And now began the second part of Amy's life — or rather, now her life really began — her life as a child of God. We had very pleasant days together after this. Amy would come over early in the morning, and by seven o'clock we were out in the garden under the great mulberry tree with our Bibles. We both agreed to learn Hebrew, that we might read the Psalms and Proverbs more carefully. In the meantime we read the Gospels and the Epistles. Amy said all seemed new to her. The third chapter of John was a great delight to her, especially the verse about the serpent in the wilderness. She told me she had been talking to her brother Richard about this verse. She hoped that he would see that it is nothing that we can do or feel that saves us — only Christ. We are saved because of Christ's great work on the cross. And this work was not done because we loved him, but because we hated him, and he loved us. This great work was done and finished so that now we only have to look up to him and thank him for it, believing that eternal life is given to us as soon as we look to Christ. We are not only given forgiveness, full, free, perfect forgiveness, but we are given the glorious life that is in Christ in heaven, the life that can never end.
You may be quite sure that Amy's whole life was changed after this. She cared now more than ever for the poor and miserable. But it was not only for their bodies that she now cared: she told them of Jesus — Jesus, the Saviour not only from drunkenness, but from all sin and from all misery.
'What a glorious life it is that God gives us!' she said to me. 'We know we are safe for ever, we know that we are going to be with him in heaven, and now, down here, we can please him and do his work.'
She showed me three verses in the Psalms, which gave her great pleasure. First in Psalm 119 verse 3 she read, 'They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.' Then, in the same Psalm at verse 32, 'I will run in the way of your commandments, when you shall enlarge my heart.' Then, in Psalm150 verse 4, 'Praise him with the timbre and dance.'
'Isn't that beautiful?' she said. 'First we learn to walk in God's ways; then, as we get on, he teaches us to run; and at last, when we get to the end, and there is no further to go, we dance. It is all joy then.'
But these pleasant readings with Amy soon came to an end. Her mother died, and Amy went quite far away to live with some relations. She did not remain there for long, for when they found Amy had no pleasure in their balls and parties, and even refused to go to them, they were glad she should find a home somewhere else. Amy went from one relation to another. Few understood all that God had done for her, and many were displeased with her, or amused at her odd ways, as they thought them.
Thus time went on, and one day I heard that Amy was going to be married to a missionary, and was going to India. I saw her no more for a long while, and heard very little about her. She was not long in India, but afterwards she lived in a part of England far away from her old home. As the years passed by she was very busy with three little girls to teach and take care of. And as she was not rich, she made their clothes, and worked very hard, in addition to all that she had to do out of the house.
She was not very strong, and had for some time to leave England to live in a warmer country. So for a year or more she had a home in the quiet old town of Pisa. While there her little girls liked to see the leaning tower, and to wander about in the beautiful old white marble cloisters, called the Campo Santo. The green space inside these cloisters is said to be made of earth brought in ships from Jerusalem, many hundred years ago. The people who lived there, knew less than you know about the Lord Jesus and his work. But some loved him in a simple way. They liked to think that the green grass, and the wild daffodils, that were so pleasant to look at, grew out of the earth that his feet had walked upon. But it is better to know him as we may know him now, where he is, in heaven.
Amy did not go on long living at Pisa. For a short time she came back to England. But she began to cough, and grew very thin and weak, so the doctors said she must go and live always near the Mediterranean. Several places were thought of. At last it was settled that all the family should go to Syria and find a home there. They went first to Beirut, and whilst they were looking for a house, they lodged with a Mrs. Mott, who lived in a house of her own at Beirut, and had under her care a great number of schools for Syrian children.
These schools were scattered about over the mountains of Lebanon, and on the great plain below. Mohammedan girls, Druse girls, Jewish girls, and the daughters of the Christians of the Greek Church all came to these schools. They were all taught the Bible, as well as other things which are useful for girls to know. I have had many letters from some of these girls, and have been glad to hear of some of them becoming true servants of God, and teaching the gospel in their turn to other children.
Amy was very glad to help in this work, and it was agreed that several schools should be put under her care. She undertook to visit them from time to time, and looked after both teachers and children. Of course it was necessary to learn Arabic, though most of the children were taught French and English as well. Amy could learn languages very quickly. Less than three months after they arrived at Beirut, I had a letter from her. She said 'We are living a sort of gipsy life in a very odd house. I have only an Arab servant, so I am obliged to talk as much Arabic as I can. My husband went to the mountains today for a few days, and as my servant goes home in the evening, I and the children are all alone.' The children were then ten and seven and five years old. Her husband had gone to the mountains to look for a house, and discovered one in a little village called Sook, on the top of the Lebanon. It had formerly been inhabited by American missionaries and was now in rather a ruinous state, neglected and untidy. So much so that if they wanted to hang up anything, the nails would not stick in the walls, they were so damp and mouldy. 'The road up to it,' a friend wrote, 'is most extraordinary; the path is very narrow, with steep steps all the way.'
But Amy was quite contented, and the fine mountain air made her feel strong and well again. She had to spend a good deal of time out of doors, because the schools she had to visit were many miles apart. The only way to get about was on horseback, and for a time the only horse they could get was one that was never content till he had kicked off his rider. But with Amy he was always good and gentle. She was the only person who could groom and harness him, and she felt quite safe on his back riding alone over the lonely mountains and rocky paths. The little girls remember how sometimes she was sent for in the middle of the night. Perhaps someone was ill, or something was needed in a hurry. But by day or by night Amy was ready to go, and the Lord watched over her, and kept her from harm.
The house at Sook was not at all like an English house. It was built round three sides of a square court, which was roofed in. The fourth side stood open, and looked over the flat roof of the house in front, which stood lower down the steep hill side. The little girls had their gardens round the pillars in the court, and they went out to play on the flat housetop. From their playground they had a magnificent view over the great plain, which stretches from the foot of the Lebanon to Beirut, and Tyre and Sidon. Fourteen miles off they could see the blue Mediterranean, with the white sails passing to and fro. At the back of the house was a mulberry garden, which ran up the hillside above. There were large shady plum trees as well. The village down below was inhabited by Greek Christians and Mohammedans, and in summer Europeans came from Beirut to have some mountain air.
A few months after Amy had set up home there, she wrote me a letter. She said: 'I should have written sooner, but I have much to do here. I have only a fifteen-year-old Arab girl as a servant and yet there is much more to be done in the household than in England. For instance, we cannot get wholesome flour for bread, so we buy wheat, which has to be washed and cleaned at home. There is a mill near, where we get it ground, but we have to make the bread. My maid also cleans the barley for the horse, and makes the butter, so I often have to help in many ways.
`Then I have to teach the children. I spend as much time as I can in learning Arabic. I can do little amongst the people till I can speak it more. I can read books pretty well, and also the Bible I can understand tolerably with a dictionary, but I must learn to talk.
A few days ago a Druse sheikh was at our house. I spoke to him of Christ as the only Saviour. He came over from the other side of the room, and sat close to me, trying so earnestly to understand all I was saying to him. I think he is one of the most sincere of the Druses, and one who is almost persuaded to be a Christian, but is kept back by fear of persecution.
'I feel such compassion for the Druses; they are a fine race of men, and though there is much to be said against them, it is unjust to lay on them the whole blame of the massacre of Christians in 1860. The Greeks and Maronites provoked them almost to desperation, and the Mohammedans fanned the flame, hoping to exterminate the Christians by means of the Druses.
'A Druse village near here has begged several times to have Christian school. It seems so hard to refuse such a request, but one cannot do it without money.'
Amy longed for some people to talk to, who really knew the love of Christ. Though the quiet village life was pleasant, she seemed to be far away from any who could understand her thoughts. 'But,' she said, 'the Lord keeps me near to himself, and he will guide me. As to my body, I am quite strong and well, and the children too. They live rather a wild mountain life, but learn to be useful in many ways. I find it very pleasant riding over the mountains. The cassia trees in flower all along the paths are so sweet. In the mountains it is rather cold, but though it is December we have not yet had a fire. The cyclamens are all in flower, and the scarlet and purple anemones. The crocuses are almost over; they were very pretty, purple, white and gold peeping amongst the grey rocks.'
Amy took some time to explain to me a little about the different kinds of people from the Lebanon and all around it. In the village of Sook most of the people called themselves Christians. Some went to a Protestant church. Some belonged to the Greek Church, which is the same as the Roman Catholic in most things, but instead of the Pope they have the Patriarch of Constantinople as the chief bishop. All these people at Sook were Syrians. In some of the villages near by there were Syrian Roman Catholics, and other villages were Mohammedan. Some villages were inhabited by a sect of Roman Catholics called Maronites, who had lived on the mountains of Lebanon for many centuries. But a great many of the villages were inhabited only by Druses.
The Druse religion I cannot explain to you. It seems they were at first a Mohammedan sect. But at present they differ very much from the Mohammedans. If you ask a poor Druse what he believes, he says, 'I believe what the learned believe.' If you ask those who are considered `learned,' they say their religion is a secret.
It was unfortunate that the Druses gained most of their knowledge of Christianity from the Greek or Roman Catholic churches. What they thought of as Christianity was in fact idolatry. They needed to be shown the real Christ and the truth of God's word.
The Druses had small square buildings on the highest peaks of the mountains. In these places they had their worship; but as Europeans can never go inside these buildings, I can tell you nothing of what was said or done there. Amy felt a great interest in these people though, because the native Christians seemed to consider it almost impossible that a Druse could be converted. Even the Protestants seem to have understood very little of the power and love of God. Amy said of them, 'At all events, one must feel thankful that many of these Protestants are saved, though they do not realize it, and go on praying earnestly for forgiveness.'
How often we ask God to do what he has already done! If we truly believe in Jesus, 'we have our sins forgiven, according to the riches of his grace.' And it is said, 'By him' (Jesus), 'all who believe are' (not shall be) 'justified from all things.'
'Sometimes,' Amy would say, 'I think of all the preaching and teaching you hear in England, and feel as Moses may have felt on the barren Moabite mountains, looking into the land flowing with milk and honey. Yet sometimes, though I long to be with you, I almost feel as if Christ has become more and more precious the more I am cut off from all outer help.'
Then one day Amy paid a visit to a Druse sheikh and when she said that she could read Arabic better than she could speak it, he went to a table in the corner of a room, and brought from it a Bible, the only book in the room, and probably in the house, and asked Amy to read.
'We saw his wife, too,' Amy wrote. 'Poor thing! I longed for her to know the love of Christ. I cannot understand how Christians go on as they do; saved by the blood of Christ, but beyond that seeing nothing more. Oh that we may know more of Jesus!
'I have much to be thankful for, though I do long for communion with the Lord's faithful people. Still, the Lord himself is enough to fill our hearts, and perhaps when we feel left alone with him only, we learn most of his love and sympathy. There are, I believe, some true Christians amongst the Arabs here, but I cannot speak Arabic enough yet to have much conversation with them. I have been reading lately with the children the history of David and Solomon, and have been struck with the contrast between David's devotion to the house of the Lord and the coldness of Christians towards the house of the Lord today.'
Amy's letter reminded me of what the house of the Lord really is. Do you know what this means? What is the house of the Lord today? Does it mean a church built of stones and mortar? No. God does not dwell in temples made with hands. Yet God has a house now, down here on the earth. One house only, a house far more precious in his sight than the glorious temple, which Solomon built of gold and silver and precious stones. For God's house now is made of living stone—the chief corner-stone is the Lord Jesus himself, who is called the Stone chosen and precious; and every man, woman and child who believes in Jesus is a stone in this house of God. God himself lives in that house, and fills it with his love. Though his people are scattered far and wide—some English, some Arabs, some Chinese, some in every part of this wide world—yet God sees them all joined together in one by his Holy Spirit; one great temple where his praise is sung and his blessed name is praised.
Amy went on to tell me how David prepared all that was needed for the Lord's house. Solomon worked diligently to finish it. Yet how much do we love the Lord's people? How much do we love the Lord's house, his church? Christ loved it, and gave himself for it. We must learn to have sympathy with him in his love for it.
Amy felt sad to be separated from God's dear people, and she loved those with whom she could not even talk. She believed they were precious to Christ. Remember this when you meet with any who love the Lord Jesus. It may be some old woman or a little child, or a stranger from another country. If there is anything you can say or do to show your love for those whom the Lord Jesus loves so much, he will remember it one day, however small the little act of love may be.
`This is a wonderful country,' Amy goes on to say. 'At first sight the mountains look dreary and barren, but by-and-by their beauty becomes fascinating, and their wildness makes up for the want of trees and grass. My little girl Edith, from the beginning, has called them the "purple headed mountains", as she mostly sees them at sunset when we go out for a walk.'