“You will be interested to bear a little of my visit to Egypt. I crossed the track of war, pestilence, and a work of God’s grace. The first thing I met in Alexandria was a work of grace that had taken place, and was still going on, among the English soldiers in Ramleh, at the outskirts of Alexandria. Within a few months a good many nice conversions had taken place. Before the work commenced, there was only one among them taking a decided stand for the Lord, and that was Sergeant H., a brother in fellowship, and a truly nice, godly man. When the soldiers were quartered there, he became known, and soon it appeared that there were some souls inquiring. One after another came to some quiet meetings, where they felt the warm atmosphere of christian love, and came under the power of the word. Converts in due time sought fellowship. Some were awakened remarkably, and were the subjects of deep conviction before finding peace. One dear fellow had been nineteen years in the service, and his life had been a bad one. The Spirit of God laid hold of his conscience while he was in the hospital, and, as the Lord’s words to the Samaritan woman, showed him all that he ever did, and that in the presence of divine light that admitted of no concealment or evasion. He returned from the hospital to the barracks in deep conviction, sought the few persecuted ones (for they were reviled and persecuted, even to hard blows and breaking of bones), and after three weeks got peace, and was afterward received to the Lord’s table, and, by his subsequent walk, was a nice testimony to the delivering power of the Lord Jesus. Instead of spending his money on his lusts, as formerly, he sent it home to two needy sisters, who had dependent families. Also—he had been a tailor by trade before entering the army—he now reported himself at the tailor’s shop of the regiment, where he received extra pay, reminding one of the words, ‘but rather let him labor, working with his hands... that he may have to give to him that needeth.’”
“Another was an officer in the Commissariat, and had been a Pharisee, as he told me. He could always see that Christ might be the Savior of other people, but could not see Him as his own Savior; but it finally turned out that the reason was, that he was not as bad as others—he was building on his own morality. Well, light dawned on his soul one night when the well-known words of John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24) were being opened up. There were about thirteen soldiers at the Table when I was there. Several others have been converted. Dear fellows, they need our prayers, for their life is one constant temptation.”
“In Upper Egypt I saw something of the work, and met most of those prominent in labor. It was a matter of thankfulness to hear from their lips an account of what God had been doing in many parts. I thanked the Lord heartily, as I had done before, that He was pleased to raise up laborers in the place where He was workings and to sustain them by His grace. He has already given them to see much fruit of their labors and prayers, and we trust will enable them to go on in the path of faithfulness, be more largely blessed in their own souls and their ministry. I could not undertake to give all the details of the work, for it has spread very extensively. In the farthest places up the river—that is, about Luxor—the work, thus far, has been principally among believers, and been characterized by very deep conviction of sin, especially of its defilement and power over them. In some places, I was told, they spent days wholly given to fasting and prayer—in fact, many were so overcome by a sense of their state, they became unfit for the discharge of their ordinary business. Some were constrained, by their deep distress, to make confession before their brethren of special sins they had been guilty of. Their inward anguish led them to disregard the pain and shame of public confession. Those who were laboring there are rather in the line of the doctrinal and pastoral gifts. One especially, a very godly and blind brother, is quite a pastor, and lays the state of souls before God in prayer.
There, as elsewhere, there was a work among the children.
“Further down the river the awakenings were more in connection with preaching and evangelizing and were more extensive and diversified. In some places there were quite evident manifestations of the Spirit working in unusual power. Persons would be seized with conviction and trembling, and some laid prostrate. Persons not previously accustomed to pray in public, would be led to pour forth their souls in prayer, and almost the whole audience would become bathed in tears. The character of the preaching was solid, although of a moving kind. The main subjects were connected with Christ in grace now towards sinners, and in judgment on the world at His coming. One who has been blessed a good deal (whom I did not see this time) had been a backslider, and was restored in a very marked manner. His subject is, ‘Death and the curse through the first Adam; and life and blessing through the Second.’ He has been used to reach some Mohammedans. His line of things seems to attract their attention, and fasten conviction, ere they are aware. There was one marked case, where a young Mohammedan was converted through him, and though severely persecuted, remained firm.
“There is one laborer in whom I was much interested. He is a black man, from Sudan, and was originally a slave, and in religion a sincere Mohammedan. He has been converted for a few years, and for some time had been among the brethren at Mellawa—where he got a good knowledge of the truth; and, as to walk, is well reported of by all. During the last year the Lord led him out in evangelizing, and has used him a good deal. He seems to be specially gifted to take the gospel into villages, where both the christian and Mohammedan inhabitants are in the deepest darkness. When he learned that I was in Mellawa, he came home, in order to spend some time where I was. I was much interested in him and his work. He had been at a christian village the night before. I asked him what he had been preaching about. He answered, The punishment due to sin, and the way of escape from it. He is a remarkable man, tall, black, grave in appearance, not ready to speak, but speaks to the point; and, I should judge, with great animation and power, when dealing with souls. As a rule, Mohammedan converts, even when genuine, do not grow much after the first and testing persecution; this one, Abdulla, and Ibraheem (the boy whoso story so interested you), and some others—all blacks—seem to be exceptions. I was interested to learn from Abdulla what line of things he took when dealing with Mohammedans. He promptly replied, I take them to Gen. 3 I show them how God created man, and dealt with him. I insist on death being the penalty of sin, and that God will not, and cannot, change what He has said. I show them that Adam’s sin, and departure from God, have infected all his children—all descending from him are in a state of alienation from God, and of corruption, from which flows all the sin we see. Not one of all the prophets or holy men we read of, was not in himself, by nature, a corrupt and guilty child of Adam. And God’s sentence is death; the full meaning of which is, eternal banishment from God, accompanied with the torments of hell. On this I enlarge, said he, and show how capacious hell is, and how dreadful to think of its never-ending torments! This, he says, arouses their fears, and they begin to ask me to show them by what way they can escape. I reply, Have you not got some means of escape already—some holy man or prophet who can deliver you? No, they reply. They are all corrupt and guilty children of Adam, and cannot save themselves, according to what you have been telling us. Well, now, he says, if you listen to me, I will tell you the way of escape. Then he goes on to tell them of the incarnation of the Son of God, showing them, in a simple way, that we do not call Christ the Son of God in a carnal sense, as they have been accustomed to think. He then shows how Christ’s body was holy, and in no sense connected with Adam’s fall; and how God carried out the sentence of death in Him as a propitiation; and he urges repentance and faith.”
“His line in dealing with Mohammedans is unique, and I was impressed that he is gifted and taught of God for this ministry. All his questions about the word were of a profitable nature. I did not see the lad, Ibraheem, but heard a good account of him. The Lord may yet use him. I should mention, that Abdulla does not expect the conversion of many Mohammedans. This accords with my own judgment; but, nevertheless, it is still the day of salvation, and God’s testimony in grace is going out towards all. It does reach even some Mohammedans. What I have long felt is, that Mohammedanism is, in fact, on the ground of apostasy. As a system, it is deliberately and intelligently built upon the rejection and denial of the Son of God. I have said that I crossed the track of the pestilence. In every village you can hear of its ravages, and how many victims it carried away. In Upper Egypt God overruled it to the awakening of a good many to hear the gospel. Happily, in the upper country they do not hear much about the war in the Sudan, and other exciting events, and hence, those inclined to be occupied with the word, are not distracted by these movements, that do, in fact, possess unusual importance in the affairs of this world.
“I am writing with some difficulty, as I got a fall in Upper Egypt, and injured my right shoulder, and have not recovered the use of it yet. It is better now; and I think the Lord’s hand was in it, for different purposes, especially to show me that, at present, my work is not to go about to visit villages, where He has already raised up laborers on the ground, efficient, by His grace, for the work needed, and suited, in their circumstances, to bear with ease what would soon wear me out, and unfit me for the special service He brought me back to the East to perform. I had distinctly felt this on my way back from the West. I have a knowledge of the language, and facilities for giving souls here the truth in a written and permanent form. There is a need for what I can thus give, and I am sure that it is His mind for me to bestow most of my strength on this line.... I am just getting through the press ‘Son of God’ by J. Β—, and I feel it will meet a need in souls. I am also writing on Matthew’s Gospel, and hope to go on through the New Testament. Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, and Revelation are already expounded in Arabic, as well as six books of the “Old Testament. B. F. P.”
March 4th, 1884.
There is a wide field opened for the Arabic tracts and books printed by our brother, both in Egypt and Mesopotamia—indeed, they get scattered wherever Arabic is spoken. The above letter will show how graciously the Lord has been pleased to use these tracts in Upper Egypt.—C. S.