The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1910, Page 28

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

28

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Druses.

The Druses are a peculiar people, found in the
Lebanon Mountains, in Northern Syria. Mission-
aries describe them as independent, proud, brave,
handsome, industrious, hospitable, self-possessed,
educated, and very mysterious, living entirely for
themselves. -Their numbers have been estimated all
the way from fifty thousand to over one hundred
thousand souls. They are very proud of, and very
mysterious in regard to, their religion, which is

Missionaries find mission work among these
poor people very difficult; for the Druses are very
deceitful. While they must speak the truth among
themselves, they consider it an honor to lie to out-
siders. So accustomed are they to lie that a mis-
sionary living among them declares that when an
Englishman tells them that there are no Druses
in England, they suspect him of being one. In-
stead of being offended at what they consider his
deceit and a lie, they honor him for it.

The deceitfulness of the Druses makes mission

DRUSES. .

simply “a mixture of doctrines taken from various
other religions.” They believe in one god, but it
is not the true God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
They call themselves Muwaphidun, or Unitarians.
In regard to the departed souls they believe that in
. death the soul of the virtuous passes into an angel
or other heayenly being, whilst the soul of the
wicked passes into the body of an animal, corre-
sponding in nature to the life led by the individual.
For example, the soul of a wild Druse will enter
some such animal as the tiger. A missionary says:
“At the very moment of his mother’s death a calf
was born in the herd of a Druse, and he firmly be-
lieved that his mother’s soul dwelt in that calf.”

work among them not only difficult, but often also
very dangerous. Years ago, Samuél Gobat, the
well-known missionary, made a journey to the
Druses in order to bring them the Gospel. At first
all went well. But one day there came a messenger
from one of the chiefs, requesting the missionary
to visit the chief ashe wished to talk with him
about Jesus. Joyfully the missionary promised to
come the next day. But he took sick and could not
travel. Another messenger’ came.’ But Gobat

‘learned that the boat which was to take him back to

his mission field would start at noon the next day.
Whilst he was considering what to do, a third mes-
senger came. Gobat was told that if he would start