beat her home.
IF you should come to the mountains of Leb-
anon you would see girls with jars upon their
shoulders going to the fountains to get water.
You would have seen me in those years gone by
with a jar upon my shoulder, standing barefoot
beside the church which l dared not enter, listen
ing. Thank the Lord, it is different there to-
day. DR.. Jessup came one summer to our place.
r ADl1 h,-n r a4,11 -DA h. n I.,..@- 81 H. 4
home. After a while. he said. Come to Beirut;
l have good newsfor you; the children of Walnut
street church in Philadelphia, will support you.
Will you go into school and studyl' l wondered
how those little children ever heard of me. a poor
Maronite girl. ] went into the school.
l read the Bible without anybody beating me.
1 went to church without anybody bringing me
back, but not until l was fourteen years old did
l feel that l was converted and that l would do
all / gould for my sisters. My education was not
in English, but in my native tongue. My English
is just from my picking it up. My brother is
converted too. He who once troubled me so
much is up in the mountains of Lebanon, a good
Christian worker. For five years 1 was teaching
in the mission school in Syria. Then l went to
Egypt, where they were asking for teachers. /
had to go 400 miles up the Nile to Assiout,
There are about 40, 900 inhabitants there, three
fourths of whom are Mohamedans, and one
fourth Copts.
"You cannot know the deplorable condition of
women in Egypt. Little girls must be wives
when only eight. nine or ten years old, and be
imprisoned when widows. Nothing but Chris
tianity can elevate woman. 1t is a shame for a
woman not to work for foreign missions, with
their sisters dying in cruel bondage and super
%stition." She then described the life of women
in Egypt as she had seen it. and also the life of
the slave brought from Kordofan, Darfur and
other distant points.
II was four years in Egypt. / never saw a
woman eating with her husband. 1t is her duty
to prepare his meals, and not to eat until after
he has inished-not then if there are other male
members of the household, for the sons eat be-
fore the mother and sisters dare to do so. No
body ever hears a husband speak of his wife. y
" My husband is a native of Damascus. He,
with his brother, has been for fourteen years en-
gagged i'll missionary work in Egypt, and for five
months was with General Gordon. Ny husbands
sister was for many years a Bible woman in Al
un.Sa; khn EreA rornn, 4hano a. 4oaoL LN~rD