Beirut May 1St, 1887,
Dear Brother—Your former note, giving me a little account of the London meeting, reached here in due time, and gave us real joy; so also your other note, of April 15th, giving an account of the precious meetings in Rotherham, came to hand by last post, and filled me with thanksgiving. Truly this binding of hearts together is a most evident work of the Lord.
I have now been at home about a month, but have been suffering much from the reaction which followed the protracted strain on the poor body. I am not well yet, but I feel that I am now better. For the first fortnight after my return I had ophthalmia, and when my eyes got better, I began to feel the re-action in my whole body, and for the last fortnight was scarcely able to do anything. But a few days ago I seemed to get a turn for the better. I do not complain of bodily prostration after prolonged service, nor even of pain, for I find it very profitable. One ceases from all activity, and reviews things quietly in the Lord’s presence.
I had a letter from a new correspondent last winter from Mousul. He says, “I thank my God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, for His surpassing grace which He has caused to abound towards us through His Son, by whom we have redemption, even the forgiveness of sins. I have to inform you that we have heard that you have expository helps to the understanding of the scriptures and other religious books. And we have seen some of them, and seen that they afford much profit and joy to the believer, inasmuch as they teach him to put all his dependence on God’s work alone, through Christ crucified,” &c. He then asks if I can send them a supply of books direct to Mousul. The books, which had reached them, had come to them from Mardeen, five or six days to the north of them.
Mousul, you will know, stands near the site of ancient Nineveh, and there are a good many Christians there and in the surrounding country. Since my return, I was enabled to send them a box of books, with the hope that a good many more may get joy and blessing by a clearer apprehension of God’s work for us through Christ. I have also had a good many letters from my old correspondents in Mesopotamia, and sent them also a fresh supply of books, and I trust that I may be enabled to see them all someday, if we live, and the Lord will.
I have had good word from Egypt since my return, and was specially glad to hear that the Lord’s table had been set up in S., a place we have had at heart for a good while, but hitherto there has not been sufficient courage for the saints there to take the step. But I now hear that they have done so, and that the Lord is working there and in neighboring places with increasing power. This place is at the extreme south of the regions in which gatherings have been formed. But the work is extending both up the river and down it.
In E., a place near S., five or six Mohammedans have been converted. When I was laboring there recently one young Mohammedan, who had believed and was consorting with Christians, was stripped quite naked and severely beaten before our eyes. He had been with us all the afternoon, and at sunset went to his home, when his father and friends set upon him and beat him with savage cruelty. He fled naked from them into the streets, and they followed him. We met the sad scene as we were going to our evening meeting. The lad recognized us, and said, “Help me, Ο Christians!” But we were powerless as so many sheep among wild beasts. One brother turned aside to remonstrate with the lad’s father, but was told to go about his business, that the boy was his child and he would do with him as he pleased. We turned into our meeting-room with broken and bowed-down hearts, for we thought that they would certainly kill the poor lad that very night. But we poured out our hearts in prayer to the Lord for him; and were surprised within a quarter of an hour to see him coming into our meeting, clothed, and his face beaming with joy. The rage of his persecutors had spent itself, and when he got his clothes he came straight to the meeting, and sat listening to the word of God as happy as could be. He told us afterward that the beating was very painful, but nevertheless he was full of joy all the time.
Such scenes, dear brother, bring the blessed Lord Jesus very near to us. We feel at the time what a reality it is to confess the Son of God in the midst of a world that will not have Him. When a Mohammedan is converted he gives up his old name and takes a new one. This lad had of his own accord called himself by a new name: “The servant of our Lord.” He was soon made to experience the reality of it. A brother had affectionately warned him that he must expect great suffering, and, while the words were still fresh, it came upon him. But suffering for Christ makes souls dear to us. We all felt that night that we would gladly have taken some of the blows on our own bodies. I think, too, it tends to make us more real in the ministry of the word. There is no room left for mere sentiment and imagination. We feel that it must be Christ ministered in the present power of the Holy Ghost. You might, comparatively speaking, call it the lowest round of the ladder, but, nevertheless, I always find myself on the very top of it also. Christ Himself is the way, the truth, and the life. And what we all have to seek is increased reality in the things of God.
Your brother in Christ, B. F. PINKERTON.