The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-08-02
The Massacre. In syria


aad ray,as IN adpanee for the time ne'ned'
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The Niassacres In Syria
Our readers are already well aware that the
massacrss perpetrated by the Druses IN the
coun,ry around Mount Lebanon. had reached
thu annaliiur number OF s,o0a early in Jaly--
that the city OF Damascus had already been
drowned in biood--that fears were enter
tanned for Jerusalem and Aieppo--that
the Sultan, in despair ofbeing able to ar
rest the progress of the advancing sIangh-
ter. had sent letters of abject apology 10
the powers Of Europe-and that gen.
erai ex,ermination of Christians IN ma
hometan countries was unprecedented. Inc
London Times expresses its astonishmen' II
these events. 1t says, "it is strange ina
land which was the cradle OF Ch'is'A"',
should con tin ne, age after age, TO De tue f'"se
of its sharpest trial. IL 'ces'a "'"'0S'
If n smell hung orey that renomnsd dHd ao'y cor
-. 81 z,,a and condemned it 10 keep fovever
a.. former likeness to furnish prosecutors and
msrtvrs frenzied muititudes demanding
blood. and timid governors giving up the
Cuiltless to death"
WHY should these things appear strange to
any nan living in q Christian country Has
he not MOSES and the prophets, and have they
not testified clearly of them The land
in which they have happened, and are still &C.
curing does indeed, lie under spell, and ii
has thus lain for centuries upon centuries
The spell in Ques ion is the curse OF COP, pro-
nounced, in some instances, thirty nye, In
Others, more than twenty five centuries ago
The history of the countries in which this ter
rtb drama is in the course OF enactment at
this moment. was written hundreds upon
hundreds of years before Turk or the Tartar
existed, when England and France were sav-
age widernesses. when, probably, there was
not living soul from the Niemen to the fro
zen ocean. A loag succession ofprophets, from
Moses to MICAH foretold in language so pre-
else that, after the event, il might be taken for
history the comi ng desola ton OF j udea.dnd all
the countries round aboutit Nor did the curse
terminate with the desoiation. Its plainly in
timated everywhere that the doomed couu-
tries were to be, even after they had been de-
spoiled of every thing that could make life de-
sirable the scenes of everlasting strife. With
regard to Judea, especially, it was said that
the worst of the heather " were to possess ii,
and denuuciations not less direct were poin ted
against each of the neighboring countries. The
Ten tribes OF Israel were the first that were
driven from the devoted land next the Jews,
by the Babylonians first, and finally by the
CHRIST was first planted, it first began also
to degenerate, and as the lsraelites and Jews
had been expelled in the olden time by the
Idolators for their trausgressions, so now
new T zee of false worshippers came to extir-
pate Christianity from the land, with the
sword in one hand and the Koran in the other
From the first the land was deiy-
cred up to the worst OF the heather. The As
syrian, the Chaldean, the Egyptian and the
Roman were the instruments of Divine VEN
seance upon the Jews and Israeiites. The
Saracens, the Egyptians, the FatimiteS, the
Tartars, the Mamelukes, and the Turks,
avenged the cause of Christianity upon its
idoIatrous professors. Nor has it been found
possible 10 expel the heather from the Holy
Land, or from the countries in the neighbor-
hood. The zeal of the Crusaders. wrought to
frenzy by their fanaticsm, could send five
millions of human beings TO whiten the plains
of Syria with their bones, but it could never
rescue save for a comparatively short period,
the lands of Scripture history from the Sara
cen and the Turk The latter the most de-
structiye OF all bal barians, seems to have been
especially selected TO cousummate the ruin
foretold by the Scripture. Of all men living.
he is the most destructive in his habits, and
the least capable OF restraining his natural an
is, that the land is utterly barbarous, and the
few inhabi tauts it has are restrained by no
law. The traveller, BURKHARpr, declares his
belief that if the English penal laws were
suddenly put in operation there, there would
not be a man in the whole country who would
not be liable to indictment for some kind of
offence
II is vain for man to attempt the reforma-
ton OF these things, until the coming Of
that time foretoid at the same moment
when these things were foretold. The
land Of Judea must be trodden down
OF the Gentiles, until the time of the
Gentles be fulfilled. The prophecies ex-
pressly point out its general deyas tation, the
long period through which il shall remain
uucultiyated its cherries solitude, its
trodden highways the thorns that grow up in
its fields, the loss of its ancient inhabitants
the depraved character of its present posses
sors the insecurity of property, the uselessness
OF labor, and the total want of the smallest
security for life, where every man eats his
meal in fear and trembling. Nor is the ad-
Joining country less under the spell of Divine
wrath. Edom is still hideous scene of desc
lation, and so will continue forever. Moab is
spoiled until its inhabitants are driven
from its plains to the rocks, and there
IS no one to dwell in its once populous cities
Philistia has no fixed inhabitants, its cities
are utterly destroyed, and have been convert
ed INTO folds for fiocks. Simaria has been cast
down into the valiey-all these things were
foretold of these countries thousands of years
ago, and in the same prophecies in which they
are announced, we are told that they are to be
the scenes of strife and desolation-some of
them forever, all of Them until period like
wise distinctly marked, and evidently not yet
arrived.
The Coolies.
Great indignation is manifesto In the Chi
nese sea- ports at the manner in which the
poor laborers are in weighed on board the Coolie
ships, and carried TO bondage in distant lands