KEITH-FALCONER, Ion

[s. 386] : Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1856. Died at Sheikh-Othman, Aden, Arabia, May 11, 1887. Born of a noble lineage, surrounded by the most attractive social advantages, ble ed by a strong body and vigorous mind, he, early in life, dedicated all of hia powers to the service of his Lord. While pursuing his brilliant career at Cambridge, the nii ionary spirit burned in him, and before leaving his native land for the foreign field he entered upon varied forms of Christian service. He became the leader of a band of Christian students who, in an old theater, near Cambridge, carried on ragged school work and Gospel evangelism, and in after years he joined Mr. Charring ton in his Tower Hamlets Mi ion in the East End of London. After he pa ed his last examination at Cambridge, in 1880, he commenced the study of Arabic, including the Koran, and afterward, in order that he might acquire the colloquial language and learn the temper of the Arabic mind in following the Mohammedan faith, he went to the Nile, Kashmir i Kerepanu 869 and to A iout, residing, for several months, with the well-known mi ionary. Dr. H. W. Hogg. In the autumn of 1885 he went to Aden “to prospect,” and as a result he determined to locate at Sheikh-Othman, within the territory but 10 miles from the town of Aden. While visiting Scotland in 1886 he laid his plans for a large work in Southern Arabia. He decided to establish a school, a medical mi ion and a depot for the distribution of the Scriptures. He was willing to put himself under a Scottish Foreign Mi ion Board with the understanding that he was himself to pay all costs of the mi ion. In the winter of 1886 he laid the foundation of his mi ion premises and work, and soon the impre of his consecrated life was felt among the Muslims. But the Aden fever proved a fatal foe, and in May, 1887, the “Martyr of Aden entered God’s Edeu.” The Keith-Falconer Mi ion to Arabia has not died; it is carried on by the United Free Church of Scotland, and since its founder was buried new impulse has been given to the attempt to carry Christianity to the land of Ishmael. 387