The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1885-03-11
They Despatched the Dove,

authorities permitted deluge in the
Soudan, but at length
They Despatched the Dove,
and General Gordon went flying on
wards to bring back the olive leaf OF
peace from the troubled sea of insur
rection. With sublmity of courage
scarce equalled in this worlds history,
he went on his lonely misson-a dove
among vultures. The terrible peril OF
his task will now never be known.
The fact that he was good man would
make every bad man in that region his
foe. The fact that he was esteemed
upright and just gives some hint of his
danger in a region where the multitude
were robbers and slave-hunters and
open enemies of Gordon personally.
No man in the world was so well fitted
for such an impossible task, and Tor a
time he achieved almost superhuman
results On the day of his arrival he
received the petitions of the people,
listened to their grievances, and before
it was done great fire was built at the
front of the palace whereon the books
recording the debts of the people were
publicly committed to the fames.-
Kourbashes, whips, and other instru,
ments of tyranny at the hands of ruth
less agents of a distant government
were heaped upon the pile, and the
debts and emblems of oppression per
ished together. Nor was he content
with this symbolic deliverance. He
forthwith visited the prison, where he
found two hundred wretches loaded
with chains. Some were innocent,
some were prisoners of war, and one
poor woman had been in prison for
fifteen years for some fault committed
when she was a child. Before night
fall the demolition of the loathsome
Bastille began. And thus this one man,
resolute, righteous fearless, carried for
ward his work, organizing a better
government for the city, steamboats,
for the Nile, guards for the walls, and
expeditions against the enemy.
But the reaction came. Reflection
made it manifest that Gordon's mission
was all in the air. The government
idea that the Soudan was beyond the
sphere of its interference penetrated
the Soudan. 1t was corroborated by
the despatch of the sick and many en-
ploy6s toward Cairo. There was no
army to support this moral power
Morality is held in little respect in the
Soudan unless backed by military
forces Gordon, with the best inten-
tions, found his overtures rejected. His
proclamations were ignored. 1t be.
came impossible for the wavering tribes
to continue loyal to him against the
terrible pressure of the Mahdi's lances
In fine, Gordon was too late. He was
called to command the vessel when the
masts were gone and the rudder un-
shipped AMI the reefs in sight His
position speedily changed from one of
seriousness to extreme danger. The
whole idea of stemming the false pro
phet's fanaticism and stalking the future
of the SOudan on one mans personal
magnetism, was fearful challenge to
disaster. 1t was dicer's throw Alas
it lost and the tension of months has
been relieved by the painful reality of
the brave Gordon's destruction. "The
dove returned not again any more!
These tragedies have changed the
scene. With Gordon and Stewart dead,
with expedition after expedition come
W uISdSJtI, WIN lLOIu w OlSGlCJ anu
his attachments in imminent need of
rescue, the British people have at last
been aroused to the realization that
apathy and vacillation are q waste of
blood, and the most energetic methods
are the most merciful to compose the
troubles in the Soudan.
Indeed, this Soudan question has
steadily ENLARGED its dimensions until
it is now seen to involve
The Mohammedan World
Already in the streets of Damascus and
the mosques Of Arabia and Syria and
India they are asking if this be not the
long looked for prophet. The victories
he has already won have made him re
sound through the Mohammedan world
and if the Soudan were abandoned to
him the movement would not be limit
ed by the Red Sea. In just such q
manner as this, only with fewer pre-
liminary announcements, the fanati-
cism Of MahOmet in the seventh cen.
tury, swept out from amid the Arabian
sands and commenced that long career
of victory that carried the arms, the
language, the institutions Of Arabia
over half the old world from the banks
of the Indus to the shores Of the Allan
tic from the burning deserts Of Mid
Africa to the green vineyards of pleas
ant France. True they had good gifts
for the world then-astronomy, math-
ematics, medicine, surgery, botany,
chemistry, grammar, rhetoric, iron
i. Al