The inhabitants did not correspond with the outward scenery. Though the
people kindly welcomed them, the missionaries found a wide difference in
the habits and customs of the European and the Arab; and brought into
connection with the latter, as they were every hour of the day, the
contrast was continually before the mind.
Besides this, the missionary cannot live on the same equality with the
people as can other classes of European or American residents. The _trader_
can close his doors and have his family circles sacred from the intrusion
of officious, meddlesome natives; but this course would defeat the very
object which the _missionary_ has in view. It would shut him out from the
confidence and sympathy of those whose hearts he wished to reach. It would
place between him and the heathen a barrier which would be insurmountable.
So our sister found it at Beyroot. She had no house which she could
properly call her own; for at times, while she was least prepared and while
visits were least desirable, her house would be invaded by a company of
five or six women, who would remain a long time, asking questions and
prying into a hundred things which did not concern them.
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