Beirut, Syria, December, 2nd, 1889.
I am still improving slowly, I am now up all day, and can go out for an hour or two; but that does not signify a very great amount of strength. I wrote you a fortnight ago that my journey northwards is impossible at present; but I am sure that all my exercises about it have been of the Lord. If nothing occur to prevent, the young brother I have spoken about, will set off on his journey next week. He was here last week, and went up to the mountains to bid his mother good-bye, so may be down today.
I have had late word from there and from Mousul also. And it is good and cheering from both places. My correspondent in Mousul is a nice steadfast man, who has corresponded with me for five years, and has got all his light and comfort through reading. I will give you some extracts from his last letter, because I am sure they will comfort you. He writes the 2nd of last month. He says, “After presenting my desires towards you, and my christian love, beloved brother, I thank God, the Father of mercies who has made us meet, along with all saints for fellowship in the glorious inheritance reserved for us. Lately, while reading Philippians I derived an unusual spiritual benefit. Especially while I was reading 3:20, 21, the Holy Spirit enabled me to grasp the glorious form in which. the children of God shall be: even the form of our, glorious Head, the Lord Jesus, who is soon to return for us; when we shall be with Him and like Him, therefore we have no citizenship here; for our citizenship is in heaven, from whence we expect a perfect Savior, &c. Again while studying chapter 4:1-4 I got something as it were new to me, as to the only foundation of the believer’s joy, and it is Jesus Christ in glory; while all our names are written in the book of life, from which nothing can ever blot them out, for they have been written there by virtue of Christ’s blood, and by the love of God our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. O, beloved brother, are we not deficient in joy in the Lord, and should we not confess this deficiency to Him? “I also informed you that a little while ago there was with me a young man, a christian brother of the Chaldean Church, who knows the Arabic language, and I gave him the diagram tract on the ‘Coming of the Lord, and rapture of the Church,’ &c.; and he became greatly awakened as to the coming of the Lord in glory and His millennial kingdom. He began to ask his priests about this important subject; but they could give him no answer, except, that this was a heretical opinion. But he pressed them with the plain testimonies of holy scripture, and they failed to convince him to the contrary; and he declared that he would live and die in the hope of the return of Jesus Christ to take us to glory.”
I give you these simple extracts, dear brother, for I am sure they will refresh you. Mousul, you know, is near the site of ancient Nineveh. You can see how the Lord Himself is working to give His truth to souls. My heart is quite in the work in that vast region, where there are thousands of Christians, many of whom, I doubt not, are dear to Christ, the great Shepherd, risen and glorified, but leading on His own after Him in the path of resurrection.
I have good word from Upper Egypt also. It seems that I am to be kept here for the present at routine work. I never leave Beirut to find work, but am often glad to get away for a change of work. The burdens here are heavy and continuous; it is this that weighs me down physically here. S. was with us a few days last week. He has now gone back to Palestine, and will soon be on his way to Egypt. He is uneasy about my health, and thinks I ought to take some change. But I am in the Lord’s hands who has put me here; and what with my regular printing work, and sending off books, and keeping up links by constant correspondence in Arabic with many different places, I see no way for a change to the West; and I have not been exercised about it. I am happier in my soul in the East than I ever was in the West, because here I feel that I am in my place. I am sure we have a good Master, who knows all our wants and trials, and will not overburden us. Weak we must be, and contented to be so, for He needs our weakness not our strength, He joins not His strength to ours, but perfects it in our weakness. Blessed be His name.
(Signed), B. F. Pinkerton,