The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-09 00:00:00

THE BULGARIAN ATROCITIES.

Bishop Ellicott, writing from Rose Castle, Carlisle, ex-
pressing his regret at being unable to preside over the pub-
lic meeting held at Bristol with reference to the Bulgarian
atrocities, says :

"No words can express the horror I feel at the now
unquestionable and indisputable tidings that are now
reaching us day after day of the atrocities and bar-
baritiee that have been perpetrated in Bulgaria. Eng-
land must now speak and act. She must speak with
that voice with which 200 years ago she spoke when
the valleys of Piedmont were stained with innocent
blood, and which at last, thank God, is again beginning
to be beard in every great city in the country.
She must act too. She mast firmly prepare for
any issue that may follow if her voice be not promptly
heeded, and she must also at once show by her material
anAstance to the poor suffering survivors of barbarian
outrage that she is still the England of which history
has taught us to be proud. There are trials to come to
nations as well SA to individuals, and this verily is one
of them. For our own nation may God in His mercy
give us all the heart to feel and the courage to make
our voice heard in that language which, whether diplo-
matic or not, is the language of England towards
oppression, outrage, and barbarity. I may take
this opportunity of saying that my brethren, the
clergy, may now greatly help by having offertories for
the relief of the bitter distress of our suffering fellow-
Christians in Bulgaria. I am sure too, that my
many Nonconformist friends in the diocese will
not take it amiss if I also ask them to help us."

On Sunday, the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, before deliver-
ing the sermon at the morning service in the Metro.
politan Tabernacle at Newington, offered up a special
prayer beseeching God to cause the Turks to be de-
feated for the atrocities they had committed upon
Christian women and children. He also prayed that
they might boon be driven out of Europe and the
Mahomedan power wiped away from off the face of the
earth. At several other metropolitan places of
worship similar prayers were offered up.

Preaching in London on Sunday morning at the
South-place Chapel, Finsbury, Mr. M. D. Conway
observed: "If Turkey lives after this it will be the
survival of the unfitibest people on earth to control the
destiny of other nations. The Ottoman tyranny has
lived beyond its right term only because propped up
by the nations of Europe; that the moral sense of
these nations will permit the continuance of that sup-
port appears impossible. But meanwhile we must
not let the innocence of the sufferers, nor our pity,
blind us to the fact that their weakness and misery
are mainly due to their unfitness to fulfil the con-
ditions of national existence. It is their own igno-
rance, their gross superstition, their fanatical batred of
uvc
rihkd
eos
.dt he
tribes,Tr' haeirre
al
singe
ditotlpn w
el
mayebendictsh intowha
e were
eh
ep
lkepthaan nt
planted
ash ebom w
yf t
hce weak d
Christ
taitnae
nd
Powers which agreed in but one thing, that is in extol-
ling the historic massacres which Christianity had in-
flicted on Mahommedan infidels. The tender reverence
for Christ which Mahoinmed taught his followers had
been hidden under ages of persecution, in whieh no
Christian could meet a Mussulman without trying to
kill him. Their religion has always been the direst foe
of those priest-ridden peasants. It is that which has
fed Tuikish fanaticism, and at the same time kept its
present victims in darkness without arts or educa-
tion, sundered by sectarian strife, so that they could
be always devoured in detail. . • If Ssrvian and
Bulgarian tribes are ever to find the wings of progress,
it could not be while left to count their beads before
images, yield the fatness of their lands to priests, and
contentedly cherish their ignorance as a religion. But
that the Turk has been the means of breaking up thia