REMARKABLE CONVERSION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 456, 6 January 1882, Page 7

REMARKABLE CONVERSION.

The Protestant Society for the Propagation of the Gosple will perhaps not be gratified to hear, says the London Tablet, that their friend and leading missionary, Mr. Amine Nassif. who came to England on the 25th of June, partly for the sake of a little relaxation and partly for the purpose of collecting funds for the extension of the English missions in Egypt, was received into the Church by Prior Vaughan at St. Benedict's College and Monastery, Fort Augustus, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Mr. Amine Nassif is a Syrian by birth, a native of Lebanon, and when a child, was baptized a Catholic, but losing his mother when quite young, was brought up as a Protestant. Polished in manner, agreeable in conversation, intelligent and observant, a finished Arabic scholar and an eloquent and fluent speaker, he was selected as a fitting person to superintend the English missions in Cairo, and in cases where he found it impossible to make proselytes to his own Church was active in decrying the Catholic Church and in dissuading persons from entering its fold. On visiting Egypt in 1878 the Marquis of Bute made the acquaintance of Mr. Nassif, and the zealous missionary resolved to turn his friendship to good accountand endeavor to persuade him to return to the Church he had abandoned. Finding, however, that Lord Bute's faith was firm and immovable, Mr. Nassif now began to feel somewhat uneasy about his own position, and turned his mind to the study of polemics. On arriving in London last June, he devoted his time to questions of religion, attended " divine worship " in more than a score of churches belonging to various sects and denominations, and in many cases at the conclusion of the service boldly called upon the minister and probed the reasons of the faith that was in him. The result, as may be imagined, was highly unsatisfactory, and at the end of two or three months, Mr. Nassif found himself more anxious and perplexed than ever. It was evident that he had not yet discovered the one and only true faith of Jesus Christ, and turning away from the Church of England he next had recourse to the Scottish Kirk. He found here confusion still more confounded, and after visiting Edinburgh, Perth, Aberdeen, and Inverness, he at length arrived at the door of the Monastery of Fort Augustus, where he fortunately fell in with the Hon. and Rt. Bey. Mgr. Talbot, Sir Charles Wolseley, Mr. Manley, of Spofforth, and Mr. Middleton, of Leamington, who happened to be on a visit to the College at the time, and were soon interested in bis conversion. Mr. Nassif, who had intended to have left next morning, was induced to prolong bis visit, and at the end of

a fortnight, touched by the grace of God, had the happiness of beinjf reconciled to the Church. The interesting ceremony took place in the Collegiate Chapel before the conventual Mass, and in the presence of the whole establishment. As soon as the fervent neophyte had made his profession of faith in a loud clear voice, the monks and choristers sang forth the Te Deum, the strains of the organ were sounded during the Mass, and immediately after tho Domine nonsum digmis, when the new convert had received the Blessed Sacrament as a loving child of the Church, the choir again rose and sang out the psalm Laudate Pueri Dominum. About ten o'clock Mr. Nassif, accompanied by the Prior and Prefect of Studies, entered the study hall and delivered a touching address to the students — now nearly sixty in number. He spoke on the store they should set on the gift of the faith, the courage with which they should ever be ready to defend it, and eloquently commended himself to their prayers. In conclusion he announced that the Prior wished the whole house to share in the joy of this day — the greatest and happiest of his life — and had accordingly given them a holiday. Next morning Mr. Nassif left for the western coast on a visit to Lord Howard, accompanied with the best wishes and fervent prayers of the Community of St. Benedict's.