Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 15:60 (Oct 1858)
Article: Meshakah On Scepticism
Author: Anonymous

BSac 15:60 (Oct 1858) p. 693

Meshakah On Scepticism1

Introduction

The old records of Assyria are being disentombed and read by Biblical scholars with eager interest; but the buried intellect of the East, also, being raised from the grave of centuries, is no less worthy of our regard. As Christians, we have a special interest in the converts brought to Jesus by our missionaries; and it is a duty we owe no less to ourselves than to them, that we become acquainted with the living stones there built up a spiritual house, and their agency in still further advancing the kingdom of our Lord. It may benefit, also, any surviving remnants of that class who used to think any one fit to be a missionary, to take the measure of one of the minds with which they have to deal;

BSac 15:60 (Oct 1858) p. 694

and it may do no harm to young America to learn that there is some intellect in the world besides the Anglo-Saxon.

The writer of the following treatise, Mikhael (Michael), son of Joorjis (George), son of Ibrahim (Abraham), Meshakah the Lebanonite, or, more briefly, Mikhael Meshakah, was born in Damascus in the year 1800, and by birth and baptism was a member of the Greek Catholic church, which is the name of that portion of the ancient Eastern church that has given in its adhesion to the pope of Rome. He was descended from a noble family, and his father held an honorable office under the government of Mount Lebanon, At the age of fourteen, under the tuition of a relative who had been taught by the French, in Egypt, under Bonaparte, he made considerable proficiency in algebra, geometry, astronomy, and the natural sciences.

This education, while it elevated his views of the Creator, led him to despise the unscriptural practices and traditionary errors of his sect; and, as he knew nothing of a spiritual Christianity, he learned to look upon all religion as a contrivance of the more intelligent to secure the control of the ignorant masses. The result of an examination of the books of the various, sects around him, was the conviction that all were alike corrupt, and that nothing more was required of him than that, rising above the empty show got up to impress the vulgar, he should be upright and benevolent according to the light of nature. Still, to avoid offence, he attended church and conformed externally to ecclesiastical requirements.

In 1821 Jonas King, D. D. was the guest of his father, in Deir el komr, the capital of Mount Lebanon; but though the missionary conversed much with others, he seems to have overlooked our author, who did not dare to bring forward his own difficulties lest he should be shunned as an infidel by the bigots of the town. While the arguments addressed to them wholly failed...