The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-05-17
RUSSIA AND TURKBY-PRIEST
AND PISTOLS-WARAN AND PRAY.
ER.

The Turks and the Russians both
ask heaven to attest the justice OF the
cause espoused, and Providence is ex-
pected to have q hand in this foul,
bloody business, which gives profundi-
ty to barbarism. States and cities are |
to be desolated and women outraged |
and children made beggars and out
casts, and Gods blessing is invoked.
II there were intimate intercourse be-
tween Europe and the late prayerful
belligerents Uf this continent, we are
persuaded that the Emperor and the
Sultan would alike suspend the horri-
BILE mockery OF prayer in such behalf,
and practice no frauds upon themselves
or others, and attempt none in the
face of omniscience. Is it not harm
full to the last degree when presidents
AMI kings and emperors and heads of
churches assume the possibility of
good Gods intervention in the con-
summation of the ambitions and
crimes and wholesale slaughter OF bat
tie. When the end comes and the in
nocent people see how they were
duped, and how the great Giver of all
good refused to intervene in the con-
summation OF all possible evil, faith in
Gods supremacy or in His good
ness is feariully shocked. Atheism
that follows wars has its
origin in the follies CT these
prayerful rulers and generals. The
moral effects OF prayer must be con-
fessed, and certainly upon him who
utters it, but we have yet to see physi-
cal results confessedly springing from
the miraculous intervention of the
Most High, and it were we'll for man
kind if the Great Bear only growled
instead of praying and if the Turk
never looked higher for heavens smiles
than the coffin of the Prophet. 1t may
be proper to say that the character and
genius of the Emperor Alexander has
been widely miscoDcelved. He has the
moral courage to attempt any task.
He is wise ami great ruler. The
press of this country surely underesti-
mates his worth. Few rulers could
have illustrated loftier heroism than
did Alexander when he struck the
shackles from the serfs AID made them
freemen Of the empire, and however
devout the Moslem IN the presence of
the successor of Mahomet, there is no
race moro loyal than Russian peasants
and soldiers to the Gar. However
desperately the Mahommedan may fight
when the sacred banner is unfurled, he
will not surpass in blind enthusiasm
the Russian when the Greek Cross
CLEANS in the sunlight. 1t is, too, a
tradition of the people and of the church
of Russia that the Turk must be
driven from Europe and the throne
of Constantine and the faith he
espoused re-established on the
Bosphorus. The Turk has no proper
home in Europe. His religion was of
the desert, and thither it should be
driven. The Russian Emperor is sim
ply executing the mission of his ances-
tors, and if we must espouse the quar-
rel of the Turk or of the Russian our
sympathies are wholly with the great
power that broke the spell of Napo-
Icons invincibIlity, and, destroying
one, set up many kingdoms in Europe.
We believe, if Providence notes and
shapes the course of events in the pend
ing terrible conflict, that the Turk will
be beaten. He deserves to be; but if
not, our faith in the omniscience and
omnipotence and sublime justice of
the Ruler of the Nations will be un-
shaken, and for the reason that we do
not believe in the substitution of prayer
for grape and canister, and because We
have, in such a cause, more faith il a
repeating pistol than in repeating
| priest