SYRIAN PROTESTANT COLLEGE

[s. 738] : This college, established at Beirut, Syria, in 1866, is one of a number of important educational institutions in non-Christian lands which are the outgrowth of succe ful mi ionary effort. It is chartered under the laws of the State of New York, its corporate name in America being “The Trustees of the Syrian Protestant College.” Morris K. Jesup of New York is president of the Board of Trustees. This Board owns the college buildings and the land on which they stand, consisting of about forty acres in the most prominent situation in the city of Beirut. The work of the College commenced in the autumn of 1866, a preparatory cla having been formed the previous year. A medical department was opened in 1867, a preparatory department in 1871, and a commercial in 1900. The number of students in 1866 was 16; in 1903 it was 650. The number of teachers in 1866 was 6; in 1903 it was 40. During the 37 years of its existence the college has had under its instruction 2,763 students; it has graduated 203 bachelors of art, 189 physicians, 87 pharmacists and 462 preparatory students. Many of these students graduated elsewhere, but remain loyal to their Alma Mater. The College draws its students from all the Christian sects of the East, and not a few from the Druzes, the Jews, and the Muslims. The geographical area from which the 650 young men now in the College have come extends from the Black Sea to the Sudan and from Greece to Persia a region as large as the United States east of the Mi i ippi. The languages spoken by the students are Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Coptic, Hebrew, Yiddish, Armenian, Greek, English, German, and French. Their instructors are, in nationality, American, English, Arab, German, Swi , and French. The College is Christian but non-sectarian. It educates young men from numerous denominations, and from the fields of a score of different mi ionary societies. There is a flourishing YMCA among the students which occupies itseS with the culture of the student body, neighborhood teaching, and close study of the Bible. — This A ociation affords a ground on which members of liturgical and non-liturgical churches can meet and engage together in religious work. The graduates of the College, as well as students who have taken a partial course only, occupy positions of commanding influence as civil functionaries, merchants, ministers, teachers, civil and military physicians, lawyers, judges, editors, and authors. A number of them are in the military and consular service of the United States Government. The influence of such a body of men, educated according to American methods, on the progre and elevation of the East is obvious. The significance of this great college as an illustration of the existence and zeal of Protestant misThe fact that these sions is also worthy of note. mi ions seem to culminate in such institutions of admitted utility has stirred the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches to rrresd activity. France, Italy, and Austria have poured in men and lavished money that they also may found churches and schools, printing pre es and publishing houses, primarily, doubtle , for the benefit of those of their own communion, but also for the promotion of their national and ecclesiastical Ru ia has done the same in the interests. interests of its politics and the religious advancement of the Orthodox Greek Church. All these efforts unite with those of Protestant mi ions in contributing effectively to the general advancement of a higher civilization. ch131.xhtml t 739