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    THE MASSACRE IN SYRIA.

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    PRIDE AND CHRISTIANITY.

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    Untitled Article

    He lias a splendid career open to him , and is already proclaimed by public acclamation as the future Premier who ¦ will gather around him the wisdom , and gratify the aspirations of the age . Whether this will be so or not depends upon himself . He is . in one of those rare positions in which a man of genius can be the ruler of circumstances , but a single quirk or crotchet such as he has solicited in former times , will throw him quite out of gear . He must be brave as well as honest , straightforward as well as subtle . We do not predict , but we earnestly hope for his success .

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    FEW more awful events have occurred in any age than the great massacre of Christians which has taken place , and is . we fear , still going- on in Syria . We may hope that the loss of the Christians may prove somewhat less than the accounts at present received , lead us to suppose ; but as the captured town of Zahleh contained 10 , 000 inhabitants , who were exposed to all the horrors of torture , pillage , and murder , it is obvious that the calamity assumed appalling proportions . In the large village of Hashbeiya , at the foot of Mount Hermon , the

    slaughter is represented as nearly amounting to absolute extermination , although the Christians numbered about 4 , 000 . In other towns and districts the Christians were hourly expecting a similar fate when the last intelligence left ; and , although some English and French ships were on the coast , it will be some time before the fanatical Mahometan population can be brought to order and punished for their crimes . The Turkish Government may at last be frightened into active measures , but it is well known that the weakness of the Sultan makes his liberal intentions of no effect , and the soldiery on

    no doubt , be alarmed and grieved at events so dangerous to its continued existence ; and ii , as we hope , the Sultan will wish to act fairly , the intervention of the Christian powers should diatinctlv appear as supporting , not overthrowing , his authority . The time . may come when the Christians of Turkey will be able to make a successful revolt , and assume the government them - selves , but a premature destruction of Turkish power would simply aggrandise Russia , without really benefitting the oppressed followers of the faith of civilised men .

    the spot are accused of either doing nothing , or turning assassins themselves . The Christian Communities of Syria have long attracted a well-deserved interest , and Beyrout has been honorably remarkable as a centre from which civilized ideas were dispersed throughout a large and important . dis * trict . Npw , the Christian Goyernments of Europe must be content to witness the extermination of their brethren in Lebanon , or effectually lend them a helping hand . All questions of minor difference should be set aside . It matters not

    whether the sufferers belong to the Greek Communion , or follow , the Pope , or hold the tenets of Protestant Churches . They are equally entitled to commiseration and help—both help for their immediate necessities , and help that will for the future enable them to protect themselves . The balance of power in these regions roust be reversed , aud instead of the Christians being at the mercy of the murderous and mad Druses , Kurds , and Bedouins , the military strength of the latter trmst he pffectually , broken , a nd the former well armed

    and trained to assist themselves . There cannot be a moment ' s hesitation as to the strong course our sympathies and our efforts should take , but we must not commit the error of undervaluing our difficulties , by ascribing all virtues to the sufferers and all vices to their oppressors . The Christians have so long been the victims of a proud and haughty race of fanatics , superior to them in military power , that it will not be an easy task to raise them from their low estate . There can , however , be no , doubt of the practicability of accomplishing tliis , if the leading powers of Europe

    will honestly undertake the task , and seek the good of the inhabitants , and not the aggrandisement of their own political power . We believe a large portion of the Christians hold their land of Druse chiefs , and that the whole social system under which they live is one of constant degradation and wrong . Now , the crimes of the Mahometans have made it the duty of Christian nations to take away their power : and , although no one would countenance a mere expedition of vengeance , they must be taught that their safety and existence depend upon their respecting the rights of others for the future .

    It will be a political mistake if the Greek Christians are allowed to look exclusively to Russia for support ; and it would have an excellent effect if Protestant England and Germany united with Roman Catholic France in a judicious course of action . It is only natural and right that Russia should interfere ,, and a to E « vrtJ > f England and France will prevent the Czar taking any sinister advantage of the

    unfortunate occasion . It would be unjust if we assumed that such outbursts of Mahometan fanaticism were unaccompanied with delusions as to the acts or intentions of the Christians , and it is possible that they may have had some cause of anger . . It is necessary that they should be made to respect the power of Christendom , but it ia equally so that they should be made to respect its justice and its good faith . The Court of Constantinople will ,

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    " ^ T ^ HE desire of power to excess caused the angels to tall ; -L the desire of knowledge to excess caused man to fall , " says Bacon , who liked the antithesis , or he might have simplified both the excesses into the one word—Pride . Hurt pride slaughtered Abel , sold Joseph , overwhelmed Pharaoh , hung Haman , and made the most zealous of the Apostles thrice a traitor . It is a vice more equally divided , perhaps , than any other between saints and sinners ^ practised the most with the least self-consciousness ; and , where known , with the most self-justification . There is none which the preacher finds it so difficult or so personally unpleasant both to himself and to his

    congregation to track in the subtilty of its windings , or boldly to rebuke in the brazenness of its confidences . Of all the fortresses of evil , it is the last which the preacher attacks , and the last which the human heart resigns , as the blessing on " the poor in spirit '' is the last which the human race , even the best part of it , seems anxious to earn ; they do not wish to see " those beautiful things which , ' * according to a fine proverb , we believe a Turkish one , " are vouchsafed to him who has rubbed his eyes with the dust of his feet ' * They prefer one of Chateaubriand ' s maxims , in which certainly there is some

    truth . " It is good to put the face on the ground , but not to keep it too long there . " This last is one of the wisest and most modest of those numberless proverbs of human wisdom running ' . counter ., to and contending with the maxims of diviner insight ; aphorisms doing all they can to counteract the teaching of texts . It is a pity when the father is aphorising all the week ~ in one direction , that the preacher makes so little use of his nobler armoury to undo the mischief .- We are not by any means sure that the spiritual monitor does not sometimes deliberately encourage this vice ; as one of his best aids against others ; a useful counter-poison ,

    occupied by your sanctity , your dignity , your deceTrcyr ^ mrd your conformity , it is the Devil that is locking you all in , when you are locking the poor man out . Certainly , many of those who fancy themselves true Crusaders have no fancy for going to the Promised Land with Peter the Hermit , still less with Walter the Penniless , who led so many champions to the Holy Sepulchre . Imagine the horror of many a religious lady , if , on issuing from a church in which the incumbent had been addressing the words " ray brethren " fifty times to the congregation in its totality , —if , we say , at the exit , a female pauper , trusting to the universal Christian relationship thus asserted by the preacher , and

    supposed to be allowed by his hearers , should dare to address to her of the satins the following words : " A penny , my sister , for the love of pur common Father . " "Tumultuous heavings all her bosom swell , " not of sympathy , but of indignation ; and the only commandment illustrated is that eleventh English one , " Never forget your place , " and its postil or complement , "It is beneath mine . " Such a speech might easily be without doubt an intentional impertinence , but we are imagining it to be addressed—or something of the same strain—in real simplicity of mind ; even then , would the effect be different , and would majesty be less offended ? No , nothing in religion , or out of it , is to be taken literally , except as it suits the manners of the age , and consequently its conceptions .

    Perhaps John Pkrriam's friends we « e not very wrong when they e ' nscbnced him ^ all his money and the very coat off hi * back to impart to the poor , though there are are few forms of madness so uncommon and so honourable to the disposition of the sufferer ; however , his is an awful warning to literal interpreters of biblical injunctions . Nevertheless , there are many degrees of humility less humiliating than poor John ' s charity was * impoverishing , and we think that professed , or rather professing , Christians might aim at one of these degrees rather more than they generally

    *• ' to corrode . The bad with bad , the spider with the toad . ' As the guard of sobriety , chastity , cleanliness , honesty , and respectable appearances , keeping out the legions of evil , only , after all , to sell the fortifications en manic to their captain . If you sit in your five-seated pew , and the other four seats are

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    $ 52 The Saturday Analyst mid Leader . [ July 14 , I 860 .

    The Massacre In Syria.

    THE MASSACRE IN SYRIA .

    Pride And Christianity.

    PRIDE AND CHRISTIANITY .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 14, 1860, page 652, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2356/page/4/