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Elizabeth Bowen Thompson
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[[File:Elizabeth Bowen Thompson.png|thumb|Elizabeth Bowen Thompson]]
'''Elizabeth Bowen Thompson''' (1812/13 – November 1869) was a British missionary in Syria.
Elizabeth Maria Lloyd was born in 1812/13. Her father was Hannibal Evans Lloyd (1770–1847), a [[philologist]] and [[translator]]. Her mother was Lucy Anna Margaretta von Schwartzkopff (1782/3–1855), from [[Hamburg]].<ref name="oxforddnb.com"></ref>
IN our Master's house there are vessels of gold and of silver, of wood and of clay, and some more honored than others. The clay ones are easily molded, but are only for common use; the wooden ones require the knife, but the gold and silver ones need the furnace to refine. Most of us are content with being any sort of vessel in the house, and are unwilling to submit to even the knife, let alone the refining furnace. The absolute surrender of one's life and plans into our Father's hands invariably results in our finding that he has done for us exceeding abundantly above all we had asked or thought.
We stay-at-home Christian women have little idea what the joy must be of looking back upon a life full of work for the Master—work that would not have been done had not our hands taken it up. Of this description were the life and the work of the young widow who is the subject of the present sketch. Frances Havergal's prayer,." Lord, prepare me for whatever thou art preparing for me," seems to have been the habit of soul of this lady from her girlhood, and marvelous were the providences by which she was led.
After her marriage to Dr. Bowen Thompson, who had devoted his talents to the service of the Syrian Mission, the young couple settled at Antioch, in 1847, and both worked earnestly and well.
Mrs. Thompson soon mastered the language, and opened a school for women in her house. This work went on for eighteen months, and then, on leaving for the seat of war in the Crimea, to which Dr. Bowen Thompson seemed irresistibly drawn, the little school was left behind—they thought for a short time, but it proved to be forever.
It seemed a strange step to leave Antioch for the seat of war, but Dr. Thompson had gained much knowledge of Eastern epidemics, and felt eager to place his services at the disposal of the English government. Immediately upon their arrival at Balaklava Dr. Thompson himself was stricken down with the malignant fever which raged among the troops, and in a few days he died of the very epidemic from which he had been so eager to recover others. The poor young widow laid his dust to rest in the foreign land and returned to England to make her home with her sister.
As the physician's widow she entered upon the last term of her education, in God's school, for a work that none could do so well as a widow. The bloody massacre of the Maronites by the Druses of Syria attracted her sympathy. All the males from seven to seventy years of age had been killed. Possessing ample private means, she gave generously for providing stores and clothing, but her own experience of widowhood made her long to be on the spot to try to make known to the widows in Syria the only balm for a broken heart. She lost no time in setting out for Beyrout, where she found crowds of distracted women and girls who had fled from their burning homes after having seen their husbands and brothers hacked to pieces.
Mrs. Thompson at once opened an industrial refuge. The gates were besieged by hundreds clamoring for admission, and saying, "Even if you cannot pay us for our work, let us sit and listen, for our hearts are sad." "At first," said Mrs. Thompson, "my heart almost died within me at the squalor, noise, and misery of these poor people. Ignorance and deeply-cherished revenge chiefly characterized them. When, however, their Christian teachers read to them from the Bible they would sit at their feet and exclaim: 'We never heard such words!' Does it mean for us women?"
Such was their avidity to learn that, although women as well as children had to begin with the alphabet, in a short time they could read the Bible.
Twenty thousand women were crowding the city eager to get work at even road-mending, so absolutely destitute had the cruel massacre left them. Mrs. Thompson had her hands full and her strength taxed to the utmost, yet she found time to visit the sick and dying in the hospitals. Besides all this she opened industrial schools, ragged schools, and evening schools. The magnitude of the work would have overwhelmed a weaker woman and appalled one with less faith. She also found it necessary to open a girls' school for the upper classes, who were willing to pay a good fee for the privilege of having their daughters educated by an English lady rather than by the French nuns.
She could not have set on foot so many branches of work had not her sister and brotherin-law from England joined her. Their home in England having been burned down, they resolved, rather than rebuild, to put their means and their lives to the best interest in work for the good of the Syrian people. A younger sister had already been helping her for some time, so that there were four members of one family all at work in Syria. Why should such an example be so rare?
Next, a laundry was opened, and the schools grew and prospered until Mrs. Thompson was amazed at the magnitude of them. Many villages and important centers applied to have a school opened, and the appeals were mostly responded to. Infant schools, orphanages, Sunday schools, schools for cripples, Moslem boarding schools, and schools for the blind were in fine working order in Beyrout and throughout the Lebanon, supported principally by her sister and herself.
In 1869 Mrs. Bowen Thompson suffered from illness induced by overwork and responsibility, but even in bed she occupied herself with reports and operations of the school work. She said, once, " Notwithstanding my great weakness, I have never one instant lost my peace of mind or the sense of the presence of Jesus."
She returned to England, but before many days the doctor pronounced her case hopeless. This did not disturb her nor stop her planning for her Syrian schools.
She peacefully passed from earth to heaven in November, 1869.<ref name="oxforddnb.com" /> Of the bitter lamentation of the Syrian widows and orphans we need say nothing. Of Mrs. Thompson it may truly be said that she shall be held '' in everlasting remembrance."
==References==
===Attribution===
* }}
[[Category:1810s births]]
[[Category:1869 deaths]]
'''Elizabeth Bowen Thompson''' (1812/13 – November 1869) was a British missionary in Syria.
Elizabeth Maria Lloyd was born in 1812/13. Her father was Hannibal Evans Lloyd (1770–1847), a [[philologist]] and [[translator]]. Her mother was Lucy Anna Margaretta von Schwartzkopff (1782/3–1855), from [[Hamburg]].<ref name="oxforddnb.com"></ref>
IN our Master's house there are vessels of gold and of silver, of wood and of clay, and some more honored than others. The clay ones are easily molded, but are only for common use; the wooden ones require the knife, but the gold and silver ones need the furnace to refine. Most of us are content with being any sort of vessel in the house, and are unwilling to submit to even the knife, let alone the refining furnace. The absolute surrender of one's life and plans into our Father's hands invariably results in our finding that he has done for us exceeding abundantly above all we had asked or thought.
We stay-at-home Christian women have little idea what the joy must be of looking back upon a life full of work for the Master—work that would not have been done had not our hands taken it up. Of this description were the life and the work of the young widow who is the subject of the present sketch. Frances Havergal's prayer,." Lord, prepare me for whatever thou art preparing for me," seems to have been the habit of soul of this lady from her girlhood, and marvelous were the providences by which she was led.
After her marriage to Dr. Bowen Thompson, who had devoted his talents to the service of the Syrian Mission, the young couple settled at Antioch, in 1847, and both worked earnestly and well.
Mrs. Thompson soon mastered the language, and opened a school for women in her house. This work went on for eighteen months, and then, on leaving for the seat of war in the Crimea, to which Dr. Bowen Thompson seemed irresistibly drawn, the little school was left behind—they thought for a short time, but it proved to be forever.
It seemed a strange step to leave Antioch for the seat of war, but Dr. Thompson had gained much knowledge of Eastern epidemics, and felt eager to place his services at the disposal of the English government. Immediately upon their arrival at Balaklava Dr. Thompson himself was stricken down with the malignant fever which raged among the troops, and in a few days he died of the very epidemic from which he had been so eager to recover others. The poor young widow laid his dust to rest in the foreign land and returned to England to make her home with her sister.
As the physician's widow she entered upon the last term of her education, in God's school, for a work that none could do so well as a widow. The bloody massacre of the Maronites by the Druses of Syria attracted her sympathy. All the males from seven to seventy years of age had been killed. Possessing ample private means, she gave generously for providing stores and clothing, but her own experience of widowhood made her long to be on the spot to try to make known to the widows in Syria the only balm for a broken heart. She lost no time in setting out for Beyrout, where she found crowds of distracted women and girls who had fled from their burning homes after having seen their husbands and brothers hacked to pieces.
Mrs. Thompson at once opened an industrial refuge. The gates were besieged by hundreds clamoring for admission, and saying, "Even if you cannot pay us for our work, let us sit and listen, for our hearts are sad." "At first," said Mrs. Thompson, "my heart almost died within me at the squalor, noise, and misery of these poor people. Ignorance and deeply-cherished revenge chiefly characterized them. When, however, their Christian teachers read to them from the Bible they would sit at their feet and exclaim: 'We never heard such words!' Does it mean for us women?"
Such was their avidity to learn that, although women as well as children had to begin with the alphabet, in a short time they could read the Bible.
Twenty thousand women were crowding the city eager to get work at even road-mending, so absolutely destitute had the cruel massacre left them. Mrs. Thompson had her hands full and her strength taxed to the utmost, yet she found time to visit the sick and dying in the hospitals. Besides all this she opened industrial schools, ragged schools, and evening schools. The magnitude of the work would have overwhelmed a weaker woman and appalled one with less faith. She also found it necessary to open a girls' school for the upper classes, who were willing to pay a good fee for the privilege of having their daughters educated by an English lady rather than by the French nuns.
She could not have set on foot so many branches of work had not her sister and brotherin-law from England joined her. Their home in England having been burned down, they resolved, rather than rebuild, to put their means and their lives to the best interest in work for the good of the Syrian people. A younger sister had already been helping her for some time, so that there were four members of one family all at work in Syria. Why should such an example be so rare?
Next, a laundry was opened, and the schools grew and prospered until Mrs. Thompson was amazed at the magnitude of them. Many villages and important centers applied to have a school opened, and the appeals were mostly responded to. Infant schools, orphanages, Sunday schools, schools for cripples, Moslem boarding schools, and schools for the blind were in fine working order in Beyrout and throughout the Lebanon, supported principally by her sister and herself.
In 1869 Mrs. Bowen Thompson suffered from illness induced by overwork and responsibility, but even in bed she occupied herself with reports and operations of the school work. She said, once, " Notwithstanding my great weakness, I have never one instant lost my peace of mind or the sense of the presence of Jesus."
She returned to England, but before many days the doctor pronounced her case hopeless. This did not disturb her nor stop her planning for her Syrian schools.
She peacefully passed from earth to heaven in November, 1869.<ref name="oxforddnb.com" /> Of the bitter lamentation of the Syrian widows and orphans we need say nothing. Of Mrs. Thompson it may truly be said that she shall be held '' in everlasting remembrance."
==References==
===Attribution===
* }}
[[Category:1810s births]]
[[Category:1869 deaths]]
September 13, 2019 at 08:47PM
