He was received by the Patriarch and priests of the convent with dismay.
They asserted that Asaad had died two years before, pointed out his grave, and offered to open it.

The convent was thoroughly searched, but he was not found, and Mr.Tod was convinced that he was really dead.1 1 _Missionary Herald_ for 1833, pp.

51-57.
When it is considered how severely and in how many ways Asaad was tried, his faith and constancy appear admirable.

His pride of intellect and authorship, and his reputation for consistency, were opposed, at the outset, to any change in his religious opinions.
Then all his reverence for his ecclesiastical superiors and his former tutors, some of whom were naturally mild in their tempers, and his previous habits of thought, withstood his yielding to the convictions of conscience and the authority of Scripture.

Next, the anathemas of the Church, the tears of a mother appalled by the infamy of having an apostate son, the furious menaces of brothers, and the bitter hatred of masses stirred up by an influential priesthood, combined to hold him back from the truth.