Again,  the  Mission  and  all  other  agencies  combined,  fail  now  to  meet  the
wants  of  the  field.  The  demand  for  schools  and  teachers  is  greater  than
the  supply.  How  would  it  be  if  the  larger  source  of  supply  should  be
withdrawn  ?

Again,  these  other  agencies  act  only  at  or  near  certain  centres.  The  area
of  their  influence  is  limited,  reaching  but  little  beyond  Beirut  and  a  part  of
Mt.  Lebanon.  The  mission  schools  are  extended  widely  through  our  whole
field —  north,  south,  east  and  west.  To  leave  these  other  agencies  to  act
alone,  would  be  to  leave  the  greater  part  of  the  hind  without  schools.
And,  moreover,  it  would  be  impossible  for  those  not  engaged  in  the  miss-
ionary work  to  make  their  schools  as  directly  auxiliary  to  the  work  of  the
Gospel,  as  would  the  Mission,  whose  aim  in  conducting  these  schools  is  to
further  their  plans  in  raising  up  self-supporting  Christian  churches  and
communities.
For  these  reasons,  as  well  as  others,  the  Mission  would  find  itself  crippled,
thwarted,  embarrassed,  in  its  action,  if  it  was  compelled  to  give  up  the  work
of  education,  and  to  leave  it  to  others.  Much  of  it  would  certainly  be  left
undone,  as  there  are  not  agencies  on  hand  prepared  to  assume  it,  and  the
cause  of  Christ  would  inevitably  suffer.
27

IV.  If  the  Mission  continue  the  work  of  Education  can  they  properly  continue  it
on  the  same  system  and  the  same  scale  as  they  have  done  heretofore?

Unquestionably  the  answer  to  this  must  be  in  the  negative.
