The author of this volume is One of the pioneers of the new historic era
and the changing social order in the Nearer East. He is entitled to this
distinction not because of direct political activity, or of any
strenuous role as a social reformer, but because of those fifty-three
years of missionary service in the interests of religious uplift,
educational progress, social morality, and all those civilizing
influences which now by general consent are recognized results of the
missionary enterprise. It is a chronicle of eventful years in the
history of Western Asia. It is necessarily largely personal, as the book
is a combination of autobiographical reminiscence with a somewhat
detailed record of mission progress in Syria. No one can fail to be
impressed with the variety and continuity, as well as the large
beneficence of a life service such as is herein reviewed. In versatile
and responsible toil, in fidelity to his high commission, in diligence
in the use of opportunity, in unwavering loyalty to the call of
missionary duty, his career has been worthy of the admiration and
affectionate regard of the Church. The writer of this introduction
regards it as one of the privileges of his missionary service in Syria
that for twenty-two of the fifty-three years which the record covers he
was a colleague of the author, and that such a delightful intimacy has
marked a lifelong friendship. Dr. Jessup has been a living witness of
one of the most vivid and dramatic national transformations which the
world's annals record, as well as himself a contributor, indirectly and
unconsciously perhaps, yet no less truly and forcefully, to changes as
romantic, weird, and startling as the stage of history presents. We seem
to be in the enchanted atmosphere of politics after the order of the
Arabian Nights. In fact, no tale of the Thousand and One Nights can
surpass in Imaginative power, mystical import, and amazing significance,
this story of the transportation of an entire empire, as if upon some
magic carpet of breathless flight, from the domain of irresponsible
tyranny to the realm of constitutional government. The cruel and
shocking episode of massacre in transit seems to be in keeping with the
ruthless barbarity of the despotic environment.
